Thor 3.75" Fireblast Marvel's Destroyer

Poor, misunderstood Destroyer.  He's not a bad guy at all--just an abused suit of magical armour.  Locked up by Odin, used by Loki, stabbed by Sif, hammered by Thor.  He even eventually got chopped up to become Agent Coulsen's plaything.  And all just for obeying instructions.  Tsk, tsk.  Really.

But lo!  He gets an action figure!  Even Sif doesn't get one.  Or at least one that we can see long enough on the pegs to actually buy.  :(((((

To tell you the truth, I actually didn't see much of this guy around either.  In fact, I think my original intention was to get the Inferno Destroyer from the mythical Wave 4 instead of this one.  But when I didn't see any of that elusive wave on pegs, I moved to get this guy instead.  In fact, part of the reason I didn't open him up till now was because I was holding out on hope that I'd see Inferno Destroyer sooner or later.

More than a year on, and I've spotted All King Odin, Asgard Attack Thor, and Sorcerer's Fury Loki, all of which are repaints of older figures.  No Inferno D, no Sif and definitely no King Loki.

As I mentioned in my previous review on Secret Strike Loki, watching The Avengers has made me really want to review every Marvel Universe and Marvel movie 3.75" figure I owned but passed up on putting up here.  Fireblast Destroyer is one of them.

Sure, it's been more than a year, but what they hey, the toy's still as good (or bad) right?

The wife and I managed to watch Thor and Captain America once more before we caught The Avengers on the big screen for the first time and I have to say, those movies feed into this summer's record-breaking blockbuster seamlessly.  Though you don't really need to have caught the former two movies, it does enhance the experience of The Avengers.

And boy does it make me wanna take out my action figures and play with them. So that's just what I did with the Destroyer!

Like: The light up feature.  I can't get enough of it!  It looks great shining right though the torso, but isn't so great out of the head, even though that's translucent.

Dislike: That his head is completely unpainted.  Sure, it's got to be translucent to let light for the unpainted neck post filter up and through his noggin', but they could've at least done the eyes.  The way I see it, I think it would be best to paint up the eyes, give the head a black wash to fill in the grooves, and then paint the top of the head silver.  Hm, I might just have to get round to doing this now that I've mentioned it...

Like: The paint on his body.  He's molded in silver plastic and given a black wash all over for that metallic effect.  And it works well!

Like: The size of this beast!  He towers over all the other figures from the line as he should, sending the chills down my spine when I have him side by side or face to face with the other figs.  I know.  It's weird.  ;P

Like: His articulation.  Despite having only swivels at the shoulders and no chest or waist joint (to facilitate the light up feature), Fireblast Destroyer is really flexible!  Double-hinged knees, unhindered legs and ankles, and large feet allow him to take lots of stances to support his towering height.  Because he's got long limbs, his elbow swivel hinges also rotate all the way and do 90 degrees easily.

Like: Those mean spike on his arms, legs, sides and shoulders!  In fact, the entire sculpt is done really well.  It's a simple design, but sometimes even the simple ones a botched--especially the simple designs. ;)

Dislike:  That he doesn't come with any accessories.  An eye blast effect like the one Crimson Dynamo had would be great!  Luckily, I have an extra lying around. ;P

He could also have come with maybe part of Odin's Vault and been made a Deluxe figure, like Heimdall, who comes with part of the Bi-Frost.  But I guess a mini-playset and a light-up feature wouldn't have costed out.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 8/10 - I like it a lot despite the unpainted head.  I know the Inferno Armour repaint with its yellow eyes and black armour looks very much more menacing, but that head is solid and doesn't let light through.  Also, it isn't movie-accurate.  Fireblast Destroyer is and has the potential to look more so if you paint the head up a little.

Poseability: 7.5 - Suprisingly, he's very spry!  Nevermind the lack of shoulder hinges and a chest joint, the light up feature makes for some really good photos.  Too bad it can't remain lighted without your finger on it.

But otherwise, Destroyer can go on one knee, both knees, balance with his weight backwards or forwards, and looks great in battle.  I love the strong characters that have great balance and can be posed lifting.  They also look great taking a punch because they can hold a   "semi-fallen and reeling" pose.

Fun: 8/10 - Just pushing the light up button consumes hours of fun.  Haha ok, maybe less than that but it's the first thing you wanna do when you pick Destroyer up. The next thing is to have him blast someone but that isn't possible, so we'll have to stick to the ol' imagination--or borrow an eye blast from Crimson Dynamo.

Value: 7/10 - My only gripe with this guy is the obvious lack of accessories.  That being said, the tooling, sculpt, paint, and action feature are well worth it in my book.

I would say go for it on clearance but you're probably not likely to see it any time soon in the discount bins.  Get him anyway if you see him being sold for more than retail?  Most probably.  But only if it's not too much more.  Then again, you might have some luck trying to bargain down the price because poor misunderstood Destroyer, destroying property every where he goes.  No one wants him around not even in plastic form! ;P

Overall: 7.7/10  - I can't tell you enough how much more fun I'm having opening Thor movie figures compared to the Avengers ones that I've got.  And a great deal of that is due to the better articulation in the Thor line.  So I guess it reminds me of how lucky we are to have had superb articulation for a bit before some of the Captain America and subsequently the Avengers line. And you know it's superb when figures like Fireblast Destroyer, which have less PoAs than other figures in the line, turn out to be more fun to pose and play with compared with the current offerings.  In fact, this figure is good enough that if I saw Wave 4's Inferno Destroyer, I'd just get that too!