Excited by the prospect of the Captain Marvel Marvel Select figure being solicited, I preordered him, but then in the week he came in I had already stretched my entertainment budget significantly and my kind LCS let me put him aside. On inspection I wasn’t too sad about having to put him back, because he didn’t really “pop” in the box the way I had hoped.
When I finally had the dosh to pick him up, I splurged and grabbed the Marvel Select Iron Man as well, mostly because my Captain America and Thor were looking lonely. I’ll get to Shellhead in a moment, however, let’s stick to Mar-Vell for the moment.
This is a solid rendition of the character, but no one is any danger of having their socks knocked off here. I’m glad I didn’t let my first impression stop me from picking him up, because he is 
growing on me, but apart from the fact that he’s solidly made and stands easily on his own, he really looks more like a slightly bigger Marvel Legends figure than one at the Select "Standard”.
One thing that creates this impression is the bit of wash that’s been used on the red parts of his uniform, which gives his amazing musculature a bit too much definition in the form of black lines. He also has the ever handy waist swivel, which is cut right below the navel but a few millimetres above the start of his blue briefs, which makes them look a little like a saggy blue nappy.
Those are the two dodgy aspects in what is an otherwise solid figure – he’s well made and articulated and his headsculpt is particularly strong. I have no idea what his stand / prop is supposed to be, but it looks suitably spaceman like, and I do like the way the Select figures come with their groovy stands.
Unless, of course, they don’t work, and that brings us to Iron Man. I’ll get to the figure in a moment, but first to the #@!?@**!! base. Mr Stark is supposed to blasting off from something, so the base is some sort of platform and then a blast cloud that the figure locks into. Problem is, whatever I try, I can’t get the blast clouds to connect to the platform. There are pegs in the blast clouds that are meant to fit into holes in the platform and they. just. don’t. Grrrrrrrrrr. Thankfully I’ve been able to rest the clouds on the platform and still keep everything intact.
I didn’t pick this figure up the first time because the head just looked wrong, and I can see now that part of this is in the posing in-package – his head is posed facing up a bit awkwardly and when corrected this figure looks much better. I’m a fan of the classic armour and would much rather see a figure of that at this level of quality, but this is still full.
The clanger here: Iron Man’s hips aren’t so much ball-jointed as just….. balls. Have to give them a “What the….?” as they look reaaaalllly strange.
Together on the shelf with the more recent Select figures (I missed Hulk and need to pick him up) they do look quite good, but Ima gonna buy the Select sculptors an anatomy book:. Iron Man’s hip balls probably make Bucky feel a bit better about his thunder thighs – that is one weirdly shaped figure!
As for the future of this line, I skipped Anti-Venom this week (urgh) but am looking forward to Classic Marvel Girl and the Rachel variant, and the Sabretooth solicited this month – bring it on!
You can see more photos at Facebook and discuss this at the AFB Forum.
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