Hasbro Marvel Legends Marvel Now! Captain America Review

As a collector I find it really hard to shake Marvel Legends from my collecting pallette.  It isn’t like I don’t try either because I’ve liquidated my collection two or three times in the last decade, yet I keep coming back.  It would be easy to blame it on myself for a lack of self-control, but I think the real reason is that the line is just easy to jump right back in on.  Marvel Legends always seems to be evolving.  While everyone loves the classics, it has been a smart move by Hasbro to release themed waves with both classic and modern designs.  These also typically see release around an upcoming movie which is probably a selling point to retailers.

Lucky for us there are TWO Marvel movies on the horizon: Captain America 2: Winter Soldier and The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Fuck You Sam Raimi.

I decided to review Captain America first because there really isn’t much you can say about him, but this gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce the whole wave!  This will be a two-part Mandriod build-a-figure series.  This is very similar to last year’s Iron Man split wave to build Iron Monger.  The nice thing about this wave is it comes with variants that aren’t labeled as “running changes” and will probably never come out.  All the variants come packed evenly in the case, so everything you see on the box can be had right away.

You have a choice between the Marvel Now! and World War 2 Captain America variants.  Which variant came with a Mandroid head?  Yep that’s the one I got, because as much as I love the Captain I’m also a big fan of building things.  I didn’t feel like the WW2 Cap was helping me get any closer to a Mandroid, so farewell and thank you for your service!  I’m sure we will be seeing a lot of lone WW2 Captains on the shelves in the coming months.

The first thing I noticed with this Cap (and the wave as a whole) is that Hasbro appears to have done away with using the ball hip joints.  They now use a sculpted leg part that transitions seamlessly into the rest of the lower body.  I have to admit it looks good.  There is a little less range with it, especially to the side, but for the most part it can do whatever a typical human leg can.

The good news is that there is a lot of paint on this guy.  The bad news is the paint application quality is all over the place.  I ordered most of these online so I had to live with whatever I got, but it is probably worth it to eye over what you find in stores.  The paint slop doesn’t bug me too much because it’s mostly in the spots it should be.  There is just one thing that annoys me more than anything, a lazy eye.  I harped on this in my previous review that eye placement has been especially bad in the last year all across the board.

This is probably one of the best Marvel Legends version of Captain America yet.  He’s taken the place as my number one Captain, and … well … he kind of had to because I sold off all the other ones in anticipation of this wave.  Unfortunately we are not out of the Cap variant woods quite yet!  If you want to build the Mandroid you will have to at least buy the movie version that will come with the second wave.  If you are a big Chris Evans fan then this is probably great news!  The Captain America movie put me to sleep so I’m not all that excited about the movie figures taking up the entire second wave.  But we’ll cross that bridge in Fall 2014 when the second wave is supposed to hit.

Captain America and his whole wave can be had both online and at places like Toys “R” Us and Target.  I found mine at Target by bugging the customer service lady to check the back room.  Now that the resets are rolling out you may just be able to find them hanging on the shelves.  If you are looking for online options check here for Captain America a this place for the rest of the wave.  He’s a pretty great figure and will give your “Face Off” Cap a run for his money!