DSC_6287
Once upon a time, there was a Disney backed toyline known as Infinity, which strived to take a chunk of the "Game to life" market away from the market leading Amiibo by Nintendo. Utilizing a video game that worked in conjunction with little statues (each sold separately), Disney would go on to create entries for many of the properties it had access to, such as the Avengers, Stars Wars, and of course, the countless Disney movies themselves. Disney made it up to Infinity 3.0, only to learn that it takes more than just variety of statues to make for an endearing game experience. Sales were not at the level they liked, so Disney scrapped the line and liquidated all outstanding stock at it's various dealers.
While the Infinity story didn't end in a good way, it DID allow for the birth of something else: the Disney Toybox line.
You see, the one saving grace of the Infinity line is that it introduced toys with an interesting aesthetic. To put it in laymans terms, they took existing characters and Pixar-ed them. Someone at Disney saw the potential of toys utilizing this art style, and a line of action figures was developed. It's now been two years since the Toybox line was announced, and there does not seem to be any slowing down.
My first purchase of the line was, surprise, the Black Widow which was a combination of her Avengers hair coupled her Civil War outfit and weaponry from Infinity War. But it was a kids toy so the lack of adherence to one particular Widow wasn't a big deal. As mentioned, it was the art style that really sold the figure to me because from a technical perspective and quality provided, it's really just alright.
Fast forward about 2 years, and I have introduced a second figure into the line up - Captain Marvel, which I learned about while browsing Instagram.
These figures are only available through the Disney Store (well, officially anyway) which makes buying them somewhat of a pain. Fortunately, living in Toronto, I have access to no less than 4 physical locations, which is great because if I had to pay shipping I'd probably have zero figures. Price wise, they're in between a basic Hasbro figure and a Legends. They're slighly smaller than a Figuarts, and as such are definitely shorter than a Legends figure.
This Captain Marvel figure is based more on the comic character rather than the Brie Larson version, as evidenced by the uniform and the hair, though who knows, maybe the artists used some Endgame screen caps as inspiration. The set comes with the figure, helmeted and unhelmeted head, as well as Goose with tentacle attachment. I feel that these figures are a good example of the "less is more" mentality, as the highly simplified designs with bright colours are definitely more attractive to me than the Legends stuff.
Articulation isn't going to win any awards, but to be fair, it's not like they were aiming for highly articulated with these releases. Officially, each figure has 14 points of articulation, which include ankles, single jointed knees that can rotate, hips, waist, standard should, single jointed elbows that can rotate, rotating wrists, and head joint. While there are head options, there are no hands to swap out. You can get some decent poses out of the figure, but overall it's on par with what you'd get out of your Legends figures, though I think the knees on the Legends would be better due to their double jointed nature.
Paint is.. well, it's mass marketed Disney Store merch. It's functional, but definitely not what I would call pretty. Due to budget cuts, Disney didn't even bother painting the lips on the helmeted sculpt, something I tried to rectify with a Sharpie to mixed results, but lets face it, a paint app by Disney might be just as bad anyway. But hey, I think I should get credit for at least choosing a red that works with the figure quite well. The average to below average expectations extend to the quality of the materials used as well, though at the very least the Toybox figures don't suffer from the weak knees of the Hasbro figures.
Overall, the bodies come out alright, but I feel that the sculpting and finishes on the heads themselves are actually batting above their weight class, even if they're missing a paint app or two, thanks to the large expressive eyes that generally are finished decently on all figures that I've seen.
Goose doesn't really do much other than stand there, but he's a neat addition to the set. I guess some flaming fists effects would have been nice, but they would have had to make two unique designs seeing how Captain Marvel has two different hands.
So that was a very quick overview of the Disney Toybox line and Captain Marvel herself. If you're a fan of any Disney property and you like action figures, I highly recommend that you at least check these figures out. For me, they certainly aren't good enough quality and articulation wise to be a main collectible, but as a companion piece to higher end figures or perhaps as a travel companion piece for some photography, they fit the bill quite well.
