The Avengers: Original Avengers 3.75" 4-Pack! (Concept Series)

As a result of a massive backlog of reviews I want to take on, I realize that not only do I have tons of unopened toys, I have tons of them in boxes.  Which ones, you ask?  Well, I have too many to name, so let's just call 'em a surprise for now.  (Yeah, ok.  I don't know myself.  Lol.)  For now, I'm determined to rid my collection of needless cardboard, so I'm hereby declaring October The Month of the Box right here on Chase Variant!  (I'm sure you wouldn't mind if the occasional carded or loose figure review slips in.  Right?  Or am I right?  Right, I'm wasting time...)

So to kick it all off, I'm gonna start with my newest boxed acquisition: The Avengers: Original Avengers 3.75" Toys R Us Exclusive 4-Pack!

I walked into one of my local TRUs last Sunday and I see this very set that I'd never seen, heard or read about it before.  So it was a very pleasant surprise when I find one of them, face down amid some non-movie Marvel Universe figure 4-packs.  Then the wife points out that that's not the only one there, because right above us on the shelf are about six or seven of them.  You can imagine my amazement when I had a good look at Loki--I'd never thought I'd see them re-use the Thor movie sculpt again!

Then I saw Iron Man--a brand new figure!--or at least a new armour.  I couldn't tell right off if it was made from older parts but it looked like a new sculpt and I dig bulky armour, so I was at least 50% in.

As for Captain America and Thor, I already have these very sculpts when they were originally released.  Both are great figures from their respective lines, so I didn't mind taking home some repaints...for now.

Yes, they look great in the box, but I hear you ask if they're just as good outside.  Well, let's find out! ;)

Marvel Universe 3.75" Series 4 Beta Ray Bill (010)

Weeks after I get this guy, can you believe he's become a peg-warmer?  In these parts, there's so much of ol' BRB on the racks that the 5 Kraven, 3 Astonishing Beast, 2 Hulk and numerous Jubilee look like they are hot items.  Well, I guess they are, depending on where you live, but I jumped at the chance to get him at full retail thinking that he'd be hard to find.

Given that he's a cult favourite and that he has a working jaw makes him hard to resist.  But never did I think the cases that came over to Singapore would have so many Beta Rays that he'd be left on the shelves like an unwanted knockoff.

Clearly, he isn't.  I was always curious about the character.

Well, after I got over my "meh, this guy is  horse dude in Thor's armour" phase, anyway. (I was just 6 year-old or something.)  I'd did find out from the time I got BRB that his story is fleshed out in "The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill" but I have yet to locate a physical copy so I'll still have to wait to find out more about him.  The action figure though?  I can tell you about him right now! ;)

Marvel Universe 3.75" Ultimate Gift Set 5-Pack

The Rangerlord and I stumbled upon this great set of your classic heroes at OG Orchard one day.  There were loads (more than 20) of this pack on sale at S$36.90 (down from $59.90), but no one was biting and they had been left lying there for a couple of months.  So when we both came upon it I had said, "Yeah, there it is.  The most expensive Captain America shield."

I was referring to when I had first seen this 5-pack on sale and told the Rangerlord, prompting him to say he wasn't going to pay that amount for the one thing that most would want from the gift pack.

The shield is translucent, you see, and all the figures in the sets were very basic-looking re-releases.  But more on that later.  I wasn't really batting an eyelid at the pile, until RL turns one of the sets over and says, "Hey, they're $15 each."

Suffice to say that caught my attention.  We both snagged a set each after pouring through the boxes for a nicely painted Cap each.  (And Thor.  And Iron Man.  And Spidey.  Wolverine, not so much...Haha.)

After passing the set by for so long, I was curious to see what it offered.  So here's what I found!

Thor The Mighty Avenger 3.75" Hammer Smash Thor

It's been more than a year since the Thor movie hit theatres and a good 15 months since the toys hit the shelves.  So that can only mean one thing--it's clearance time for the line! ;)

So I'm minding my own business in the toy section (sheah, right) at the local Takashimaya department store, when I chance upon a whole load of Thor The Mighty Avenger movie 3.75" figures going for clearance at 1/2 price.  Sure, it wasn't the excellent S$5 deal from another department store, OG.  But lo and behold, they had this Thor figure with the helmeted head going for S$9.90.  They also had a bunch of deluxe Blaster Armor Thor (unwanted) and Ice Attack Frost Giants at S$12 a pop.

Army builders!

A couple of Frost Giants and a Thor later, and I'm a happier man. (Does the dance of joy.)  I've been waiting to get the helmeted Thor for a long time now.  Ditto for the Frost Giant army.  And just when I wasn't really looking at all, I find them!  Both and the same time too, to boot.

