6.13.2013

HOT TOYS AGENT PHIL COULSON REVIEW


I would say I have been a fan of Agent Coulson since sitting in the theater for the first Iron Man flick introducing the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. Little did I know at the time what kind of role Agent Coulson would play going forward, and that I would eventually have my own 1/6 scale figure of him that I would be doing a review on. I did come to realize after each time we saw him appear on screen in subsequent movies that he is the glue that holds the Marvel Cinematic Universe together, which is a concept that becomes even more evident in the Mavel's The Avengers film.

I recall hearing that Joss Whedon would be helming the Avenger's film project and thinking "Man it is really going to suck when he kills off Coulson in the movie" because I know what a bastard Joss Whedon can be when it comes to characters like our dear Agent Phil. (Oh yeah, spoilers for those who haven't yet seen The Avengers) Coulson may be gone (he's not, look at the trailer for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. show coming soon) but he is certainly not forgotten as Hot Toys has chosen to immortalize the character in 1/6 glory with their MMS 189 release: The Avengers: Agent Phil Coulson figure.


First off this Hot Toys figure IS an exclusive release to Sideshow Collectibles, and as of this writing less than 10 remain of the figure, so if you are interested in him DO NOT sleep on it. I really don't see another version of Agent Coulson coming out later on down the line, so this is most likely your one and only chance to add him to your collection. Now let's be honest for a second, what you are buying here is a 1/6 middle aged guy in a suit. Sure he comes with some accessories and even a couple of weapons, but I get it if that's just not enough to get you excited for this figure. He's not Thor, or Iron Man, or Captain America...he's just a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. You want something more and that's fine. Hell I passed on Nick Fury for similar reasons initially and now I am kicking myself in the ass for it. Coulson is so much more than a guy in a suit, remember that he is the cog in the Marvel machine that brought all of these larger than life characters together. He was our regular average guy access into a world full of super heroes, powers, and technology beyond our imaginations. Ok I'm going on and on too much...let's move on to the figure.

Agent Coulson comes in the same standard box that other Hot Toys Avengers releases have come in, a shot of the actor saturated on a box slipcover with a dominant background color which is a little bit darker. Remove the slipcover and we are treated to a standard window-box showcasing Coulson and his accessories (also with a large AGENT PHIL COULSON printed on the box top). Hot Toys has maintained a real nice consistency here with all of the Avengers releases so even all of the boxes will display very well together no matter how you choose to display them. Coulson rests in the middle of the tray with spare hands flanking his legs and accessories in their own trays on either side. You will also notice that he comes with the standard figure stand with an Avengers base with Agent Coulson's name on it. Everything is pretty typical here for a Hot Toys release, spare pegs for the wrist joints, as well as a paper containing brief instructions for some of the accessories.



Coulson comes with three extra hands to match with various accessories and to attempt to pull of different things with the figure. Everything he comes with was pretty much shown in one way or another on the original Sideshow solicitation. To run down the full list: phone, walkie talkie, headset, watch, sunglasses, file folder, pistol, S.H.I.E.L.D. file folder, staff ID card/badge, stack of Captain America trading cards, and the big ass Destroyer Gun which he used against Loki in the film (again...spoilers! Just watch the film already!). Some of these accessories are really fantastic to have and work well with the figure. I never thought I would be excited to have a 1/6 file folder to accessorize a figure with, but I think it's just damn fantastic.


Coulson's sunglasses look really good and is now my second sunglassified (yeah I made up a word) 1/6 figure right next to Avengers Hawkeye. Though I prefer my Coulson sans glasses, I have left them out for future sunny possibilities for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.


The ID badge is a nice touch and not really something you are going to find on many figures. The one problem with it is there is a small metal piece that hooks into the top of the badge, and the other end just hangs onto the outer coat pocket on his jacket. This makes the badge very easy to knock off if futzing around with the figure a bit or posing him. Just make sure to keep track of it. Luckily it is very easy to get it into place (much unlike attaching the cape to DX 12 Batman) so you can easily remove the ID from the pocket, futz away, and reattach.


