HOLIDAY SALE CRAP PART 1: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3

 

I really, really liked Guardians of the Galaxy V3. I’ve seen it three times now. But the figure situation was… weird.

It was one of those lines that dropped, sort of, a month before the movie did, and was announced before that, and then it was just a bunch of blue suits with character heads on them, which was an odd choice, at least before you saw the movie.

The movie put the uniforms in context, and oh, what a context, but by that point, the availability of the figures was, shall we say, scattershot at best? I never saw them on a shelf, and they were at a wide variety of in-stock statuses and price points online.

Then the pre/post-Thanksgiving sales started hitting, and between two retailers, one I don’t usually like to frequent, I could get the entire wave, all seven figures, for $8-$10 less per figure. I could get the whole wave, and end up with the Cosmo build-a-figure on top of it all, for a very reasonable price. So I did.

The core five are Perfectly Acceptable Hasbro Movie Figures. Decent articulation that you wish had a BIT more range of motion than they do, solid sculpts and paint jobs, and Hasbro’s face-scanning and printing that gives you very good likenesses in the heads. The bodies are of course a bit samey and plain because of the uniforms, but the other two/three figures in the wave provide a little variety.

Adam Warlock is nifty, and movie-accurate, although he does have that thing so many Marvel Legends movie figs have - they accurately match the costume colors, but because it’s not lit like a movie or post-processed like a movie, the end result can end up looking a bit low-contrast and less dynamic. But another solid figure, especially on sale. And then…

Kraglin and Cosmo! These are both great. Kraglin’s got the elaborate Yondu’s Crew Ravager gear, with the coat and such, a dead-on head sculpt, and two arrows - one plain that fits in a holster, and one with an effect that fits over his wrist and makes for a very dynamic look. 

And Cosmo, despite the combined limited articulation of animals in general and Build-A-Figures in general, is, in fact, a very good dog.

So, yeah, starting out the holiday sales with the Guardians. Turns out I’ll be finishing the holiday sales with them too. But those pics aren’t done yet.