MARVEL HANDFUL OF HEROES REVIEW!

MARVEL HANDFUL OF HEROES!!!
KAPOW! IN EVERY PACK!!!

StandardGroup.jpg 126.85K 42 downloads

Stats
Company: Hasbro
Year: 2009
Size: Approximately 1 1/4" to 2 1/4" Inches tall (give or take depending on sculpt and pose)
Price: $5.96 a Pack (Wal-Mart Stores)
Packaging: Small Blister Card (7 Figures visible, 1 figure in Secret box with Spy Slit)

Glittergroup1.jpg 132.06K 26 downloads

Well, I waited patiently since the announcement of this new promising miniatures line, and my patience paid off! I found an adequate assortment of these guys at one of my local Wal-Marts, and purchased 16 packs! I don't mean to at all take away from Misterdroid's review, and hope this review stands on it's own. So lets get on with the show!!!

Sculpt: 5/5

Where the Crap do I start on this Rating?!!!!?? 40 sculpts I could rate or choose from, but you guys have ADD problems so I have to cut it short. Who should I choose? Hmm.... Well first I'll say this regardless, all 40 sculpts are top notch in their own way! Despite their size they have PLENTY of detail, and accurate detailing to boot! Great symmetry is found in just about all the sculpts as well! Details from head to toe! Impeccable sculpting talents are showcased here! I tried to take as many pics as I could, and as clear as I could, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves. I'll take more upon request if I can.

Abomin1.jpg 128.16K 9 downloads

Abomin2.jpg 128.81K 8 downloads

Abomin3.jpg 139.04K 5 downloads

Angel1.jpg 123.1K 8 downloads

Angel2.jpg 169.64K 4 downloads

Angel3.jpg 147.22K 3 downloads

Colossus1.jpg 150.07K 4 downloads

Colossus2.jpg 92.42K 2 downloads

HulkBust2.jpg 104.8K 8 downloads

Gladhulk.jpg 106.95K 7 downloads

Gladhulk1.jpg 134.7K 4 downloads

Warhulk.jpg 113.51K 4 downloads

Rhin1.jpg 106.98K 7 downloads

Rhin2.jpg 99.45K 7 downloads

Venom1.jpg 99.71K 13 downloads

Venom2.jpg 114.28K 12 downloads

Venom3.jpg 112.92K 5 downloads

~~Paint Applications:~~ Color Variations: 3/5

Well, so they don't have Paint Applications. However each sculpt comes in 3 different colors variations....I guess. It's really hard to figure out. Of course you have the Solid Colors (Black, Light Green, Dark Green, Light Blue, Dark Blue, Light Red, Dark Red, Maroon, Lavender, and Yellow). But each color group of figures also come in Clear and Clear with Glitter. So far I'm only missing 2 Glittered colors from their respective color groups, so I can't compare those yet. But of the ones I have right now these are the things I've noticed.

Light Blue - The Clear figures here are almost identical, but the Blue on the glittered versions are a slightly darker hue. Very subtle, but I guess a different color.

Furys.jpg 139.19K 25 downloads
Light Green- The differences are a little more obvious here, as the Glitter Green has a darker center to it.

WarHulks.jpg 135.08K 22 downloads
Dark Green - The Dark color is hard to determine, but the Glitter versions here are still a tad darker than the Clear.

Doom1.jpg 133.7K 19 downloads
Black - The Black is kind of strange. After all how much darker can you make a clear black figure? Well the Glitter Black here looks like a mixture of Clear and Solid. It has a Ghost like appearance. The Clear Black is more glossy, and the Glitter Black has more of a matte to it, but is still semi-Translucent.

BlackPanther1.jpg 129.94K 25 downloads

BlackPanther2.jpg 147.59K 14 downloads
Yellow - Yellow is one of the more obvious ones to me. The Clear Yellow is a brighter orange color, where as the Glitter is much darker. This is so far my favorite color! I think it is because it reminds me of the Orange Ghost I used to have that came with my Ghostbusters Ecto I back when I was a kid.

Sabretooth.jpg 113.65K 24 downloads
Dark Red - This one is pretty hard to see for me. They really almost look like the same colored plastic, but the Glitter version is actually a itsy bitsy bit darker. I had to look pretty hard though.

Deadpool1.jpg 140.78K 22 downloads
Maroon - Probably my second favorite color so far. The Clear and Glitter look like the same color to me, but I guess the Glitter could be a tad darker....this is just about the most difficult color to tell any difference......I still don't see it. :huh:

HulkBuster1.jpg 152.86K 30 downloads
Lavender - This color is just weird. The first thing I thought of with the color and sculpts were Monster In My Pocket. I think they came in this color. It's my least favorite color so far, but it also has a very strange appeal to it....but anyway. The Clear colors here are a big jump from the Solid Lavender color. They both are more of a Dark Blue if anything. However again the Glitter color appears to be darker.

