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Marvel Minimates Wave 12 - Luke Cage and Sentry
Like wave 13, wave 12 has concentrated on a specifc and recent comic book run, Brian Michael Bendis's New Avengers. Here we have a pack containing Luke Cage, former Hero for Hire, and the enigmatic Sentry.
Many thanks to Dave from Yikes Comics for sending this set for review.
Packaging
The packaging now has a blue background instead of the purple of the previous few waves. The images of the figures are the prototypes - notice the hole in Luke Cage's head, and the light blue highlight on the belt of Sentry.
The back of the packaging is new and shows off all the figures in waves 12 and 13.
The Figures
Luke Cage
The first Minimate in this set is Luke Cage, in a much more modern "urban" look than when we saw him last in Minimate form as Power Man.
Luke Cage's face is quite detailed and busy - not so much as Assault Punisher or Mr Fantastic, but more than the usual Minimate. Which makes it such a shame that the fine detailing lines defining the eyes are missing from the bottom of the eyes. This really messes with the look, as they haven't gone with a different colour for the eyes, keeping with the brown skin tone, and therefore makes it look like he has these white bits just stuck on his face. I don't think this is a production mistake, as the prototype in the boxart doesn't have them either. It's very strange.
Of course, regardless of the above, the thing you notice most about Luke Cage's head is the terrible execution of his hat. The beanie hat is painted on to the head block, and the way it is done just makes him look like he has grey hair; it simply does not work visually as a beanie hat because there is no texturing detail on it. And no, wavy black lines don't count. The most obvious thing would have been to make the hat a separate, removable piece, but as this figure is part of two waves that are simply reusing pieces and there is nothing like that currently in the line, that was a no-no. So that being the case, I would have skipped it from the design. At least they didn't use a head block with a hole in it, like in the prototype shots.
The rest of the outfit is done in a simple fashion. Luke's wearing street clothes, so it's an easy look to capture, using New X-Men Wolverine's jacket piece over a really nicely detailed green T-Shirt. I initially thought that there was no detailing at all on the lower body, but it appears (as you can tell from the pictures) that my Luke Cage has his pelvis piece on backwards, as on the back there is a belt buckle. So there is a tiny bit of detail.
Luke Cage doesn't come with any accessories, like almost everyone in waves 12 and 13, but then he's not really about the accessories, more about punching people in the face.
Overall, it's not a bad figure from the neck down, but the problems with the head detailing and ridiculous beanie hat are too glaring for me to ignore.
MMC Score - 4 out of 10
More pictures
Sentry
The second Minimate in the set is the Sentry, who is almost like Marvel's version of Superman, except with real mental problems, as Marvel always tries to humanise their heroes.
Sentry is blonde, with blue eyes and chiseled features - a classic hero look which shares some simularities with Captain America and Iron Fist in their Minimate forms. The hairpiece is one that was recently reused for Speed Racer, namely Mr Fantastic's.
The detailing on the body is OK. Sentry's outfit is simple, so works well in Minimate form, mainly yellow with blue, The chest detailing is good without being too over the top. The "S" belt has a missing paint app on it, which makes it look a bit strange, like it's not a belt at all. It goes around the sides, but doesn't go around the back of the figure, presumably because the back is hidden by the cape. The cape itself is a reuse of the Superman cape - a suitable lift given that Supes and the Sentry share very similar powers like superstrength and invulnerability.
No accessories for the Sentry, but as usual he has the C3 feet and the hole in the head block.
Overall, this is a figure that, missing paint apps aside, doesn't do much wrong, but doesn't do anything spectacular either. It is nice to get a new hero though, and one that has had a bit of fanfare in comics recently too.
MMC Score - 6 out of 10
More pictures
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