The Star Spangled Man, for me, is a must in any Marvel collection and more so in a collection that focuses on the movie universe. This is the first Cap figure released by Diamond Select in 2011 and is based on his WW2 appearance from The First Avenger As with most DST Marvel Movie figures this release is already well past its RRP of £20 and commands in the region of £40-£50 packaged on the secondary market (April 2015). A word of caution that this is one of the few DST Marvel figures that is being released in the far east as knock off versions and check when you are buying on eBay. If the price is too good, and the location is in the far east, this is likely a knock off and quality will be questionable. Cap comes packaged in the usual Select oversize packaging and included with the figure are his iconic shield, a hand gun and half of a diorama base piece - the second half of which comes with his counter part figure from the movie, Red Skull Once you get Cap out of the box, the sculpt on his WW2 gear is pretty impressive with different textures across the chest piece and a variety of buckles and straps. He does suffer a bit in terms of how the elbows have been tackled and the boots are a bit unwieldy, these are more articulation issues more on this later. The head sculpt is "enough" for you to know its Steve Rogers, but as with a lot of Human Sculpts from DST, its a bit soft and flat of any definition and detail. The hood is OK, but again a bit plain. Paint apps on mine are a bit messy, with some bleed on the stomach area straps. The helmet on mine is also missing one of the wings (which look like transfer rather than paint) on one side. There are some nice details on either shoulder and the chest star is OK. Articulation is what really lets this figure down in my opinion. I never expect a massively articulated figure from Diamond as I prefer the figure to look right. In Cap's case the articulation in the elbows has led to a rather odd, unnatural looking joint and the joint isnt painted so it stands out. The boots are also missing ankle rockers so Cap never seems to stand properly as his feet cant be placed flat to the floor. The Shield is nice, but is a bit too much of a tight fit to go over his arm, and mine broke when I first put it on. When in place it does thank fully hide the elbow issues. The Gun is what it is and fits snugly in Cap's hand or indeed in its leg holster. You wont get any significant action poses out of Captain, but once posed with his shield he does look pretty good. Although this was the right figure for the film, it is a shame that Cap has never been made in his modern outfit as either seen in Avengers or the tweaked Age of Ultron version. That leaves Avengers fans either using this version, or the stealth suit from Winter Soldier in an Avengers line up The base piece doesn't really add a great deal to this figure. Rather than be a background piece it is a metal base that joins up with the Red Skull's piece to make a base for both figures. Being practically flat it is easily lost in any cabinet and I have discarded mine to the storage box for now. Don't get me wrong, Captain is a decent figure. But due to the issues I have encountered I have scraped him in as a 3 out of 5, and I would recommend the Winter Soldier Stealth Suit as a better figure and of course you would expect an updated Steve Rogers next year when Civil War is released.
