In 2021 we saw Sam Wilson take up the mantle of Captain America following the events of Avengers: Endgame and of the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. To mark these important events in the MCU, the Marvel Legends team put together a special Captain America 2-pack bringing us tweaked figures of both the Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson Captain Americas into a single release. The set was released in early 2022 as a general 2-pack release across all Marvel Legends stockists, with a UK RRP of £49.99.
The set follows the usual design principles for a Marvel Legends double pack with the same scooped sides as the standard line but with a wider profile and no hanging tab at the top. The front window displays the two figures with the Marvel Legends at the top and the two MCU logo's at the bottom underneath their respective Captain America.
The side art has Sam Wilson on the right and Steve Rogers on the left, and these same art panels repeat on the rear of the box with a central strip then turned over to some background information. It is interesting that Sam Wilson comes first in this write-up representing the future of the Captain America legacy rather than the longer serving and original Steve Rogers Cap.
"Wielding the shield and new wings from Wakana, Sam Wilson takes up the mantle of Captain America to bring hope to an uncertain world."
"Shaken by the events of Infinity War, Steve Rogers takes up the shield and the mantle of Captain America once more to face Thanos."
Out of the box and our figures are inserted, without any twist ties, into the inner tray and this sits into a cardboard backing tray with a steel blue finish and imprinted with the Captain America shield logo.
I am going to start with Steve Rogers and he is designed in the Captain America suit we see him in during the events and in particular the finale of Avengers: Endgame from 2019. The body is cast predominantly in the blue base colour for the suit which features the fish scale armour texturing across the chest around the central star emblem. Around this, we have the leather brown straps with silver buckle details and a similar application for the belt which does also feature some lighter brown trim for a two-tone finish. The belt is added as an individual piece on the figure so it does move with the articulation.
The centre torso is painted in white with the red stripes and the white finish is neat and tidy with no coverage issues from the coloured plastic beneath. Red is also used sparingly on the arms for a trim under the shoulders and around the wrists - and again on the legs with a broader panel on the side of the thighs. The costume is finished with cast brown boots with no other paint apps despite the sculpted straps and buckles. There is no weathering or distressing of the costume, so this is obviously Cap before the final battle with Thanos.
Steve proportionally looks the part but remains a little undersized when lined up with his peers such as Thor and Iron-Man from the same Endgame finale.
This is not a new Captain America Steve Rogers figure and is a direct re-pack of the 2019 'Worthy' Captain America exclusive - a good move by Hasbro as that figure did have some availability issues. The suit on the new release is lighter, potentially as it represents Cap before the battle. Other than this the figures are identical.
* 2022 Captain America on the left, 2019 'Worthy' Captain America on the right
The Steve Rogers figure features both masked and unmasked heads - as also released as part of the 'Worthy' Captain America release. This is perhaps the best Chris Evans likeness in the Marvel Legends MCU lineup. Both heads use the photo-real face application across the eyes and mouth with the hair utilising two similar shades of brown to bring out the sculptural detail and add some depth and realism.
Steve comes with his shield as is customary and this is the larger shield accessory with the two inner straps. It is cast in silver with the red and blue pained on the front and the brown leather straps added as glued additional parts on the reverse. The colours are bright and well defined and the whole shield does have a glossy finish overall.
With this being the Endgame Captain America and having not gone down the route in the 2019 release, this was a perfect opportunity to do the broken shield and allow us to finally line up Cap as we see him at that pivotal moment of the battle with Thanos. Unfortunately, the Hasbro team felt otherwise.
The shield fits semi-well over the left arm with the gripping hand holding the smaller of the two straps. The left arm is slightly trickier due to the bulk of the clenched fist. The easiest option is to pop off the hand, engage the shield, and add the hand back on again. Cap features no other hand options in this set, nor is Mjolnir included as it was with the 2019 release.
Steve Rogers has 21 points of articulation across a slightly older body format that still features pinned double joint knees and elbows and doesn't feature some of the newer innovations like the dual joint neck - although thankfully the pivot joint on this figures neck is hidden well under the jawline of the head.
Every joint feels tough and secure, with ratcheted engineering where you would expect and an ability to get Cap into a number of dynamic and expressive poses including the ability to kneel. Our figure did arrive with frozen ankle rockers but they were soon eased with a touch of warm water.
Moving now over to our Sam Wilson figure, and he is presented in his Wakandan Captain America suit that premiered at the end of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier on Disney+. Like the Steve Rogers figure, the body is cast mainly in the blue base plastic with the white, silver and red all added as paint applications. The white is crisp on the torso with bright red and neat central lines, but then murky in the finish on the arms & legs where the coverage over the blue is not sufficient.
The other red and silver painted sections are rough in places - most notably around the red and silver of the gauntlets, gloves, and boots where there are incorrectly painted sections and evidence of paint bleed. The costume decor is finished with some star logo's on either shoulder, and sadly these two are not painted particularly well and a decal application considering the size may have been a better choice?
Like Steve, Sam is well proportioned and a good likeness to the onscreen costume and props.
The wingsuit backpack is included as an individual part within the set and forms part of the standalone figure by plugging into the socket on the rear of the figure. The backpack is cast in silver with some painted blue trim and is relatively non-descript in detailing and finish.
