Captain America The First Avenger 6" Captain America

I've had this guy for months now but hadn't gotten round to opening him for some reason or other.  Along with 6" Movie Thor and 6" Nick Fury from The First Avenger movie line, the trio would form the base of what would form my 6-inch movie Avengers collection.

But it wasn't until I started seeing the Avengers 3.75" stuff in stores that I felt motivated to open this bad boy.

The Rangerlord deserves yet another special mention for snagging me Movie Cap from Malaysia for about half of what it would cost at retail here in Singapore.  And with this figure and the recent release of Waves 1 and 2 of Marvel Legends all I can say is this: when it comes to making 6" figures, Hasbro has got down to a T.

No, the "T" doesn't stand for Turkey any more than the A on Cap's forehead stands for France! ;P

Like: Just look at the detail on this guy!  The texture of his costume is exactly as it looks like in the movie, all the straps of his harness, his belt, and even bottom of boots are sculpted really well!

Like: The paint apps are simply superb.

The afore-mentioned straps and their buckles, the grey wash on the white parts of his costume, the stars on his shoulders and the tampographed one on his chest, and the "A" on his forehead are all really sharp.  Special mention goes to the head and face, which are molded in brown plastic and painted in.  Just look at those eyes!

Like: His double-jointed elbows and knees!  The elbows bend all the way like a human elbow and you get about 120 degrees for his knees.  Nice!

Like: Swivel/hinge wrists.  These are essential for gripping his guns as realistically as possible.  I'd say it helps with the shield as well except that the two straps for the thing are made of stiff plastic, so when you have his forearm through it, his wrist is sort of locked.

Dislike: His height.  Or lack thereof, rather.  I didn't even notice this until I was lining Cap up with a shot next to Nick Fury and Thor.  Actually, Cap is smack dab at 6-inches tall.  Fury stands at 6.7 inches and Thor is at a whopping 7".

While I'm fine with Thor being a big 'un, he's actually not 7 feet tall in the movie.  It's even forgivable because he comes from his own movie toy line.

Nick Fury on the other hand, is from the movie Cap line and yet is way too tall!  Having said that though, Cap still needs to be a bit taller.  Funny thing is that the Cap 3.75" line also suffers from being too short next to the Thor line and Marvel Universe figures.

Like: Super flexible ball/hinge head! This was the first thing that caught my eye right after the great detail of his sculpt.  His chin can touch his chest and the back of his helmet tilts back to near the top of his rear harness buckle.

Even without this awesome hinge joint, his head can already tilt side to side and look up and down pretty well on its ball joint.  And he can do all this without looking like he's got a broken or weird looking neck

Dislike: The slightly warped shield out of packaging.  The shield is made of a softer plastic with two stiffer straps.  And I have no issue with the firmness of the material they've used except that it's susceptible to becoming misshapen.  The bright side is that a little hot water will get it back into shape. :)

Dislike: That he's given an old school machine gun.  Well, I guess he's not quite modern Cap yet.  But he can't hold onto the gun properly anyway because the stock is in the way. But give him an assault rifle with a shorter stock and it looks magnificent!

Like: The usable holster for his sidearm.  It's glued on to the side of his leg with matching sculpted straps.  But the best part is that it doesn't get in the way of his leg articulation. :)

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9/10 - He'd easily be a 10 but for being too short.  The lack of height is really just too stark to ignore.  Everything else about him is close to perfect, with a superb sculpt and all of the necessary detail picked out with little to no paint spills.  Heck, he even looks a lot like Chris Evans.  It's just a real pity he falls a little well, short.  Here's hoping the Avengers movie version of him doesn't suffer from the same problem.

Poseability: 9.5/10 - His overall poseability is simply astounding.  Other special mentions that didn't make the "like" list but are also outstanding: chest pivot, swivel/hinge ball legs with thigh cuts, and the swivel/hinge ankles.

The chest ball joint is especially pleasing because it tilts an pivots seamlessly while giving maximum movement, so that he doesn't miss not having a waist swivel.

Fun: 10/10 - With the poses he can achieve and how good he looks even just standing there, it's hard not to have fun with this guy in your hand (that's what she said!).  And that's without his accessories!

Really, it's hard to beat an action figure of a character who uses a shield, especially when said character is known to use it for all sorts of things from deflecting bullets to throwing it to using it to bounce off walls and such.

While this figure of Cap can't literally do those things, it certainly feels like he can with the way he can move!

Value: 8.5/10 - He'd be rated lower if I didn't manage to get him via the Rangerlord at just under S$30 (US$23 in the current climate).  That's a whole S$20 less than what he's retailing for right now.  I don't recall the major department stores putting the Cap movie line figures under clearance, but they definitely won't be doing that till after The Avengers hits theatres in less than a month.

With the new Marvel Legends figures going for S$39.90 in this neck of the woods, S49.90 is a lot to pay for a figure that's about a year old.

But if you can get a discount on him then he's more than worth it.  When he goes on clearance a month or two after the movie hits the screens he'll be even more value for money.

Overall: 9.5/10 - I'd take your arm and leg (non-plastic) for this figure! - Because it's simply that good!

It's seldom I find a figure this close to perfect except for his one major flaw--his height.

Cap was so good that I didn't even notice how short he was till the end of shooting his photos.  And I still couldn't believe it when I lined him up next to Fury and Thor.  I was so taken by surprise that I had to go look for measuring tape--and I've never been bothered by measuring tape.

Usually, I prefer how I feel figures look next to each other rather than just their "stats." But in this case, I just had to find out whether my near perfect Cap was in the wrong or whether Thor and Fury were simply being dumb by being too tall.  Hah!

All in all, the only way I'll want another version of a big-screen Cap is if the Avengers one turns out better.  And that means having all the good stuff this figure packs and having decent height as well.  Now that would be the perfect movie Captain America.