THOR
HISTORY: Making his first appearance in Journey into Mystery #83 in August 1962, Thor has been a long standing fan favorite in Marvel lore. Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby and a core member of the Avengers, Thor Odinson hails from Asgard and is protector of the nine realms, to include Midgard (Earth). As a core member of the Avengers and one of the few members capable of interstellar travel, Thor has made allies and enemies throughout nearly every corner of the universe.
FIRST GLANCE: Based off the likeness of Chris Hemsworth from the 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron film, Diamond Select Toys and Gentle Giant have met the fan's demand for a reprint of the popular Thor: The Dark World figure. With an updated paint scheme, a few minor changes to the overall Asgardian garb, and a noticeable tan, this figure does stand out enough from its predecessor. However, it may not be enough to sway certain collectors from replacing their Dark World figure.
PROS: Gentle Giant always brings excellent articulation to their pieces and Thor is no exception. Paint was applied very well over all the figures I had the privilege to browse over at my local shop. Only a few had small flecks of excess paint on the shoulders under the cape. Likeness is satisfactory and is recognizable. 19 points of articulation are always a plus especially considering the range of motion. Joints are also very tight.
CONS: Despite the fact it is a repaint, it is a slight disappointment that the sculpt didn't see much improvement. I personally feel the cape is too long and can often interfere with standing straight up. An interchangeable closed fist instead of an open hand with fragile fingers could have been a plus. Also, within the packaging, it seems the idea to make the plastic that encases the figure narrow enough in certain places that the hammer grip becomes restricted in movement causes the grip to become bent in a lot of figures. But some boiled water could be an easy fix.
ARTICULATION:
360° head rotation slightly restricted long hair but you can push through it.
Minimal vertical movement.
Ball Shoulders with bicep swivel
Single direction elbows
360° wrists with no vertical cants
Torso swivel
360° waist restricted by the lower garb
Legs move laterally and forwards very well
Thigh swivel
Double knees
Roller ankles
RECOMMENDATION: Well like most Marvel Select figures, many stores had their orders allocated so that should tell you something. Furthermore, with an awesome base that couples with a much desired Black Widow figure, don't hesitate too much to pick this piece up. Despite its striking resemblance to the Dark World figure, it's still a movie figure and they're rarely reprinted let alone reissued. Make your decision quickly before your shop is out of stock. Personally, without the base, the Dark World figure is a better piece. Despite the skin complexion, the detailing throughout the garb, buckles and armor are just better.
BLACK WIDOW
HISTORY: As some of you know, or not, there have been a few characters to take on the Black Widow persona. In this case, we have the original, Natalia Alianovna Romanova, a.k.a. Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow. First appearing in Tales of Suspense #52 in April 1964, Natasha was created by Stan Lee (of course), Don Rico and Don Heck. She first appeared as a Russian spy who as we all know later defected to the United States and eventually became a key member of the Avengers.
FIRST GLANCE: Bottom line up front...FINALLY!!! Yes, it is finally here. Diamond Select has at last pulled the trigger on a Scarlett Johansson based movie Black Widow figure and let me say it is great! Whether you're a MOC collector or a loose collector, it doesn't matter. This figure is great just hanging on your wall or out of the box. Gentle Giant clearly put the required time and effort into making this happen and they truly have created a proper figure.
PROS: Well I think the biggest pro to this figure is the overall articulation scheme. When you have a curvaceous actress like Scarlett and the task of creating an action figure based on her, you can't use conventional action figure POAs or designs. So I'm sure this was a challenge for Gentle Giant and the hard work clearly paid off. Nearly all the key POAs have excellent range of motion like the shoulders, hips and torso. Paint apps seem to be well applied through most of the figures I had the chance to select through (2 boxes = 12 figures). The pistol and escrima sticks with additional hands are a nice addition to an already great figure. Just be careful removing the hands.
CONS: As great of an upside that this figure has, it does have a few minuscule downfalls. First off, the general consensus of this figure when it was released was that it was very pale. And it may be, but either way, I'll take it. Next, through the various figures I had to sort through, it seemed that on almost half of them had the chest protruding out as if the figure had the upper chest equivalent of a muffin-top. On top of that, there were small flecks of black paint which I wasn't sure would be able to be brushed away or not. They didn't move when I shook the package at least. Then there was quite a few paint inconsistencies on the orange/brown hair where it was evident that paint wasn't applied. This may also seem petty but it seems counter intuitive to have a pistol holster on the left side with the right hand sculpted to hold the pistol. The pistol doesn't exactly fit in the holster all that well either. Lastly, and this is speculative, after moving the figure around, I fear the joints may become loose at the hips which could compromise posing, similar to the comic Romanoff Black Widow figure.
ARTICULATION:
Head does a full 360° with good vertical movement and pivot
Ball shoulders with no bicep swivel
Ball elbows
360° wrists with vertical cants
Excellent torso swivel
No waist articulation
Legs move in every direction with amazing range of motion
Thigh swivel
Double knees
Lower leg swivel
Single direction ankles with rotating heels that act like roller ankles
RECOMMENDATION: I think it's a no-brainer here. We've finally got a Scarlett Johansson Black Widow after her fourth MCU appearance, she is the last piece to complete the primary DST cinematic Avengers lineup and she's also become a fan favorite. Don't expect this figure to sit around on shelves for long before those eScum start jacking up prices.
*Writers note - Despite the amount of cons I listed for this figure, it's easier to nitpick figures you enjoy so much. Truly one of the best figures DST has done. It easily breaks into my Marvel Select top 10.
THE BASE?
Yes, because it's an adjoining base, I figured I'd separately write this up seeing as it's essentially the same for both figures. As you can see, it is a rubble strewn base accessorized with wire spools, sandbags, ammo boxes and some ambiguous piece of technology. However, after all the Google image searching and questioning I did, it was difficult to find out exactly what part of the movie it was from. I want to say that from a distance it looks like the capsule that Vision was created in. Although, once out of the packaging, it is clearly not that. I then thought it may be from the final battle but again, the piece of whatever that the Avengers were protecting had three prongs into the ground and this base clearly does not depict that. So as much as I enjoy the Marvel films and the Marvel Select line, it upsets me that I can't figure out what it's from. But after all is said and done, it's a huge detailed base and it looks awesome.
Paint applications are a little sloppy here and there but it's not a huge upset seeing that its a battle damaged diorama. The overall size makes it the largest two-piece adjoining base for the Marvel Select cinematic line. The sandbags are nicely sculpted as well as all the cases with the gray paint wash. Although all the previous adjoining bases had some sort of connection fixture on the bottom, this doesn't have it but because of the sculpt, it doesn't need it. My only gripe about the base is that it's not perfectly square shaped on all sides. If it were, it'd be nice to get another one from someone selling theirs, as some collectors do, and make a larger base seeing as it isn't unique enough to not have duplicates to create an enormous battleground.
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