Sam Wilson is also a re-release figure, a repack into this set of the 2021 Disney+ wave Sam Wilson - and while on the surface the two figures are identical there are a couple of decor updates including more silver trim on the belt and trousers and a wider white panel around the back of the figure just above the socket for the wing-suit. The new figure also presents with a slightly darker tone of red across the body.
While this does correct a couple of issues vs the onscreen costume but not substantially enough to warrant double-dipping if you already have the existing Sam Wilson Captain America.
* 2022 Captain America on the left, 2021 Captain America on the right
We do get the same head as the 2021 release with the wrapped white flight hood around the red lensed goggles. The face underneath uses the photo-real application for the mouth and facial hair and the whole thing lines up neatly with the neck section and the suit underneath.
There is an alternative head included, that of an unmasked Sam Wilson. This is a good, if not strong, likeness to Anthony Mackie and also utilised the photo-real print to enhance the realism of the base sculpt.
The heads are tricky to swap over, with quite a bit of resistance from the neck peg. The unmasked head also looks a little out of place on the body in terms of how it transitions from the suit to the head - an issue seen previously when Iron-Man figures had a Tony Stark head and the neck looked out of place without a helmet. Sam doesn't actually unmask in this suit (from memory, please correct me if I am wrong) and if he did there should be some element of the hood and goggles around his neck - which is perhaps a piece that is missing to bridge that gap?
Sam gets a slightly better deal in terms of accessories than Steve and features a second pair of clenched fist hands. These are new to this release as the original 2021 figure only came with the two splayed hands, with that left hand being problematic for posing as it felt like Sam had to have his arm out, telling people to calm down? Like the head, I found the swap out of the hands a lot tougher than usual with so much resistance I felt I was going to snap them the first time I tried to take them off.
We also get Sam's shield, and this is also the same as the 2021 release albeit in a darker red trim. It is a different shield to Steve's with more ridges in the central silver band and a slightly smaller overall diameter. it is constructed in the same way, cast in silver with painted red & blue and an inserted strap in brown.
I find it harder to have Sam hold the shield than Steve as Sam does not feature a gripping right hand to hold that lower strap, and the clenched fists are too wide for the straps. Again for a solid grip, you will need to pop off the hands - place the shield in situ - then pop the hands back on again. This sounds easy in principle, but as the hands are so tight to start with it gets a little fiddly trying to get enough force to pop them back in while working around the shield.
While not included with the set, Sam Wilson Captain America is fully compatible with the build-a- wingsuit piece from the first Disney+ wave in 2021. The wings replace the backpack included and slot into the hole in the rear of the figure. Sam can support these well enough once worn, but with only a single hole connection they can become lopsided a bit too easily.
There was an opportunity here to allow the shield to connect to the wingsuit, after all a socket is left in the unfurled wings to connect them to the display stand. Again, this opportunity was not explored and it is a shame that after all those times we see first Steve, and now Sam, carry the shield on their back - the only MCU figure able to do that to date is Red Guardian?
* wingsuit is not included in this release
As a new release, Sam does feature a pinless body and retains the full suit of articulation across 20 points of movement on the body. We have double join knees and elbows as well as supporting bicep/thigh swivels and shoulder & hip ball joints. The torso features a waist swivel and ab crunch and the neck is jointed top and bottom although the movement at the base is very restricted.
Sam poses really well including the ability to kneel, take up dynamic action stances - with or without the shield - and can support some level of flight posing with the wings and a suitable flight stand. The only issue I found is the same as the original Sam Wilson in that there is a ridge on the foot which can stick as it sits higher than the gap the ankle rocker is designed to move within. This stops the feet from pivoting to a flat stance and you will have to force the foot to go further for Sam to stand correctly - and by doing so you will see on the front of the foot where the parts meet you will start to see wear and tear.
I felt this Captain America set was a slightly odd choice when it was announced considering we had seen both figures on the pegs within the last 3-years (last year when it came to Sam) and neither figure had the upgrades we were perhaps crying out for like the broken Endgame shield fo Steve. And for Sam to have the ability to wear the shield on his back - with or without the wingsuit. Essentially this is perhaps a catch-up or collection-filler set for anyone missing the Endgame Steve Rogers in particular. I do not feel there is enough new parts to tease in collectors who already own both figures, even with the inclusion of that new Sam Wilson head sculpt.
That aside, the figures do represent well-executed and sculpted Marvel Legends with a fairly good level of paint and decor applications - niggles on the Sam Wilson paint job aside which are really only visible on very close inspection. Both are also articulated well and I had plenty of posing options to choose from. The shield fit & hands engineering could be better, but is workable with patience and Sam was crying out for alternative hands which are included with this set.
As a celebration of Captain America and marking the transition from Steve to Sam, this set is a nice touch and it may be the last Steve Rogers figure we see in the MCU line? For Sam, I think we will see this figure again - particularly as we move towards his first Captain America movie, perhaps a deluxe release with the wingsuit. For now, if you want to pick this up then it is available via Zavvi who kindly gifted us this set free of charge for our review.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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