Review: Hot Toys 1/6 Scale The Winter Soldier
The Winter Soldier and Captain America are the greatest star-crossed romance in serialized film today. Seriously, the sturm und drang of their relationship is basically what 50 Shades of Grey would be if it were about super soldiers who were frozen and then reanimated decades later. (Note: I have not read 50 Shades of Grey, so I don’t actually know if the preceding statement was accurate. But it feels true.) This morning we showed you pictures of the Hot Toys 1/6th Scale Steve Rogers from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but I actually got my hands on a Hot Toys 1/6th Scale figure of The Winter Soldier himself. By which I mean, Sideshow sent me a figure to review.
First things first, the clothes are amazing. We’ve talked a lot about how much we liked Cap’s stealth suit in the movie, but it was harder to see all the detail on the Winter Soldier’s all black outfit. You can see all the detail on the figure, and it is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen a villain wear. If I met a real life guy in this outfit, I would definitely go out with him, even if he were an intermittently deployed, mind controlled, cryogenically frozen 90 year old super assassin. As always on a Hot Toys figure, the craftsmanship of the miniature outfit is impeccable.
Also impeccable is the Winter Soldier’s flowing mane. As someone who grew up with the terrible molded plastic hair on Ken dolls, the incredible molded plastic hair on this figure is basically miraculous. The face is not quite a perfect likeness of Sebastian Stan (I think it's the cheeks), which might upset you if you have a “Carter Baizen Forever” tattoo on your heart, but it is still a perfectly intimidating iteration of an assassin who would kill you as soon as look at you.
The figure comes with an assortment of weapons, including knives, bayonet, handguns, machine guns, and the gun (rocket launcher?) he used to shoot that bomb under Nick Fury’s car. There are directions for where everything goes, but it is pretty easy to figure it out yourself, and much more fun. The figure also comes with an alternate head (one is masked, one is not), as well as three alternate right hands, and three alternate left hands, which is cool, but it requires a lot of force to take them off and put them on. It isn’t super easy to play around with. Also, some of the guns fall out of their holsters pretty easily, so if you actually want to play with this figure (which, let’s be real, most collectors probably don’t), that will be an issue. It isn’t a problem when the figure is just standing still on his display mount.
The instructions give precise angles to use when you remove or move the head and the metal bionic arm to avoid fading the paint, which is considerate, but unfortunately, my mechanical arm doesn’t move at the elbow at all. Each piece is individually cast and assembled by hand, so it is likely that it is an error that won’t be replicated on yours, but I’m reviewing the one they sent me. However, I have not contacted customer service about the problem, and I know that they are very helpful in cases of small problems like this.
The Hot Toys 1/6 Scale Figure Winter Soldier will run you $239.99 and is available now. Click here to see more pictures and details. It’s a great addition to any collector’s shelf, and I’m seriously considering giving myself the gift of a Captain America to go alongside it.
