Review – Marvel Universe A.I.M. Soldier

While walking through Target today in a search for spray adhesive (needed to prototype a new board game I’m designing) Gina and I strolled through the action figure aisle. Surprisingly I spotted this A.I.M. Soldier, which was the first time I’d encountered the figure in a store at retail price. There were plenty of A.I.M. Soldiers for sale at SDCC, but I refused to pay the $10-$20 price tag since I knew I’d find one soon enough. So after a little hesitation (the toy looked slightly damaged in the package) I went ahead and grabbed him. And here he is for all of us to enjoy.

So how does the Marvel Universe A.I.M. Soldier* compare to the earlier releases in the Marvel Universe line? Not bad at all. He’s got the new hinged-ball joint neck and the new thigh joints — see this Colossus review at Articulated Discussion for a look at the new joints — and the sculpt is fantastic. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s take a step back and start over.

Beekeeper Attack!

The Advanced Idea Mechanics basic soldier wears (as you can see in the pics) a bright yellow HAZMAT-style suit with unusual headgear that make many refer to these guys as “beekeepers.” The Iron Man Armored Adventures* animated series does a great job with A.I.M. and it’s fun watching these goofy-suited guys get beat on. It is a bit strange that a super-smart organization like A.I.M. would have such terrible fashion sense, but the official Marvel Wiki clearly shows this suit so trust me, this is what they look like. And I personally love the outfit; I’m not often a fan of yellow, but it works great for these guys.

Sculpt and Paint

Both are fantastic! Other than a few random black specks on the yellow suit the action figure’s paint is excellent, with the few detailed spots cleanly and accurately painted. And the sculpt appears to be completely new, but since I don’t have many of the newer waves of Marvel Universe action figures I cannot swear that this guy is all new. The head, torso, and boots should all be completely new, but it’s possible the arms and legs are a reuse. And if they are new I suspect we’ll see those bits return soon enough; it’s tough to resist reusing basic human arms and legs. The head looks like the artist spent a ton of time on it, with sculpted wrinkles in the cloth and the details in the visor sculpted and not just painted on.

Articulation Problem

Despite how cool the toy looks — and in my opinion it looks awesome — there’s the usual Marvel Universe articulation problem: the head articulation is seriously flawed. Even with the new ball-hinge neck joint we run into problems with this guy; the high collar of the suit restricts the up-and-down movement of the head and slightly affects the side-to-side movement. I’m not a toy designer, but I like to think that someone who designs action figures is coming up with a solution for this constant issue with head articulation.

Kinda Tall

Another issue with the toy is its height. The above photo shows the A.I.M. Soldier beside a series of 3.75-inch scale Marvel action figures — specifically a Marvel Universe Spider-Man (review here), the Spider-Man Power Charge Rhino (review here), Marvel Universe Hulk (review here), and the Iron Man 2 Hulkbuster Iron Man (review here) — and this guy is clearly too tall in comparison to the other toys. Some of that could be the suit’s helmet, but a lot of the problem is just that the figure is a tad too tall for the scale. This is another common problem with the Marvel Universe line — figures are often too short or too tall — but in a display the height isn’t much of an issue. It’s still annoying, though.

(Note, the photo makes Hulk and Rhino look shorter in comparison to the A.I.M. Soldier than they actually are, but the other two figures are pretty much a fair comparison.)

Closing Thoughts

I’m still loving the Marvel Universe action figure series, even if the newer figures are damned tough to find here in Austin. The A.I.M. Soldier has a couple of problems, but in general he’s a great addition to the line and well-appreciated since he’s both a villain and a troop builder. The sculpt and paint come together to create a toy that stands out in a display.

I expect this toy to become a peg warmer — I can’t see how kids and casual collectors will snatch one of these toys — but if that’s true then we should get lucky and get to grab these on clearance after Christmas. I like the toy, and would love four or five more, but I think I’ll wait and see if my clearance hunch pays off because I don’t like him enough to buy more at MSRP.

I love that Hasbro is doing such a great job with this line, and I hope it continues for at least a few more years.

For other looks at the A.I.M. Soldier see this review at figures.com and this photo archive at Cool Toy Review.

Philip Reed knows he has been a bit heavy on designer toy and Transformers reviews lately. He would say that there’s more variety coming soon, but since he just finished cleaning photos of a Transformer and a resin toy you all know what’s coming up next.