S.H. Figuarts Thor (Avengers Assemble Edition)

Of the various characters that Tamashii Nations have released in action figure form from the 1st Avengers film, Thor was the one that appealed the most to me. The promo shots looked really good so I pre-ordered him. 

The figure turned out really nice. The sculpt, paint and details are all great. The face sculpts are well done and look like actor Chris Hemsworth. The best part is that his cape now has a bendy wire in it, so you can articulate it in various poses. It looks like Figuarts have finally realized that cloth capes with bendable wires are the way to go, unlike the cumbersome plastic capes that ruined older figures.

The accessories included are really nice. 3 pairs of hands (fists, relaxed and open palms), 2 extra right hands to hold his Mjolnir, his regular Mijolnir, one with lightning effect, spinning Mjolnir, and an alternate face with eyes looking off to the side. This is the next thing that Figuarts needs to work on; giving their movie figures more expressive alternate face / head sculpts, instead of the exact same face with eyes in a different direction. But the effect pieces are nice. The lightning is a translucent blue, and the spinning Mjolnir has a peg in the middle that rotates all around and forwards and backwards, giving you more leeway in how you want to pose it. The shading starts out darker towards the hammer, and gradually gets lighter. This is one of the coolest and most creative effect pieces they’ve done, helping to really bring the God of Thunder to life.

His articulation is decent, though it could’ve been better and is probably the one thing that keeps this figure from being great. Head and neck are on a ball joint. His hair is soft plastic that doesn’t impede rotation. He has ball jointed upper torso and waist that can tilt back far, forward less and just a little bit to the sides. His elbows and knees are single jointed and move in a little further than 90 degrees, with a slight pivot at the elbow joint to help movement. His shoulders and thighs are on ball joints with upper hinges, and his feet can tilt up and down but the side tilt is hardly there and the sculpt of his boots gets in the way. And finally, he sports a toe hinge. If his feet had more side to side tilt range, it would greatly improve any action standing poses you try to put him in. He can still be posed ok, but it will take a bit of work to get him to hold it. 

Besides Infinity War, the Avengers Thor was my other favorite version of the character from the films. Tamashii Nations have released various versions, so you have your pick, as well as various figures from Marvel Legends and Mafex. Other than the somewhat limited articulation, this Thor turned out pretty good. He’s much better than their first attempt at Thor, who looked nothing like the actor and had an awful plastic cape. 

S.H. Figuarts Avengers Assemble Thor is worth getting for the good sculpt, accurate face, wired cloth cape and fun accessories. He can swing his hammer for fun action photos, and the peg for that accessory can also fit into other figures’ hands. Since I own the Endgame battle damage Captain America, that Mjolnir and its effect pieces also pair nicely with this Thor. Though I did note that the handle for the hammer is longer than Thor’s new one.

I’m happy with this figure and he’s the best of the recent Avengers releases. The new Iron Man looks really good, though I’m not a huge fan of that character, and the new Avengers version of Cap looks kinda weird to me, especially the unmasked heads. I’ve seen reviews and the lips look like they weren’t fully painted or something that makes them look off. But this Thor turned out nice, much better then the Loki figure that sported a very weird face. I now have the original long-haired God of Thunder and his mighty hammer to smash his opponents.