Review – Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes

Manufacturer: Hasbro * Year: 2009 * Ages: 4+

So those M.U.S.C.L.E. fans in the audience have probably already heard about these little 1.5″ to 2″ tall Marvel Universe toys. Those of you who aren’t familiar with the M.U.S.C.L.E. should hop on over to Nathan’s M.U.S.C.L.E. Page and then come back. For the three or four M.U.S.C.L.E. fans who aren’t aware of the new Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes toy series . . . well, you guys may just find something here that you need to grab. Now.

Or, if you’re like me, you may find something that’s a cute toy but not one that’s cute enough to collect.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Packaging

Eight tiny plastic toys crammed into your typical blister on card packaging, the Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes come randomly packed eight to a card. The graphics are clean, the layout decent, and overall there’s nothing great or terrible about the packaging design. It’s not so gorgeous that you’re gonna want to display a sealed pack but neither is it so ugly that you’ll shriek in horror. Workhorse packaging design. Just enough to get the figures onto store shelves.

It is nice to see that the photos of the toys on the card back aren’t all that great. I had some trouble shooting the clears and I don’t feel so bad about the quality of my shots when they’re compared to what’s on the card back. After all, I’m using less than $300 in photography equipment to take my shots and I bet the Hasbro art department has way more than $300 in equipment.

Clear toys are just difficult to photograph.

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Click to enlarge the image.


The Itty Bitty Toys

The toys themselves are single-color pieces of plastic, a total of 40 different designs each one of which has been released in three different colors. I’ve no idea which colors are rarer than others, but I promise you that anyone trying to collect all 120 figures may very well go insane; you see, one figure in each pack cannot be seen until the pack is open. So when you decide to collect these guys you should expect to spend time trying to trade, since finding all 120 by buying pack after pack could become very expensive, very fast. At 8 figures for $6 these aren’t a bad deal, but be careful that you don’t go insane. Moderation, boys. Moderation.

In my pack I got . . .

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Click to enlarge the image.


Abomination – Mine is — appropriately enough — green, even if he’s a clear green. The sculpt is a little rough, as are the sculpts for many of the toys in this series, but it’s perfectly acceptable for a little desktop trinket.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Armageddon – Cast in translucent blue/gray, Armageddon has a nice, crisp sculpt that’s pretty much at the high end of what I’ve seen so far for this series. I’m not sure how well these toys would take paint, but a minis gamer could no doubt turn this particular figure into a beautiful piece (if he was an excellent painter).

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Click to enlarge the image.


Black Panther – My least favorite figure out of this bunch, I dislike that they sculpted him in a crouched position. Smokey translucent plastic with silver flakes, the Black Panther has an okay sculpt but he doesn’t excite me at all. I would have rather had a Hulkbuster Iron Man.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Dr. Doom – You know, Doom’s body and cape are pretty good, but his face brings the sculpt down from a “pretty good” to an “ehhhh.” I know it’s tough working on tiny stuff like this, but the rest of the body is so good that the face is a real disappointment.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Hawkeye – The classic Avenger, Hawkeye is one of the weaker sculpts, with most of his detail quite soft and little green army man like in its execution. The face, especially, is buttery and without any decent definition.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Iron Man – There’s a lot of detail packed into this tiny sculpt, with the face the only area that looks like it could have used more work (I’m seeing a trend here). Take a look at the wire/thigh detail in the photo above and then keep in mind that this toy is between 1.5″ and 2″ tall.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Juggernaut – Hey, even his face isn’t all that bad! Juggernaut is in his classic costume and looks almost great, with the only real problem being a little more flash on the seam line than I’ve seen on the other toys in this series. Juggernaut proves that scale isn’t important to this line, since his toy stands just a hair shorter than Iron Man.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Sabretooth – This cheap Wolverine knock-off character is a bit ugly and is definitely my (second) least favorite in the collection. Ug. Ug. Ugly.

The “Game” “Board”

So the packaging promises “Kapow! in Every Pack” and I had no idea what that meant until I unfolded the included poster. One side is a checklist showing photos of all of the toys while the second side, shown below, is a “game” “board” (I put each word in quotes because this is so very lame) without any instructions beyond a drawing of kids flicking the toys at each other.

