Captain Britain (Comic Series)

August 1, 2011 | By More


One of the figures I was most excited about, from the Captain America toy line by Hasbro, was this version of Captain Britain (06). Unfortunately, once the figure started showing at stores, I was less than thrilled by the paint job it got.

The figure itself is quite nice, very muscular and detailed. Unlike the Marvel Universe version, this costume is styled more after the Ultimates aesthetic, which is a little more “realistic”, as reflected by the sculpted hard armored ridges on some costume elements and the very utilitarian-looking leather wear.

The body proportions are slightly off, as this Captain Britain isn’t as tall as the Marvel Universe incarnation, but he feels a little bulkier. I think that perhaps this Cap Brit should have been at least the same size as Crossbones, but overall I don’t mind the variation.

One thing this figure and Crossbones share is the solid construction and articulation model. Captain Britain has the following:

Ball jointed neck.

Pegged hinge shoulders.

Pegged hinge elbows.

Swivel wrists.

Floating torso.

Pegged hinge hips.

Upper thigh swivel cuts.

Double hinged knees.

Hinged ankles with angled foot swivel.

All of the joints work well and feel fairly tight, allowing Captain Britain to achieve and hold mostly any pose. The torso joint is the only one that gets it´s range reduced a little because of the rubber utility belt attachment at his waist, but it still provides a decent amount of mobility.

Now, let’s talk about the paint job. Back when the pictures of these figures were leaked on Internet, the Captain Britain prototype looked fantastic because all of the red and blue bits seemed to be painted in colored metallic paints. In the production figures, not only the red and blue bits were made in colored metallic paint, but also the white lines on his torso that conform the familiar Union Jack pattern.

Problem is, the pearly white paint used has very poor coverage, so in most of the figures I saw at the stores, the red paint underneath bleed through, making the lines look rather pink.

Add in the inevitable glitches prone to happen while painting such intricate patterns at this scale, and the end results are almost on par with the debacle that was the first waves of Iron Man 2 figures from a couple of years back.

On my figure, the patterns are at least well applied, and there were no glaring paint rubs or wavy lines. The pearly white lines painted on the head and arms were also neat and didn’t have the red bleeding issues found on the torso.

The mouth area is painted in flesh-colored, flat paint which contrasts nicely with the high-gloss finish of the surrounding area. The eyes are left white, but black-lined all around, which adds to the feel of the mask being some sort of helmet.

It is possible to find a fairly decent looking Captain Britain figure, but it requires time and patience. And even then, chances are you’ll end up doing some touch-up work to get a decent-looking figure.

At least, Captain Britain comes with one perfectly good accessory in the Excalibur Sword, the other being a re-painted launcher from the Iron Man 2 line, packaged with a new projectile. Excalibur looks nice, and it’s made from a rather resilient material, but I think it could have benefited from a slight paint wash to bring out the sculpted detail.

It seems that, like Captain Britain himself, Excalibur was fated to be let down by the paint applications received. In the end, I feel that Hasbro was too ambitious with this figure by trying to use the pearly paint instead of plain white, as it obviously didn’t pan out.

Still, the figure construction is solid and the character design is good. If you can’t wait to see if there is a running change addressing the paint quality issues, you can either break out brush and paint pots or keep an eye out for the better painted ones.

Errex Score: 85/100

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Category: Featured, Marvel, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (2)

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  1. Engineernerd says:

    There’s those goofy white numbers painted on a black boot again.

    Great Review! Because of the more real world look of this one, I might have to pick him up.

  2. RT says:

    Great review … I’m a bit of a novice to serious toy collecting, but have taken a liking to any Marvel ‘3.75 figures … For some reason, this figure is still sold in a few different stores in my area, but I always debate on whether or not I should pick him up … After reading your review, I’m still on the fence lol, but I’ll probably give it a go. Thanks for the insight, I’ll continue to go through the other reviews on the site …