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Topless Toy Chest: Hasbro’s Guardians of the Galaxy


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I haven’t been a fan of Hasbro’s Marvel movie-based figures in quite a while, but they’re finally, maybe, getting themselves on the right track here. Today we examine Marvel Legends Gamora, Big Blastin’ Rocket Raccoon, Milano Spaceship and Battle Gear 2-Pack of Star Lord and Gamora in 2.5 inch scale.

Let’s start with Gamora. I was concerned about her likeness in early prototype images, but now, as you can see, she way outclasses Neytiri and Uhura figures when it comes to capturing Zoe Saldana…

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Gamora has fairly standard Marvel Legends articulation, though the fact that she’s thin, made of flexible plastic, and has tiny feet makes it damn hard to get her to stand up. It’s best if you can give her a crouching assassin pose.

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She comes with her sword, and Groot’s leg, which looks like it’s just one color in the picture but does have a very subtle wash to make parts of it shinier than others. It needs a darker wash to make it look a little more plant-textured. If I can be inspired to collect the whole set, maybe I’ll try it.

Speaking of the set – to get Groot, you need to buy not only the Guardians team, but also a comic-styled Nova and a space armor Iron Man. I’m not sure those were the best choices – why not have at least one of them be an in-scale villain, like Ronan or Thanos? And why not a movie-styled Nova? This sort of variety has been saved, it seems, for the tiny assortments, that, like Star Wars figures back in the day, are designed so small to allow scaled vehicles at reasonable prices. Except that today, even Star Wars toys cost a whole bunch, so now we have to go even smaller.

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The little ones come two to a pack, along with a Rob Liefeld-esque giant cannon and pop out accessories.

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They can barely hold any of them – most are designed instead to combine by plugging into each other, and or plug into the many holes on the Milano hull, so you could theoretically cover it in missile launchers.

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The Milano is pretty cool, even if the Star Lord it comes with is not appreciably different from the carded one. I wish it were 4″ scale and cost around $45 instead of the $25 and smaller-scale it is now…but my sense is that if these do well, maybe some way better vehicles will be coming for other Marvel movies in future. The tiny figures are kinda lame, but the ships are up to Star Wars quality, only smaller. Action features include two wings that rotate backward 90 degrees, two push-fire missiles, and a light and sound feature we’ll get to in just a moment…

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Finally, there’s Rocket, or as I dubbed him immediately, the official “Cat Frightener.” He actually does have some articulation – cut joints at his shoulders – but it’s pointless, since the gun is stuck to his chest. And while he may not be in scale with other Hasbro figures, at eight inches, he’s pretty scale accurate to NECA’s 18″ (human) Marvel figures.

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Rather than tell you about his action features, though, I thought I’d show you – along with the lights and sounds on the Milano. So here you go:

Guardians of the Galaxy Hasbro Toys in Action from Voice Media Group on Vimeo.

I didn’t keep any of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier figures I got, but I am hanging on to these.

Rocket has been claimed by the wife already.