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06-06-2011, 06:10 PM | #1 |
Common Rodent
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 160
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Thought I'd review some Thor figures.
We'll start with the God of Thunder. The overall look of this specific figure is something of a cross between his movie appearance and his Marvel Ultimates look. I prefer the bare arms and lack of a cape to the movie version that has both. It makes him look more fierce and battle-ready. Thor is very well sculpted, especially his arms, which are sculpted brilliantly. Hasbro has come quite a long way in making realistic looking bare arms since the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary and movie line. His proportions are quite good, and his paint apps are excellent. The silver paint is nicely accented by some black washes that add a battle-worn look to his armor. My camera did not capture his face sculpt very well, but trust me; it's a superb likeness to Chris Hemsworth. One thing that puzzles me a bit is his left hand. It's molded in an odd sort of 'reaching out to grab something' type pose that is not well suited to holding weapons. I'm not entirely sure what the intent of such a sculpting was. It can't really be used for anything... Still, it isn't nearly as bad as the hand sculpt for the jovial green Jedi Kit Fisto Suddenly, Thor's hand doesn't look that bad at all. Before we move on, I suppose I should make mention of the stupid gimmick weapon that Thor comes with. I've seen plenty of stupid gimmicks in my day, but this one tops them all. Initially, it looks like nothing more than a clunky and over-sized sword. But that is before you see the gimmick itself. The sword turns in to... ... A hammer. Yes. You read that right. The sword turns in to a hammer. Why would the designers at Hasbro make something so stupid? Did they think that a sword that turns in to a hammer would get kids to buy the figure? I might understand if this was the only weapon the figure came with, but he comes with his regular hammer as as well, so why would he need a sword that turns in to another hammer? Stupid waste of plastic, and by far the dumbest gimmick I have ever seen on a toy. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's move on to the articulation. Thor has all of the standard articulation of your average three and three-fourths inch figure. He's got rotation shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists, jointed feet, double-jointed knees, and a ball joint head. However, he has a flaw that is present in all Hasbro movie-based figures. His hip joints. They're nothing short of awful. I tried to take a picture to show how they work, but I'll explain them as well. The ball-shaped part has a joint inserted straight up in to his waist, allowing for his legs to rotate. The ball-shaped piece also has a normal rotation joint built in to it, as can be seen in the picture, which allows for his legs to bend forward and back. It sounds fine, but it isn't. He can achieve most normal poses, but the movement is stiff and a real pain to get his legs in the right position. One has to spin his legs until the rotation joint is facing forward. Then, one rotates the joint forward, and then, finally, one spins his leg until it is pointing downwards. It's difficult to explain and even more difficult to photograph, but the end result is a very stiff and inhuman type of movement that is very finicky to pose and also lacks the range of motion of normal ball jointed hips. I shall now compare Thor's articulation to that of POC Beachhead. Beachhead can do a very natural kneeling pose, whereas Thor's hip joints don't allow for anything more than a stiff, awkward looking pose that looks more like he's halfway between kneeling and getting up. In this picture, Beachhead is seated straight up with no difficulty whatsoever. Thor, on the other hand, is incapable of sitting normally. His hips don't bend enough to allow his legs to point straight out, thus, he can't be seated flat on a surface. Still, even with all of the posing problems Thor has, he looks really good in more static poses. In closing, Thor is a good figure despite his abysmal hip joints. The figure itself looks great, the head sculpt is a very good likeness to Chris Hemsworth, and he looks pretty good in some poses. Having said that, the hip joints can't be ignored. They're terrible, and they really bring down the quality of this otherwise good figure, however, I still recommend this figure. The overall aesthetic and the quality of the mold and paint apps are good enough to make this a figure that I feel is worth purchasing. Overall, I give it three and a half Easter Island heads out of five. Now we move on to Odin, the ruler of Asgard. Before we get started, I must say something about his cape. It simply won't stay on. It's held on to his back by only that tiny little peg, and it doesn't work at all. It falls off if you look at wrong, so for the rest of this review, Odin won't be wearing his cape. Might as well make mention of Odin's big stupid gimmick weapons too. The sword's side parts spring back when one presses the blue button, and rotating spikes come out of the shield when the button in the middle is pressed. In short, they're bulky, dumb, and the handles are so big, I'm afraid to try to put them in Odin's hands because I'm afraid that they'll deform his hands. Now on to the figure itself. Once again, the paint apps are excellent and the head sculpt is spot on. This time, however, there is more wrong with this figure than Thor. First, his legs are malformed because of the packaging. Not a flaw with the figure per se, but still a notable issue. Second, his arms cannot lie flat at his sides. The way they are shown in the picture is as close as they get. It looks stupid and limits his posing ability considerably. It also makes his torso look too long. It's an unfortunate flaw that could probably have been avoided. He also suffers from the same horrid hips as Thor. This, combined with his flawed arms effectively make him unable to do any sort of realistic poses. Unfortunately, that is pretty much all there is to say about Odin. The excellent paint and sculpting don't make up for the bad articulation and flawed limbs. Ultimately, I cannot recommend this figure. Unless you're a big fan of either Odin or Anthony Hopkins, I'd pass on this one. Two Easter Island heads out of five from me. Last edited by Magnus; 06-06-2011 at 07:46 PM.. |
06-06-2011, 06:34 PM | #2 |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Cobra Island
Posts: 2,358
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dem hips.
if not for dem hips... i would have bought these. |
06-12-2011, 10:55 AM | #3 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: texas
Posts: 119
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I dont think the problem with the hips has to do so much with the design, but with the sculpt. That style of hip is kind of awkward to work with at first, but should offer more options than the typical joe hip. You can get more motion out of it if you sand, slice, file or otherwise remove some plastic on the pelvis. That and possibly the top of his thigh are whats causing the obstruction. An easy fix but not something a consumer should have to do.
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