Marvel Select Thanos Review!

Diamond Select Toys' Marvel Select Thanos action figure.




Sculpt
Excellent. This figures look like he stepped right out of the pages of the Infinity Gauntlet. One of my favorite artists is Ron Lim, whose work on the Silver Surfer made that my favorite character, and Thanos one of my favorite villains, and the sculpt on this figure captures the look of Lim's art while adding necessary three-dimensional details to keep it interesting. Just look at the comic art sampled on the packaging - this is the ultimate Thanos figure.




Paint
Poor. Pains me to say it, but it pains me even more that they gave paint apps this poor to such a great sculpt. I saw two in the store, and chose the better one, and even this one is sloppy. The wash on his face is too thin and unevenly applied, same as the rest of his body. Much of the gold detailing bleeds over. This is not the kind of paint application you expect from a $20 figure. It'd be passable for a $8 Marvel Legend, but at this pricepoint it's a huge disappointment. The abject failure in this category flat out drops this figure from where it deserves to be - the best figure of the year.




Construction
Very Good. Here's where the extra money comes into the figure. Thanos is a big figure, and he's HEAVY in that lovely thick plastic way. He makes a thump when you put him down kind of heavy. Solidly built, the first comment I'd heard from someone who owned this figure was that he broke, but I can't see that with this figure, he's thick as thick can be. His plastic also doesn't feel cheap like Marvel Legends, it's certainly a higher grade.




Articulation
Very Good. I tend to judge within a line, by the standards set within that line, so while this figure doesn't have Marvel Legends levels of articulation, it is well-articulated by the standards of Marvel Select. And realistically(a dangerous word in this hobby) Thanos doesn't need much more articulation than he has. He is only really missing an ab crunch and boot swivel cuts. What he does have is: Ball neck, ball shoulders, bicep swivels below the ball, pin elbows, forearm swivels along the glove line, waist swivel, ball hips, thigh swivel below the ball, pin knees, pin ankles. I count 18 points of articulation.




Accessories
Excellent. Marvel Selects in the past have usually come with bases, but lately they've been gravitating towards two-pack scenarios. With this figure instead of a base they decided to include a character most would never expect to see, Death. One of the core mystical beings in the Marvel Universe, she's a very important background character that rarely comes to the foreground enough to draw much interest from fans in terms of toys. There are better resources that will tell you her connection to Thanos, but it's pretty major. In any case, it's a great idea for a pack-in. She has no points of articulation, basically just a figurine, but she's very nicely sculpted, and comes with a human-face mask, that unfortunately looks kind of fakey when she's wearing it. Still, nice effort, and since it's meant to be a mask and happens to look like one, no harm here. Thanos also has an alternate open hand with the Infinity Gauntlet on it, a very specific and important accessory for the character.




Overview
Very Good. Wow, so close to being my favorite figure of the year - hell it still might be. The disappointing paint apps naturally vary from figure to figure so I'm sure there are some out there with perfect ones. In that case I think this *would* in fact be the best figure released this year from my point of view. Unfortunately with my particular figure this is not the case. Still very high in the top ten, no doubt.