by Taylor Smart
Greetings mini figure fans! This week I bring you the Marvel Minimates Infinity box set. This box set is exclusive to Toys R’ Us and is the result of a fan vote. Back in May Diamond Select Toys put up a poll of six characters, of those six the four with the highest votes would make it into the box set. The options were: Marvel Now Space Suit Captain America, Marvel Now Space Armor Iron Man, Marvel Now Armored Hulk, Infinity Thanos, Thane (son of Thanos), and Ronan the Accuser. You can see the control art for each character here.
As for myself I voted for Iron Man, Hulk, Thanos, and Thane. I knew that I was going to vote for two goodies and two baddies, I like a nice symmetrical box set. I really liked the armor on Iron Man and Hulk and lord knows there are enough Captain America ‘mates so that was an easy choice. The baddies were a much tougher decision for me, Thanos is a given, you can’t have Infinity without him. Out of Ronan and Thane I went with Thane because he is a new character and pairs well with Thanos. The control art for Ronan is awesome so I hope that he eventually gets made. And if you are interested in the Marvel Minimates Infinity Box Set you can get it through DST directly!
THE MEAT
The final results surprised me a little bit, with the line-up being: Captain America, Hulk, Thanos, and Thane. I voted for three out of the four but I was not expecting Cap to make it in at all, I was sure it was going to be Ronan or Iron Man. There is a thread on Minimate Multiverse where a bunch of people were sharing their votes, I never counted them up but the general consensus seemed to highly favor Ronan and Iron Man.
On to the figures! First up the surprise of the bunch, Space Suit Captain America. I do think that this version looks nice, the harness is different enough that it doesn’t feel like a re-hash. I also have a couple of problems with this character as far as articulation, the harness limits movement of the head and also tilts it forward slightly which looks a bit unnatural. The harness also limits the arm movement by not allowing them to be moved away from the body at all. Other than the harness problems my only issue is with the helmet. I can’t seem to get it off the head and it isn’t quite lined up with the eyes, which is going to drive me crazy until I can fix it. The paint apps and tampos, discounting the face because I haven’t seen it yet, are all crisp and aligned nicely. Overall this figure is better than I thought it would be and I am happy with it, despite the movement problems.
The second figure is Armored Hulk. I am a big Hulk fan so I was happy he made the cut, I also think the space armor is a fun variation of the character. The figure is super bulked up with every part but the head having pieces on top of them to make him nice and big. The shoulder armor plates do limit the arm movement, but opposite to Captain America, his arms raise but have very limited side to side movement. I don’t have a problem with the paint application, there is negligible overspray that is barely worth mentioning. What I do have a small quibble with is the color choice. I feel that the green used for the skin is to bright, almost lime green and I think it would be better if it was just a little darker. All of the colors seem nearly pastel to me, and this could just be to my eye but they don’t seem as pure as they could be, almost as if they are faded or the figure has sat out in the sun to long.
Third up is they big guy himself, Thanos. Similar to Hulk, Thanos is bulked up everywhere but the head. His shoulder plates limit his arm movement but not as bad as Hulk or Cap, he can raise his arms and move them side to side but doesn’t have a full range of movement in either direction. Like Cap I can’t get his helmet off so I can only see the lower half of his face, his Thanos smirk is spot on. The paint is spot on and I can’t find a single problem, the tampos are also lined up well. This is my first Thanos Minimate and they only way I could be happier is if I could remove his helmet.
Last up is an all new character to be Minimate'd, Thane, son of Thanos. For this figure DST kept it simple, the only difference from a basic Minimate is that he has a unique claw hand which matches his character. The paint and tampos are both pretty good on him, some of the gold patches on the legs look a little thin and the black shows through but that is the only problem. The face in particular is very well done, I can’t quite pin point why I like it so much but it has to be one of my favorites so far. I think it is the eyebrow and cheek lines, they are crisp and make the head look narrow without being distracting. This figure is probably my favorite from the set because they kept him so simple,
THE POTATOES
A common problem with bulked up figures such as Thanos and Hulk is that the peg on the waist that connects the legs to the torso is too short. Both figures split in two when I pulled them out of the package because the pieces used to bulk up the waist prevent the peg from going in far enough to keep it together. Finding a way to extend the peg would make them more sturdy.
THE DESSERT
I expressed my surprise at Captain America making into this box set earlier, a lot of collectors think that we have enough Cap Minimates for a while. At the time of the voting Captain America: The Winter Soldier had been out for only a month so my theory is that people were still riding a wave of hype for Cap which is why I think he got in.
This is a great box set with some great versions of characters that I think may not be made again. If you are a Marvel enthusiast or a fan of mini figures I think you will be happy with this set.
Funko recently jumped on the train of revealing their releases for Avengers: Age of Ultron and they have quite a few. They reveal Mystery Minis and Pocket Pop keychains. The Mystery Minis in particular look pretty exciting, my favorites being Hulkbuster Armor and Ultron. In case you missed it, you can see our Pop! News piece for pictures and details.
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