Captain America's character design has stood the test of time. Cap Am was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 in 1941 as a propaganda tool, urging people to buy war bonds. Since then, the basic elements of his design have pretty much remained the same. Captain America's costume has gone through multiple variations over the years, but every single time it does, it always comes back to the classic red, white, and blue designed by Kirby seen in Avengers #04. It has been like that for 73 years.
All that brings us to this point - Marvel's soft reboot with Marvel NOW!. Captain America's classic costume was amazing, but it was due for an update. The cuffed boots and gloves just weren't cutting it anymore. Enter the Avengers movie/ Ultimate Universe/ WWII costume inspired Marvel NOW! Captain America.
And this particular version of Captain America has graced the Marvel Legends line. It is a fantastic figure, but it's not without its own set of issues - some more glaring than the others.
+ The sculpt is all brand spankin' new, except maybe for belt and some parts of the face, but it mostly seems that everything is a new sculpt.
+ Design works very well in action figure format, which is more than I can say for this particular design's Marvel Heroes counterpart.
+ Every nook and cranny of the suit is nicely molded in - even down to the honeycomb texture of the chest armor. The straps and laces on his gloves and boots are also very nicely sculpted.
+ Cap's face looks very Captain America-y. Looks like the Captain Rogers action figure head with a helmet on.
- But at certain angles, his face is very derpy.
+ Articulation is good - ball-hinge neck, ab crunch, waist pivot, ball-hinge shoulders, bicep pivot, double jointed elbow, wrist pivot, wrist hinge, ball-peg hips, thigh cut pivot, double jointed knees, calf cut pivot, ankle hinge, and ankle pivot.
- Some musculature gets in the way of some articulation, but that's a minor gripe.
+ Can be given multiple cool poses.
+ Joints are nice and tight with the exception of the bicep cut/pivot but I think mine's an exception.
+ Easy to stand him up and pose him.
+ Colors are great...
- ... if they could be applied correctly. There are a lot of paint splotches where they shouldn't be. There are some gray paint marks on the blue chest piece and some white on the red gloves.
- Dirty paint apps.
- Some bleeding between the red and the white, like the gloves.
- Paint chipping, especially around the abdominal area.
- THE A ON HIS FOREHEAD IS NOT IN THE CENTER SON OF A BITCH.
- Lighter colors painted on dark plastic fades and the more vibrant colors peek through.
+ The shield is pretty good, kinda like the shield of the Captain America from the first movie.
+ You can have Cap either wear the shield on his back, held by the peg, or clipped around the wrist.
+ Mandroid head is made from pretty solid plastic.
+ Captain America is made from pretty solid plastic.
+ The figure looks really good posed alongside the Avengers.
+ About as tall as the Toybiz Marvel Legends Face-Off Captain America (sorry, didn't take pictures).
So all in all, a solid figure. Good enough to take the spot on my main display as my main Captain America. Still, I'm really bummed with Hasbro's lack of quality control. Hope to see continuous improvements all across the board for all Marvel Legends in days to come.