Am I happy with them?  Hells yeah.  Especially since this helmeted Thor has the proportion of helmet-to-head ratio the way I like it.  You only have to look as far as the Thor 6" Thor figure to find a ridiculously small helmet, while the helmetless version has just been released in the Avengers movie line as a Walmart Exclusive!

So I'm thankful I found Hammer Smash Thor in the wild on the cheap, while not having to agonize over if/when I'd be able to have helmeted/helmetless Thor heads in 3.75" scale!

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!

Thor The Mighty Avenger 3.75" Secret Strike Loki

I'd like to begin with a standing ovation, a standing ovation and three cheers for fella who plays Loki in Thor and of course, The Avengers.  That's right, Tom Hiddlestone.  There was only one of you and yet you more than held your own against the Mighty Avengers ensemble.  Aw heck, in fact Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansen, Sam L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner--all of you deserve a long, long round of applause.

What can I say? It's been 9 days since I first caught the movie, and 5 days since I saw it a second time and I'm still buzzing.  And as I write this, I'm plotting a 3rd and possibly a 4th viewing. (One of these schemes involves sneaking in on free tickets to What to expect When You Are Expecting and then peeling away to catch The Avengers.  Heheh.)

He's no coward all right-he called the Hulk a "Dull Creature."

So why review this older Thor figure when there are other, newer figures from the Avengers line?  Well, because most of the 3.75 range is under articulated (See Ultimate Thor, Gamma Punch Hulk) and because Joss Whedon is a god in the movie heaven that is Hollywood.

He's made me wanna go back and review every single Marvel Universe, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and and Marvel action figure I haven't put in front of the camera and blabbered about.  And I just might.  So who better to start with than with Loki, the ultimate deceiver, played by a man who just steals the scene when he's in it?

When Secret Strike Loki was originally released a year back, there were already pictures of a King Loki to come, so I held back, thinking that I'd be able to easily pick this figure up on clearance.  And it's turned out to be true!  I got Loki here for S$10!--only for the price to be slashed to almost half that a week later. -__-

But here's no regrets, because after all the lack of PoAs from the Avengers line, this Thor movie figure has turned out to be quite a gem!

The Avengers 3.75" Battle Hammer Thor

I just realized that I really am liking the Thor.  Really.  Just now.  I mean, I never really was a fan of any of the Avengers, save the Hulk, but he was an Avenger for such a short period and for most of it, a pawn for Loki to boot.

Iron Man?  Nah.  He needed to plug himself in a little too much for my liking in the 80s and 90s.  Giant Man and Wasp?  Sheah, right.

But Thor?  He was sorta cool but in those days when I was a kid he was too He-Man-like.  And anyone who looked a smidgen like my hero Adam of Eternia was obviously a fake/imposter/not the original.  I also had issues with the bare sides in his costume top.  (Is he wearing a shirt or is that some sort of double-sided apron?)

Fast forward a good 30 years later and these guys are all mainstream--Hulk, Iron Man, and Thor all have their own movies and are coming together in The Avengers opening hereabouts in a couple of days.  I find myself now liking them, even Hawkeye and Black Widow (sorry Giant Man and Wasp!  Maybe in Avengers 2?)

And I suppose it's the way that Marvel have marketed their B-Listers and made them A-Listers.  10 years ago, the average person on the street wouldn't know who Iron Man or Thor was.  Now everyone knows and those of us who knew already find ourselves liking them.

For me, it all began with this little story called the Ultimates.  All the characters were too interesting to ignore.  It wasn't because they were all saints or completely badass.  It was but because I could relate to them and their struggles with ordinary things like morals and dealing with relationships and even having super powers.

Ultimate Thor, for example, was the "Is he for real" hippie who no one believed was a Norse God except for himself.  Yet sometimes he would know things or perform extraordinary feats that would throw you off just when you think you have him pegged for a fake.  Or a god.  And then there was his hammer, half axe and half hammer head.  Even the circles on his suit started to make sense.  I was sucked right in.

So here we are, just days before The Avengers is about to hit screens.  So I guess it's fitting tribute that they've included Ultimates Thor among the first couple of waves of movie figures.  Named "Battle Hammer Thor", let's see how he turned out.

The Avengers Movie: 3.75" Wave 1 Complete Review!!!

And it begins!

The countdown to the May 1st release date of the Avengers here in Singapore has begun!

Why now, you ask?  It's not because the Rangerlord sounded me out a week ago that the toys were out.  It's not because I walked into Toys R Us five days back and saw the 3.75" figures, the Quinjet, the Deluxe figures, the masks, or Captain America's Frisbee shield.

