I’m that rare comic book fan: a Hank Pym fan. I still think Hank got shafted by being benched through the first phase of Avengers films and being a retired old guy in “Ant-Man.” I know, I know, that ship has long sailed and at least I have “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” to see Pym kicking super villain tail alongside his fellow founding Avengers.
Fortunately Hasbro took advantage of Ant-Man fever to release a figure of Hank in all his glory as a regular-sized Giant Man for its “Ant-Man” Marvel Legends line. Let’s find out if it squashes the competition or needs to take a breather on the sidelines as well.
Packaging: This is going to fast become a broken record, but the Marvel Legends packaging is one of my least favorite. The red/black color scheme is OK, but I’d like some distinction between the sub-lines even if it’s just a change in the color paired with the dominant black.
Like the rest of the figures in the line save for Ant-Man, the side portion has a drawing of ants as opposed to individualized character portraits.
The back of the package is equally underwhelming with a simple picture of the figure, a one sentence bio and a graphic of the other figures in the wave and the BAF. It’s good enough for government work I suppose, but nothing you’ll want to hold up as top of the line packaging.
Likeness: This outfit is more of a modern update to Pym’s original Giant Man design. I like it enough, but it definitely would benefit from a few more colors like the early costume. The blue is sorely missed.
Hank has a stern expression as if he’s hard at work trying to break down some problem before Iron Man rushes in and steals all the glory. It works for him and I like that the eyebrows are visible in the mask’s eye holes.
Scale: Since this is Giant Man in his sized-down, regular height, this figure fits in perfectly with his Avengers counterparts. I’ve long wanted a normal-sized Giant Man so I’m glad to have one that’s eye level with Captain America and Iron Man.
Paint: Giant Man’s costume is all about lines and it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The head is painted fine. Hasbro is actually fairly reliable when it comes to eye painting, which is normally the critical part of the 6″ figures.
There’s some strong straight lines across the chest and arms. Below that is where you’re likely to run into some complications.
A few areas to be mindful of when grabbing the figure. Mine has some missing paint on the “belt” area and the points on the left glove were smeared. The glove points and the black along the sides of the torso seem to be the most common area where the paint applications are a little sketchy.
Articulation: Giant Man uses the now standard basic ML male body, which is a great blank slate for regular characters that don’t need a lot of texture and added details.
GM has a ball-jointed neck and shoulders, bicep, double-jointed elbow and knee articulation, mid-torso, waist, wrist, ball-jointed hips, thigh and shin swivel, and ankles.
The shin swivel articulation breaks up the smooth illusion of the costume, but it’s such an expected articulation point that people would be upset if it was cut in this instance.
The wrists on my figure were a little looser in rotating them than other parts of the articulation. They’re not floppy and feeling like they’ll pop out at any moment, but there’s not a lot of resistance like you’d come to expect from the line.
Accessories: Giant Man doesn’t lend himself to any accessories so this time out, his only pack-in is the right leg to the Build-a-Figure Ultron based off his “Avengers: Age of Ultron” design. Still, compared to some of the other releases, GM seems pretty lacking on this end.
Worth it? The Ultron BAF piece adds a great value to an otherwise non-powered version of Hank Pym. At $20, this is the going rate for the Marvel Legend line. There’s no major issues to be concerned about and he’s got the usual great articulation and mobility.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Giant Man is a great addition for ML Avengers fans as we finally get a regular version of Hank Pym to hang with his pals before growing skyscraper size to tackle with Ultron and the Masters of Evil. Granted, a non-powered superhero figure isn’t the most exciting on the pegs, but this is one figure I’m happy to add to my Avengers display.
Where to get it? The Ant-Man wave is currently available at Toys R Us and Target.
If for some reason you can’t find Giant Man in stores, you can try some of the Lyles Movie Files site partners, who kick back a portion of your purchase to help me enhance the site just from you clicking the link.
Amazon.com has the single figure available for $16: Marvel Legends Infinite Series Giant Man
Or if you’d rather go all-in, you can grab the full Ant-Man wave from site partner Entertainment Earth: Order Ant-Man Marvel Legends Action Figures Wave 1 from Entertainment Earth!
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