Marvel Legends Red Skull & Hydra Soldiers

 I'd been interested in a few of the Marvel Legends Super Villains Wave since they dropped months ago, and after cashing in some Amazon points on Red Skull, I hunted down a couple Hydra Soldiers on eBay to flank him in battle. Though several years apart in release, their garish colors complement each other well, looking like they walked right out of a comic book.

You can order a reissue of this figure from Hasbro Pulse for about the same price I paid for these with a slightly different paint and more conventional looking weapons, but I actually like the oversized, green heavy assault rifles these two came with. It fits the figure's comic book aesthetic. Toys 'R Us released a deluxe Hydra Enforcer/Soldier 2pk in 2017 that currently goes for a hefty price on the secondary market as well, if you are really looking into army building. Hasbro has been giving us similar options with A.I.M. soldiers and scientists, and has more recently sold out their Hellfire Club Guard on Hasbro Pulse. My only complaint is the somewhat clumsy ab crunch ratchet, but these Hydra soldiers have really good articulation and look fantastic!

The Marvel NOW! Captain America I picked up back in 2014 was a wave mate of this Hydra Soldier. I didn't start collecting Marvel Legends more earnestly until three years later, ironically while selling some of the Marvel Legends I had sporadically collected in the years prior. That Captain America Wave did have a Red Skull in it, which was basically a Nick Fury in trench coat with Red Skull's head popped on. This more classic Villains Wave Red Skull was huge upgrade, to say the least, and my preferred look for the character.

While I had the Marvel NOW! Captain America out, and Red Skull was being discussed, I thought I'd stand him next to my Contest of Champions Civil Warrior and 80th Anniversary Captain America. 

My Marvel 80th Anniversary Captain America pairs nicely with Red Skull, and is tough enough to take on the head of Hydra and his goons. I've had my eye this Red Skull for many months, and it's great to finally stand him next to Cap! Red Skull came with two extra sets of hands, an alternate head sculpt, tesseract, and machine pistol. An example of Hasbro's most updated buck, this new sculpt is pinless, with wide ranging, smooth articulation. 

Below, Red Skull with my Marvel Legends Iron Skull figure, a fantastic character mashup...

The other Red Skull action figure I have is my ToyBiz Marvel Famous Covers Red Skull. As a childhood fan of Mego World's Greatest Superheroes, I was naturally drawn to this late '90s line of figures featuring soft goods outfits...

And finally, Red Skull pictured below next to some of my other Marvel Legends villains: 

Klaw, Loki, Kang, Doctor Doom, Ultron, and Scourge...

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Marvel Legends Iron Skull

This Marvel Legends Iron Skull caught my eye some time ago- I found mine on eBay, without his alternative Red Skull head, but his Iron Skull mask interested me more really. This is a great character mashup I knew nothing of until seeing figures made after him- I'm mostly sure I have an Iron Skull Lego minifig somewhere in storage.

I found Iron Skull around the same time I bought Scourge, thinking they would be great sparring opponents, or just evil, skull-faced partners. It had been awhile since I'd picked up any marvel Legends, and I found these two unique enough on their own right as action figures.

Marvel Legends Iron Skull Vs. Stealth Strike Mark IV Iron Man!

Personally, I like the build of the Stealth Strike far better than the Mark 42 Iron Man body that Iron Skull is built on- aside from the shoulder armor that likes to pop off, the Stealth Strike Iron Man has sturdier joints due to his superiorly robust plastic. He also has interchangeable set of hands. Iron Skull's armor isn't accurate, but his paint looks good, and I loved the Iron Man helmet painted over with a Red Skull design.

Iron Skull and Stealth Strike Mark Iron Man with Marvel Avengers Battle-Damaged Iron Man...

And because I'm having so much fun, Marvel Legends Iron Skull Vs. 14.5" Legends Series Hulk!

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Captain America Series Red Skull

I started working on this post late in 2011, and am finally getting around to posting it! I'd posted about a few of the other Captain America Series figures around that time, and was partially underwhelmed by this one, moving onto other things. I liked his paint and sculpt okay, but was somewhat frustrated by his articulation, stiff in a lot of the joints, and severely limited in the legs due to his long coat. He does have a cut waist joint that eases the pain somewhat though, and that's nice. Another thing that seemed off was his size, which may be to scale with the other figures in the series, but seemed...  frail on his own. I poke fun at Hasbro for a lot of the action accessories that have been included with the 3 3/4" movie figures, but I kinda like this rocket launcher. At least it fires a projectile, and what's not fun about that?  :D

My favorite included accessory is really this Cosmic Cube, and the reason I took a chance on Red Skull here. For whatever reason, I associate the cube with Thanos, who is associated with the reality-warping matrix along with Doctor Doom and Red Skull. The frequently appearing, fictional object has a long-standing place in the Marvel Universe, going through several reincarnations since it's creation by King of Comics, Jack Kirby. Red Skull's left palm is cupped to hold it, but it merely sits loosely in it.  His right hand grips the German Luger pretty well. I'm not the biggest fan of those hinge/swivel elbows, but they do work.

 The paint apps on this guy are pretty good, particularly the eyes, which look pretty real for being so small. And the tiny buttons and belt buckle are expertly painted as well... a pretty clean overall job, overall. The military green is fine, but I'd have preferred all black with a trenchcoat like Hugo Weaving in the Captain America movie, or even the SDCC Invaders Red Skull for that matter. That said, he's not such a bad action figure- I may have been too opinionated about him at first. See Ewan's fun post on this figure over at Chase Variant!

Let's face it though,  I really wanted the Cosmic Cube for my Marvel Universe Thanos  :D

Let's see how Red Skull and Crossbones fare against Captain America:

Looks like the star-spangled sheild slinger has things well in hand!

What a perfect opportunity for BIGTOY/littletoy! My ToyBiz 9" Famous Covers Red Skull with 3 3/4" Red Skull:

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Famous Covers Captain America & Red Skull by ToyBiz!

I hope you enjoyed my Memorial Day post with the Famous Covers Captain America- now let's take a better look at him along with the Famous Covers Red Skull I got last year...

Cap got a pretty classic treatment from ToyBiz back in the nineties (this one from 1998)- he received a little criticism for both the open mouth & the HUGE star on his chest, though I don't feel those features are anymore exaggerated than the rest of the figure. I quite like him.  My brother, who isn't into toys at all even complimented the doll upon seeing him in my toy case- that says it's good in my book  :)  Without a doubt, the action figures produced by ToyBiz in the 90's looked like toys, and I'm okay with that- they were what they were...

From 2001, Cap's arch nemesis Red Skull is dressed in military style fatigue- not quite "Nazi officer" as I remember from the comics, but appropriate. One of the few figures from this line not dressed in tights, his little suit is fantastic! Great head sculpt on this little fella!

Let the battle of Good Vs. Evil begin!

Uggh! That had hurt! Victory for the good-hearted Captain!

And now just for fun, the only surviving Captain America Comic from my youth: #365, 1989. And who graces the opening splash page? The diabolical Red Skull himself!

Also from my youth, Captain America & Red Skull's bio pages from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe comics series, 1983! Click on the image for a larger view  :)

More Later- Have a GREAT Day!