It's not even because later that same evening, I was picking up my wife at the nearby mall and she texted me "You're gonna wanna check out the department store.  There's lots of Avengers stuff!"

No.  It's because I walked into that very department store and saw these!

Oh, and if you've read this far, Happy April Fools! ;P

Yes, as you can tell, these ain't no action figures, nor are they 3.75" tall.  They're just, well, Mini Muggs!  And this is a review of the complete 1st wave!  (Gotcha!  Maybe.)

There was a set, only one complete set, and I had to snag it.  Sure, some other guys will probably pick up my leavings of a couple of Nick Fury and a Hawkeye or two, but I, I have the complete first wave of The Avengers Mini Muggs!  Mwahahahaha!

And here I review it. :P

Marvel Universe 3.75" Classic Avengers 3-Pack: Avengers Assemble!

They lied when they said this was a 3-pack!...Because this is a 6-pack!

Yes, Ant Man, Wasp, and The Flying Ant (it deserves caps too) are included in this set, which boasts some newly sculpted parts, lots of great re-use, and a whole lot of whopping bang for your buck.

Just how did I get this so early, you ask?

Well, I was doing nothing one day as I am wont to, when I get a call from the mysterious Rangerlord.  He was on one of his ranging trips overseas in the Philippines blah, blah, blah, but mentions he stumbled upon this set!  He'd already picked up some of the newest Transformers from the Generations and Reveal The Shield line on the cheap for me, so I hesitated when he said he'd found this awesome 3-pack.  Can you believe it?  I hesitated!

But he snagged it all the same for moi, that good ol' buddy o' mine, and man has it turned out to be much more than I expected.  What are you waiting for?  I couldn't wait to open this despite all the Captain America, Thor and Green Lantern goodness I was neck deep in.  Click on the jump, dudes and duddettes!

Thor the Mighty Avenger 3.75 inch Movie Line: Deluxe Asgard Defender Heimdall

The airport.  That's where you find some of the best toys.  I figure it's because the planes reach there first (genius at work, I am) and because though so many people pass through, they don't always think to stop and look for a toy store there. They're just passing through.

I know a guy who uses airports a lot (though he'll claim he travels by horseback or Pegasus) but he doesn't just pass through.  He surveys.  He stalks.  (He texts me.)  He swoops.

And Heimdall is his latest quarry The Rangerlord found for me at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia.  He's such a great guy.  He also found me three other figures of a certain Asgardian ilk that I'll be reviewing soon, hopefully.

But in order to get into Asgard we have to pass the gatekeeper.  And the gatekeeper's name be Heimdall!  So Haimdall, may we pass?  Heimdall?

Thor the Mighty Avenger 3.75-inch Movie Line: Sword Spike Thor!

Finally, they're here!

A big summer movie season with superhero movies means big anticipation for the movie toys.  With Thor to hit theaters real soon, the movie toy line has strangely been missing from department store shelves here in Singapore.

But we can always count on the specialty stores hereabouts.  And that's where I found Sword Spike Thor over the weekend.

Of the 6 figures released in the initial wave--this guy, Battle Hammer Thor, Lightning Clash Thor (light up), Shield Bash Odin, Secret Strike Loki, and the Invasion Frost Giant--SS Thor looks like he's the most value for money.

But I did have a hard time choosing him over BH Thor.  The latter has a more decent looking extra hammer/sword "weapon" accessory vs SS Thor's ridiculously large "sword."

Odin looked like a great sculpt but there was a lack of paint apps, while Loki had a rather bland expression.  After initially wanting to get at least one version of each character, I might now only settle for a single Thor.  So how did he turn out?  Could he end up convincing me to snag more of his brethren?  Let's take a look see, shall we? ;)

Thor! (and Enchantress)

Thing about Thor is this: he's one of the original Avengers, he's (arguably) as strong as the Hulk, he wields arguably the most powerful weapon in the Marvel universe, and he can also control weather, especially storms and lightning.  But somehow he's always not a main player in most story lines.  He may have (had) his own comic book, but he never seems to be anyone's favourite for a leading role. Well, until the upcoming movie at least.  And even then it's so that they can make an Avengers movie after that.  Maybe that's why it's taken so long for a Marvel Universe 3.75" version of him to appear.  But appear it has and boy have we all been awaiting his arrival! (Ok, most of us.)

And here's the bonus: Since it's a Secret Wars 2-pack (Wave 3) he comes in, he's accompanied by the lovely enchantress...or so we think!