Marvel Universe Exclusive Nick Fury

I’m still recovering from San Diego Comic-Con, but I need to get caught up.  There’s a bunch of Con exclusives that I want to take pics of and add to the collection here, but those will have to wait.  When I got back home, Nick Fury was waiting for me.  He’s the exclusive Marvel Universe figure that you get if you sign up for a Marvel Digital Comics subscription.  It’s been a long time since I participated in an exclusive promotion like this, so I couldn’t wait to dive in.

Let’s start with the packaging.  The outer box is pretty basic – I don’t even know why I took pictures of it other than that one day I might want to look back fondly on this and my memory is already shot.  Inside is the black box that we saw at New York Comic-Con, emblazoned with the SHIELD logo.  The back has the standard legalese.  On both side flaps is a nice touch – the Frank Cho card art of Nick Fury that’s been featured on the back of all the Marvel Universe cards to date.

The inner tray is bright red (I’m used to the clear trays on most Marvel Universe figures and holds Fury, a SHIELD logo, and his 4 weapons securely.  They are – a pistol that I’m guessing is reused from somewhere, but not sure if it’s from MU or not, the assault rifle that’s seen a lot of MU use, Punisher’s bazooka, and a gray BFG.  A manila envelope is taped to the back of the tray, and holds the file card and SHIELD memo.

Fury is based on the Bullseye / Daredevil body from wave 1, with the exception of the torso – it looks similar, but has additional sculpted elements on it for the zipper, harness, and collar.  He also has two separate  add-ons.  First there’s the jet pack, prominently featuring the SHIELD logo.  It’s removable by unfastening the peg attached to the top ends of the strap from the jet pack. As cool as this jet pack is, I’m more fond of him without it, so having that option is very welcome.

Second is the holster.  You’ll probably find it riding up pretty high when you first take Fury out of the package, but you can lower it to a more desirable position around the waist and hip, since it’s not glued.  The pistol feels a little soft, but you can insert and remove it easily enough from the holster.

I’ve talked about the underlying body before.  While it’s not among my favorites in the line, I think with the added details on the torso it’s pretty serviceable for Nick Fury.  The biggest limitation is the height of the figure, so I’m looking forward to new base bodies from Hasbro for guys with medium builds.  I like the head sculpt, but some people will probably find the mouth a little funny-looking.  It’s shaped that way so you can fashion a cigar for him.  I’ll probably make one out of a toothpick.

The paint is decent, on par with what you’d expect from Marvel Universe.  No slop for the most part, aside from 2 splotches on the lower torso that I suspect is from assembly while the paint on the upper torso strap was still wet.  The SHIELD emblems on the shoulders are particularly well done – very crisp and recognizable.  One paint app is missing, though, and that’s the gray hair on his temple.

The file cards in this line are great extras.  Fury’s memo is somewhat ironic in that it’s addressed to the SHIELD Director, which just doesn’t happen to be him anymore.  Since it’s unclear whether it’s addressed to Tony Stark or Norman Osborne, it’s actually a nice segue to next year’s theme for the line, in which Osborne has taken over SHIELD and the Fury Files.

Here you can see some of the figures that are in the AFP backlog.  Fury shares a body with the SHIELD agents in the Toys R Us exclusive Soldiers and Henchmen army builder 3-pack.  The SHIELD agents (which I’ll review separately later) have the same holster, pistol, and assault rifle.  One thing I noticed is that the belt on the torso of the SHIELD agent is painted, while Nick Fury’s is not.  No matter, as it’s covered by the holster anyways.

You can see that Fury is a bit shorter than Captain America (from Secret Wars, again, to be reviewed separately later) and the totally awesome Iron Man from wave 3.  This is nothing that good positioning in your collection wouldn’t fix right up.  He lines up just fine with his own agents, as well as the Hydra agent from the 3-pack.

Overall, I’m glad to have this figure in my collection.  If you’re a fan of Marvel’s Digital Comics, then getting this should be a no brainer.  If you’re not, it’s a little harder to justify, since you have to sign up for a 3 month trial.  Although there’s still holes in the library, I’ve enjoyed Marvel’s online comic experience, so it’s been an all-around great deal for me.  The special offer is available through the end of this year, or while supplies last, at http://www.marvel.com/digitalcomics/nickfury.