CAPTAIN AMERICA Action Figures
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There have been many Captain America action figures produced since the
1960s, but the first toy line that focused and consisted of
only figures from Cap’s world would appear in 2011 with figures
directly tied into his first motion picture.
Captain America
The First Avenger Figures
With the
debut of the first major Captain America motion picture
called Captain America The
First Avenger in 2011
came the first dedicated action figure toy line for the
Living Legend.
Hasbro is the manufacturer of the line and from close
examination they appear to be from the same plant that
produced the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull action figure toy line in 2008. They are
definitely the same designers/artisans who worked on Thor
The Mighty Avenger action figure toy line.
The quality of these figures are high and the improved paint
applications have exceeded the Indy figures.
The lineup consists of movie figures, figures from the comic
books and concept figures that Hasbro designers came up with
as sort of a future look for Captain America or other
possible uniforms for special missions not covered anywhere
else.
The Super Combat Captain America figure is the
closest to the movie version in this line. The Red Skull
figure is a movie version as well. They look very good
together and individually.
Some of the
comic book figures are dead on with their 4-color
counterparts like Winter Soldier, US Agent and Crossbones.
The Captain Britain figure is a little stocky compared to
his
Marvel Universe version and has a little bit of
extra gloss to his paint job.
There are a few Captain America figures that are reasonably
representative of the traditional Cap from the comics. The
closest is the Heavy Artillery version. There are a couple
deluxe versions that have extra accessories that once you
remove those out of the equation can represent Cap very
well.
I think the Crossbones and US Agent figures are fantastic
and make the other incarnations from past action figure
lines look pale in comparison. The detail is very good for
figures that are only 3.75 inches tall.
Hasbro is
well-known for producing figures in this scale with their
incredible run on Star Wars since 1995 and GI Joe which
continues to evolve since 1982.
As
typical of Hasbro they like to make multiple versions of the
primary character so you’ll find many interpretations of
Captain America in this line.
Besides the Super Combat Cap that looks great, the
World War II version called Battlefield
Captain
America
looks very nice as well. This figure is a representation of
Cap from the comics of the past couple of years in various
origin stories showing Cap with a combat helmet, jacket and
other WWII uniform and gear including a machine gun. This
characterization has been created in the
Marvel Legends line and Marvel Select line
and really is a standout piece.
There are a host of camouflaged, parachute, rocket blaster
and other accessorized Captain Americas in this toy line
which can become overkill sometimes, but some collectors do
enjoy the variations so I don’t want to diminish this at
all. It’s not for everyone to collect every single figure
in any toy line, but there are many offerings available.
Hydra figures are also a part of this line in both a comic
book and movie version.
There have
been a couple of store exclusives where Hasbro has repainted
some of the Captain Americas, Winter Soldier, Red Skull and
Crossbones and included a comic book as part of a comic book
2 pack package reminiscent of their
Marvel Universe line.
The 2 pack figure concept has transcended into a smaller
package without the comic book that can be found only at
Target stores.
There are a few vehicles available that come with a special
Captain America figure and motorcycles and ATV vehicles
which have limited articulated Cap figure. These all add to
the collection offerings.
Each
figure in the line has multiple points of movement.
Depending on the figure most can be adjusted at the head,
arms-some at a couple of points, elbows, wrists-some,
legs-some at a couple of points, knees and ankles. The figures
can be posed for great diorama and display possibilities.
The packaging with the exception of the 2 packs uses the
image of Captain America star Chris Evans at the top left of
the logo on the card with a clear plastic bubble affixed
which stays pretty true for the rest of the figure line.
Each carded figure can stand freely without assistance and
look great next to one another.
This product line overall has a good concept going for it.
It probably won’t cover some of Captain America’s many
heroes and villains like Bucky and Falcon (which already
have Marvel Universe versions), Bernie America, Diamond
Back, Sharon Carter, Batroc, Modok, Sleeper, Baron Zemo, Nomad, Deathlok
and many, many others, but what you get in the line is
nicely self-contained and won’t take a lot of funds to get
what you want.
The figures in the First Avenger line that appear to be the
hardest to find at first are Crossbones, Red Skull and to
some extent the Super Combat Captain America and
Battlefield Captain America since both represent the
movie version and that time period where Cap originated
from.
The figure line is comparable to many of the other 3.75 inch
toy lines like Iron Man 2,
Thor,
Marvel Universe, GI Joe and Star Wars.
If
you’ve missed the initial waves, typically they will
come in again. Eventually though the figures will run its
course at retail stores and Hasbro will have moved onto other product
lines.
