"The Champion of HYDRA has risen."
Following his appearance in Season 1 of Marvel’s What If? a new Marvel Legends figure of Red Skull was released as part of the second of two Disney+ waves in 2022 alongside other What If figures as well as from Loki and WandaVision, with a build-a-figure included of Khonshu from Moon Knight. The wave would use plastic-free packaging so the figure was simply illustrated on the box, with the BAF checklist moving to replace one of the two art panels on the left-hand side.
The Marvel Legends What If figures to date have yet to establish a true style compared to say the Spider-Man Spider-Verse figures which are truly entrenched in their animation style. The What If figures are either built from the ground up in an animated style such as T’Challa Star-Lord or are repurposed MCU figures given a more animated colour scheme. Red Skull is the latter of these two options, borrowing the full long coated body from the 2018 SDCC exclusive release - but instead of a repainted head as has happened with Killmonger, Red Skull then gets a new animated style sculpt.
The body is pretty much cast in tones of black with silver painted buttons, straps and a hydra insignia on his belt buckle. Some muted red is used to trim the sleeves and to pick out a sculpted Hydra symbol on the left shoulder - while strangely the right shoulder Hydra symbol is a flat decal. None of this red detail is particularly impressive, with a dull finish due to overpainting onto black, and with quite a bit of paint bleed and some very ragged line work. The head is cast in a much brighter red aligned to the What If style of animation and features exaggerated skull-like features with a very pronounced brow and sunken cheeks compared with the MCU release which was based on the prosthetics worn by the actor Hugo Weaving.
Due to the use of the older body, we find a pinned set of articulation for Red Skull with 18 points in total. While the pinned knees and supporting joints provide, on paper, extensive leg articulation - the fully enclosed coat that runs to Red Skull’s ankles limits much of the lower leg movement. The arms are similarly pinned at the elbows and with very old school and quite ugly bicep swivels sitting just below the Hydra symbols.
Red Skull has a single accessory, a re-use of the translucent blue Tesseract that came with the original MCU figure and that has featured with Loki from Infinity War. This is well-scaled for the 6-inch line and is pretty much what it needs to be in terms of a blue cube. Red Skull retains the original splayed right hand to grip the cube, leaving the left hand in a clenched fist. The figure really needed a secondary accessory such as Red Skull's revolver as seen in the show, or something more innovative like the discarded 'human' skin mask to hold in his hand.
If you are collecting the What If figures as I am, Red Skull provides another variation of style with an MCU body but an animated style head and that mismatch doesn’t help the figures. Hasbro should have really agreed on a style for What If and stuck to it, and if that meant they wanted to re-use the MCU characters then that decision should have been similar to how they tackled animated shows in the Black Series by executing them in a realistic style. Putting the aesthetic choice aside, the What If Red Skull is a decidedly average release with aged and limited articulation and an accessory with similarly limited options for display.
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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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