Captain Britain By Hervé St.Louis Sep 8, 2007 - 7:22:37 PM

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Created in 1976 by Marvel Comics’ United Kingdom division, Captain Britain is a human/ off world hybrid with great strength, the power to project energy, create force fields and to fly. Introduced to North America in Marvel Team-Up #65 where he was an exchange student, who shared a dorm with Peter Parker, better known as Spider-man. Toybiz produced a Captain Britain action figure for its Giant Man series of Marvel Legends action figures.

Likeness
 
The sculpt is reminiscent of Captain Britain’s current look with the Union Jack Flag on his chest. There are a few variants of this costume where he has no padding on the chin and the design of the flag on his chest differs. However, this Captain Britain action figure looks most like Alan Davis. Davis is one of the artist the most associated with the character.

Sculpt



The sculpt is based on the same one used by the Black Panther, Sentry and Wonder Man. It’s not smooth as it has some kind of rough texture to it. For Captain Britain, this is a good sculpt, although some collectors might grow tired of having the same base action figure for so many characters. It seems that Toy Biz use this sculpt on less popular characters. I guess they are taking no risks.

Paint

The application is good as it’s easy to mess up all the lines on Captain Britain’s costume. There is some bleeding, because the rough texture of the action figure helps it from happening. I’m not a fan of using blue to darken white areas. It feels too comic book-like. Instead a shade of grey would have looked better. There is darker toning throughout the action figure’s body.

Scale



The main issue I have with this sculpt is that it seems somewhat too small for the characters. When you put them next to others, they seem like a middle weight fighter, not like heavy weights they are supposed to be.

Stability

There are no major stability problems with this action figure, although, the how the legs are posed and the mobility of the hips and knees will influence how this figure stays put. Of course, Captain Britain has peg holes in his soles and flat feet.

Articulation



Although it uses the same sculpt as Wonder Man, I found the articulation smoother and easier to handle on Captain Britain. With Wonder Man, one of the shoulders is perpetually stuck in one pose and the extra arm put articulation doesn’t work well. Here, there are none of these issues. I guess it depends on the particular action figure more than the general sculpt. Captain Britain has a total of 35 articulations. Each is well hidden. For example, the paint scheme in the armpits continues unobstructed on the front and back of the action figure. The joints feel loose though. With all these articulations Captain Britain can take any number of dynamic poses.

The articulations are found at the armpits, shoulders, biceps, forearms, wrists, knuckles, hips, thighs, calves, toes, neck, abdomen and the waist. The elbows, knees and ankles have double articulations. For the ankles it allows to feet to move up and down and sideways.

Plastic



Although the plastic is tough, it can bend easily. All the parts are pressed together and are hollow inside. The joint are the same colours as the nearby parts they are encased in.

Props



Captain Britain comes with no props, although the peg hole in his back is compatible with some of the Marvel Legends ones used for action figures like Black Panther and the Ultimate Captain America.

Of course, Captain Britain comes with the right leg of the Giant Man action figure which when assembled with other parts from the Giant Man Marvel Legends Series creates a 16-inches action figure.

Packaging

Captain Britain comes within a plastic bubble that has to be opened with scissors. Inside the package, comes the action figure an Excalibur comic book and a cardboard with images of other action figures in the series, as well as instructions on how to assemble the Giant Man action figure.



Cost

Captain Britain’s price was all over the place. It could retail for as low as $8 to $20. As the toy was exclusively sold by Walmart in the United States, prices from action figures poachers could be erratic.

Availability

Although in the United States, Captain Britain was sold only in Walmart stores, it could be found in most of the regular resellers of Marvel Legends in Canada and other countries. So many collectors have purchased this set from Canadian sources with bilingual French and English packages. Still, everything inside the package was the same. Since last year, this toy has made its way through different channels to many other stores in the United States. As Marvel Legends is no longer produced by Toy Biz, the existing stocks in stores and collectors’ hands are what remains to for those looking for this action figure.

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