|
Okay, Wandavision was spectacular; now let's get hyped for the next show!
Sam Wilson soars through the skies dispensing justice
and restoring faith in humanity.
He what? What is that bio supposed to be referencing? At what point has Falcon's thing ever been "restoring faith in humanity"? He was originally a Harlem social worker who somehow got into falconry in Brazil, then answered a personal ad to move to a tropical island and use his falcon to do their hunting; except the people on the island turned out to be Nazis, so he developed a costume to inspire their captives to revolt. Then it was retconned that he was originally a street hustler until the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube to turn him into-- *sigh* --"an upright, cheerful negro" who would "most appeal to [Captain America's] sniveling Liberalism." Thanks, 1975! Finally, 40 years later, it was revealed that that story is what was invented by Red Skull, trying to turn Sam against Captain America (the same way he would later try to turn Captain America into an agent of Hydra).
Falcon's original costume was green and orange, because that contrasted with Captain America's red and blue. Sam eventually changed to red and white, and got an emblem resembling a beak on the forehead of his mask. He's changed costumes several times over the years, but the colorscheme and the beak have remained fairly consistent, and keep coming back even when they're changed.
This particular costume comes from the mid 2000s,
around the time of "Avengers Disassembled." He first wore it with a black trenchcoat, because stupid, but this toy ignores that. (Just like everyone ignores the story where he got it.) To be very specific, the white sections should be raised above the surface of the red, and there should be padded panels on his ribs, but doing that would have meant they couldn't use an existing body - it's the larger of the two that have pec hinges, because he needs to be able to flap his arms.
Well, he doesn't really need to be able to flap his arms, because that's not how his flight works. Falcon's first costume didn't have any wings at all: he first appeared in Captain America #117, and it wasn't until #170 that he could do anything other than walk everywhere.
The original wings were made by Black Panther, and when those got destroyed, so were these replacements. They're an existing mold as well, though his arms did have to be new to both accommodate the slots where the wings plug in and to give us his gold bracers. The wings are a semi-translucent red plastic, because this upgrade gave him holographic "hard light" wings that could turn on and off at a moment's notice. And could also be reconfigured to different shapes, but that would take extra molds this toy wasn't going to give us.
It does give us a part of the Joe Fixit Build-A-Figure, though: the left leg. And Sam gets alternate "flat" hands for himself, to create better flying poses.
Other than MCU versions, we haven't gotten a Falcon since the ToyBiz days (Captain America doesn't count, because he was Captain America) (though wings would have helped that one), so this was an update fans needed. And rather than repeating one of the two costumes ToyBiz made, we get something new, so it's good for longtime collectors, too.
-- 03/15/21
|
