Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Day 271


  Day 271 September 28th

Captain America army builder singles Review

            DST started making these army builders single pack dump cases back with the BSG Cylons and with the Marvel line they started with the Hammer Drones of Iron Man 2.  So far they are only doing them with the Marvel movie lines as they did Iron Man 2, Thor and now Captain America.  In this review I will look at what I got in my case of the Captain America ones.


Packaging – This is a bit two fold in this review as I will talk about the case as a whole as well as the packaging of the single minimates.  The case itself is a similar concept to all the other singles cases.  It holds three rows of minimates across and four rows deep.  It has a great shot of Captain America on the top which becomes the stand up portion of the box once opened.  The sides of the box have Caps shield and there is a shot of him running towards the viewer on the back.  Both the sides and back have the official Avengers Assemble logo which first appeared back on the Iron Man 2 singles as well as appearing on the Thor ones.  The bottom of the case has a nifty little piece of info, the numbering of the case.  My case is numbered to be 477 out of 500 cases produced.


            The minimates themselves are packaged in a single box with a display window to allow the customers to see who is in each one.  No blind box BS here and I for one appreciate that!  The sides of the box show artwork for each of the minimates available in the case and the back has a check box listing of the minimates with a little red dot sticker indicating which one is in the package.  I really like this packaging for the singles; it works very well and does not require a new package for each different minimate in the case.  Inside the box the minimate is packed in the standard plastic tray and if it is one that has an accessory it also has a spot in the tray.  On one of my Hydra Flame Trooper minimates the arms seemed to stick out of the tray, almost like it wasn’t big enough but the other one was fine.

 


Hydra Pilot – I am starting out the reviews with the minimate I got the most of in the case, the Hydra Pilot.  I thought it seemed a bit odd to get more of these then some of the other Hydra variants since we didn’t really see a bunch of these guys in action in the movie but honestly I really like the way they look so I can’t complain too much.  The design is so simple and sleek looking with only the belt piece and the glove cuffs being actual extra pieces.  The lines of the tampo are clean and crisp and the red of the Hydra logo on the left arm really looks great!  The pilots all come with the same gun that came with the Red Skull in the regular 2-pack release which makes sense but with no holster it may not get used too much by me.  I really do like the looks of these minimates and am already thinking about finding a few more to cannibalize for custom ideas!





Hydra Soldier – These were my next most plentiful minimates in the case.  The neck piece of the uniform, the chest straps/back power pack and belt/skirt are all one continuous piece which really makes for a seamless look to the uniform.  I really like the facial expression on these guys, much more angry looking and it suits their henchmen status.  Much like the pilots the details are nice and clean and the Hydra logo on the belt and left arm look great!  All of mine had good clean lines for the red colours too which was great to see!  They come with a smaller rifle type weapon, obviously not a standard rifle but anyone who has seem the movie will understand the reasoning there, and it looks good when they are holding it.




Hydra Infantry – These are the same as the Hydra soldiers that came packed with the variant in the regular movie wave 2-pack releases.  Aside from the head and helmet the rest of the costume is shared with the Hydra Soldier also in this case.  I love the look of these guys and how well the green looks in the costume.  Much nicer than the comic version which I found was almost too green this much darker tone really works for me.  The helmet piece seems a bit bulky but still looks good and accurately covers what it needs to cover.  I am sure customizers will look at that piece if working on a Dr Midnight custom, for some reason it seems to make me thing of that.  These guys come with the big powerful blasting guns from the movie although they do seem a bit too large and almost clumsy looking for them to hold nicely.




Hydra Flame Trooper – This is another Hydra minimate that is released elsewhere as it is part of the Toys R Us wave of Captain America movie minimates.  These guys are a lot of fun as they have a huge chest piece that covers down past the waist and the huge flame throwing cannons on the arms!  All this bulk actually works for these guys as it is easy to imagine that to carry that kind of gear you would be pretty bulked up.  They have the same helmet piece as the Infantry and their face under that is fully covered like the pilot, which again makes total sense and is source accurate.  The one other difference is the fact that these guys have a newly sculpted upper leg piece which adds some more of an armoured look to their uniform.



Red Skull in Hydra uniform – I can honestly say I do not recall the Red Skull wearing this in the movie, but none the less it makes for a great looking minimate!  It is more of a military dress style uniform than the regular soldiers in the release, it has none of the chest straps, instead it has a separate neck/collar piece and the chest torso has more of a suit looking tampo on it.  This Red Skull has a more serious expression on his face when compared to the regular 2-pack release and I think DST did a great job with it!  As with the previous release this one also comes with the same style pistol, which only makes sense.

Much like the previous army builder dump cases I think this is pure win!  The character selection is fantastic and they look amazing!  All the details and paint are crisp and clean and it is nice to get a big army of bad guys in one shot!  I would gladly give this set a 5 out of 5 as it is fantastic!  If you don’t have it go get it!



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