Hey everyone, thanks for dropping in on the 4th installment of the Disney+ Infinity Ultron BAF figure reviews. Today we are looking at the Sharon Carter figure, based on her appearance in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series. I've got a bad feeling that as we draw near to the end of this series of reviews, we're drawing closer to the weakest figures in the wave. We'll wrap up this D+ wave this week with Ms. Marvel.
Sharon Carter's MCU history is very lengthy as such, I have decided to share the following excerpt from the Marvel Cinematic WIKI. The link is listed below after the bio.
"Sharon Carter is the great-niece of legendary S.H.I.E.L.D. founder and Director Peggy Carter. Following in her aunt's footsteps, Carter became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., codenamed Agent 13. Although she never revealed her relation, not wanting to be put under the pressure of living up to any expectations. Under direct orders from Nick Fury, Carter was tasked with going undercover as a nurse, living next to Steve Rogers. When Fury was attacked, she blew her cover to Rogers. After HYDRA was revealed to have been operating within S.H.I.E.L.D., Carter chose to stay loyal to her organization, and fought during the Battle at the Triskelion to protect millions of lives.
In the aftermath of the HYDRA Uprising, Carter left the disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and joined the CIA, before being stationed at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. When the Vienna International Centre was bombed, Carter returned to the JCTC after giving Rogers information on Bucky Barnes. When Barnes was arrested and brought into the JCTC, Helmut Zemo reactivated his mental programming, causing Carter to try and stop him, to no success. She later assisted Rogers in handing over his team's equipment, which would indirectly spark the devastating Avengers Civil War. Her involvement in helping Rogers would cause Carter to go on the run after being branded an enemy of the state by the US government and isolated from the intelligence community.
Relying on her skills and ingenuity to survive, Carter established herself in Madripoor as the Power Broker, who ruled the city's criminal underworld, amassing her wealth during the Snap, in which she was believed to have died. Carter would later reunite with Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and Helmut Zemo, assisting them in uncovering the truth about the Flag Smashers. She would later hire the mercenary Georges Batroc as a means to spy on their leader and a former soldier of hers, Karli Morgenthau, before joining Wilson and Barnes in New York City as the Flag Smashers attack the GRC. After Carter killed Morgenthau, Wilson was eventually able to get her pardoned, unintentionally allowing her to secure direct access to government resources for her buyers in Madripoor."
Before we dive into the review, we'll do a quick review criteria recap: Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability are all discussed and given a rating. At the end, after taking each category into consideration, we'll assign an overall score of Zero to Ten ToyBoxes to the figure. As always, I attempt to be as objective as possible because my only goal is to give you the best opinion I can to help you decide if this is a product you want to purchase for yourself. Let's get after it!
ACCESSORIES
Though the figure appears to come with a lot of accessories, looks can be deceiving. She comes with a pair of item holding hands, a pair of fists, a telescoping baton (which doesn't telescope) and a combat knife. As mentioned previously, she also has the Infinity Ultron BAF head and weapon. I actually kind of like the fact that she has two melee weapons, instead of a firearm, though she did use one in many of her appearances in the MCU. I also appreciate that there are some paint apps on the baton, though not on the knife. I also had kind of hoped that there was a hidden sheath for the knife as well, but no such luck. Of course, given the stiffness of her coat, it would have likely been difficult to get a knife into a sheath hidden under it. I do like the knife as well. It's simple, but you can see the taper on the blade to the "edge" which is a nice touch. The hilt is very simplistic though, which is disappointing. The baton is also nicely done with some black paint and sculpting for the handle and more sculpting at the midpoint and tip. Overall, the accessories aren't going to "wow" anybody, but they are enough to get Sharon a decent 7 out of 10 score.
APPEARANCE
As with the other figures in this set, Hasbro did a solid job of making the figure into a decent likeness of their onscreen appearance. This figure doesn't quite match up as well as some of the others, though she does look more consistently like the lovely Emily VanCamp than Hawkeye does Jeremy Renner. In the MCU, Sharon's hair is very curly with beautiful ringlets framing her face. The sculpt work here doesn't quite match that, but the darker wash on top of her hair does give it some realism. Though, to be honest, having that wash throughout the entire hair sculpt would have been a big help. The photo-real facial features are undeniably similar to VanCamp and the paint applications are stellar. The flesh tones of her face, neck, and hands all match nicely and the details of her lips, eyes, and eyebrows are very clean. I am a sucker for Hasbro's good photorealistic work and this one does a nice job. Moving onward, Sharon has a green overcoat, blue hoodie, and black shirt/pants/boots. The only color is her silver belt buckle and gold buttons on the green coat. I appreciate the screen accuracy as this was one of her pieces of apparel on the show, however, her hair hides the blue hood. You can see it, when you turn her head, or if you choose to try to remove the green overcoat. Just know that her arms are molded green to match the coat. The biggest issue, for me, is the change from semi-gloss to matte black throughout the rest of her body. Her upper torso joint is a matte black, where her abs and waist seem to be a bit glossy. Then, her upper thighs also appear to be a bit glossy, while her shins are almost a dark charcoal gray, going into the semi-gloss boots. Unfortunately, my pictures turned out a bit darker than I wanted, which makes it impossible to tell the difference. Even looking at the figure, it's hard to tell, unless you very carefully scrutinize it. Granted, mine will go on a darker shelf, next to Bucky and Sam, and likely remain there. This means I won't notice it as much, but for review purposes, I would have liked a bit more consistency. I will give it a 7 out of 10, which could have gone up but for a bit more detail in the hair and no disparity in the black molds.
ARTICULATION
I believe I've found the figure that can give Ultron a run for his money on poor articulation. Starting up top, Sharon can turn her head, but it is difficult not only because of the hair, but also the hood behind her neck. You can get her to look down, if you kind of spread her hair to the side, but maintaining the pose is difficult. Her shoulders will raise to a decent T pose and rotate a full 360 degrees. Her elbows are the old single joints, with rotation at the elbow. There is no bicep swivel and her elbows bend just below 90 degrees. All hands hinge and swivel fine. Her upper torso actually swivels nicely, but there is really no crunch, back bend, or side tilt thanks to the jacket and hoodie. This body mold really needs to be retired. There is no waist swivel either, as we are well familiar with. Sharon's legs had the potential to do some amazing splits, but the coat prohibits them, though she can kick forward reasonably nice. There is no back kick though. The upper thigh cut works fine and now we run into the next big issue. Her knees, while being double jointed, are very gummy. I was able to get them to bend in very far, but the joints are so soft, I was afraid I'd either warp or break them. There is a lot of work needed to move them as well and I'm reluctant to give them the hot water/hair dryer treatment. There is no boot cut, and her ankles work good enough in terms of pivot and hinge. As with Ultron, I fear that Sharon is going to be a shelf decoration and not do much else. Now, truth be told, this might just be a problem with MY figure, but even so, I have to grade what I have, and her articulation isn't very good. It's a 4 out of 10 for me.
AFFORDABILITY
Admittedly, I've discussed the pricing before in each of the previous reviews of this wave. Sharon was $24.99 and as with the rest of the base figures, earns a solid 7 out of 10.
Overall, I am concerned that we've seen the best that this line has to offer and getting down to Sharon and the last figure in this wave to review, I'm bothered that the overall scores seem to be trending downward. The Marvel Legends Disney+ Infinity Ultron BAF Sharon Carter action figure earns:
6 out of 10 ToyBoxes
I would have loved to bump her grade up just a bit, but there was just too much wrong with my figure to put her relatively even with the rest of the line. Please make sure to stop back again as we take our look at the last figure in this wave: Ms. Marvel. Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!
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