Top Marvel Superhero Action Figures Every Serious Collector Craves
Have an action figure collector in your life that you want to make very happy? Well here are the hottest seven Marvel action figures that will send them over the moon!
Action figures have been around as long as superheroes, with the most iconic ones coming from DC Comics and Marvel Comics. There have been as many different superhero action lines as there are figures, so one of the hottest contested debates among collectors is which figures are the most prized and which ones aren’t so much.With collectibles, everything is debatable, but in the action figure world, it’s been turned into high art. What used to be considered a kids toy has become something that adults take just as seriously as baseball trading cards.
The good news is that geeks can’t be too old for toys. These things just get more complicated, more detailed and more advanced than our kid-friendly versions. We don’t let our spouses see us play around with them and make them fly around the room, but you could both agree that they look good on display. It’s great to go home after a hard day’s work and see these awesome things looking back at us, giving us a few moments to escape reality, and satisfy our inner child as our houseguests marvel at our collections.Since Marvel has been on a huge roll lately both in movies and television, here are the top seven Marvel action figures that every collector is craving.
The Wolverine
“Logan,” the Wolverine film may not have been a critical hit nor a fan favorite, but the action figure from Hot Toys looks stellar. This figure is a must-have for fans of Wolverine, fans of Hugh Jackman and fans of the X-Men in general.
One unfortunate aspect of this toy is that he doesn’t come with his yellow Spandex or his black leather X-Men costume. He just comes in a black suit and a white tank top as he’s seen in the movie.
Cool features include him having a beautiful metal katana and two sets of claws. He has metal and bone claws here as shown in the film. The metal claws are made of real metal and are quite sharp too. Sorry, they’re not real adamantium though.As expected from the Hot Toys brand, he has some exquisite detail. While he doesn’t look exactly like Hugh Jackman, he’s close enough to satisfy the most demanding action figure collector. You can check out the best pricing on The Wolverine here.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Now what would the Marvel Comics Universe aka MCU be without Captain America? He’s not exactly my favorite superhero, but the MCU has done a great job in making him someone that even non-comic book fans can look up to.Hot Toys has released several 1/6th scale versions of the star-spangled hero but the best one that probably epitomizes the character is the Captain America: The First Avenger version. This was his final costume in the film.
The other versions include the Star-Spangled Man and his Rescue Uniform. He looks absolutely fantastic in his final uniform in the film. That and his rescue uniform makes him a realistic hero of the time making use of his traditional colors.
Marvel Studios did an amazing job in realizing the costume for the period. He doesn’t look cheesy at all. The film makes fun of that cheesy costume as the Star-Spangled Man… with a plan. Now imagine him wearing that while fighting the Red Skull in the final scenes of the film. Hilarious.
Anyway, his costume is absolutely beautiful with the leather gloves, leather boots, and all those straps seem like a lot of work though, but they add greatly to the detail. The shield looks absolutely great. The darkened tone of the colors plus the high gloss gives off a great effect.
Unlike other metallic accessories of Hot Toys figures, the shield isn’t made of metal as the weight of a metallic one could affect the posing. Plus, his face looks highly detailed, enough that you can feel his determination in whatever mission he’s in.Though you’ll need to be careful with shot angles. The helmet can make him look cross-eyed. This is probably the best version of Steve Roger since they even went back to it in the “Captain America: Winter Soldier” movie. Check out the best ones out there here.
The best Black Widow figure, in my opinion, is The Avengers Black Widow version from Hot Toys. Although the Black Widow figurine from Kotobukiya looks luscious, it’s best to complete an ensemble MCU collection with a Hot Toys version. The Avengers Black Widow version is arguably the best for her hair alone, although I really liked her first appearance in “Iron Man 2.” She looks more heroic here though with her zip-up, sexy leather catsuit, and her face is strikingly close to Scarlett Johansson in the film. As it should be.
There’s not much to her by way of accessories. She comes with a couple of pistols, a pair of widow bracelets, a pair of throwing discs, and a Chitauri gun/spear, though she could sure use her own Loki scepter. For fans of the Avengers films, the MCU, or Black Widow herself, this is a must-have. You can check out this version of Black Widow here.
Iron Man Mark III Diecast Production Version
They say nothing beats the original. Well, the original is the Mark I, but his signature costume of the series is the Mark III which we’ll call the production version, as Hot Toys also released a construction version, or just half of the suit suspended in chains.Though Hot Toys has released a lot of Iron Man versions including obscure suits in Iron Man III, this is a collector’s must-have or a must-have for all fans of ol’ shellhead. Simply put, this figure is just beautiful. The paint job and the gloss is just awesome.
