Written By Dan Hickman • Toy Editor
Hasbro continues to up the ante with the MCU Disney+ figure assortments. This wave is based on the wildly popular What If? Animated Series on Disney+. Today we are going to discuss the absolutely incredible Zombie Captain America figure.
What If?… Zombies is the 5th episode of the animated What If? Series and what an episode it is!!!
Hank Pym after searching for nearly 30 years for his missing wife, Janet, finds her in the Quantum Realm.
Unfortunately, she has been infected by a quantum virus, effectively turning her into a mindless, flesh craving zombie.
She infects Hank and both of them are pulled back into the normal universe by Ant-Man and The Wasp.. Ant-Man is infected, but the Wasp escapes.
Soon, the zombie virus ravages the country and when the Avengers show up to combat the threat, they too are overwhelmed and infected.
Moving through the episode, the survivors, including Bruce Banner, Spider-Man, Bucky, and Sharon Carter are searching for a cure to the disease.
They receive a beacon from Fort Lehigh, the former SHIELD base, fight their way through the train station and commandeer their transport.
Unbeknownst to them, a Zombified Captain America lies in wait and ambushes the train.
He infects Sharon and his former partner Bucky must now end the threat.
The two begin to fight and Cap throws his shield at Bucky, who catches it, and flings it back at his former ally, The shield wedges itself in Cap’s midsection and the frame of the open train door.
Slowly, the Zombie Cap is cleaved in half and falls in pieces to the train tracks below.
Review: Marvel Legends What If? Wave Zombie Captain America 6 Inch Action Figure
The Hasbro Marvel Legends Zombie Captain America is just plain awesome!
This figure comes in the What If? Uatu Build A Figure Wave and is one of the better entries in the series.
I have already reviewed the Zombie Hunter Spider-Man from this wave and really liked it.
I have, recently, completed this wave of figures, so you will see reviews on the rest of the figures.
Let’s get back to Cap. He has a lot of good going for him, so let’s get into the review and see if he can earn the triple A for Accessories, Appearance, and Articulation.
Zombie Cap is part of the Uatu BAF wave, but only comes with his shield.
I was surprised it didn’t have a BAF piece, but also didn’t really expect it to come with anything else other than the shield.
He’s a zombie, what more does he need?
Usually a lack of accessories or a minimal amount virtually guarantees no “A” for accessories.
In this case, though, he comes with exactly what he needs.
I will admit that I’m a bit disappointed with the quality of the shield, which I’ll discuss shortly.
Zombie Cap earns his A for the only accessory he needs.
How does he look? OH MAMA!!! What he missed on accessories he makes up for in appearance.
The dirty, ripped, and bloody costume looks incredible.
I don’t even know where to begin, honestly.
The green hued skin tone is sickly and looks GREAT!
The injuries, rotted flesh, visible bones, and holes through his legs are amazing examples of skilled sculpting.
His costume is torn and tattered over the entirety of the figure and is so impressive to look at.
I can’t even begin to compliment the attention to detail on this figure.
All of the metallic components on his costume, A on his helmet, Star on his chest, buckles on his belt and shoulder straps are painted a rust color, to indicate the deterioration of the character and even the unbuckled chin strap dangling from his helmet is a nifty, unexpected touch.
His teeth and gums are painted beautifully and as mentioned early, the exposed muscle flesh and bone are grisly yet satisfying to look at.
The fact that he retains the tattered remnants of one glove and one full boot are also nice touches, clinging to the Star Spangled Avenger, even though his humanity is irretrievably lost.
I just cannot get over how much care was put into creating this figure and I tip my hat to the artists and sculptors that made it.
My only real complaint, if you could call it that, is the shield.
We’ve seen this shield before, but this time it’s cast in red plastic with the silver and blue trim painted on.
My disappointment arises from the fact that the silver on the star shows too much red and the blue isn’t nearly the shade we’re used to.
It’s disappointing to see a red outline around the star.
I’m not bothered by the use of purple paint to signify blood on both the figure and the shield.
Highly oxygenated blood is bright red, but deoxygenated is a darker hue, sometimes leading to the mistaken belief that blood turns blue.
In this case my take on this purplish blood is that it is the darker, deoxygenated blood clinging to his body and shield before drying fully to a dirty brown, almost gray shade. I even love the orangish tint to his midsection, indicating discolored blood stains. (At least, that’s how I am choosing to view it.)
I would have liked to see some more blood detail on the back of the figure as was applied to the front.
That being said, this figure looks so good and very easily earns his A for appearance!
Review: Marvel Legends What If? Wave Zombie Captain America 6 Inch Action Figure
I like the way you move…
We know that Hasbro Legends typically have solid articulation, maybe not as good as the imports, but certainly better than most of the other domestic action figures out there.
This figure, in my opinion, has stepped very close to the realm of import because his articulation is nothing short of impressive!
His head looks up very far, down very far, turns side to side with ease and has an amazing head tilt… you can give him the awkward zombie head hang and it looks so cool!
His shoulders are not on butterfly joints, but will rotate 360 degrees and both arms can raise higher than a T pose!
The bicep swivel works nicely and the pinless tech elbows bend in very far.
His wrists hinge and turn easily, which allows you to pose him, looking like he’s broken his wrists, or with the shield dangling from a hand.
He has a diaphragm cut on a ball joint which allows his upper torso to tilt forward and back very nicely, pivot, hinge, and tilt side to side.
When Legends consistently apply this style of upper body articulation to their figures, they approach the level of import quality.
I would have liked to have also seen a lower diaphragm crunch, but the waist pivot looks really good as the floating belt doesn’t hinder anything.
I guess when your tendons are decaying, doing splits is much easier.
Zombie Cap can’t hit the full 180, but he does splits better than many of the Spider-Man figures I’ve reviewed before!
He has an upper thigh cut, pinless jointed knees which bend as deep as the elbows, bringing heel to lower back and ankles that both hinge and rock nicely.
The booted foot also has the added bonus of having a boot cut for further leg articulation.
Flexible Zombie Cap earns an A for articulation and my praise for the increased quality of motion that Hasbro is putting forth.
I know that the main reasons for the higher prices for import figures are typically due to the amount of accessories and quality of the figures, and we are very fortunate to get amazing domestic products for sometimes one quarter of the price.
I will say that when Hasbro puts the effort into figures they way they’ve done with this Zombie Captain America, I would be willing to pay $10 or $15 more if they were packed with a bit more accessories.
We see the Deluxe Legends figures that come with really cool goodies and generally run about $15 more than the regular figures.
I’m ok with that.
If Hasbro started to create and pack comparable to their import counterparts, and the product was $35 to $40 rather than the usual $19.99, I’m willing to pay those prices.
Hasbro is showing they can compete with the foreign companies and we, the collectors are the beneficiaries of this.
I received Zombie Cap as a Christmas Gift, but he typically retails at around $20-$22 and with that price point and all the great things about him, I’m happy to give him an almost perfect 4.75 toyboxes out of 5.
He easily falls in my top 3 favorite Marvel Legends of 2021, and can be found with the rest of the Marvel Legends What if? figures at Big Bad Toy Store.
Thanks for checking out the toybox and, until next time… Geek Out!
Related: Marvel Legends What If…? Wave Zombie Hunter Spidey 6 Inch Action Figure