Lavender1.jpg 133.68K 38 downloads

I don't have Glitter colors for either the Light Red or Dark Blue groups yet so I can't compare them. But sure, there appears to be 3 colors for each sculpt, but some are very subtle. I think they could have tried harder personally. But at least I don't have to worry about breaking the Marvel Handful of Heroes Color Code. :lol:

It's pretty much laid out for me on the Poster.

Light_Red1.jpg 138.62K 21 downloads

DarkBlue1.jpg 148.64K 16 downloads

Articulation: N/A Nothing to see here, But more PICTURES!!! :woot:

Abominations.jpg 134.57K 10 downloads

Beast.jpg 119.23K 4 downloads

Beasts.jpg 135.76K 4 downloads

Cap.jpg 104.83K 6 downloads

Colors.jpg 146.51K 13 downloads

Cyclopsclear.jpg 112.25K 6 downloads

Accessories????: 3/5

Well, there are no accessories really, but every pack comes with a 10 x 15 inch Play Mat/Checklist Poster. Though the purpose of the Play Mat is not fully explained, there is a small picture on the mat that pretty much explains it. One side of the Mat has 6 circles with symbols representing the most popular Marvel Hero Franchises side by side surrounded by art of said heroes. A large Yellow arrow points toward the opposite side of the Mat where a Bowling Pin formation of 6 other symboled circles are surrounded by popular villains. Essentially the point of this little game is flick your heroes from their circles toward your buddies heroes in order to knock them over. Well, I guess If I were a kid, I'd find some way to enjoy this, but as it stands that I am a collector first, the Poster side of the Mat is of much more interest.
All 40 sculpts are clearly represented on this side of the Mat with the names of each character below them, with an illustrated image of the characters present beside each figure. So if you happen to buy a bunch of packs, you can essentially have tons of expendable Posters or Play Mats at your fingertips! Which I've found to be kind of nice so far. Well the poster gets these guys a point for each side in the accessories department, cause it is actually useful. And the fact that you get 8 figures per pack nets these guys another point in my book.

Red_Hulks1.jpg 145.29K 17 downloads

Juggernaut1.jpg 144.68K 15 downloads

Goblin1.jpg 154.22K 14 downloads

Quality: 4/5

It was really hard to decide how I should go with this rating. After all I usually grade Action Figures where the articulation quality is of key importance to my rating method. Also since paint Applications aren't present I can't really grade that either! So what can I grade?
Plastic Quality! These figures are nice and solid! I really can't describe the plastic easily. I personally can't think of any other mini figures that would be similar to the Plastic used. After All, most of the miniatures from the 80's were made of a softer plastic, brittle plastic, or dense vinyl, etc. There was plenty of give in most of those older lines. However these guys are hard...but not as hard as lets say... Plastic Army men or Dinosaurs. It feels like something new to me. The smaller parts extending off some figures such as Wolverine's claws, Doc. Oct's Tentacles, or Dooms Hammer have some minor give, and I havn't noticed any appearance of stress marks just from lightly bending these pieces. So the plastic Hasbro used is top Notch. However I know just as well as you do, that after many years, and plenty of chewing and playing, we will see lots of these guys with missing pieces just like MUSCLES commonly have today. But really, I think that's the fun of these things. I hope they are a hit, cause I like the thought of kids today having the same kind of fun with their figures as we had back in the day.
Also of important note is the flashing. We know that with use and age figure molds start to wear down and extreme flashing around the sculpts can occur. The line isn't that old yet, but Right off the bat something I found commendable was the extreme lack of flashing! Just look at the pictures! These guys are Clean as a whistle! This adds to the sculpting and is an exemplary quality for such small figures. I did get an Absorbing Man with part of the Runner (overflow point) still attached.

ABManDefect.jpg 134.67K 17 downloads
I guess another good point to bring up would be balance. These guys are small, and some sculpts are rather large, or have tiny feet. So it's obvious that Hasbro took great care in finding ways to balance the sculpts before production to ensure that 99.9% of manufactured products would be able to stand on their own! And they sure do! Out of 16 packs and 128 figures so far, only 2 won't stand, and both were NightCrawler Sculpts. And I personally believe this was the way they were placed in the packaging, where the feet slightly bent out of shape. So I'm not sure what kind of production process the Factories use to ensure a lack of warping to the figures after molding, but it works. We all know that many a MUSCLE just wouldn't stand either due to flash points or bent legs and feet. These guys really don't have these problems as of yet.

