Review : Marvel Legends Falcon (Captain America Civil War)

Pros : Headsculpt is a good likeness. Articulation is excellent, with flying poses easy to achieve (with a stand)

Cons : Redwing has little use. No Flight Stand included. Costume paintwork is basic and looks plasticy

While the key characters from Civil War were done via standard release, the secondary characters like Falcon, Bucky and Warmachine were dealt with as exclusives and in multi-packs.

After missing out on a figure from his Winter Soldier debut, the first MCU Falcon was a Walmart US exclusive and this thankfully translated to the UK and was on sale in Asda stores. It was also packed into a Disney Store 4-pack alongside Cap, Iron-Man and Warmachine. After sales in the UK in Asda stalled, the figure then turned up in The Entertainer stores for less than RRP. The figure would also be re-released in parts of the world as part of a "best of MCU" wave that repacked all the movie characters with the Giant-Man BAF.

The packaging makes no reference to being exclusive and follows the usual design principles with the scooped sides and side art-work. Round the back is an image of the figure and a short bio.

The figure unpacks by opening either side panel and slides out in a cardboard tray. The tray looks quite plain at first glance while the figure is boxed, but once out of the pack you can see a Captain America shield logo across the piece.

Falcon himself is sat in an inner tray with parts to his flight suit either side of his head. The two wings sit behind the tray.

Falcon carries a basic likeness to Anthony Mackie. The beard is in place as is the tight lipped expression. His eyes are covered with the flight goggles. These have a painted red lens, not opaque like we see on screen. The strap for this goes round the back of the head but is the same black colour as the hair so it does lose definition.

The rest of the body on Falcon is exceptionally well detailed with the various panels and straps well defined around that central torso and then down the arms and legs. The issue is that this is cast in grey plastic and then there is no further paint save the red trim and a couple of silver clasps. To reflect what was on screen the suit should be darker and a wash would have made that sculpt pop.

The flight suit has to be assembled, starting with the main silver back pack which locates into the two large holes on the back of the figure. There is then a recess in the backpack which is where Redwing sits when not deployed. The stored Redwing piece then slots into the top recess and lines up with the two central notches. Listen for the click when you put this in or you may see Redwing go walkies when handling the figure.

We then have the two wing, each of these are about 6" across. The wings are curved and will only fit into the backpack one way. There are two pegs on each wing which line up to the backpack and clip in place.

While these pegs hold them securely, it does mean the wings are not articulated in any way. It might have been nice to see the wings on a pivot or hinge to allow some movement.

There is a second Redwing accessory which is the deployed Redwing. This is cast in grey/silver plastic with a red stripe across the top. While it is a nice idea, the accessory has little value as it has no stand or clip to put this with you figure. The best you can do is lay Redwing at Falcon's feet - or the more adventurous might try to get it on some wire to simualte flying.

Falcon has 19 points of articulation and importantly includes both a torso joint and a waist swivel. This means you can bend the torso forward and twist the legs so that flight poses are plentiful. The head is on a ball joint and can look down when in flight posing. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulder, bicep swivel, double jointed arms and pivot wrists. The legs similar, with ball jointed hips, thigh swivel ,double jointed knees and ankle rockers.

If you do have Falcon standing then the ankles will do the job if you get the balance right - those wings will overbalance the figure in certain poses.

The figure itself also doesn't come with any kind of stand, and that is a shame for a figure who is more often seen flying in the movies. I would highly recommend adding in a flight stand as it does bring Falcon to life and there are loads of poses you can play with for your Civil War display.

My final grip before we sum up is the lack of accessories, and I would have loved to see the two pistols that Falcon uses in the movie. We do have firing hands, complete with trigger finger - so at some stage these could have been planned. It does mean if you can find a compatible pair of weapons, then Falcon can hold them.

If you had given Falcon a flight stand, two guns, poseable wings and a wash of black paint then this would have been a very high scoring figure. It would have also probably have been a deluxe release with an extra tenner on the RRP.

For what we get I am going to score Falcon a 3 out of 5. The missing wash is a shame and does make the figure look unpainted in some areas. I would have also have preffered they lost all the Redwing bits, and instead give the figure the guns he was probably going to come with or some articulation in the wings.