He comes with all the weapons as seen in the film. There’s also that spare arc reactor award thing Pepper gave Tony. The chest and abdominal plates come off to reveal Tony’s mesh suit, which I don’t remember seeing in the film, but it’s great just the same.He also comes with a separate head with Tony’s face exposed. This release doesn’t have a separate Tony Stark head yet, but the face does look very much like Robert Downey Jr. The face mask for that can be attached magnetically. The other one has light-up eyes to complement the toy’s light-up arc reactor and hand repulsors. This toy comes with a minimalist base but if you want to complete this, get a Tony Stark workshop; and if you have money to burn, get the Mark III Construction Version. You can check out the 2015 Stealth Version Iron Man here.
I’m as much a fan of Doctor Strange as I am of Ghost Rider. Doctor Strange was one of my first forays into Marvel comics together with Cloak and Dagger in Strange Tales Volume 2. I also really loved the Doctor Strange movie.Doctor Strange toys are pretty hard to come by, but I managed to get my hands on a Marvel Legends version. Hot Toys, however, gives us another reason to break our wallets with their Doctor Strange Movie figure. As it says on their website, this figure is movie-accurate.
Again, something any Marvel or Doctor Strange fan preferably should not be without. Previous action figures just don’t do justice to Doctor Strange, unlike this one.The MCU did a fine job bringing the hero to life, and as Kevin Feige said, Doctor Strange has always been his pet project. Apart from the film-accurate likeness and clothing, this figure comes with the cloak of levitation, which attaches magnetically, the book of Cagliostro, a pair of Eye of Agamotto medallions, several mystical mandalas of light, a beautiful display stand, and a backdrop of the circular windows of the Sanctum. You can check out this amazing Doctor Strange collectible here.
Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze Movie Version
I’m a big Ghost Rider fan here, but again, don’t mistake Ghost Rider’s inclusion here as pure bias. This is one awesome toy, err… 6th scale figure. Among the Hot Toys figures, he has the coolest accessory which is the Flame Cycle. One drawback of the new Hasbro Marvel Legends is the non-inclusion of motorcycles in its Marvel Legends line.As a Ghost Rider fan, I have all of the Toy Biz Marvel Legends figures except for the blue John Blaze variant. I figure one is enough. Fortunately, Hot Toys figured that Ghost Rider wouldn’t be complete without his motorcycle. If they make an Agents of SHIELD version of Robbie Reyes, with the car, that would be one expensive toy and one sought-after collectible that would bump Black Widow off this list.
But back to Johnny Blaze. This toy is a bit expensive, but it is a must-have for any Ghost Rider fan. There’s also the Ultimate Ghost Rider from Hasbro which I had and swore to get upon release, but this rather expensive 6th scale figure is much better.
For one thing, you can change the flaming skull for Johnny Blaze’s head which is a copy of Nicholas Cage’s head. The skull jaw is also articulated, and the head can be pulled back a bit to allow for those raging expressions. The leather clothing is amazing, and he also comes complete with a chain and two versions of his shotgun. The chain here is real metal unlike the plastic plumb bob chain of the Ultimate version.
Also, unlike the Ultimate version, the flames on his motorcycle light up. One complaint some fans have for this feature is that the brightness of the bike and the flames on his skull aren’t consistent. Well, just keep them both off; the figure will still look awesome. My own problem with this Hot Toys figure is the skull itself. It doesn’t look as menacing as with the Hasbro version. They’re not so easy to get, but there’s still some here.
Iron Man Hulkbuster
Any toy collector and Marvel fan with enough money to burn will be lucky to have the Hot Toys “Avengers: Age of Ultron” Iron Man Hulkbuster. All this Marvel fan has is the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends Hulkbuster which is worth the money for size alone. The same goes for this monstrous masterpiece of toy engineering from Hot Toys.
This Hulkbuster Iron Man looks like it was taken from the movie screen and brought to life, as if Marvel Studios shared its CG designs with Hot Toys; which they probably did as part of the film’s promotion. Standing at 21 inches, this figure should bring any man-cave to life. This figure has 30 points of articulation and upon opening the head and chest cavity reveals features a replica of the Mark XLII inside.
As mentioned, this figure is taken straight from the film right down to the weathered paint effect, though it would be nice if they had a brand-new edition. The suit comes with a separate arc reactor for each limb, and all of them light up along with the eyes of the Mark XLII. And lastly, all the mechanical details on this figure are just exquisite. You can check this amazing version of Iron Man right over at Hot Toys.
