Thor: The Dark World's Dark Elf

It's markdown time again.

Or actually, it's pretty much been markdown time for a really long time. With disappointing movie related waves from Amazing Spider-Man, hard-to-find figures from the Captain America: Winter Soldier wave, a non-existent X-Men: Days of Future Past wave, and not-worth-full-price Transformers: Beast Hunter waves, it's been awhile since there's been a real draw for the local toy stores. Even the The Guardians of the Galaxy toy line failed to pull in huge numbers (but I think that's mostly because there didn't seem to be large numbers of them ordered).

Thor: The Dark World is another line that pretty much got buried really quickly in toy stores. I guess Thor just isn't as cool as giant robots or guys in steel underwear. Even I didn't want to pick them up, since they aren't made for collectors. G.I. Joe is a good line for collectors. Articulation is standardized, accessories are the norm, and price isn't crazy. Marvel 1:18 toys used to be on the same page, but lately it's been more miss than hit.

And the Thor: The Dark World were all pretty much miss.

 

The package is decent, and after how long these things have been on shelf, we can easily see how well constructed they are. The window in front gives you a great view of the figure and allows you to see all the paint apps and accessories. The back gives you a look at the accessories in "action", and a glimpse of the other figures in the wave.

Functional and attractive enough, but that's not really the problem.

The Dark Elf figure was short packed (only 1 figure in every case of 12 was a Dark Elf) and I've only seen it on shelf twice since the line was released locally. Then again, since it's a soldier figure and it's perfect for army building, so maybe I was just late to the party.

There are three accessories that come with it: a "blaster", a piece of "Elfin Armor", and some kind of pole arm. All of it looks like it came out of Chronicles of Riddick, which is OK, since I love that movie. Everything fits in the figure's hands.

 

The sculpting on the Dark Elf figure is pretty fantastic. There's a TON of detail on this thing. There's a lot of texture to it. It's just so... tactile. You touch it and BAM.

Seriously, just look at that chest plate!

The face on this thing is so creepy, and I'm so sad that the filmmaker didn't feature these guys more in the movie. Imagine a whole wall of these coming at you through the shadows with their expressionless faces and empty eyes. They're far more bad ass than the Chitauri in The Avengers.

Really, all of that makes it worth the Php 300 I paid for it.

However, it was NOT worth the original price.

Look, it just doesn't fit in with any other toy line. You can't really use him in your comic universe collection, and it doesn't really fit with the rest of the line since there's no Malekith figure to lead them, unlike the Frost Giants from the first movie. They don't even really match "Kurse", the other bad guy figure in the line, which doesn't even come close to this one in terms of detail.

It's just annoying that this figure is so nice, with great articulation (he's got ankles!). About the only miss is the odd weaponry and the lack of an ab crunch, but that's easily ignored in favor of the rest of it. The fact that it doesn't fit in with anything else just bothers the hell out of me.

Still, I'm glad I got these two, even if it is just to complete the Thor figures.

Gotta get 'em all.