Superhero Showdown! Captain America

By CubanZod & Jason Geyer

Long a stalwart of the Marvel Universe, Captain America had traditional gotten short shrift in the action figure world compared with his peers Batman and Superman, to say nothing of such upstarts as Spider-Man and (shudder) Wolverine. Thankfully that has changed in the past few years, with Toy Biz giving us nearly a Captain America figure per year. This year Cap gets his due with this fine figure from the upcoming Superhero Showdown! line. As always, click on a thumbnail to get a larger image.

Trying a brand new scale for Marvel figures, Toy Biz is gambling that kids and collectors alike will go ga-ga over these 3 3/4" figures with Marvel Legend style articulation. Not only that, but they are all part of a new game along the lines of the popular trading games such as Heroclix and Magic: The Gathering, but with a poseable fighting element added in. Part game, part action figures, Showdown! allows Marvel heroes/villains to go head to head in a contest of strength, poseability and strategy.

Each figure has a power base, attack poses, projectiles, trading cards and battle tiles. Starter sets are packed with two character's dedicated power bases, two projectile shooters, six character cards, two six sided dice, 12 Battle tiles and two figures. The initial two starter packs will contain the Hulk & Wolverine and Spider-Man & Thing. Gamers can then pick up the booster packs that contain single figures, which will be called "battle packs". The first wave of battle packs will have Black Costume Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Ghost Rider, Punisher, and two variants: Berserker Wolverine and Spider-Sense Spider-Man. Update! The fantastic fellows at Fwoosh now have a review of the Hulk/Wolverine Starter Pack posted.

Luckily for toy collectors these figures can be removed from their game stands, although the multi-position stands help the figures achieve some nice dynamic poses for display. While not in scale with any recent superhero lines, Superhero Showdown! figures are in scale with popular lines such as GI Joe, Star Wars, and the 21st Century military figures. This last group is especially nice when displaying with Captain America, as it now lets fans create the ultimate WW2 battle that they've been dreaming about. Well, that's enough chatter for now: on to the pictures! And come back soon for a look at the rest of the line!

That's all!