Marvel Action Figures

The Marvel Universe 3.75 inch line - pretty nifty, really. The figures are all decently articulated. If I have one criticism of the line, it's that there are too many repaints and variants of the same characters. So let's take a look, shall we?

Matt Murdock, Male Model

Daredevil is a fairly typical figure of the line. His head sits on a ball joint, which gives full rotation and a little wiggle room for up/down motion. The torso is jointed below the ribcage with another ball joint - so you can angle him forward or backward a little, or twist him all the way around. Some figures in the line (Spider-Man, most females) also have a swivel at the waist.

'Neaaaar.. Faaaar.. Wherever you arrrre..'

The arms are pretty well-jointed. The shoulders are a standard swivel-hinge allowing full rotation and generally good back and forth movement at any point in the rotation. I say generally good because some figures are so muscle bound that getting their arms to lay close at their sides is next to impossible. Below the shoulder is another swivel joint - missing on the skinny-armed female figures. The elbow is a standard hinge, and the wrist is a full rotator.

'I'm Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. McFarlane..'

The hips are ball-jointed, which gives a pretty good range of motion, though good luck trying to move the legs back further than the vertical. The knees are double-hinged, which is a nice touch. The ankles on most figures are swivel hinges, which is good for foot fetishists, I suppose? Ironically, the Silver Surfer, who could use the extra articulation to, I dunno, stand on his surfboard, lacks the swivel on his ankles.

Bub 2 : Bub Harder

And then there's the variants. Oddly, the 'Stealth' Wolverine came out before the regular one got a release in one of the Secret Wars two-packs.

'Mecha Shiva! Mecha Shiva!'

Johnny Storm's 'semi-flame' variant is wholly uninteresting, but it was all I could find until the flaming variant became common with the Secret Wars two-packs.

'You think this 'A' on my head stands for this pocket French Dictionary behind me?'

Oddly again, Ultimate Cap was the first regular release, and regular Cap only appeared with the Secret Wars packs. They're both poor at holding their shields, regrettably.

Carol Danvers and Olivia Newton-John

I'm not sure why Ms. Marvel merits a variant. I'm not sure why her variant classic costume has bowlegs. I'm not sure I want to know.

'Wonder-Ninja powers, activate! Form of.. Cannon Fodder!'

I do like that there are variant Hand Ninja. The Red one was single-carded, the white one came in a three-pack with a SHIELD agent and a HYDRA Agent.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smash No Evil

That's right. Three Hulks. Modern Hulk (single-card), Red Hulk (single-card) and Classic Hulk (Secret Wars two-pack).

The New Defenders

Some figures have variants I don't buy. The Punisher has a single-carded modern variant and a single-carded Classic look. They're mostly indistinguishable other than a slight change in the uniform color and a slight recession of Frank's hairline. I'm not sure which one I bought. There's also a three-pack with an Iron Man variant (about which, more later) and Daredevil (Yellow Costume) and Silver Surfer (painted white instead of silver). Pass.

'Stark Industries is not a Cheertocracy.'

And Iron Man is the current reigning champ with five variants. Two of them are classic-look armors with different paint jobs, and three are modern/ultimate armors, with differing paint jobs. I skipped 'classic stealth' Iron Man in that three-pack. Of course, I would've thought they'd have done War Machine by now.

Spider-Clone?

Spider-Man has fewer variants than Tony, but his variants are often packaged with other figures. There are, in fact, two distinct Spider-Men as far as I can tell, but there were three single-carded versions - one black and white, two red and blue. the only difference in the second red and blue, as far as I can tell, is that he was upside down in the package.

'Here comes the Spider-Maaaaaaaan!'

So, I have six Spider-Men. I'm weak.

Since there is, sadly, no 3.75 inch Dazzler figure to borrow one from as of yet, I had to construct the microphone pictured, myself.