Giant-Man & Wasp

Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne use Pym Particles to manipulate size and defend Earth as members of the first Avengers team. Remember the HasLab Giant-Man? Remember how unlike Galactus and the Sentinel, it didn't come with any bonus pack-in figures? Would you care to guess where this two-pack came from? This set is technically part of the Avengers: Beyond Earth's Mightiest line, which was better known by everyone not terminally brain-poisoned by corporate mandated Brand™ Speak as "Avengers 60th Anniversary." You may remember that that line came out three full years ago, so why are we only reviewing this now? Because it was originally a Hasbro Pulse exclusive, which sold out despite being priced too high, and it's taken this long for it to be made available again elsewhere. For one (still high) price, you get two figures that should have been included for free with a giant $200 Giant-Man. Of course, since I was unable to back that HasLab, I'm more than happy to have his intended pack-ins by themselves! Right out of the box, ths figure is not Giant-Man, but Hank Pym: he's unmasked and wearing a white lab coat over his costume, the purest sign that he's off the clock. The head is the same seen in the Avengers West Coast box set, which makes sense since they came out at the same time and are the same character, but this one is much more vibrant: the hair is a brighter, comicbooky yellow, and his eyebrows are light instead of dark. If you want a plain Giant-Man, that's doable. Beneath the coat, he's got a standard body - appropriately enough, the same one used for Ant-Man. Well, an Ant-Man. Scott Lang, not Hank Pym. Still, Scott was wearing Hank's old costume, so they'd by necessiry be similar sizes. That also means you could put this Hank-head on that figure if you don't want him to be Scott anymore! And if the Hank-head is over there, we're going to need something to put on top of this neck. Conveniently, Hasbro's included a masked Giant-Man head, with three vertical white bars covering each ear, and a pair of black antennae curling up from his forehead. It's honestly a bit surprising Hasbro would bother painting the costume details under the coat. Yes, it's softgoods and easily removable, but were you expecting them to not cut a corner when they could? His belt is a separate piece, so this is really just a question of putting some black stripes in a V on his back, but it's still great to see it. The black does go onto the pec joint pieces, which means it gets out of place if you move him, alas. Still, better that than not painting them at all. Hank's accessories include the same two flasks Lizard came with (with a light silvery blue fluid inside both this time), the Scientist Supreme's tablet in solid colors (easy to recognize because of the AIM honeycomb logo in the corner on the back), and one new thing, a tiny Avengers Quinjet! It's got a large A painted on the tail fin and is sculpted with the landing gear down, and is just a fun little thing to include: even if you don't want to pretend it's a full-sized Giant-Man holding a full-sized Quinjet, one of the things Hank liked to do was shrink down important equipment and carry it with him in case they needed it, so having a mini Quinjet makes perfect sense. While the Hank in this set was Hank, the Wasp is Wasp. That is to say, she's in full Wasp mode right in the tray, with her silly pointy Wasp cowl. That headgear was always a bit more "pixie" than "insect," but she's small and has wings, so it still works. Maybe if she'd beeen allowed to pick her own supranym instead of just inheriting whatever Hank had been researching immediately before she walked in the door? It could have gone a lot worse for her, though. "Are you serious about seeking justice, Janet? I shall make you small as Ant-Man with my shrinking gas, and you can join me as the Hogweed Bonking Beetle! What? You don't like that? Okay... you can join me as the mighty Cockchafer." Althought Janet Van Dyne is today the go-to designer for superhero fashion, technically this costume was made by Hank, meaning the dumb hat is his fault. The torso is a new sculpt, with the edges of her neckline sculpted in and the large flares poking up over the shoulders. The belt and skirt are molded as one, and the tops of her gloves are separate pieces slipped onto the existing arms. Originally Ant-Man shrank and grew with a liquid serum, but by the time Wasp was introduced, that had been changed to gasses - the canisters on her belt contain one of each. Wasp's wings and antennae are not part of her costume - Hank embedded tiny cells in her back and forehead that turn into those insectoid feastures when she shrinks. So very cleverly, this figure honors that by making the antennae removable! And you know it was intentional, because it's not like Giant-Man's could be taken out, just Wasp's. So if you leave them in, then the toy represents her when she's tiny, but if you take them out, it's her at full size. How cool! It does leave empty holes in her forehead, but at least the area around them is black, so they're less noticeable. When Hank first meets Janet, he notices that she looks somewhat like his dead wife (also introduced in that same issue) but "much younger," like that's a good thing. Dude has never not been a creep! The faces on both the standard and alternate heads are excellently sculpted, and clearly both depict the same woman at the same point in her life, despite having different expressions: with her hood on, she's serious, all business and ready to fight evil; with her hood off, she's more casual, with a smile on her Angelina Jolie lips. The uncovered head has a cute brunette bob that's a bit old-fashioned, but not quite the granny hair the actual comics from that era drew her with. Wasp is surprisingly tall. Doesn't she see like she should be a little thing? Her eyes are right at the level of Hank's nose, when it feels like her head should at minimum be lower than his chin. But nope, big tall lady! Articulation is mostly normal, but her waist is a balljoint and there's no other articulation in the chest. The head is a barbell, which means it can't tip back far enough for good flying poses. Her shoulders may be balljoints, or they may just be swivels with a lot of wobble in the joint? The wings are the same ones that have been used a bunch of times (including another Wasp), but the big surprise is that the microphone headset thing on her cowl is articulated, able to swivel up and down to different positions in front of her mouth. Neat! She doesn't get any accessories, just alternate hands, and if we didn't mention those in the Giant-Man section of the review, it's not worth mentioning here. They could have given her energy balls to represent her "sting" blasts, at least. Also: this is a two-pack of Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. Why does it not include small versions of Ant-Man and Wasp?! Shrinking characters should always come with mini versions of themselves the same way Batman should always come with a batarang! Even with that major, glaring absence, this is still a really nice set, giving us versions of the characters we really haven't gotten before. -- 06/01/26 What insect would you name yourself after, given the choice? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.