Blade Battle Hogun

(Thor: The Mighty Avenger)

Height: 10.5cm to top of head.

Articulation: 24 points total- ball-jointed neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal-joint elbow, swivel wrist; mid-torso ball joint; 6 points each leg: universal-joint hip, double-joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded black; Painted dark blue, black, silver, gold, fleshtone and copper.

Accessories: Mace, Axe with detachable blades.

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

Author: RAC

(more...)


Hogun the Grim rarely smiles, and never laughs. He finds his own quiet joy in victory over the enemies of Asgard, but he leaves the celebration to Volstagg and Fandral. His skill at hand-to-hand fighting makes him an invaluable comrade in arms to the mighty Thor.

Hogun the Grim has changed from his comic incarnation a bit less perhaps than Volstagg- the most notable visual differences are that he's lost his horned Genghis Khan hat and his mustache. Supposedly he was originally inspired by Charles Bronson, and I guess I can see it in terms of facial features. But if so he's Charles Bronson playing Genghis Khan. Here, shockingly, they took a character with Asian design influences and cast an actual Asian actor! (Somewhere, M. Night Shyamalan is scratching his head in confusion.)

I like Tadanobu Asano pretty well as Hogun. (And interestingly, Asano has played Genghis Khan.) He's probably the least explored of Thor's friends in the film, but in all honesty it's hard to work with 'taciturn' as a character trait in an action movie- you can't particularly stop and note that a character is not talking.


The Figure

 The likeness to Asano is iffy; his jaw seems slightly more square than the figure's and the eyes seem a bit off. Other than that, it's a nice looking figure, with black Asian-influenced armor with silver trim and a gold beaded belt. Over this is a short black leather cape, slung over his right shoulder- the texture on that is very nicely done. There are also gold stitches painted onto the cape, sleeves and trousers. The cape excepted, the cloth parts of his outfit are dark blue, a blue so deep you have to be in particularly good lighting to see it.  Looking at Hogun makes me realize that, nice as it is, Volstagg's design is probably the least distinguishing of the three- they're counting on his role as The Fat Guy to make him stand out. Fandral looks Dashing, and Hogun looks Grim.

The ball-joint neck is a swivel- it does nothing else. The shoulders are limited, only swinging about 45 degrees out from the body. Any further would be stopped by the cape on the right side anyway. Swivel is restricted to the front 90 degrees on that side by what the cape will allow as well, but the left swivels unimpeded. It's not quite as restrictive as it looks, however; the cape is a soft enough plastic to be moderately flexible. You'll need to pop his head off if you want it off, however. The elbows get ninety degrees bend, barely, and natural human swivel range, and the wrists get full swivel.
 
The torso joint is really great- it bends very far to the front or to either side, but defaults to tilted all the way back. The small belt/armor skirt does get caught in the legs for some poses, but doesn't interfere with anything, strictly speaking. The leg armor is molded into the leg, and does limit the hip range- he can only swing his leg about 45 degrees straight forward. That's roughly equal to Thor. Different angles work a bit better here, just like they did with Thor. The boots are also very heavy and don't do the knees any favors; they only close to a loose V. The ankle is similarly restricted, with almost no tilt but unlimited swivel. It's a nice-looking figure but has a lot of minor limits on its articulation that add up. I have a difficult time getting him to stand up at all because of the largely inflexible ankles, and even more so getting him to stand up straight. I wish Thor figures came with stands like Iron Man 2 figures did...


Accessories

-Mace

In the movie, this mace had a cute trick: the spikes popped out of it when it came time to use the weapon. They're permanently popped here, and not as pronounced or as dangerous-looking, for safety reasons I'm sure. The bigger issue is that the handle is very, very, very soft plastic. It has the consistency of an undercooked noodle. Hogun's hands are slightly angled and have a very tight grip- it's difficult to get the mace seated, but it definitely stays once you do. Pity it looks a bit droopy sometimes.


-Axe

It's the best-looking, least-stupid extra weapon from any of my Thor figures to date. It's a large, ornate double-bladed battle-axe, and I swear it was specifically designed with Mongolian design motifs in mind. It looks really nice, especially by the standards of goofy oversized movie toy accessories. It fits in either of Hogun's hands, but the handgrip is so low and his hands so small that leverage works against it and tries to force it out of his grip sometimes. He can grip it one notch higher, but I'm a bit concerned about stretching out his hands. Still, it's definitely 100 times less dumb-looking in this form than any of the others' new weapons.

But this is the Action Feature accessory, so that's not all! The two halves of the blade pop off, using a Miyake Joint-style connection (sadly, they're not quite compatible) to become a pair of short bladed, knuckle-dagger type weapons. These fit the hands quite snugly if you arrange them so that his knuckles slide between the two halves of the connector. I like the look of them as well- this is definitely my favorite of the bonus weapons, looks good in both forms, and is the only one I'd be even slightly tempted to use in regular display.

Incidentally, there's one odd thing about all three of the Warriors Three's extra weapons: they all have pegs as though they could stow on a standard Hasbro Back Socket, but none of the figures have that socket. That doesn't bug me with the others, but I'd be tempted to store this on Hogun's back. Particularly the unused axe handle, when he's using the knives. The axe handle also doesn't make a very convincing mace without the blades attached, which strikes me as a missed opportunity.


Closing Remarks

Interesting how the ups and downs go with these figures. Hogun has some severe restrictions on his articulation, but he looks great, and he has the best made-up accessory of the lot, the only one not destined for an instant one-way trip to a junk drawer. He's Good.

-RAC