I guess the game is: Line up your toys. Shoot your toys at the opposing toys. Try not to take an eye out.

Lame.

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Click to enlarge the image.


Closing Thoughts

I was excited about these when I first saw them in stores but, after a little time with them, my excitement wore off. I’m not a fan of the hard plastic — even if that does mean the toys stand very well — and the sculpts and sizes vary so much that the quality of each toy is almost random.

The pack I bought wasn’t a waste, since these are cute enough that they’ll look posed in my collection, but unless you’re a major fan of tiny toys without articulation — gumball machine figure collectors will absolutely love these — I think you can pass on this series.

Until it hits clearance. Once you start seeing these for $3 a pack then have at it and go crazy. At that price they would be a steal. At $6/pack they’re just not good enough.

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Click to enlarge the image.



Philip Reed thought he was gonna need a bunch of these but, now that he has played with them for a week, they aren’t quite as cool as they looked at first. These guys are cute, but not cute enough to try to collect a set.

15 thoughts on “Review – Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes

  1. I haven’t seen these in my neighborhood yet, but I was looking forward to at least a pack or two, since I want a Nightcrawler and I always need more toys for my desk at work.

    And clearance is a double-edged sword: I got them dirt cheap to start, but now I’m almost interested in DC Infinite Heroes figures. Almost.

  2. I’ve been passing up the DC Universe Infinite Heroes toys on clearance because $3/figure is still too much for them. That entire series makes me sad since it’s so spotty and mostly just bad.

  3. Great review! The concept behind the toyline is awesome: a huge number of sculpts, fun monochromatic colors, and a reasonable price per pack. I’m never a fan of blind packaging, though. Even though only one figure per pack is blind-packed, I bet they set aside a set number of figures that would only be available as blind-packed figures so obsessive collectors would blow all their money on trying to get them.

    As much as I like this line, I’m just not that into the Marvel universe. I’d be all over these things if they were DC characters.

  4. Hmmm… these look kinda neat. I don’t think I’d be down for collecting these guys, but I do like that tiny Juggernaut. 🙂

    $3 per DCIH does seem like a bit much, but I think the $5 for the three-packs is quite acceptable.

  5. @Nathan – I prefer Marvel to DC, overall, but there are a few DC characters that I wish I could get as decent 3.75-inch action figures. Too bad Hasbro doesn’t have the DC license, because I would love a great 3.75-inch Clayface to fight my Hulk. Actually, a pack with every character ever called Clayface would be perfect for me in almost any scale.

  6. Bah. I am torn… I have no attachment to this kind of figure unless I was going to paint them, but the basitds seem to have used the Heroes Reborn armor for the Iron Man fig, which means I must own all three color versions plus one to paint, because I am a sucker.

  7. I think the game is like “Marvel Bowling” and you put the appropriate character on the appropriate sign and then try to flick them over.

  8. I did get my pack with Nightcrawler this weekend–he has tiny little feet, and the one I got anyway won’t stand. Probably wait for price cuts before I get any more, but I got a Hulkbuster IM!

    And yeah, three bucks for most DCIH is too much, unless you love the character; but I’ve picked up a bunch for 75 cents a pop! Try Kmarts or TJ Maxx, there should be a mess of cheap, cheap ones.

  9. New poster, Long time reader. I bought one of these at K-Mart, got Venom, Doc Ock, Hulkbuster, World War Hulk, Armeggedon (who?), Hawkeye, the one blue Wolverine, and Colossus. It’s a nice series, I hope for more Spidey villians in series 2. I’m hoping that theyre only 5.99 at K-Mart, since they overprice toys.

  10. @CompyRex – Hey, welcome to posting! I’m jealous, I didn’t get a Hulkbuster. Maybe I need to go dig around and see if I can spot a Hulkbuster in one of the packs because that’s a figure I would enjoy.

    Actually, a 3.75-inch Hulkbuster for the Marvel Universe line would be even better.

  11. I went to a few Walmarts and They dont have them yet. I would like to get a pack or 2 just to have a few but they dont move me like the old M.U.S.C.L.E men did.

  12. These have me so intrigued, but I can’t justify the price for what I get. If they make later waves involving Moon Knight and Deadpool, then I will definitely have a go.

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