Commander Steve Rogers

Height: 11cm to top of head.

Articulation: 28 points overall - universal joint neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, bicep swivel, hinge elbow, swivel wrist; mid-torso ball-joint; swivel waist; 7 points each leg: ball-joint hip, thigh swivel, double-jointed knee, calf swivel, universal jointed ankle.

Colors: Molded dark blue, black, brown and fleshtone. Painted white, red, silver, brown, and yellow. Black paint wash.

Accessories: Rifle, Pistol, Stand.

Release Data: Released Fall 2011 at an MSRP of $7.99.

Author: RAC

(more...)


Steve Rogers was changed into the perfect human specimen by the super soldier serum. He was the first to take on the identity of Captain America. Blessed with superhuman abilities and an indestructible shield, he protects the people of the world as the Director of SHIELD. and commander of the Secret Avengers.

Of course, he doesn't actually have the shield in this incarnation, since he let Bucky keep the shield and title. (Right up until he died. Or actually, "died." Oh, who even cares?) Naturally, the packaging of this figure specifically lists him as Steve Rogers: Captain America. Possibly with good reason: even though it's presumably a promotion, somehow "Commander Steve" doesn't really sound like an upgrade from "Captain America."


The Figure

The outfit is a riff on the SHIELD uniform with its dark blue and white, and specifically on Nick Fury's uniform, hence the harness. The harness, belt, gloves and leggings are brown leather here, however- I suspect to play up Captain America's World War II origins just a bit. The white is now represented on the big star on Steve's chest and shoulders and the stripes that connect them. And because he's still Captain America and you've gotta get some red in there, he's got red running down the side of each leg.

But let's go back to the harness a second. Overall this is a fairly simple design, and in terms of costume design, simple is generally good. But the harness may be a bit oversimplified in that it doesn't actually do anything. It's just an H-shaped leather piece that wraps around Commander Steve's back. Usually such a piece would support a holster, and Steve does indeed have a pistol. But I cannot find a single piece of art where there's a holster attached to this harness, so it's purely decorative. As are the loops on the belt, which do... what, precisely? The only military belt I can find that is even remotely similar is a sword belt, which would have a loop on one side, and not all those little buckles. And then there's the spats. Military issue leggings were not little ribbed leather leg-corsets with big buckles for effect. They were canvas and they laced- they didn't particularly change between World Wars I and II. (I'd... kinda advise against searching "leather spats" at work, by the way.) The fingerless gloves I can't say too much against- they look decent and have buckles on the sides to match the boots. This is the kind of result you'd get from telling a talented designer to make the accessories look "World War Twoish" and have them not use any reference material to get there.

If the goggles do nothing as Rainier Wolfcastle said, then this costume is goggles.

Having critiqued the design itself, it's executed pretty nicely here. Everything is well sculpted, and while I don't think Steve's likeness is based on anyone particular, it's a pretty good face and right for the character. He's also more broad-shouldered than most of my Marvel Universe figures, which makes sense. In general his physique is just plausible enough, muscular without being bulky in the way that superheroes tend to be. He looks like he could still move plenty fast if he needed to. The paint's a little shaky, particularly the white stripes on dark blue plastic, but that's hard to get right. A bigger problem, unique to my figure, is the paint on the hair being a little sloppy- Steve has a blond right ear.

The articulation uses the newest Marvel Universe standard, which with some small exceptions works very well. The neck is a universal joint, which provides great front-to-back tilt but no side-to-side tilt. Unlike some earlier MU figures, the joint doesn't turn to adjust the angle of tilt. The arms raise to well above shoulder level. The bicep swivel has no restrictions, though of course the pattern on the torso and arms means there is a "correct" default position, but of course that's true of most action figures. The elbow joints are single hinges, but they've been very well sculpted and  the forearms can close in nearly as tightly to the upper-arm as a real human forearm can. They're some of the best single joints I've seen on a humanoid figure. The wrists are swivels, making me wonder if Dr. Strange's wrist joints were a one-off. I hope not!

The torso joint does significantly better front-to-back than side-to-side, which is typical. Steve's got both a torso joint and a waist, which I like. The belt tends to ride up, but it doesn't take much to fix. The ball-joints for the hips are a little shallow- if you make them go as far as you think they ought to go, they tend to pop off. I suspect it'd be possible to deepen them, but I don't really have the skills for that. The swivel range for the hips is good though, getting a full 90 degrees and letting Steve sit very naturally if you have anything for him to sit on. The thigh swivels work very well as well, meaning he can cross his legs while sitting, even. The knees get a fairly tight V, not the best I've seen but plenty good. Because Steve uses the new-style rocker ankles he has a calf-swivel to replace the universal joint in the old MU foot. It verges on too many joints, which is a condition I'm loath to admit exists: you can end up turning the whole middle of the leg when all you want is to move one joint or another. And the leggings kill a lot of the range of the new rocker joint- you don't get a lot of front-to-back or side-to-side tilt. I think the new model of MU articulation can be made to work very well, but there's a few bugs to work out.

Accessories

-Rifle

It's an M16 of some sort with the optional grenade launcher- though the front half of the gun is a lot more square than I associate with the M16 family. Might be an M16A4 or, quite possibly, it's just made the hell up like all the other vaguely Armyish flourishes on Commander Steve. On the other hand, it fits his grip very well, and thanks to the range of his elbows he can hold it pretty convincingly and naturally. Impressive!


-Pistol

Identifying handguns can be the most difficult part of a review, especially if you have a sneaking hunch there are no exact real-world matches to the piece you're looking at. My best bet is the Springfield Armory XD Tactical, which has a fair number of details in common with this- though it's not of course an exact match. It fits very snugly in either hand, though Steve can't actually get his finger through the trigger-guard.

-Stand

The MU stand is decent enough. It's a black plate like the GI Joe stands, but larger since there's much more size variation in MU. Steve's feet plug onto it firmly. My stand says "Commander Rogers," but I've heard of some that say "Captain America" instead. Hasbro's been doing that a lot lately- my Scarlet Spider came with a "Spider-Man" stand, and some Namors say "Sub-Mariner," and some say "Imperius Rex." My heart goes out to you, completists!


Closing Remarks

I really like Commander Steve- he's kind of low-key for a superhero figure, and the simplicity works significantly in the toy's favor. It's got a few personality quirks but does much, much more right than it does wrong. It's an Excellent figure.

-RAC