Michael Crawford's review of the NEW Captain Action!!

[The Batman Professor]

Especially now that he has an ongoing solo comic series, he is his own unique character. I have loose CA figures as a prominent part of my collection, as well as figures in different costumes. To me, it's all part of CA's special allure.

[thunderbolt]

I like the updating of the sculpt and body, but for the price point you'd think they could get the suit and the proportions of the gun and fists right. BTW, Velcro is a really BAD idea for removable costumes, especially when that is the whole point of a line.

[MIB41]

Especially now that he has an ongoing solo comic series, he is his own unique character. I have loose CA figures as a prominent part of my collection, as well as figures in different costumes. To me, it's all part of CA's special allure.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r83/thebatmanprofessor/trioca.jpg

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...or/action2.jpg

Cool collection! Do you have Action Boy Robin?

[Earth 2 Chris]

Cool collection! Do you have Action Boy Robin?

Yes, very sweet collection!!! I like the Captain Action-specific stuff too, even though I don't really own any of the accessory sets. And I was tempted by those 12" scale Barris Batmobiles on ebay a decade or so ago.

And Tom, I didn't get a chance to really tell you how insanely jealous I was of that Action Boy Robin you brought to our Cincy Meet. I have one, but he's still missing quite a few items (belt, boots, gloves, etc). He was breathtakingly awesome.

Chris

[GaryPlaysWithDolls]

I HATE velcro! Looks neat, but I have no nostalgia for the line. I'm not sure. I think I'd rather just have superhero dolls (I know, crazy right?) Might be a neat thing for a custom, though.

[Type Two]

Yeah, that first pic...I give Michael Crawford two stars (**) for his photography in this review!

THANK YOU for posting this thread! After I read the thread, I preordered the first three figures!

[Teemu]

The Costume sets are up for review tonight but Not liking the 12" Bobble head look...the masks make the head much larger and this may turn ALOT of people off..

I am little dissapointed,have the sets pre-ordered and paid for....I think I am only going to buy Thor and Iron Man and pass on the rest

the protypes masks looked much more in scale,not sure what happened here

[rche]

the secret ID masks are not included in the basic costume sets, so I am not sure Joe toybuyer will ever see the bobble headed nature of that. The costumes themselves look pretty good to me and are a pretty big cool factor. The last pic of the Spiderman is fantastic!!

I am concerned about the velcro on the costume tho. I suppose these are mostly aimed at nostalgic collectors, but my son and daughter have some pretty fuzzy hero outfits on their famous covers figures.

overall, I am loving these and I can't wait to see them on the shelves.

[thunderbolt]

The masks look terrible, why they didn't go with a interchangable head I don't know. Steve Rogers looks like Dudley Do-Right.

[MIB41]

Yes, very sweet collection!!! I like the Captain Action-specific stuff too, even though I don't really own any of the accessory sets. And I was tempted by those 12" scale Barris Batmobiles on ebay a decade or so ago.

And Tom, I didn't get a chance to really tell you how insanely jealous I was of that Action Boy Robin you brought to our Cincy Meet. I have one, but he's still missing quite a few items (belt, boots, gloves, etc). He was breathtakingly awesome.

Chris

Thanks Chris. I really appreciate that man. I'll be on the look out for those items your missing and if I see a good deal I'll holler at you.

[MIB41]

The masks look terrible, why they didn't go with a interchangable head I don't know. Steve Rogers looks like Dudley Do-Right.

I absolutely agree. Steve Rogers looks like Marty Feldman for Christ's sake. How hard is it to paint the pupils on correctly? And Round 2 thinks that is worth $30.00? REALLY? A reality check coming to their front door very soon. And what's up with the miniature hands again on Captain America? I kind of let that slide on the CA figure. But I didn't suspect they would error out on the gloves as well. The Spider-man one looks pretty good, although I think Michael did that figure a disservice by photographing him in a base line Hot Toys body. At first I thought that was CA's body and freaked when I noticed the neck. Then I read the review for clarity, but felt that undermined the praise he wanted to give the Captain Action body. At this price point, you better not have to customize anything. I'll buy the basic line CA and the basic costume for Spidey. But they can keep the deluxe costumes. Those masks needed much better craftsmanship and quality control out of the factories to justify that kind of mark up. And no, these are not Hot Toys figures. But there's one heck of gap in price to get to a Hot Toys figure. And there's plenty of room in there to gouge if your not delivering the goods. This does not even meet the 13 inch DC Direct quality. Disappointing. This is a big miss coming fresh out of the gate.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I like the Paker mask okay, and Spidey looks good overall. Cap is pretty disappointing from these pics. The Cap face mask is a bit oversized, but the Steve is such a bring down from the great prototype. I may just get the normal sets on these now.

Chris

[enyawd72]

My first impressions were I like the superhero masks and costumes a lot, they have that classic toy look I was hoping for. I'm not looking for realism from these. They're toys I would have expected to see 30 years ago, and that's just what I want. The Peter Parker looks pretty good to me also. Steve Rogers? Well, I don't know what happened there, but truthfully, i wasn't planning on using the secret identity masks anyway, so it really doesn't bother me.

That said, I think a hard plastic face mask ala Maskatron with an attached soft plastic hairpiece would eliminate the problem altogether with the oversized human masks.

[MIB41]

^^^ Great idea Enyawd72. I think that would have been a good fix. Similar in the method Castaway Toys used for their CA figures. And the more I've thought about it, I believe I am just going to buy the basic Spider-man costume first and see if that will fit decently on a Playing Mantis Captain Action. I have a few spares laying around. Now I know I would have to custom the plugs in the arms to accommodate the Spidey hands, but I'm not sure if I want to do even that. He would look more like the vintage CA without them. The only Captain Action I display is my vintage one and he easily beats the other two. So I don't see the necessity in shelling out more money for a lesser version. Especially with all of that bulky packaging.

[enyawd72]

^^^ Great idea Enyawd72. I think that would have been a good fix. Similar in the method Castaway Toys used for their CA figures. And the more I've thought about it, I believe I am just going to buy the basic Spider-man costume first and see if that will fit decently on a Playing Mantis Captain Action. I have a few spares laying around. Now I know I would have to custom the plugs in the arms to accommodate the Spidey hands, but I'm not sure if I want to do even that. He would look more like the vintage CA without them. The only Captain Action I display is my vintage one and he easily beats the other two. So I don't see the necessity in shelling out more money for a lesser version. Especially with all of that bulky packaging.

I hope you'll reconsider buying both...I know the CA guys really want these to be the best they can be, and I'm sure they'll be looking at consumer feedback and making improvements to future sets. That said, they really need these initial sets to sell well in order to continue making more. I'm going to buy these initial ones even if they're not perfect to ensure we get better ones down the road.