Up until very recently I didn't know very much at all about Ant-Man, and in a way that is why I am very excited for the movie as opposed to some of the prior Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies having no prior knowledge or expectations of the character. This review is being written (6th July 2015) before the release of the Movie so there will be no real reference to the film or storyline - this also means the review is spoiler free (other than the look of Ant-Man himself which has been revealed already within trailers and film posters).
Ant-Man is arriving from Diamond Select in two versions. The first, announced back at New York Comic Con 2014 is a standard release containing a masked Ant-Man with mini Ant-Man accessory. This was then followed up by the announcement in June 2015 of a Disney Store Exclusive Ant-Man. It is this exclusive that has arrived in stores first and that we are reviewing today. Ant-Man, in his Disney store exclusive guise, arrives in slimmed down Marvel Select packaging which may frustrate seasoned MOC collectors. It is then interesting that the standard release (without the Paul Rudd head) is the normal full size packaging. The side artwork has however survived on both and Ant-Man remains badged under the "Avengers Initiative" which you can speculate with all you want as to where he will go after his stand alone origin film On the rear is a blown up image of Ant-Man but none of the usual blurb about the movie or character. With no other figures being released from the Ant-Man movie there is also no advertising of other figures in the range. Talking Disney Exclusive First - Once unpacked you are greeted with Ant-Man with his Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) head attached. In the inner insert you will also find his masked head, two additional pairs of hands and a mini Ant-Man. It is worth mentioning that at the time of writing, my Ant-Man has a faulty helmeted head with part of the side completely missed at the factory. Disney Stores customer service is awesome and a replacement is forthcoming, but have pressed on with the review. I hope to update the gallery with additional images when the replacement arrives. Ant-Man stands dead on 7" high, so the same 1/10 scale as the other MCU figures released to date. The body sculpt is very good and includes the various panels and trim that you see on the movie costume. There is plenty of detail built into the suit like the neck and shoulder machinery and similar details on the wrist and across the belt. The masked head is really nice and is a decent representation of the new movie mask, with panels either side of the head that connect into breathing pipes that are part of the back of the figure. The alternative Paul Rudd head is not a bad likeness considering DST's track record on head sculpts. Yes, its not up to NECA standards - but they are certainly getting closer to emulating the results they got on the 2013 Wolverine. Paint wise the head is neat enough but I am really not sure if the chin is meant to be stubble or dirt? He also comes with 3 sets of hands. The first set are fists. The second set with open palms and the third set with a wider grip. With no accessories as such to hold, the hands seem to be purely for poses with the exception of the wider grip which can hold the masked head as though it were a helmet - a pose I kind of like. Paint across the rest of the figure, at first glance, looks great with the figure being made up of a predominantly black suit, red panels and silver trim. All the areas that needed to be painted are all neatly done, but sadly the factory seem to have been over generous with the red and silver paint. There is no bleeding of paint as such between areas, but there are messy splotts of paint which is disappointing. The majority of these are silver spots, but on my figure is a huge splodge of red on the left shoulder as you look at him. The paint defects are the first I have seen to this degree with a DST figure and I may have been unlucky, or was the factory rushing to fulfil getting this into Disney Stores ahead of the film (and standard figure) release? Articulation is the usual standard you expect from DST. The head rotates side to side and looks up and down, and is pretty easy to swap out. Ball jointed shoulders allow the arms to move out perpendicular to the body and then rotate around that axis, so they can even get almost vertical above his head. There is then an elbow joint and swivel and pivot wrists - with the hands all coming off and going back on very neatly with little effort or that feeling of "am I going to break this" The chest joint simply allows you to rotate the torso left or tight, it has no back or forth movement. If you wish the torso can rotate a full 360 degrees, but as the red chest panels are meant to line up with those on the stomach I sense that the chest joint wont get move too much by collectors. The hips are a two way joint so can move out to the side, or swing up, although not quiet enough to get into a sitting position or that Iron Man-esque fist punching floor pose we have seen in a couple of trailers. The knees are jointed, and the rockers on the ankle make him easy enough to stand. But what of the 2nd figure? Well this is a lovely touch, a 1.5" non-articulated Ant-Man. As you can imagine at this scale the sculpt is not as good as that on the main figure, but its pretty close with visible detail in the helmet and belt area. He is also pretty nicely painted, but like big brother also has a couple of silver spots in the wrong place from messy painting. The missed opportunity for me however with the whole figure is the lack of that signature DST base, which would have been brilliant as a miniaturised set like a shower plug or similar. If you look at the vanilla release (masked head) there is no difference at all to the Disney exclusive other than the thicker packaging. When I saw both figures I was unsure why anyone would buy the basic version, but if you are a MOC collector then I can see why the bigger size packaging would fit with a collection. For marking I am going to ignore the helmet issue which is a factory error and is being resolved by Disney without fuss. The sculpt and articulation are great, the paint not so much and it is those lazy paint drops and the missed opportunity of a diorama base that stop Ant-Man getting top marks. 4 out of 5 from me for both versions.
