Marvel Universe
Masterworks Galactus
If you’re serious about toy collecting, you need to get on board with certain realities. The most important being, this hobby costs money. Some serious scratch. It’s not like gardening or pet rock breeding or cow pat throwing. Collecting the fantastic plastic can drain your finances like nothing else.
This hobby never stops. For instance, though there are only a few top tier Marvel characters, each of them has several different costumes and storylines that become a bottomless pit of inspiration for toy manufacturers. Even when a character has had only the one costume, you’re still not safe. Toy makers tinker, improve and accessorize, knowing that just because people already have one toy of Spider-man, Captain America, or Wolverine, that doesn’t mean they won’t buy another. Hell, The Incredible Hulk has worn torn purple shorts since 1962 and I’ve got at least 5 figures of that look in my collection.
It’s no surprise that news of Hasbro plans to release another over-sized Galactus figure had people frothing at the mouth, even if we already had a decent Galactus figure. The “Build-a-Figure” Galactus was a 12” toy that was assembled from parts included in series 9 of the Marvel Legends line. The new “Masterworks” edition was hyped as being even better, with an extra 7” inches of cosmic goodness on top of the old toy, plus lights and sounds to annoy the grown ups. How does it stack up?
Pretty well, actually.
There are 3 different versions of the toy so far. The first was the exclusive version that was released at the San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) earlier this year. It was sold in a scaled up version of the blister card packaging of the 4” Marvel Universe line, protected by a slip case. The package was a thing of beauty, I’ve got to admit, and I was sorry to pass it up. I’m glad I did though.
Though the Galactus toys are the same, there are several differences between the SDCC version and the regular retail one (the one I’m reviewing here). First of is the box. If I’d have bought the SDCC version, I probably would have been tearing up at the thought of destroying that splendiforously big blister card, but I don’t have that problem with this one.
It comes in a straight-forward box with a nice, big viewing window. That window is protected with a solid paperboard flap decorated with superb artwork on both sides. The interior of the flap sports the complete piece, while the exterior has a detail of his head and torso. If you’re not one to keep packages, tear this off and use it as a poster, or as part of your display.
If you ARE one to keep the box, then good. The figure’s easy to remove and replace in the packaging. Basically he’s kept in place with some molded plastic trays and purple paper strings, which are easily removable. There are some issues with him not lining up properly with the “Try me!” hole in the viewing window, but that’s a minor quibble.
To see the this behemoth of a toy unboxed, visit http://slangards.i.ph/
