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!

The Avengers 3.75" Super Shield (Ultimates) Captain America

Since the Avengers toys have been released, I've been going to toy stores and passing on the 3.75" movie figures.  But it's funny how each time I see the toys, I'll take closer look and suddenly find something I like about a figure that I didn't spot earlier.

Maybe I was put off by some of the worst articulation that Hasbro has put on its figures in a years.  So glaring were the lack of ankles here, the missing chest pivot there, that I couldn't see past the flaws to the good qualities that were staring me in the face.

Take Super Shield captain America here, for example.  It took me a long while to realize that this was Ultimates Captain America (my fave comics Cap) with a kickass vest and belt.  What I also missed was that this version of Ultimates Cap had wrist swivels where the movie line release didn't!  I had also failed to realize that this version of the figure was painted a nicer, deeper blue than the Cap movie Ultimates version.

So with my interest piqued, I couldn't resist picking this guy up.  To my surprise, there were quite a few more changes to the figure that make it a completely different Cap from its predecessor.

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.

Marvel Universe 3.75" Mutant Leaders: Ultimate Magneto & Cylops

No peeps, this ain't no two-pack--I just happened to snag them at the same time and thought it would be more fun as a double review. :)

Props to the Rangerlord who hooked me up once again.  I swear, he's somehow become my full-time plastic crack dealer.  He also happens to to have me by the short hairs (to use the polite term)--no reviews, no hook ups!

Ok, so maybe he didn't put it in so many words.  But he did say he wanted to "speak to me" about picking up my review slack.  Now that's a veiled threat if I'd ever heard one!

So that's yet another reason to double up--I don't want to be found frozen to death from withdrawal symptoms outside a Toys R Us, my fingers bloody to the bone from trying to claw my way in.  *Shudder*

I'm kinda starting to feel fidgety and stuff...so...*scratchscratch*...*sniffle*...yeah, let's move on to the review!