Greatest Battles 2-Pack: Adam Warlock and Thanos

Special thanks to Kokomo Toys, an outstanding eBay seller for a great price on this two-pack and super fast shipping!  You can visit their eBay store HERE, and their online store HERE.
I try to make it no secret on this site that I am enamored with Marvel Cosmic.  I feel like the stakes are just so much higher at that level, the bad guys are worse, and the good guys are better and more powerful.  With that said it is with great pleasure that I am able to bring you this review of Adam Warlock and Thanos (redux).  Read on and / or scroll to the bottom or check out a summary of our rating system HERE.

Packaging img_6881

With this latest wave of …bigger figured 2-packs, the plastic on the front of the card is much thicker to accommodate the girth that is Thanos.  This made sense to me.  Also making sense to me, a pack in copy of one piece of the epic puzzle that was the Infinity Gauntlet series (number 3).  The card back gives us some Warlock / Thanos / Inifinty info as well as some ads for Sinister / Gambit and Wonderman / Quicksilver.  I do have a huge complaint about this 2-pack packaging though.  When you get this set, and I highly encourage you to do so as you will read, what the heck is up with the packaging around Thanos’s feet?!?!  Trying to get him out, I thought I was going to end up ripping him in half at the waist!

Adam Warlock

Paintimg_6887

Warlock is painted in deep rich reds and blacks with excellent character accurate color.  The golds of his skin and hair look great and the face shows great scowling detail that represents Warlock well…Also could represent Magus well…just sayin’.  The cape coloring is incredibly bright.  It looks great, but as far as doing the character justice, I wish they would have gone with a more muted red color to better match the paint of the outfit.

Articulation img_6888

Adam Warlock has got the moves.  All the bells and whistles of the 2011 Cyclops mold that we have grown to know and love.  Ankles are fully articulated, calfs spin, knees bend, legs spin at the thigh, and there is good forward motion.  The cape hinders backward leg motion.  Warlock spins at the waist and chest and has limited head motion, again due to the cape.   When trying to pose Adam for pictures, I noticed some pretty solid stiffness to the joints.  As of playing around with it for this review, that seems to have subsided and I have good motion now.

Character Likeness

Right down to the skull clasp on his cape, I think that Hasbro did a good job of capturing Adam Warlock.  As said previously, the cape could have gone darker, on both sides, yellow and red, but I’ll give it a pass.

Accessories

Warlock comes with two vital accessories.  The staff which has nice detail and color and fits well in his hand, and! The Infinity Gauntlet.  This gauntlet appears to be the same that was packed in with the 2011 NYCC / Marvel Digital Comics Dr. Doom exclusive figure.  This gauntlet however, fits Adam much better.  Seems like it was originally intended for him and they slapped it on Doom as a gimmie.

Overall

I’m biased…all Hasbro would have done to hit a 5 for this character is come even just a little close.  However, I honestly feel like they put together a great Adam Warlock figure, and for that they get a legit 5 from me.

Grade

Displayed front and center  (5 out of 5)

Thanos

One of the baddest mofos in the galaxy is Thanos.  This is Hasbro’s second go round at the character and I think they did more right this time.

img_6897Paint

Thanos is a dark character.  Thanos’s paint job now matches that a little bit better.  There have been many color iterations from the brighter spectrum used on the previous Thanos figure, to what we have here, and darker.  I for one prefer the darker paint job.  The colors are more rich and the muted gold looks more authentic and less orangey.  Additional detail by way of paint was added to Thanos here as well, namely the sorely missed gold stripe down his chest that was left off the first Thanos.

Articulation img_6898

Thanos is another of the big lug mold from Hasbro.  He does have good movement, but mainly his articulation allows him to do what is necessary, stand there and look imposing.  The amount of articulation available here is almost more of a hindrance because mainly, I’d just like him to stand up straight and look mean.  His ankles and feet always seem to find themselves twisting into that shy 8 year old post thought.

Character Likeness

One of the biggest wins with this version of Thanos is the face.  Thanos’s face is almost buried on the first figure.  This version gives him a great grin, accentuates the eyes and lets you see the whole face of mean.  It appears that they raised the eye guards on the helmet and that did the trick.  Really happy with this likeness now.

Accessories

NONE?!?! None accessories for the man who pwns the Infinity Gauntlet?  I guess Warlock has it in this set…but I wouldn’t mind if they both had one!  I cheated and plugged the gauntlet from Thanos one on Thanos 2.  Only trouble is, the golds don’t match at all, so that’s not gonna stay there.

Overall

This galactic menace was finely captured by Hasbro here.  I’ve got some complaints, missing accessories mostly, and prone to odd poses, but otherwise he’s gonna stay on the shelf and Thanos one is going in the closet.

Grade

Displayed but more to the side (4 out of 5)

Overall 2 Pack

Excellent two pack.  Really irritating plastic protective packaging.

 

 

Rating System: Each figure will be reviewed under the following categories:
Packaging
Paint
Articulation
Accessories
Character Likeness
OverallEach figure will then be given an overall grade out of 5 levels:
Displayed front and center – Perfect score
Displayed but more to the side – Second best, nothing wrong with that
Displayed somewhere I might see it – Displayed, it’s good, I like it, not as much as others.
Displayed but buried in the back – Not all that great, but no other options for this figure
Stored* – It’s really not worth displaying. 
*This will be caveat-ed, if the figure is excellent but is being moved out in favor of a better version of the same character, this will be explained.