San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Hasbro Exclusive Marvel Universe Captain America

Comic-Con has come and gone and now it’s time to get crackin’ with some SDCC Exclusive Pic Reviews! I’m starting off with one of my favorite exclusives this year: the Hasbro 2010 San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive Captain America!

I have to say this figure was a pleasant surprise for me when I opened it, not only was it well sculpted, but there were a couple of articulation points that surprised me! I knew that Hasbro had been updating their Marvel Universe articulation lately, as I talked about on my review of Juggernaut, Colossus and the A.I.M Soldier, but I have to say they took it a couple of steps further on this figure! Let’s have a look at him, shall we?

Cap here is outfitted in his Ultimates World War 2 uniform, one of my favorite renditions of Cap in the comic books, as it combines military stylings with traditional Captain America aesthetic. He comes with his old school shield (with straps) and a handgun, which fits in a holster on his belt. His helmet also comes off so you can see his mask. His strapped belt is also a separate piece, but it doesn’t come off unless you take him apart. He doesn’t come with the named stands that recent Marvel Universe figures have, it would’ve been nice to have it to complete the piece, but as long as the figure looks good as this, I don’t mind.

Cap has an excellent sculpt. There’s a lot of attention to detail paid in creating the sculpt for this figure. His outfit is full of fine details, from the cloth texturing all over, complete with folds and creases, to the tiny gold buttons on his chest and boots. His head sculpt is also well done and his mask has some sculpted belt/strap details.

Paint wise, the figure I got was good. There’s the occasional paint slop in some areas, but it’s nothing major. At this scale it’s pretty hard to have perfect paint applications anyway. It also helps that his costume has that rough and weathered look, so the stray paint marks are forgivable. His costume has different paint tones, especially on the creases.

Now let’s talk about Cap’s articulation. He has a ball-jointed head on a hinge joint, so he can move his head up and down pretty well. He’s got the swivel/hinge shoulders, bicep cuts, hinge elbows and one of the surprises for me: a swivel/hinge wrist. You hardly see this type of wrist articulation in 3.75/4 inch figures, so that surprised me. Spidey needs this type of wrist articulation!

He also has mid-torso articulation that swivels and moves front to back and side to side. His hips are those ball swivel/hinge joints that are attached vertically to his waist. Much like the hip joints that Hasbro has been using on their 6-inch Marvel Legends Hasbro 2-pack figures. Some people might not like this joint compared to the G.I. Joe style joints that previous Universe figures used, but I like it. For me, they are more stable than the Joe-style joints.

He’s got the double-jointed hinged knees, swivel boot tops, hinge ankles (with great range), and another surprise: swivel rocker ankles. Another articulation point I rarely see at this scale.

So all in all this figure is like a mini Marvel Legends figure, and he poses really well! I think you guys can see from the pics that I had fun posing this figure!

Size-wise he’s a bit taller than the first Marvel Universe Cap. His legs are a little longer, but most of the height difference is in the size of their heads. I always thought the first Cap needed a slightly bigger head, and this Con-exclusive Cap has the right-sized noggin.

I do have a nitpick on this figure: his right lower leg seems to be seems to be about 3 millimeters longer than his left, I noticed my A.I.M Soldier has the same problem, so he tends to tilt a little on standing poses. Still doesn’t bother me too much though.

I should also mention aside from the blister card, there was an illustrated sleeve packaging with some Joe Quesada art. I like it, but mine didn’t fare very well with the travel. It’s pretty much a sleeve over the blister card package so some of the edges got bent and creased.

This Cap was one of the pleasant surprises of my SDCC haul, I was expecting a good figure, much like Colossus, Juggernaut and the A.I.M. Soldier, but the great sculpt and the added articulation really made this a great figure for me.

It’s no mystery what it takes to make the Marvel Universe line great. This Cap shows the line’s potential, and as I’ve said before, I’m encouraged with the positive steps Hasbro has been taking with this line. If they paid this much attention to detail to every Marvel Universe figure, then I’m sure it won’t be long until this line becomes as legendary as it’s 6-inch scaled predecessor (which I hope makes it’s proper return in 2012).

That’s it for now, I hope you all enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them. Thanks for looking!