DSC_6287
Once upon a time, there was a Disney backed toyline known as Infinity, which strived to take a chunk of the "Game to life" market away from the market leading Amiibo by Nintendo. Utilizing a video game that worked in conjunction with little statues (each sold separately), Disney would go on to create entries for many of the properties it had access to, such as the Avengers, Stars Wars, and of course, the countless Disney movies themselves. Disney made it up to Infinity 3.0, only to learn that it takes more than just variety of statues to make for an endearing game experience. Sales were not at the level they liked, so Disney scrapped the line and liquidated all outstanding stock at it's various dealers.
While the Infinity story didn't end in a good way, it DID allow for the birth of something else: the Disney Toybox line.
You see, the one saving grace of the Infinity line is that it introduced toys with an interesting aesthetic. To put it in laymans terms, they took existing characters and Pixar-ed them. Someone at Disney saw the potential of toys utilizing this art style, and a line of action figures was developed. It's now been two years since the Toybox line was announced, and there does not seem to be any slowing down.
My first purchase of the line was, surprise, the Black Widow which was a combination of her Avengers hair coupled her Civil War outfit and weaponry from Infinity War. But it was a kids toy so the lack of adherence to one particular Widow wasn't a big deal. As mentioned, it was the art style that really sold the figure to me because from a technical perspective and quality provided, it's really just alright.
Fast forward about 2 years, and I have introduced a second figure into the line up - Captain Marvel, which I learned about while browsing Instagram.
These figures are only available through the Disney Store (well, officially anyway) which makes buying them somewhat of a pain. Fortunately, living in Toronto, I have access to no less than 4 physical locations, which is great because if I had to pay shipping I'd probably have zero figures. Price wise, they're in between a basic Hasbro figure and a Legends. They're slighly smaller than a Figuarts, and as such are definitely shorter than a Legends figure.
This Captain Marvel figure is based more on the comic character rather than the Brie Larson version, as evidenced by the uniform and the hair, though who knows, maybe the artists used some Endgame screen caps as inspiration. The set comes with the figure, helmeted and unhelmeted head, as well as Goose with tentacle attachment. I feel that these figures are a good example of the "less is more" mentality, as the highly simplified designs with bright colours are definitely more attractive to me than the Legends stuff.
Articulation isn't going to win any awards, but to be fair, it's not like they were aiming for highly articulated with these releases. Officially, each figure has 14 points of articulation, which include ankles, single jointed knees that can rotate, hips, waist, standard should, single jointed elbows that can rotate, rotating wrists, and head joint. While there are head options, there are no hands to swap out. You can get some decent poses out of the figure, but overall it's on par with what you'd get out of your Legends figures, though I think the knees on the Legends would be better due to their double jointed nature.
Paint is.. well, it's mass marketed Disney Store merch. It's functional, but definitely not what I would call pretty. Due to budget cuts, Disney didn't even bother painting the lips on the helmeted sculpt, something I tried to rectify with a Sharpie to mixed results, but lets face it, a paint app by Disney might be just as bad anyway. But hey, I think I should get credit for at least choosing a red that works with the figure quite well. The average to below average expectations extend to the quality of the materials used as well, though at the very least the Toybox figures don't suffer from the weak knees of the Hasbro figures.
Overall, the bodies come out alright, but I feel that the sculpting and finishes on the heads themselves are actually batting above their weight class, even if they're missing a paint app or two, thanks to the large expressive eyes that generally are finished decently on all figures that I've seen.
Goose doesn't really do much other than stand there, but he's a neat addition to the set. I guess some flaming fists effects would have been nice, but they would have had to make two unique designs seeing how Captain Marvel has two different hands.
So that was a very quick overview of the Disney Toybox line and Captain Marvel herself. If you're a fan of any Disney property and you like action figures, I highly recommend that you at least check these figures out. For me, they certainly aren't good enough quality and articulation wise to be a main collectible, but as a companion piece to higher end figures or perhaps as a travel companion piece for some photography, they fit the bill quite well.