The stack of Captain America cards are a cool addition here as one of Phil's accessories, there are 10 individual cards here, all with unique images on them, and all of them having a blood spatter. If you also have Hot Toys Nick Fury you can let him wield the cards while trying to make your Hot Toys Captain America and Tony Stark figures feel like shit, or you can have Phil holding them with his own blood all over them handing them over to Fury saying "Oh man, this is going to be a good one boss!" (seriously, go watch that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trailer)



The headset that Coulson comes with plugs straight into his ear, which the instructions explicitly state that some paint rubbing and wear can occur from putting in the headset. The headset is quite small and a little difficult to manipulate for someone with gigantic meaty sausage fingers like myself. I found myself fiddling with it for quite sometime until it found itself nestled safely inside Coulson's ear, so you may want to come armed with some tweezers or something for backup, or just don't have fat fingers like me. Phil also comes with a cellphone which is cool, but there is really no hand that he comes with that really allows you to do much with it and hold it securely. I didn't really feel too comfortable with the phone in any position so I just
left it in the box, perhaps to be used by a different 1/6 figure in the future. There is also a watch in the box which was never really shown in any of the product photos but mentioned in the solicitation. I had enough issues with the hands coming off of the body that I did not even want to attempt to put the watch on and deal with that, but I will briefly address that in a bit. As mentioned previously he does also come with a S.H.I.E.L.D. file folder which I think is one of my favorite pieces to display him with. The interior of the folder makes it appear as though there is a couple of pages in there, but when you look inside the folder you will notice everything is blank. I think it would be cool if they printed something on the inside, they did print things on the Captain America cards that were even smaller items than this. I would have loved a little hidden gem in there, but it's no big deal that there isn't.



Of course we can't complete a discussion about Coulson's accessories without discussing the Destroyer Gun. Yes he also comes with a pistol but look at that huge fucking gun he comes with! The gun is so large that it is best to have him hold it with two hands, but I did have some issues with the hands on my Coulson as mentioned earlier. One wrist joint peg going into the right arm was so loose that the hand could just pull right out of the arm with no resistance at all, and the left hand didn't want to seat securely on the tiny hand peg half of the wrist joint, so as I was attempting to pose Coulson with the Destroyer Gun both hands would try to make a dramatic exit from the picture. I swapped out the wrist joints with spares from the box and it was a little bit better but I still felt a little nervous about it, I will address the issue later on, but I have it secure enough to continue the review and enjoy him on the shelf. The gun has a light mechanism in it which is activated by pressing a button on the bottom up front near the end of the gun. When the button is pressed the gun lights up, and only stays lit as long as it is pressed, it is not a toggle (I cheated by using tape to keep it pressed down for the picture). It's a cool gun, and good for a shot or two, but it's probably not something I am going to keep him posed with. Not for fear of the wrist joints, just because the thing is so damn big and awkward that leaving Coulson armed with that weapon just takes something away from him and brings more of your focus to the gun. 



On to the rest of the figure. I would have to say that in person the sculpt is spot on to the actor Clark Gregg. The product photos I felt did a good job of showing this, but I wanted to repeat that here because I know sometimes in hand things feel a little different. This IS Clark Gregg. If you can't see that here then I must apologize for my shitty photography, because it is a fantastic sculpt in my opinion.



The body is your standard True Type wearing a tailored suit. The suit itself is almost too tight and I tried to do a little futzing to get the shirt and tie just right but I never could quite seem to get it right. I would have liked the option to pull the coat together and be able to button it, but it just didn't seem possible and I didn't trust myself NOT to rip it. It would have been a nice touch had there been some sort of magnet at the bottom of the tie and on the inside of the shirt to kind of keep the tie under control a little better. The tie isn't exactly wild or anything, I just couldn't seem to get it where I was happy with it at times. One thing that did jump out at me is that he had some incredible shoes. Just really nicely polished looking dress shoes, some of the most high end professional 1/6 shoes I have ever seen that a shitty camera phone picture could not do justice.


I really feel that Hot Toys Agent Coulson is a solid release and worthy of a spot on any one's Avengers shelf. I understand why this figure MAY have niche appeal, but if you are even remotely on the fence please do yourself a favor and pick him up while you can. At the original retail price on Sideshow of $174.99 that makes him one of the cheaper Avengers figures so far, and he may end up being one of the harder figures to come by given the nature that he is a Sideshow exclusive. I'm not going to give the figure a rating because I just don't really do things like that, but I will say that I preordered him as soon as I saw the listing go up, and after having him in hand I do not regret it at all. 

9 comments:

  1. Great review Mr. Fuzz. Please keep 'em coming.

    This guy just looks straight up awesome.

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  2. Excellent review sir. He looks damn good, for a guy in a suit.

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  3. Awesome! Thanks for the review Dan, keep it up duder.

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