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Hey, look who's here!
Acting as a sleeper agent, an altered version of Captain America leads a secret army intent on taking over the USA in the name of Hydra.
I feel bad now for previously making fun of the people who thought the "Hydra Cap" story was changing everything about Captain America forever. Not because they didn't deserve to be mocked - they did and still do - but because now that we've got an actual figure of the Cap in question, it would just feel like dogpiling to call them utter dopes again. Like, there were people who were so unable to parse the storytelling that they thought Marvel (as a company) was literally saying that the character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had (in our real world) been a secret Hydra character the whole time, instead of a modern, in-unverse creation of the Red Skull. ...oh, honey, no.
Looking pretty spry after his stint as an elderly man (something Hasbro keeps screwing up the opportunity to
give us as a toy), Cap gets a new costume designed by Daniel Acuña. It's a nice look, keeping the patriotic bent without having to have a man literally wearing an American flag commiting hate crimes. The suit is mainly two-tone blue, with white sleeves, and red and white stripes on the abdomen, which sounds like a description of his original suit, but it looks very different in practice. It's a smooth and modern look, suiting Acuña's style nicely.
Hasbro loves its reused sculpts, so it's no surprise at least some of
this action figure's pieces come from an existing source, but you may not be able to place it: the head, hamds, and everything below the waist (including the belt) come from Series 9's Ultimate Captain America, but the rest is shockingly new! All the costume elements are sculpted - the armor, the stripes, the lines on his arms and gloves - which is certainly going to limit how much any of them can be reused in the future.
You use Ultimate Cap parts, you get Ultimate Cap articulation:
swivel/hinge ankles, swivel boots, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, balljointed chest, hinged neck, balljointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, and swivel/hinge wrists. He's got the same hands as that existing release, too: a pair of fists, a gripping right hand, and a splayed left hand.
Doing a Captain America without a shield would be
a terrible choice. This Captain America has a shield. Therefore, this Captain America was not a terrible choice. That's the transitive property in action! [I'm not sure that's right --ed.] This isn't his classic shield, since Falcon was using it at the time, meaning Steve carried one inspired by his WWII original. It's a bit unexpected that they didn't just do Hydra Supreme's mold again - this one still doesnt split into two, like it should, but they did sculpt the energy blade that can come out of the tip. And then they painted it silver instead of glowing red. It's got one of those clips that can either grab fit on his wrist or plug into his back, and this time they even remembered to include a hole in his back!
Rogers-comma-Steve (Evil) is a Walmart exclusive, so he doesn't have any Build-A-Figure parts.
As a storyline event, the whole "Secret Empire" thing was good. It was about how fascism can be made to sound appealing, about how we have to constantly be on guard against it and not get drawn in by its pretty promises, even when delivered by someone we want to trust. About how it is, every time, a bad thing, and we don't get to choose to ignore that just because the person promoting it is on "our" side. Absolutely no sensible reader should have believed "Hydra Cap" was endgame, but they did, which means the story was functioning at its core. This is a cool costume design, too, and it makes for a good toy. We're just sad that as a Walmart exclusive, you're unlikely to ever see it in a store. Right now it's still in stock on their site, though; so if you want one, get it while you can.
-- 05/06/24
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