Holy hell this thing is even bigger than I expected. At a full foot longer than the retail version, this thing really is just about 4 feet long. There was no way I was going to fit this thing in my light booth to take photos, so I apologize for the quality of some of these shots. When I met up with Jason at his house to pick it up, we decided the best way to get photos would be to just open it right there in his garage and try to do the best we could with the lighting. A couple beers later, there may or may not have been a pony-bomb. More giant flying aircraft carriers and shenanigans after the jump.
The packaging for this beast is huge. The outer brown box looks like a case that you would expect to contain two of these carriers, but no, there’s just one in there. The actual packaging for this piece is a nice window box, displaying the Helicarrier (mostly) assembled, with the two included figures visible as well. The artwork on the back of the box, by Joe Quesada, features several heroes and villains duking it out on the Helicarrier deck, including the Masters of Evil (look for that review coming from Brett soon), as well as Whirlwind and Goliath. Despite the weak showing at SDCC, I still think this is a good hint at what may be to come. Overall, this is a really nice piece of packaging, and I almost didn’t want to open it. Almost.
Let’s look at the figures that are included with this set. Captain America is just the Heavy Artillery Cap from last year’s movie line with a repainted USAgent head. It’s actually pretty fugly. His face looks like a can of smashed @$#%&*$. This figure is a throw-away. I guarantee you, nobody bought this Helicarrier for this figure.
The deck features several opening compartments for “weapon storage”, a trap door, a “figure launching” platform, a crane, the comically ridiculous chair with missile launcher, 8 additional missile launchers positioned down the sides of the ship, opening doors and hatches for the “cockpit”, standing platforms with foot pegs for figures on the sides and back, and turbines with spinning “blades”. Unfortunately, they’re not large enough to put Iron Man in. But over all, there’s a lot of functionality and playability here.
The plastic that this is cast from is a much nicer looking, dark gunmetal color, compared to the pale blue-grey of the retail version. Most of the detail is achieved with decals, but the few minor paint details are nice and applied well. This Helicarrier actually came with a sheet of even more decals that were not applied in the package, but I think it looks good as-is, so I haven't applied them.
My only real complaint about this Helicarrier is the lack of additional levels to the playset. I was expecting this to be something similar to the G.I. Joe Pit headquarters, or other vehicle/playset combos where you have opening or expanding levels with different functions and play features. I was kind of surprised to learn when initial reviews of the retail Helicarrier came out that it didn't include anything like this. It's just a single level. I feel like this was a pretty big miss on Hasbro's part, and it definitely doesn't help you feel like you're getting your money's worth with this set.
But over all, I enjoy this piece. I think this SDCC version is definitely a step up from the retail version, which I now have no interest in picking up. The price on this piece is a little tough to swallow, but SDCC exclusives always come at a premium price, and this IS a lot of toy. I don't regret buying it. As of the time of this writing, this version of the Helicarrier is available on HasbroToyShop.com, but don't expect it to be available for much longer. It went out of stock the day these were put online, so what's back up now is only the stock from orders that were canceled.
Bottom line: If you want a toy Helicarrier, this is your best option.
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WTF on the Ponies! It's like an invasion of cute! Perhaps if Hawkeye had employed these guys in his assault, perhaps they would have been more successful.
ReplyDeleteYou know how it goes... sometimes you're sitting around Jason's garage, you've had a few beers, and you realize that friendship is magic.
DeleteThat would be Nick Fury riding Applejack, Black Widow on the pegasus Fluttershy, Maria Hill on the flying Rainbow Dash, and Captain America on Twilight Sparkle! Hawkeye's mount is the lonely Rarity in the background. Clint was unfortunately indisposed deep within the Helicarrier...
DeleteSee, he knows their names!
DeletePony Bombed! Those were for all you Bronies out there... You know we are talking about you Joe. You mad Brony?
ReplyDeleteWhat Hulk did you guys use for your movie Avengers? He's actually a lot closer to scale than that turd Hasbro gave us and I'd like to pick one up if they're still around.
ReplyDeleteIt's from the Incredible Hulk movie line from 2008. That one specifically was part of a Target-exclusive two pack that came with Abomination called "Battle in New York" or something like that. You won't find it in stores any more, but they're still on ebay.
DeleteI can hear Fury, " I'm sick and tired of these *expletive deleted* ponies on this *expletive deleted* Helicarrier!"
ReplyDeleteLOL!
DeleteThat's cool! The downside to living on the other side of the country is that I can't ever get to a SDCC to get these things. :(
ReplyDeleteOne question about the Maria Hill figure, are the knees soft plastic like the knees on the Black Widow figure?
You know, I don't know what the deal is with the knees. I have two open Black Widows, and one has really soft bendy knees and the other does not. Maria's knees seem fine, too. I don't know if they're a different plastic, but they're not bendy.
DeleteMy Little Brony... Friendship is Avenging... or is it Avenging is Magic? Or, Avenging is Friendship?
ReplyDeleteEither way... that's just not right.
It's so many all kinds of right, Joe. Don't hate. You mad Brony?
DeleteI got to order one from HTS when they went back up before the weekend, but I couldn't find a thorough review to 'hit the spot' - Until this one. Awesome images... I wish I had mine in hand!
ReplyDeleteAwesome, glad I could help hit the spot until you have one in hand. Thanks for reading my ramblings.
DeleteWith pleasure! The other reviews I found were mostly 'Hasbro sent us their SDCC items!'- so not really informative, just small pics. I missed out on Masters of Evil and certainly can't justify the eBay markup, maybe they'll take a page from MattyCollector and release 'em as a separate run sometime down the road (it's probably doubtful though).
DeleteNice custom Thor.
ReplyDelete