Toy Review: Marvel Select Thor

Marvel Select Thor

I never had a lot of Thor comics when I was a kid, preferring either Transformers, GI Joe, or later X-men. I do remember a few with the Thor Corp and several with Beta Ray Bill. To be honest, I always preferred Beta Ray Bill more than the original, because of the science fiction inherent in the character. Alien everyman with godlike powers trumps boring god in terms of story for me.

Still, I kept hearing about this new Thor costume by Olivier Coipel (who was one of my favorite artists before I left the comic hobby back in 2003) and the “great” Marvel Select version of it. I’d seen it once or twice in Comic Odyssey, but it wasn’t high up on my list since I’d never been a fan of the Marvel Select (MS) line. Of course, as is normally the case, I eventually broke down and bought myself one when I saw it at my local Toy Kingdom.

2 Rats is the local distributor of MS toys, and distribution of their toys is mostly limited to the major branches of Toy Kingdom like Megamall. If you have the time and are willing to go to the effort, you can often find the same toys that are found in Toy Kingdom at any 2 Rats location for Php 200 to Php 500 cheaper. I don’t have the time and I’m a lazy ass bastard. I paid the Php 1,500.00 asking price for this and considered myself lucky.

The package is nice enough, with some nice graphics and truly uninspiring product photography. They are sturdy and offer sufficient protection though, and they have a nice window to display the figure. They also have a nice, big graphic on the side which allows you to display the box on the shelf like a book (if you are an MOCer of course). If you’re careful, you can peel back only 3/4ths of the bubble so that you can replace the inner tray after opening. The cardboard flap on the side allows you to close it back up if you want, which is a plus. They only problem is that it’s BIG and it’s hard to stack without the cardback getting damaged, but again, that’s a problem for the sealed-forever-in-plastic-prisons folk.

On first blush, he does look pretty buff, and his heft really satisfies. He feels like one of those great Fin Fang Foom wave figures; like a nice chunk of plastic that would leave a nice bump if used for blunt force trauma in a CSI episode.

The sculpting is nice. He looks more beefcake than I’d like, kind of musclebound, but the level of detail is great. The plate mail is all sculpted in, the wrinkles and texture of his tunic, the folds of his cape… it’s all there. The face and hands are the only issues I have. They feel a little pulpy, soft and his face has a dead blank stare to it. A sterner expression might have felt more exciting.

He’s also got some really great paint work, worthy of the old Toy Biz days, but clean looking this time. There doesn’t seem to be a bit of cast color plastic on him, and none of the colors seem to be chipping so far. His skin tone is a little opaque, and the white on his wings seem a bit watered down, but you won’t notice unless you’re nitpicking.

He also has his hammer, Moljnr, and a display stand. This is where it starts to get hairy.

Moljnr, is a little on the short side for my tastes. In most of the images I remember, the hammer had a haft that was about the length of 3 of his fists. This one has about enough room for 2 and that would be pushing it. Plus the strap at the end seems too much like an afterthought, like the sculptor forgot to include it and they tacked it on after the fact. To add to that, it’s too small for it to be used. Thor is supposed to be able to swing the hammer using that strap and he’s too fat-fingered to get his mitts in there.

The display stand is okay, but there isn’t much you can do with it a side from stand him upright.

The scale of the turret is smaller than it should be (which is understandable given the size of him), and it doesn’t give you a lot of room to pose him in any really terrific poses. You know the Immagonnapoundyoutojelly kind of poses.

His scale is pretty great. Technically, he’s a 7″ scale figure, but he’s only a hair taller than the other 6″ scale. You can barely tell the difference in size between him and the Marvel Legends Beta Ray Bill and King Thor.

Unfortunately, you can see the difference in their articulation. I realize that I give articulation a higher standing than most of the other reviewers out there, but that’s because I don’t buy toys for display. If you want a display piece than you can probably stop reading now.

If you are concerned with joints, than know that Thor here isn’t going to win any yoga tournaments (do they even have these?). He has those combo post/swivel ball joints at shoulders, hips and knees, with swivels at wrists and ankles. I think he’s got a swivel neck, but mine seems to be paint locked. I’ve heard a few others have this same problem as well so it could be a quality control issue. Anyone who has a figure with a working neck please let me know so I can try to stick him in the freezer or something.

Though he is limited, I don’t think I’ll be selling him anytime soon. He is a great looking design, and I’ve only got so many figures that can hang out with my Conan.

Now if only they would make a Dargo Ktor figure, I’d have a Thor Corp set.