Chase Customs: 3.75" Ultimate Captain America

Before you go "What the heck another Captain America reviewed on Chase Variant?!?!?!" I'd like to say this is my first custom ever!  It's also more of a "How I did it" rather than an outright review, so all of you who have never done a custom before and are interested in trying it out can see how my first experience went.  For those grizzled veteran customizers, you can have a few good laughs at my struggles.

I chose Ultimates Captain America for a few reasons:

1) It wasn't until I read the Ultimates that I liked Captain America.  So he's easily my all-time fave Cap.  Sorry Chris Evans.  Though you come in a close 2nd...

2) They haven't made a 3.75" Ultimate Cap that I've truly been satisfied with.

3) Avengers Movie Figures look great but don't move great.  Many of them end up having well-sculpted parts I really like (like Super Shield Captain America) so that for me was really the straw that broke the camel's back.  And with so many variations of cap after last year's movie, It made me really wanna cannibalize.

4) I'm starting to find loose Captain America 3.75" movie figures and Marvel Universe figures loose and for cheap because it's been a year now, and things are starting to go on clearance!

So this is about how I went about kit-bashing, with the emphasis on the bashing part!

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" Red Skull

What a movie it was, huh?

Though I liked it a lot, I think I still like Thor better for now out of the two Marvel movies this summer. I say for now because I had the chance to watch Thor thrice, with each time better than the next.  So until I get to watch Captain America: The First Avenger three times, I'm only going to make a temporary judgment. ;P

As far as toy lines go, Cap certainly does have the better variety.  I mean, you can put ol' Stevie R in winter gear, jungle fatigues or even toss him in with a spiffy vehicle but you can't really do the same with our favorite Norse god.  Mjolnir can only be repainted in so many ways before people will start to think Hasbro is up to something.  Well, actually we'll know even before that.  But you get my point.

The range of characters we get from the First Avenger line is also larger in terms of characters they can put on a card and sell to us.  Captain Britain, U.S. Agent, Winter Soldier, Red Guardian, and Crossbones all don't appear in the movie but are in the line.  Thor has no characters from outside of the movie so far.

What does this mean in terms of the Red Skull figure?  Well, nothing! ...Except that the Rangerlord and I managed to find a whole bunch of him and Crossbones, both of whom are shortpacked, when we went to our usual Toys 'R' Us.  And we paid retail price too, so one more notch in the belt for the knight/ranger toy-hunting dynamic duo.  Lol.

To be honest I was less than excited about opening Red Skull up until I saw the movie opening night (28th July) here in Singapore.  But after a great movie and a masterful performance by the evergreen Hugo Weaving, I had to bust the figure open and do this review.  Let's see how it went! :)

Oh, and this review will contain spoilers, so be warned! (Even if it is two months since the movie opened.  Heh.)  ;P

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" Captain Britain

 **Hey all! Just wanted to slip in a quick reminder to enter the contest from earlier this week if you wanna win free stuff!  See previous post for the details! ;)**

I've wanted a Captain Britain since his initial Marvel Universe release.  I wanted him bad just so I could complete my United Nations of Super Heroes.  You know, Captain America and U.S. Agent for the USA, Sunfire representing Japan, Guardian for Canada, Union Jack and Captain Britain for...You guessed it, Great Britain!

Jack of many and master of all? Wot?

Though I saw the first MU single carded release on the pegs in September last year and the Captain Brit pics from the 2-pack with Spiderman that turned out to be the old school costume, I wanted neither.  Funky as the latter and classic as the former was, I wanted a modern Captain Britain, dammit!  All it took was a movie to be made.  And it isn't even about the good ol' British Super Soldier himself--it's about duh, Captain America, of course!

But just to get you guys who are not from "across the pond" or are not from a country that's been a British colony before in the mood for some right ol' jolly good toy reviewing, we'll sing the world's most recognized national anthem, God Save the Queen!

Feel free to belt it out along with the video:

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and Glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!

