“Work with me Sam, the country needs Captain America”
The following review has been written ahead of the release of Captain America: Brave New World. While there are no details within this review that have not been seen in the trailer or promotional merchandise, there may be content in here that is considered a spoiler.
Ahead of the 14th of February 2025 release of the fourth Captain America movie, Brave New World, Hasbro released a trio of Marvel Legends Deluxe releases including Cap, Falcon, and Red Hulk. The figures have been in development & production for some time and were pushed back when the movie itself was delayed. They finally hit store shelves at the very back end of 2024 with the bulk of orders and stocks fulfilled in early January 2025.
Due to the delay in release, all three of the Brave New World releases are packed in the older Marvel Legends packaging with Sam Wilson’s Captain America in a slimmer deluxe box complete with character artwork on the scooped sides. The front of the box includes a large curved window under which sits the Brave New World movie logo. The rear of the box carries a different image of Cap with his new flight helmet and the briefest of background which references Sam’s new role as Captain America and what is facing him in the events of Brave New World. Once unpacked the internal card back of the box is revealed in blue and white with a large Captain America Star logo.
The first figures of Sam Wilson as Captain America were released after the events of Falcon & The Winter Soldier in 2021. While the Brave New World suit has some similarities to this older suit, there appears to be very little re-use on the new figure - as far as I can see the belt is carried forward, as are the knee joints and the lower legs and feet. The Brave New World Captain America suit brings back the darker blue, as worn by Steve Rogers, as the primary colour with much of the figure cast in a base blue plastic. Trims are added over this in grey, silver and red including the central Captain America ‘star’ emblem. Red and white are incorporated as stripes into the midsection, with red also used predominately on the boots and gloves. All in all the suit is accurate to what we’ve seen on screen, pays homage to the suit worn by Steve Rogers originally, and feels more in line with the Captain America look than the white and blue suit that preceded it.
Sam has two head sculpts, the first featuring a strong likeness to Antony Mackie with sculpted flight goggles with a red-hued visor and silver trim. The visors are translucent, and the sculpted and face-printed eyes are visible underneath. The second head is the new altitude helmet seen briefly in the trailers. This helmet is also accurate to the onscreen look, cast in dark blue to match the suit and fitted with red translucent visors and a silver trim that includes an inverted ‘V’ on the helmet.
Sam features two plug-in backpack options, both the same piece but in different configurations of either wings retracted, or wings extended. While similar to the 2021 release, these are also new - cast in grey with silver and blue detail. They incorporate a single peg that slots into Cap’s back, and a socket on the outside into which you can connect Cap’s shield.
The shield itself sees a return to the older format of an alternating central peg or wrist clip, thus allowing it to be inserted into the backpack. On our copy the hinge to alternate these was significantly tight and needed heat to open it up enough to move otherwise the plastic would snap. This aside, historically these wrist clips are still notoriously fragile so caution is urged when posing Sam with his shield. The rest of the rear of the shield is a silver colour, while the front follows the usual design with a red outer circle, silver inner, further red circle, and then a central silver star inset into a blue circle.
As well as mounting the shield into the backpack, Sam can also ‘hold’ the shield by way of the clip which attaches to either wrist. While the shield no longer relies on hand shape, you do still get two pairs to choose from allowing Cap to be posed with either a pair of clenched fists or a pair of outstretched hands. You also get the newer Redwing accessory thrown in. This is the same as released in 2021 and even includes the socket for the mini-flight stand, although Hasbro have not included this in the set. Redwing is cast in silver with red and blue markings. It lacks any real display potential without the stand.
The Captain America figure (excluding the wings) has 19 points of pinless articulation and therefore has a pretty wide repertoire of posing positions both grounded - and as we will see in flying positions.
Sam Wilson’s Captain America is of course renowned for the ongoing use of Sam’s wingsuit, and the Brave New World Cap features a retooled and larger set of wings than we have seen previously on any of the Sam Wilson figures. They arrive in sections and clip together at their hinge points which then make up the wing articulation. Like the suit, they are mainly blue but feature red and silver trim on the top edge, and a broader band of silver ‘feathers’ across the bottom edge. Cap’s shield can still be holstered while the wings are in place in the same way it does on the standard backpack - although the peg doesn’t quite sit flush in this mode.
Like the older figures, and as has been done with the new Falcon, each wing features a socket that clips into a peg on the larger ‘extended’ backpack. Once in place, these peg & sockets feature a ratchet system and kick off the wing articulation which can be pivoted up or down within the opening on each side of the backpack. There are then a further three hinges per wing, each bending forward and backward to at least 90 degrees, with the hinges closest to the body folding almost back on themselves to go some way of recreating Sam’s use of the wings as a shield.
Combining the 8 joints of the wings, with the Cap figure and this Brave New World figure of Sam has a wide array of poses either landing, taking off or in flight. The latter will need a flight stand, and sadly Hasbro has not given us one in this set despite the one used on the 2021 wingsuit BAF still fitting this version perfectly (although it doesn’t give you the height). The stand will need to be hefty enough to take the figure and the extended wingspan and the ‘in-flight’ Captain America will require a fair bit of display space.
As a recreation of Sam’s new Captain America look from Brave New World, the figure and the included wingsuit does a brilliant job with a crisp paint job, wide-ranging articulation, and a strong likeness to actor and costume. I am disappointed with the shield in both the way it works and its obvious future longevity and would have hoped by this point Hasbro could have engineered a better solution. Redwing feels wasted as an accessory without any way to display him and a figure reliant on flight poses should probably have included a stand option - although the secondary market has you covered.
Sam poses really nicely with Joaquin Torres’ Falcon whose own costume provides a nice contrast to the Captain America colour scheme, and they both look good battling Red Hulk with scaling between the two human characters and the new ‘Hulk’ built into the trio.
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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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