Radiation Rocket Leader (Avengers Assemble)

August 18, 2014 | By More


Rad Rocket Leader (6)

 

One thing that actually surprised me about the Avengers Assemble action figure line that comes with the SHIELD Gear, is that they actually included a couple of Marvel villains in the first few waves of figures. One was the Red Skull I reviewed already here, and the second one is the subject of today’s review.

 

Rad Rocket Leader (8)

Most of the pieces in Radiation Rocket Leader actually come from the Skrull Warrior mold we got in the comic-inspired segment of figures from the Avengers line. While the body is the same, the head is a completely new sculpture.

 

The Leader has this rather haughty, elegant facial features that remind me a little bit of classic stage magicians. He also has a really big head, sculpted full of bumps and veins, no doubt intended to serve as a visual manifestation of his gamma-boosted mental prowess.

 

The retro space-jumpsuit look of the body works well with the new head, although articulation is of the slightly reduced variety, as it is composed of:

 

Rad Rocket Leader (3)• Ball jointed head.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows,

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Upper thigh swivels.

• Pegged hinge knees.

 

I find that this articulation scheme works rather well for a character like the Leader, who is more of a thinker than a doer. What is there allows for a fair amount of posing options and the feet are wide enough to afford enough stability in the more dynamic stances.

 

The paintjob on all these figures tends to be rather simple, and in the case of the Leader it takes the form of solid black areas painted over the bright orange plastic used for his uniform.

 

Rad Rocket Leader (5)The head was molded in a medium green colored plastic, with eyes, mustache and eyebrows painted also in black, but with metallic green sclera on both eyes, which gives a pretty unique appearance to the character.

 

With the Radiation Rocket moniker on his name, you can pretty much guess what type of accessory was included with the Leader. It is a spring-loaded projectile launcher that has been used several times already in both the Iron Man 2 and Captain America toy lines.

 

Even though I have no particular affinity for the character, I found the overall appearance to be quite interesting from a retro-kitsch point of view. I mean, a guy with that head dressed in bright colors? It’s an instant classic!. One would expect to see him descending from a flying saucer wielding a ray gun and making demands. Luckily, it is also makes for a pretty decent toy.

 Rad Rocket Leader (7)

Errex Score: 79/100

Rad Rocket Leader (10)

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Category: 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.

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