Yes, right chaps!  Now that we're all in the mood, did you know that the most recognized flag in the world is the Union Jack?  Cor Blimey!  It's a wonder that Captain Britain isn't the most recognizable character in the world!  Maybe after this review he'll become the most recognizable action figure in the world.  Load of codswallop?  We'll just have to take a look, shall we?

 

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" Super Combat Captain America

Why is this Movie Series Cap called "Super Combat"?

Because regular combat just ain't good enough!

Oh, yeah.  In order to fulfill the title, ol' Stevie Rogers here needs his toys!  And boy does he have them: spankin' space-age soft plastic Vibranium shield, groovilicious gun, and Holycow Hard Helmet!

The funny thing about this figure is that I knew I wanted it.  But when I was making the call to the specialty store to put him on reserve, I didn't actually know he correct name for him and couldn't get online to find out.  I tried telling the guy it was the movie Cap, but he wasn't sure which that was.  So I tried Heavy Duty Cap, Big Bad Combat Cap, and even Final Battle Cap. Yes, I couldn't have been further from the correct name.

But it all turned out well because when i went down to the store to pick up the Movie Cap stuff that I actually got the names right for, he was still in stock.  So a shimmy, swoop, and a tuck-and-roll later, he became part of my haul.  True, I didn't have to resort to acrobatics, but I couldn't chance someone else springing from the shadows and nicking SC Cap from me.  Sure, they did have more than one of this guy in stock, but what can I say?  Where else was I gonna show off my years of imaginary super hero combat training?  I can't do it here in cyberspace, that's for sure.  But what I can do is review the figure! ;P

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" U.S. Agent (Comic Series )

I always wondered why there was a U.S. Agent.  I'd understand if he was a Captain America villain but he's really one of the good guys.  He did beat Cap in their first ever fight though.  Heck, he's even taken down Iron Monger.

Perhaps he stands for something in American politics, like for the Democrats to Cap's Republicans?  But if that were the case, why name him John Walker, as in after the Scotch Whiskey?  He's even got "Jack Daniels" listed as one of his aliases.  Seriously.  Someone was obviously drinking when they came up with his secret identity.

But I've always been a sucker for characters that seem like a poor man's version of the real thing.

I mean, Optimus Prime is my favorite Transformer but Ultra Magnus is so annoyingly lovable for the Wannabe he is.  I love Captain Marvel (Shazam!) out of DC, who started out as Fawcett comic's answer to Superman.  I like Captain America as much as the next guy but U.S. Agent?  There's something bootleg about him that I dig. Yeah, it's all about piracy.  GAARRRRR!!!

So uh, yeah...Yeaheaheaheah, party in the U.S.A...gent?

Captain America The First Avenger 3.75" Ultimate Captain America

 (**Just a short message for you loyal readers: if you missed it, I'm running the first ever contest on Chase Variant to commemorate my 200th post.  Mosey on over to join in the fun if you haven't already!  If you have, then on to the Ultimate Cap review!  ;])

Comic Series, of course!

The Captain America First Avenger Movie Line continues the tradition started with Iron Man 2 figures with sub-series categories: Movie Series, Comic Series, and Concept Series.

I personally love these because you can tell whether you're getting something from the movie (especially if the flick hasn't hit the cinemas yet), or you're getting something that's been in the comics and has now come to (plastic) life.  It's also especially cool when they label a figure a "concept" because that means the toy makers took it upon themselves to imagine something beyond both film and print and deliver it to us.

It's just like when we were kids and we would imagine something up, whether it's a new hidden laser on Iron Man's armor or Green Hulk with Banner's intellect, or Spiderman not needing web cartridges and growing four more arms (since the 80s the latter two have happened, of course! ;P)

Ultimate Captain America is far from being just a concept figure.  In fact, he probably single-handedly revived the original Cap's reputation by being as kickass as he is in the Ultimates Comic book series when Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch started the ball rolling.  How cool is he?  He's actually taken down the Hulk in one one one combat (more or less)!

He's also so cool that he's got his awesome theme song.

Needless to say, the Ultimates Cap character is my favourite Cap!  Will he be capable of becoming my fave figure as well?  Let's see! ;)