Usually I have found in my experience that you essentially have
between 7 to 8 months of the initial release of a particular
wave of figures which for this product
line started to appear on shelves around May, 2011 to get
what you can at retail. Stores like
Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, K-Mart
carry the new figures and are great sources to build up your
collection.
After that you will need to search
sources like comic book shops, comic conventions
before venturing online for figures that are probably past
their shelf life in major retails stores above.
Entertainment Earth are good
sources as are Big Bad Toy Store and Amoktime
for places to shop online for these figures. Big Bad
Toy Store provides case lots and general lots providing you various assortments so you can get as many
figures in one shot without having to spend too much on per
figure basis. This can really add up in savings for both the
figures and shipping costs.
Hot Toys Captain
America Figures
One
of the
most highly detailed and movie accurate Captain America figures produced
are the ones created by Hot Toys.
Their figures
are in the 12 inch (1/6th scale) and feature a large amount of articulation
providing collectors the most poseable figures on the market.
The
company produces primarily figures based on movie properties that
they call the Movie Masterpiece Series. Captain America has
been featured in his own film and the Avengers movie and Hot Toys has
produced various figures from those properties.
The Red Skull, Captain America's arch-nemesis has been produced in
the likeness of Hugo Weaving who portrayed the villain with the infamous skull head.
Hot Toys' sculpting technology make the faces so
incredibly life-like making it difficult to tell in some cases if you're looking
at a photo of the actor or the figure.
Chris Evans who played Captain America in the Marvel Studios films has
his incredible likenesses
made into the 12 inch figures. The
Avengers Captain America figure comes with a Steve Rogers head so
you can have either Captain America with his mask on or without.
All
Captain America related figures come with a wide variety of accessories such as removable
heads, shields, multiple hands and
display stands.
The
figures are heavily detailed with gorgeous paint jobs. All
figures will have cloth costumes where appropriate with some having
synthetic leather. They come in very nice packaging that
are a collectible in itself with great-looking photos and graphics.
A
lot of collectors for whatever reason enjoy collecting the brown
shipping mailer that Hot Toys ships the figure's packages in. The box simply is a regular
cardboard box like any other shipping package from
any manufacturer and has the typical text consisting of the name, model number and
country of origin
of the product.
If
you decide to collect Hot Toys figures, then its worthwhile to hang
onto these boxes as well if you ever decide to sell or trade them later.
They'll take up a lot of room if you own several Hot Toys items, but
will be beneficial to you in the future.
The
figures are typically in the $200+ range when they are initially
available for pre-ordering by various online retailers and
sell out fast. They will regularly sell for more than its original retail price on the after market.
It's
a good idea if you see a figure you're interested in during its
initial pre-ordering phase to place your order early otherwise you risk
missing out and will be faced with those after market prices.
Some
of the retailers that carry Hot Toys figures are the US distributor
Sideshow Collectibles, Big Bad Toy Store, Alter Ego
Comics, Amok Time.
I
have added some banners and listings which are direct links to some
of these retailers that currently offer Hot Toys figures for sale whether
its for the pre-orders or after market.
Ebay is another source with many different sellers
putting up their auctions and or store listings. I do find some
good deals from time to time here as well.
Other Captain
America Figures
There are other figure lines
over the years that contain Captain
America figures like
Marvel Famous Cover,
Marvel Legends, Marvel Legends Icons, Marvel Secret Wars, Marvel Select,
Marvel Signature Series,
Marvel Showdown,
Marvel Universe,
Avengers: United
They Stand,
Mego World’s Greatest Super
Heroes, Toy Biz Marvel Superheroes,
re-launch of
Marvel Legends Wal-Mart exclusive
and
Captain Action series of costumes and Hot Toys
12 inch figure.
These product
lines featured some Captain America figures along with Bucky or Falcon
and Red Skull and Crossbones which appeared in a couple of the lines.
There are several
sources to find Captain America figures such as Big Bad Toy Store, Amoktime and Ebay.
You can do a search on Google for additional sources.
Ebay is a great source as well. There’s
a lot of collectors/sellers/dealers on Ebay always
looking to move in and out of product and use Ebay as
their avenue.
Be careful to check out the auctions and or Buy it Now
listings carefully. Some sellers’ terms are not right for
everyone and sometimes the items are not what you expect.
If condition of the package is important to you, then be
sure to ask a lot of questions. If you don’t get the right
kinds of answers you’re looking for, then move on and try
another listing.
Always check out the seller’s profile to see how their past
selling has been. If they’re new to selling and have only
been buying, ask questions.
You always want to be comfortable with the person you’re
potentially going to be buying from and you really need to
know what it is you’re getting.
Happy Collecting!!!
Johnson's Collectibles
