Cosmic Spear Loki

The Avengers

Height: 11cm to top of head, 12.5cm to top of helmet.

Articulation: 19 points overall - ball-joint neck; 4 points each arm: universal joint shoulders and elbows; 5 points each leg: universal joint hips, thigh swivels, universal-joint knees.

Colors: Molded black, green, and silver. Painted gold, bronze, green, and metallic blue.

Accessories: Cosmic Spear, "Cosmic Spear."

Release Data: Released in April 2012 at an MSRP of  $8.99.

Author: RAC

(more...)

Even after being cast into the dark place between worlds, Loki continued to plot the downfall of Earth and Asgard. Patient years spent exploring the dark nowhere have finally led him back to the world of light, where his diabolical plans threaten all of creation.

...years? I mean, it's hard to pin down beyond a certain point, but I'd be surprised if it was more than one year. Tony Stark is still in his Mark VI armor, and dude changes armor at the drop of a hat. Or helmet, I guess. The official timeline (of COURSE there's an official timeline) gets vague as to the amount of time between "Fury's Big Week" - in which Iron Man 2, Thor and Hulk all happen -and Avengers. The closest we get is when Black Widow mentions to Bruce Banner that it's been more than a year since his last Hulk episode, so it's at least one year I suppose. Oh well, I'm neither Joss Whedon or a Hasbro copywriter.

But Loki is a tough figure for me to review objectively, because it's kind of the consolation prize. I wanted King Loki from the Thor line, who had a similarly fancy hat and more articulation, but he was in a Thor wave with a number other than one, so I never saw him. And again, as with Captain America, this version of Loki became more appealing after seeing Avengers itself.


The Figure

In terms of sculpt it's pretty decent, with the face being recognizeable as Tom Hiddleston even if it's not spot-on perfect. Loki's sculped tall and skinny, which is appropriate, and should look pretty imposing next to most of the Avengers even before the horns. I also like the sculpt of the arms, particularly the right arm- the angle of the wrist is perfect for holding a spear. Like I said, the sculpt is decent, but the paint's not a great match for the onscreen costume. The details are mostly there, but there's some paint both missing and misplaced, the most noteworthy miscoloration being a lot more gold on the torso than is present in the final costume. Meanwhile a lot of gold trim is not there on the surcoat and boots. The cape is a lighter green than it probably should be. It's also not removeable, and since it plugs into the back, neither is the surcoat, not that it should be. But that being the case I'd like to see a Loki later on sometime without the cape and the helmet. (But speaking of that helmet, there is a tuft of hair sticking out of the back of it- nice touch.)

The ball-joint head has the minutest bit of side-to-side tilt, and no front-to-back tilt. Swivel's unrestricted. The sculpt of the armor prevents much outwards movement at the shoulder, and swivel has to occur at specific angles. The elbows are much better, flexing to 90 degrees and swiveling without any restriction, as there's no sculpted elbow this time. No wrists again, which strikes me as more of an oversight on a figure with a handheld weapon. Worse, the left hand is a closed fist, and it's definitely not a paint error this time around. So he's got two hand-weapons and one open hand, so ditch the silly one. The hips swing straight out from the body, or straight out to the side, one of the better joints of the type. There's the space consideration as with Captain America, where one leg wants to move when you move the other. On the bright side, the sculpt of the surcoat doesn't obstruct leg movement in the least- nice! The knee here is a Star Wars-style knee, a universal joint, which slightly obviates the hip swivel, but the more joints the better. No ankles either, but the Star Wars knees are better than even double hinges at getting the feet on the ground in some situations, and of course the cape can help balance him in some poses. I would very much like more articulation- a torso joint would hide beautifully on this figure, and ankles are always welcome. I'm not as satisfied with his range as I am Cap's, but it's not a statue.


Accessories

-Spear

One of the two MacGuffins from the movie! Loki's spear has the ability to fire energy bolts, and more importantly to fill peoples' hearts with the will of the Tesseract, AKA the Cosmic Cube. It looks great, and accurate, and fits his hand very well. And again, I have to say that for a fixed wrist, the angle is absolutely perfect for holding the spear. If you're going to make a figure without wrists, this is how you do it.

-"Spear"

I've been going kind of heavy on the ironic quotes in the Avengers accessories, but what can you do? The second spear is clearly Asgardian in design, by which I mean it continues logically from the motifs of the big silly weapons from the Thor line. Both in aesthetics and function; in other words, it's a big silly weapon with an action feature. Slide the spear head up, and a couple of bat wing-like blades pop out of the sides. Loki holds it just as well as his proper spear, but there's so much wrong here it's not even funny. Loki already has a spear, the one he should have, and only one hand to hold it in. So dumb. Why a big silly accessory at all when he has a cool weapon? For the amount of plastic and space it takes up Loki could've had more articulation, could've had some of the little knives he likes so much, could've had an energy effect piece like we got with Iron Man 2. Almost everything you could do with the space this takes up would've been better. I was more forgiving of these last year when I was still getting basically strong figures while getting dumb accessories, but now that they occupy a space in the budget that could've gone to ankles, I'm not pleased.


Closing Remarks

Loki's important to have, of course, and a character I wanted a figure of, but I'm not as satisfied with him as I was Captain America. I think the big reason for that is that, in King Loki, I feel like a better version of a very similar costume exists. Cap was different enough from his old suit that that wasn't the case.

If you're going to reduce articulation, I feel that the remaining points should function as close to perfect as you can possibly get, and Loki doesn't, particularly in the neck and shoulders. And the deco could be a bit better as well. But the (correct) Spear looks great and he holds it very well, so he's not a total wash, and I'm glad I've got him. Overall he's Good on the Figurereviews.com Non-numeric Rating Scale.

-RAC