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Here we have a pack containing two of the member of Marvel's first family, the Fantastic Four. Susan Richards (nee Storm) makes her Minimate debut with another version of the Thing.

Packaging

The packaging features the Marvel Universe logo which surprised me as putting a Fantastic Four logo on the set would have made good business sense with the movie coming out this summer.



The figures are packed in a bubble tray, and have no twist-ties holding them in. Instead, a second clear tray piece fits over the top and then locks in, meaning that these figures are held in well and can be seen from each side.

The back of the packaging is new and only shows waves 8 and 9.

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The Figures

Sue Richards

The first figure in this set is Sue Storm, known as the Invisible Woman. Sue is done in a very simple style, which historically suits the female Minimates better. There is only minimal detailing on the face but it retains a pleasant look, and the hairpiece, whilst not as fancy as some of the other Minimate female hair, works well with the rest of the figure to maintain a consistent look. As some fans were complaining that their Minimate hairpieces were loose (and this is something I have been critical of in older reviews myself), the new Minimates have hairpieces which peg onto the head block, meaning they don't move around or fall off anywhere near as easily. The downside is that any hairpiece with a peg can only be used by another Minimate with a hole in the head, so trying to put Sue's hair on Elektra (for example) just won't work.

The costume is very similar to Mr Fantastic from the TRU 10 pack, who is also featured in wave 8. The detailing is only OK. I don't want to sound too much like a pervert - this is a review of a 2" piece of plastic after all - but most of the female Minimates have a better suggestion of their chests and here Sue just has a couple of detailing lines out to the side. Maybe they thought depicting more of a bustline would mean the "4" logo would suffer visually, I don't know.

Sue comes with a clear shield-like accessory to demonstrate her forcefield abilities, which works in the same way as Captain America by attaching a looped bit of plastic onto the armpiece. This shield looks fine and makes for a fun accessory.

Overall, Susan Richards is another well-executed female Minimate.

MMC Score - 8 out of 10

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Powerhouse Thing

The second figure in the set is a new version of the Thing. There have been two previous versions of the Thing, one in wave 5 and an exclusive Clobberin' Time Thing, as well as another Thing in this very wave, known as Battle Scarred Thing.

The biggest change on this figure over the previous two is that to better show Thing's great bulk, he has a larger headpiece and a bigger chest. But is bigger always better?

In Minimate form, the Thing has usually had a pretty good expression on his face. Not so with this one. Here Powerhouse Thing is caught in some kind of half-sneer, and it just doesn't look very good, and to my mind it's not suitable for the character. Rather than just have the rocky brow as a hairpiece, this time the brow forms a whole headpiece. Again, it's supposed to make his head and neck look thicker but doesn't really work. A new feature from wave 8 onwards is that to help the hairpieces stay on, the heads have a hole in, and the hairpieces have a small peg to plug into the hole and help the hair stay on better.

The detailing for the rock-effect is of the same high standard as the previous Things, but because the chest piece is a lot bigger it's far more noticible that there is no rock pattern on the top of the chest piece itself. Also by making the head and chest look bigger, it makes the lower half of the Minimate look smaller and more gimpy. Thing is one of the first main-line Marvel characters to get the smaller C3-style feet which adds to this illusion.

Powerhouse Thing comes with no accessories.

Overall, in trying to make the Thing look bigger, AA have made him look worse than the original. Stick with either of the previous two.

MMC Score - 4 out of 10

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