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When Steve Rogers was killed, no one thought it would last - at least, they didn't think it would last as long as it did.
Justice and virtue have found their champion... a super-soldier named Captain America!
Clearly Steve was going to be back at some point (because there was an upcoming movie, of course), but it still lasted longer than expected. Similarly, when Bucky took over the title, we knew it wouldn't be forever, but nobody knew it would turn out so well. Rustin may hate the entire Winter Soldier resurrection thing, but remember: he's stupid. The only people who didn't like the story are the ones who didn't read it. Giving Bucky the suit turned out to be a great move, to the point that it was actually a bit disappointing when the inevitable happened and Steve came back.
Bucky Cap gets an entirely new sculpt - and it's
a really good one, so this will probably end up another choice in the "let's reuse an old body" arsenal (but we've been wrong about that before). If it does, though, we'll be okay with that. The figure was clearly sculpted with future re-use in mind, because why else would there be veins visible through what is supposed to be armor on his chest? The musculature isn't huge, but he's absolutely cut. This would work great for any number of spandex-wearing characters.
There are a few costume elements that will,
by necessity, have limited future potential because they're so unique to Bucky's Captain America costume; sure, the folded-over boots aren't that unusual, but how many heroes wear short gloves these days? And even militant characters would have a hard time using a utility belt that doesn't actually connect in the front with a buckle, and is instead apparently attached directly to the hips.
The head looks like it was taken directly from Steve Epting's artwork. No idea who sculpted this, but it's great. It could honestly work for either Cap (Steve or Bucky), but that means there's nothing that looks wrong about it on this neck. It would have been cool if the face looked more like Winter Soldier's, but what are ya gonna do?
Since he's got a new sculpt, Cap's articulation
is slightly different than what we're used to. The noteable changes include the ankles (the peg part of the joint goes down into the foot, rather than up into the shin, so the foot rocks instead of turning) and the hips, which are the same style seen as far back as ML2. The original ML2. The range of motion is the same, it's just that the hips aren't actually shaped like balls now.
Captain America comes with three accessories:
shield, gun and knife. Which kind of sounds like a variant form of Rochambeau, along with Japan's "Chief, Tiger, Mother-in-Law" and Indonesia's "Elephant, Man, Ant." The gun and knife are new, and fit perfectly in Bucky's utility belt. The shield is the same one that came with Series 1's Steve Rogers, so it looks like we were right to tell you to go for the variant on that one. His left hand is a bit too open to hold the knife securely, but you can display him with it if you put it right at the fingertips.
He also includes the right leg of the Series 2 Build-a-Figure, Arnim Zola. It's the twin to the piece that came with Drax, and everything we said about that piece is true for this one: it's orange and purple, it has surprisingly deep cuts for the bands around the leg, and has a giant hole for the hip to plug into. Can't wait to get this guy built!
The first Bucky Cap figure was released in 2008, from Marvel Select. A lot of fans got that one because at the time it seemed like Marvel Legends was done for, but the only advantage it has over this figure is the fact that it had an unmasked variant. That would have been really cool here (ideally as a swappable head, not a variant), but otherwise there's nothing bad about this figure. I wasn't expecting much, but Captain America delivers.
-- 05/21/12
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