Day 365

Day 365 December 31^st

            Before getting to the meat of this post, I want to thank everyone who has been following my blog for this 365 stint.  I will NOT be ending at this post however…I have found I love this too much and have some great posts coming up to kick off 2012!

Review of Wave 42 Variant Eric Masterson as Thor

Getting back around to my review of wave 42 finally!  This is the variant of the wave with Eric Masterson in his look of Thor during the time that he was given Thors powers and mantle on Earth.

Packaging – This set has the Marvel box style with bigger window view of the minimates.  The package is red coloured like the rest of the wave.  On the sides is the control art for the minimates and the back has a group picture of the wave as well as bios for the characters in this pack.

Eric Masterson as Thor – I have been on a bit of a Thor kick this year so it makes me very happy to have this minimate.  Some might bemoan the fact that waaaay back in wave 16 the variant was ‘Bearded Thor’ and was in fact the Masterson Thor, but that one cannot even compare to how awesome this one is!  Where to start…well first off Mjolnir is the bigger one that is being used now and has the inscription on it.  The colours really look great, no bleeding, nice and bold and crisp.  The tampos look good and the facial expression is prefect!  Huge props to DST for making sure that the eyes on his face line up to the eye holes on his helmet!  As with the armoured Thor in the wave is one also has the big cape that comes off of shoulder pads.  This looks awesome and surprisingly does not limit the movement of the arms at all!  Another great part is the boots…while using the new design of a half boot to minimize the overall clunky-ness these ones also have sculpted straps on them – a great little detail that really helps elevate the overall look!  This is a great looking minimate all around and I am very happy that they choose to do it.

Kronan Stone Man – This is a great choice for an army builder in a mostly Thor centric wave since they are from a very early part in the Thor comics.  DST goes all out to give us some great looking Stone Men, using many of the new sculpted pieces that they have been working with for various Thing minimates.  They did a great job getting the head shape right and I like that they will not shy away from using fully sculpted heads when needed.  Many fans are pretty excited that the forearms/hands used here were ones that we originally saw on the prototype for one of the newer Thing minimates but the actual production piece did not have these new pieces.  I think these new ones look amazing and look forward to seeing them used on future Thing minimates!  The stone men come with a large and small blaster which is pretty comic accurate.  The one down fall to this minimate is the bulky arms pieces, which can line up to look really seamless but really can restrict the movement of the arms.  This is the catch 22 of the more bulky/sculpted pieces especially in the shoulder/arm and legs; they can sometimes hinder the awesome articulation and possibility of the minimate.  In the end I am happy to have an accurate looking character but it can be a bit frustrating if it limits the playability too much.

            I love this set, as I knew that I would given my Thor collection going right now.  DST really has done an amazing job designing these and I think these variations of Thor make for some great looking minimates!  Despite the issues with the movement restrictions of the Stone Man I still give it a mighty 5 out of 5!