Review : Captain America (Civil War)
Diamond Select Marvel Cinematic Universe
Wave/Series : Civil War
Released : August (US) / September (UK) 2016
Price : £19.99
Prior to this this release, we had been given two different Captain America figure from his first two movies in Diamond's Movie Select range. The first World War 2 release was a relatively early figure for the range, but still stands up well today and matches his look from the first movie. The decision was made to skip Avengers in 2012 in lieu of other characters like Hulk and Hawkeye, so the next Cap was from Winter Soldier - and here they went with the Stealth Suit, with a battle-damaged unmasked variant also released via Disney store. Come Age of Ultron and again Cap was skipped, and that has left Avengers team builders left without a remotely screen accurate cap to lead them. So we are now at 2016 and with Civil War, Cap is back as the lead figure - and finally collectors of the MCU Select figures have the Captain America they deserve - and arguably one of the finest released to date across the range.
Like Bucky and Iron-Man, Cap arrives in the bulky blister pack with the left hand panel in a variating blue with the Captain America character name in bold white font with the Marvel logo up top and the Civil War at the base. Shooting off this panel on the front is the triangular flash that contains a head and shoulder action shot of Cap and his shield.
The side panel wraps round to the left hand spine and a stunning image of Cap from the movie, but stylised to look painted rather than a direct photograph and these panels alone look awesome when lined up on a display alone, or with other MCU packaging.
Round the back and all three Civil War releases share the same text overview of the movie, and to the side of this is a shot of the Cap figure himself. Under this sits an "also available" piece with images of Iron-Man and Winter Soldier.
Back around to the front and you will see Cap in the large blister window and the space of this window is nicely filled around Cap with two sets of spare hands and a large metallic Avengers "A" logo - more on these a bit later.
Out of the box and Cap stands 7 1/4 inches high - exactly the same as his Winter Soldier release, and consistent with Chris Evan's on screen height. Although Cap is masked on this figure, you can spot the Evans likeness from just the nose downwards. It is a huge step on from the Evans sculpts we have seen on the previous two figures, and for me is on par with that wonderful Hugh Jackman sculpt on Wolverine from a couple of years back.
What also helps with the sculpt is the paint detail. Not only is cap skin-tone spot on, it also has some subtle washing to bring out the sculpt details. The lips are neat and not overly blushed and the eyes are blue and intense behind that mask. The mask is also well sculpted and painted, with that silver A logo on the forehead and the silver wings down either side. At first I thought I had some paint splodge on these wings, but it turns out its a painted rivet and exactly where it should be. The helmet moves down into brown leather straps with painted silver buckle.
Moving down and into the costume, and this two is a full re-work from previous suits - there is no re use on this figure despite te temptation to do so from the Stealth Suit at least. The top chest section centre piece is the silver star, and from this the suit runs outward with sculpted lines and panels rather than simply relying on paint detail. Around this are the shoulder straps, again in brown leather and with silver buckle detail. The blue isn't washed as such on the suit, but a darker shade is used for contrast on the Cap's under-suit around the neck and around the star to make that pop even more.
This same dark blue is used subtly on the arms in a couple of areas, as is the brown leather strapping. The arms are crowned at each shoulder with a red and silver Avengers logo. I thought at first this is decal, but it has a relief to it that I am still not sure if this is actually part of the sculpt and hand painted?
The hands on Cap are brown finger-less gloves and he comes with the gripping set fitted. These two have a lot of sculpted detail, with a ribbed section to the back of the hand and cut outs for each knuckle which is then painted in the skin tone. They are also washed to bring out the depth and my only minor grips is that this brown wash is also used on the fingers and here it makes them look dirty - although I guess while fighting Iron-Man in that Soviet bunker that is exactly what Cap's hands would be.
The best bit on the entire figure for me is the midriff where the red and white comes in on the costume. Diamond have resisted the temptation to make this bright and shiny - something that both Figuarts and Hasbro did with their Civil War Cap. Instead this centre section is muted and the white dirty and used, again giving the Cap some character. Within each muted white panel is some more washing that brings out even more depth.
The belt, like the Winter Soldier Cap, is loose to the figure and you can see why when we start to look at the articulation. This belt is a brown leather matt colour and with a brushed silver buckle - again not bright and shiny, but dull and world worn.
