Marvel TF Captain America

Ancillary, non-main-line stuff. Star Wars TF, Speed Stars, Titanium Series, Robot Heroes, that sort of thing. They're kinda neat, but we all know they're not really that important. Admit it, you know it's true.
Post Reply
User avatar
JediTricks
Site Admin
Posts: 3849
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:17 pm
Location: LA, CA, USA

Marvel TF Captain America

Post by JediTricks »

At first study, it looked to me like Cap was a remold of the Wolverine truck, but I bought it anyway. Turns out, they share a few similarities (the leg transformation, the fold-up fender shoulders, the tilted mid-torso), but Cap is his own man.

Alt mode is an up-armored Humvee with a big shield on the back. It's beefy and got tons of sculpting. The colors lack subtlety and nuance for this mode, but they work here better than the Thor figure's work in his A-10 Warthog altmode, that's for damned sure. The "scaly armor" look of Cap's tunic is here too, and it somehow doesn't entirely feel out of place.

Transformation is similar to Wolverine's, but a few different touches make it feel unique. The torso pegs are a pain in the ass, I broke off half of the right one. Unlike Wolvie's transformation where you could see all the blank spots, Cap gets tons of inside sculpting to keep things interesting. Transformation back to alt mode can be nightmarish, getting the arm panels to line up and hold properly is a bitch.

Cap's bot mode is very beefy, and the shape is a little too wide for the character, so it relies on the colors and character touches (A-head, wings, star on chest, scaled tunic) to sell it, which it does. This sucker is solid, and looks like a real bruiser. The shield expands out which makes no sense to me, and gives it a square shape, but it does peg on either forearm (it's directional, the pegs only fit 1 way). Articulation is fair, but the shoulders get hung up on the hinges for the fenders which becomes a mess. The figure can certainly stand on its own.

I don't get why they're using these odd-location ratchets, limiting the way you can pose your figure. This is getting far too common with this line.

All in all, it's not the love affair that I had with that Wolverine figure, but it's pretty decent.
Image
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
User avatar
Onslaught Six
Supreme-Class
Posts: 7023
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:49 am
Location: In front of my computer.
Contact:

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by Onslaught Six »

JediTricks wrote:I don't get why they're using these odd-location ratchets, limiting the way you can pose your figure. This is getting far too common with this line.
Elaborate? It sounds similar to some complaints I've heard about the Marvel Legends' line's oddball hip joints.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Image
User avatar
JediTricks
Site Admin
Posts: 3849
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:17 pm
Location: LA, CA, USA

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by JediTricks »

Onslaught Six wrote:Elaborate? It sounds similar to some complaints I've heard about the Marvel Legends' line's oddball hip joints.
That is a different ball of wax altogether.

Here, the problem I'm talking about, and this showed up on the Marvel TF Iron Man I just picked up as well, is that they use ratcheting joints for some locations where the ratcheted stops are very far apart, so Iron Man for example can either stand unnaturally straight-legged or a super wide stance, but nothing in between.


Speaking of Marvel TF Iron Man, I picked up the War Machine repaint based mainly on DvD's review of the first mold. He really likes the transformation, and I have to agree that there is something which works quite nicely for this jet TF in that department. My main issues are that the overall jet design has odd lines with a short, bulbous nose and wide, poorly-swept wings. But the jet mode has fun to it, and very little undercarriage kibble. Bot mode is decent, I like the simple but effective way they get rid of the wings, I'm rarely pleased with jet TFs because of that. All in all, it's fun but not the top of the game for this line.
Image
See, that one's a camcorder, that one's a camera, that one's a phone, and they're doing "Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil", get it?
User avatar
Onslaught Six
Supreme-Class
Posts: 7023
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:49 am
Location: In front of my computer.
Contact:

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by Onslaught Six »

JediTricks wrote:Here, the problem I'm talking about, and this showed up on the Marvel TF Iron Man I just picked up as well, is that they use ratcheting joints for some locations where the ratcheted stops are very far apart, so Iron Man for example can either stand unnaturally straight-legged or a super wide stance, but nothing in between.
Ahhh.

One could fix that simply by removing the ratchets from the joints, but then again, one shouldn't really have to.
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
Image
User avatar
onslaught86
Moderator
Posts: 1273
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:02 pm
Location: EnZed
Contact:

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by onslaught86 »

Mmm, I've had the same issue with some TFs of late. Universe Powerglide springs to mind.

I really do want more MTFs, but they just haven't released them here. The first wave seems to have sold okay, I picked up Hulk and Venom, yet we've not even gotten to Wolverine or Torch. Sigh. May have to import, as I want Torch, Cap, Thor, and Brownverine. That combiner set of Spidey and Iron Man looks interesting.
Image
User avatar
onslaught86
Moderator
Posts: 1273
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 3:02 pm
Location: EnZed
Contact:

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by onslaught86 »

Woop, stuff finally came out here, and I got Cap.

I dig, transformation's fairly clever and not too irksome. Parts gets in the way a bit at the front and sides, and I find the way the shins rotate for vehicle mode annoying as they can fold around further than they need to, and can't transform properly that way. Shoulders suck, although I'm impressed at how well the sliders hold. Required some excessive force to pop mine into place the first time.

Didn't see the movable ears coming, and the pop-out shield's a fun trick. Proportions are neat, he has a reverse Prime thing going on, it works well. May grow on me further, need to fiddle more.
Image
User avatar
138 Scourge
Supreme-Class
Posts: 2833
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:27 pm
Location: Beautiful KCK

Re: Marvel TF Captain America

Post by 138 Scourge »

I think the Punisher Transformer that's coming out is a repaint of this. So I'll be in for this mold eventually.
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
Post Reply