Minifigures - The Avengers, Part 2

The next batch of Avengers minifigures covers the first recruits of the sixties, when the team began to firmly establish its' ethos - unlike the JLA being made up of the company's established star properties the Avengers, having started out that way and usually having some of the founding members on the strength, tended to introduce roster members who were either brand new or had been guest stars in another title, with the first real roster refresh consisting of three reformed villains joining Captain America after the founding members - Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp - decided to take a break from the team.

GIANT-MAN

Naturally Giant-Man wasn't actually a new recruit to get the tenuous theme of this overview off to a winning start, being the second of Hank Pym's 427 costumed identities and thus a founding member as much as Ant-Man was. He's had even more costumes than he's had alias though Marvel's brand awareness means they've finally started to settle on a variation of the red/black original. This one, a Chinese copy, is based on the version in the non-Lego Avengers Alliance video game; the only official Giant-Man figure is a wonderful brick-built thing that - understandably if annoying - follows the template of the film version's costume. The paint apps are nicely done though with the character's antennae-things being 3D (instead printed on the head) it's a little featureless. Oh, and it's really small; while I'm not crazy about Big Figs, and certainly not for a human-shaped character, the extended limbs seen on Mr Fantastic would have greatly improved this one; sadly while there's a version of Plastic Man that's a good source for the arms the legs retain that character's distinctive leg pattern. It's tempting to get an extra pair and paint them but then if I'm painting I'd be more tempted to get one of the poseable Technic figures and just do it from scratch. If only I had talent for that sort of thing. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA

It's one of those little comic quirks that Captain America, mainstay of the Avengers, didn't show up until the fourth issue of the series, famously being found floating in a big block of ice after his World War 2 exploits. He's big news, though, and between his own films and his prominent role in the Avengers movies he's racked up 11 variant official Minifigures. And about 1100 unofficial ones. The sticking point seems to be what to do about the head; a printed design works for a mask but it's difficult to mount details on them so while the official figures have gone either that way or unmasked in reference to the way Cap spends half of his movies unmasked because they've paid Chris Evans money. With the added variation of either comic-influenced light blue or the navy seen in the film there's quite a variety out there. For now as my 'comic Avengers' Cap I've settled on this one, which features an additional helmet rather than a painted head. The extra piece isn't overly bulbous and while it doesn't have the wings it does add a little definition; the flesh head underneath actually has a flesh coloured mask printed on it that gives the impression of a chin-strap and I'm intermittently questing for a similar version in the right blue to blend while also having the eyes at the right level to meet up with the mask. 

QUICKSILVER

Pietro and his sister Wanda debuted as members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants over in the X-Men before becoming part of the new-look second Avengers roster, both becoming staples of the team. It's left them in a weird place between the Disney-owned Avengers and Fox-borrowed X-Men films, however, though a deal was recently reached to see some character crossover. Quicksilver has since appeared in two X-Men films and Avengers - Age of Ultron. His one official Minifigure follows the look in the latter as a result of Disney/Marvel's unofficial policy of restricting the merchandise for characters who they don't wholly own and thanks to the bland look he had in that movie it's a travesty, a hipster in a jumper. As ever, the bootleggers do provide; there's a good one out closely modelled on the character's very different look for the Days of Future Past but the focus here is one that's based on the character's classic look. Thankfully the awful green original costume has been ignored; this is the later two-tone blue seen around about the time of Kurt Busiek's classic Avengers run; I would possibly have preferred the one-tone blue example from the sixties but I'm nitpicking and this one has more variety to it anyway. There's a nice scowling face and the swept-back hair also suits nicely; the one fault with this bootleg is that the paint on the feet is never (at least not after three purchases from different sellers) applied thickly enough on the dark blue legs.

THE SCARLET WITCH

Pietro's sister and go-to source for causing contrived 'summer events' that ensure the comic book industry's continued shrinkage while superheroes are bigger than ever. While Pietro's done stints in the likes of X-Factor, X-Men and his own poorly-handled solo title Wanda's largely been an Avengers homegirl but her Minifig story is much the same - just a single figure based on the Hot Topic cashier-inspired film look. Bugger that. Thankfully the superb customiser Penzora has done a version modelled on the costume that stuck for the character for some forty years with only minor modifications. The only problem is there's never been any sort of half-decent mask piece from Lego (or any bootleggers) with paint apps having to do the work; the result is the Scarlet Witch's distinctive headpiece is squashed onto her face below the hairline. But that's nitpicking; elsewhere the detail is nice and sharp, an excellent piece for any Avengers display

HAWKEYE

Completing the second line-up of the Avengers, Hawkeye had started off as a villain in Tales of Suspense (at the time basically Iron Man's book) and soon became something of a cult favourite, in that he was always one of the most popular members of the Avengers due to his sardonic attitude and willingness to chuck in against Ultron or whoever armed with a bow and trick arrows but never quite had the appeal for a solo book, instead headlining in West Coast Avengers and later Thunderbolts in between stints. However, his stock went up a notch of late due partly to the Legolas-driven pop culture archery boom, a well-written part in the prominent Ultimates series and then through his core appearances in the team's theatrical adventures. Te latter means most of the Minifigures have a distinct Jeremy Renner feeling to them (including one released as a promotional polybag that can be found for only a couple of quid). As ever there are further unofficial figures out there including a little masterpiece modelled on his classic appearance. The winner here is the mask part, spot-on with even a raised 'H' while painted details include a quiver on the back (and is a bit of a pain as it can't be covered by a quiver part). I could maybe do with having the palette darkened a notch or two but again that's nitpicking. 

THE SWORDSMAN

Tied in to Hawkeye's origin, the Swordsman briefly joined the line-up shortly after his former charge before being revealed to be up to no good - the first run-out for what would be a semi-regular Avengers story template. After being chased off he was an intermittent presence on the team before getting killed by Kang, since appearing as a plant alien (no, really) and inspiring a couple of alternate universe examples - one introduced in the early nineties stuck around for occasional appearances and an odd choice to make part of the Heroes Reborn soft reboot, where he weirdly remembered events in the main Marvel Universe and then trained up the Remnants in a one-shot that was actually quite good. All of it makes for a not particularly well-known character and it's little surprise there's no place for Jacques in the Marvel money-making machine. Enter Penzora with another neat, faithful custom including a crisp, character-packed face. It's nice work, very nice, and it's hard to see how an official figure if it ever came out would get closer.