The legs continue the detail started in the upper areas, although here you can now see a movement to reflect real cloth not armour of sorts. The legs are therefore sculpted more with fold and ruffles of cloth and not clean lines - building to a real stuffing of the trousers into the top of Cap's military boots. These boots are painted a darker brown and are sculpted with three straps round to the side where there are well defined and painted buckles.
Lets look at the Shield next, always an import part to any Captain America figure. The shield is also not a re-use and has been shrunk down since the Winter Soldier figure by a good half inch to 2 1/2 inch across. The shield had never bothered me before on the two previous releases, but not you see the proportions of this one to the figure then the WW2 and WS versions now look over-sized.
The shield is a high gloss finish, particularly the red which is even glossier than the Mk46 armour on Iron-Man. Each ring is neatly painted and finishes with the blue inner circle and five pointed silver star.
The detail continues round the back with a brushed silver (vibranium) reverse and then two sculpted straps which then turn into flexible straps for Cap. At first I struggled with getting the shield to fit snugly on the arm - and the key is to use the flat hands for the shield poses on whichever arm you see fit. These flat palms swap in and out neatly and allow the shield straps to slide into place and far enough up Cap's arm to keep it tight in position.
The other set of hands are the fists, and sadly the size issue we had with Bucky continues here and both fists look tiny to the body.
Articulation now, and so far the Civil War range has seen impressive articulation on Bucky, and not so impressive on Iron-Man. I am happy to say that Cap actually surpasses Bucky and is one of the best articulated Select figures I have ever owned or reviewed.
We start with a ball jointed head, with the ball also on a pivot so the head can rotate, tilt and look up and down - so much so that Cap can actually look at his feet with his chin touching the chest of his suit.
The arms are a standard ball jointed shoulder with the arms reaching out to the side to a full 90 degrees and then of course they rotate so can be raised up above Cap's head, or any combination in between. The elbows also give a full 90 degree bend, and with a rotation built in too. The hands are pegs but with a hinge between peg and hand and this allows the hand to bend also nearly 90 degrees - regardless of which hand combination is in place.
Unlike the previous Cap, there is now a torso joint that is neatly hidden where the red & white midriff meets the upper armour. This opens Cap up to a lot of action poses, particularly throwing his shield of leaning in to strike an opponent. The waist is then also jointed to rotate, hidden by that flexible belt, adding more movement to the torso.
The legs remain the T-joint hinge used on most Selects. This means Cap, like Bucky, can do the splits but sadly thanks to the sculpted rolls in the trousers they are blocked from getting much past half way to a sitting position. That being said they move far enough to work with the knees to allow Cap to adopt some kneeling and sliding action poses, and even to make him look like he is jumping with an appropriate stand. The knees are double-jointed and can be bent fully past 90 degrees, with the joint cleverly built into a knee pad of the suit. And if you need it there is also a thigh swivel to adjust the legs and therefore feet out or inward to the body.
The figure ends with rockers on the ankles, hidden in a split in the boot, to allow you to plan the feet securely in a number of poses and keep Cap standing. My one issue with all this articulation is some rubbing paint on the hands in particular, and rubbing where the top of the legs start hitting the torso when they are bent.
Like all the Civil War figures Cap comes with that off-white Avengers facility backdrop. This comes complete and works nicely on its own, although like the Iron-Man figure it does have a hole in the face of the wall. Once assembled, using the clips provided in a baggie with your Diamond Select fold out brochure, all three bases link in to make a pretty impressive back drop. And it is here that the silver Avengers A comes into play as this slots into the corresponding holes on the Cap and Iron-Man base.
It does however become apparent at this point with the base fully built that it needs a further left hand piece to finish it off. What Diamond originally had planned for this 4th piece is not known, but you can finish off your diorama by purchasing a further Winter Soldier and reversing the base - or waiting for the upcoming release of the unmasked Captain America, and we will be taking a good look at this figure when it hits stores.
I stand by my opening statement at this point that Captain America Civil War is the finest Marvel Cinematic figure released by Diamond to date. As much as I love Ant-Man, Falcon or the previous king of the pile, Wolverine, this Cap blows all of them way in terms of sculpt, painting and articulation.
I considered if this Cap was good enough to be the 2nd ever recipient of our 5* rating - but it is probably not quite there. If they could replicate all of this plus a new Evans head sculpt for the Disney version, then that would clinch a 5*, but it looks like the Disney Store version is only getting a recycled Winter Soldier unmasked head. Captain America therefore walks away with a 5 out of 5 and will take some beating to the title of best Select Movie figure (although Dr Strange is already looking impressive).