NC.jpg 104.76K 15 downloads
Lastly, I would like to note something about the Clear and Glitter figures. I havn't pinpointed it yet. But on occasion I have noticed Clear figures, with small pieces of Glitter in their bodies. I can only imagine that this is due to a lack of injector purging. :unsure:

Either that or these Clear figures are actually Glitter versions where the glitter mixture was not very well controlled. So I guess there are some slight variations available in these colors due to quality control, and this appears to be pretty common. The most confusing so far is an extra Nick Fury from the Light Blue Group. Since the color difference is so subtle I can't really tell the difference between this particular figure and a Clear one, as this Fury only has a few Glitter pieces throughout the body. I have another Glitter Fury that has an adequate amount of glitter. So some confusion could be found in these more subtle clear colors if the Glitter ratio is off. But at the moment I'm gonna assume that Injector Purging is the problem, cause we all know how sticky glitter can be.

Nick.jpg 117.03K 14 downloads

Cost: 5/5

I was a bit reserved on how I should rate this section....It's possible that I won't feel the 5 point score is accurate after some time. But first impression, $6 bucks a pack is a great value for 8 Highly detailed sculpts! I think I'm comparing them to modern prices of MUSCLES or other common Little Rubber Guys from years past. As it is, a MUSCLE is worth $.50 cents to a Dollar each. So if you can find these guys between $5 and $6 bucks a pack your getting them for about $.75 cents each! I also thought of lines like Fistful of Power, where, if I remember correctly, only had 5 figures per pack for around the same price. And these packs were short-packed with Rare or Uncommon figures that were not visible....and some figures were completely absent. So Handful of Heroes really takes the cake as far as value, and bang for your buck! I seem to also notice so far that no 1 pack I've seen had 2 of the same sculpt. My rating for the cost of this line may decrease over time as these figures become more and more common. At the moment, I don't see them retaining their after market value immediately, but I could very well be wrong.

DarkRed.jpg 130K 13 downloads

LightGreen.jpg 129.59K 9 downloads

Maroon2.jpg 153.62K 15 downloads

Availability: 2/5

Right now, very few of us have been able to find these things available at Retail Brick and Mortar stores. I don't know why, but the distribution has been really hit and miss. There are folks in California who have these in stock in some stores, but other stores in the same areas won't have them. Also over here on the East Coast the same problem has occurred. I searched a good 5 other Wal-Mart stores, a few Targets, and Toys'R'Us, and only one Wal-mart store had these out. I even was able to check a few stock sheets, and saw no pegs devoted to Handful of Heroes or the sometimes labeled "Marvel Punkz". So who knows what's up. Hopefully this will change soon. As for online retailers, they seem to be a dime a dozen, but HIGHLY overpriced. My advice unless money is of no importance to you, is to wait till they are locally available, or pick up your favorite sculpts from other members who have extras.

Cool Factor: 5/5

With a pretty good starting selection of Heroes and Villains already available in this first wave, who knows what we may get in the next wave! So far we have 40 unique sculpts and 30 different characters. And some of the most famous and popular characters are represented in this first wave. As the package indicates, you literally get KAPOW! In every pack.

And with guys like Beast, Thing, Doom, Venom, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, and the Juggernaut rounding out your team, you can't go wrong at all! ...Did I mention War Machine and magneto? :unsure:

DeadP.jpg 106.62K 6 downloads

Doom.jpg 123.4K 8 downloads

Hulk.jpg 111.45K 10 downloads

HulkBust.jpg 169.62K 6 downloads

Jugger.jpg 113.85K 8 downloads

RedHulk.jpg 111.3K 4 downloads

rine1.jpg 108.96K 7 downloads

Warmach.jpg 118.82K 14 downloads

IMn.jpg 94.32K 7 downloads

Average Score: 3.85/5

A pretty honest score for a pretty awesome group of new Little Rubber Guys! Even if you only want one of each sculpt, all three colors of specific sculpts, or the whole set, you can't go wrong with picking up a few of these figure packs. Heck even if you don't like em after that, just give to your kids! (Ages 4+)

I'm sure they will enjoy them. This line has great potential and collect-ability as well! Hasbro has the opportunity to do something we only hoped for with MUSCLES back in the 80's! A Line with new sculpts released in each wave! Hasbro already stated that they have more in the works, and although a Wave 2 hasn't been officially announced, you can help it happen by supporting the line! So at least give a pack a shot when you find them, if they are affordable. Personally I love the little Secret box with the spy slit, you can try to figure out who's in there, and sometimes you still can't be sure...unless you bring a flashlight with you to the store. :rolleyes:

But this line has Variety and durability to boot. I'm sure we will be finding these things in the bottom of cardboard boxes at fleamarkets, yardsales, and thrift stores for years to come. :yes: