Review – Marvel Select Captain America Unmasked

“Captain America has always stood for truth, justice and the American way. Picking up where the fallen Steve Rogers left off, James Buchanan Barnes now carries the legacy of Captain America into a new era. Drawing from his experiences both as Bucky and the Soviet’s Winter Soldier, this new Captain America won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done in order to safeguard American life and liberty — proving his worthiness to carry the shield of a legend.”
— from the card back

Since we took a look at the Marvel Select Ultimate Iron Man last week (review here), it felt only fitting that the other Marvel Select action figure that I own — the “unmasked Bucky Barnes” Captain America* — get a chance in the review seat. This action figure is both better and worse than the Ultimate Iron Man, and this guy is an excellent example of why I won’t buy many of the figures in this series.

Packaging

Too much trash. The package looks okay, but the figure could have been packed in a much smaller blister. There’s not anything to add to what I said about the Ultimate Iron Man’s packaging (review here) and — just like the packaging for Iron Man — this package is already in the garbage can.

Captain America Unmasked

Straight out of the pages of the Captain America** comic, the Bucky Barnes Captain America comes armed with a gun, knife, and Cap’s legendary shield. What this particular Captain America action figure is missing — as you can see in the photos — is his mask. This is the variant version of the figure, and from what I can tell from photos of the standard version this variant doesn’t look quite as good as the basic version.

Why doesn’t he look as good? That extended, unusual neck is the primary problem with the look of this Captain America action figure. The photo above shows just how distorted the neck looks, with the head sitting up high on a plastic post rather than anything that looks like an appropriately-sized neck. If Cap’s head was set down a bit closer to his body this figure would look much better, but with the design as it is I just keep seeing that weird neck-like post that the head sits on.

Limited Articulation

While not as limited in poseability possibilities as the Ultimate Iron Man action figure (review here), this guy doesn’t have anywhere near the range of movement that we see in the much smaller Marvel Universe Captain America (review here). Cap has a ball-jointed neck, ball and hinge shoulders and hips, a twisty right wrist (the left wrist doesn’t move), and hinged elbows, knees, and ankles. There’s no waist movement and the lack of cut thighs or biceps means that Cap can’t even move as well as a 1984 G.I. Joe action figure.

Captain America’s limited articulation, combined with the gargoyle accessory and the permanently attached pistol, shows that the Marvel Select series is more of a poseable statue series than it is a true action figure series. This isn’t a terrible thing, but I would have liked to have seen Cap’s arms and legs sculpted in a little more dynamic pose if he’s going to be a shelf ornament; the wooden pose combined with limited articulation takes this from being a fun, poseable statue and makes it a stiff, lifeless-looking decoration.

Sculpt and Paint

Both are very well executed, with the shimmery, metallic red and blue paint perfectly applied to the figure’s body without any rough lines. And Cap’s face is beautifully painted, with my only complaint being that his left eye isn’t quite as well done as his right eye.

And as nice as the paint is, I think the sculpted details on the action figure are even better. The belt features a holster, several pouches, and you can even customize Cap’s carried supplies (see below). The face sculpt, while not an exact match for what we’ve seen in the comics, looks great, and the figure’s musculature looks like it was lifted straight out of a Captain America comic. If the figure had been given better articulation — or a more dynamic basic pose — it would make a fantastic shelf ornament. As it is, it’s just a fantastically-sculpted toy with a wooden pose. Poor, poor Cap.

Accessories

The photos above show Captain America outfitted with a canteen (on the left) and a knife (on the right). Each piece snaps onto the belt, but unfortunately there’s only room for him to carry one of the two pieces at a time. I hate when action figures can’t carry all of their accessories at once, because that means I have to keep track of a loose accessory (and those don’t always survive daily life or the dreaded move). It’s cool that you get a little bit of choice in customizing Cap, but the fact that your choice is concealed by the shield makes it a customization choice that doesn’t really matter at all.

Cap’s shield looks pretty good, and fastens to the arm with the same sort of clip that was used on the Marvel Universe Captain America (review here), but there’s nothing really great about the shield. It looks good, is functional, and is basically the minimum that we need whenever we pick up a Captain America action figure.

The last accessory, and the largest, is the gargoyle diorama piece that’s shown in the photos above. Captain America has holes in his feet which fit on pegs on the diorama base, but as much as I usually like bases and diorama pieces this one isn’t really all that nice. Unlike the massive display piece that was included with the Ultimate Iron Man (review here), this piece is a little too small to truly be impressive.

Well, too small if you use it with the Marvel Select Captain America. The Marvel Universe Black Costume Spider-Man (review here) actually looks pretty damn good posed on this base. I may end up just using this base on the display shelf with Spider-Man rather than Cap.

Closing Thoughts

I opened this guy up expecting a cool action figure and found myself holding an okay statue with limited poseability. I know there are a lot of fans of the Marvel Select series, but now that I’ve seen two of the figures in the series I can’t figure out why anyone would prefer these over the Marvel Universe series of toys. These have fewer points of articulation, cost more, and just generally feel like they’re intended to sit on shelves and never fall into the hands of anyone who will play with them.

For another opinion you can check this review at Brainfreeze, where the author likes the figure a bit more than I do but he still has complaints.

Now I’m hoping that the Marvel Universe Captain America that’s included with the Skrull Giant Man is better than this one. I suspect that it is — it’s likely just a repaint of the basic Marvel Universe Captain America — but until I open the box I won’t know for sure.

If you haven’t bought any of the Marvel Select series then I think you should do yourself a favor and don’t start buying now. From what I can tell after looking at two figures in the series . . . well, these just aren’t really worth the money.

*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
**Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.

Philip Reed wanted to recommend this figure to Captain America fans, but there were just enough problems with the toy that he thinks everyone is better off avoiding it.