REVIEW: Thor - Fire Blast Marvel's Destroyer

Produced by Hasbro | Released August 2011

Forged by Odin and infused with his power, the Odin Force, this unstoppable weapon is locked deep beneath the palace in the Allfather's Weapons Vault. Created to defeat the most terrifying threats to all the Nine Realms, no enemy has ever faced this guardian and won. Its sole master is the reigning king of Asgard, and so it waits for Odin's next command.

Packaging Shots

Fire Blast Marvel's Destroyer

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Like the Captain America: The First Avenger toys, the Thor line uses some rather odd naming conventions. Yes, Marvel's Fire Blast Destroyer would make more sense but I'm sure it's naming is more to do with trademarks and copyrights than it is about grammar.

Anyway, what about the toy itself? After the hugely disappointing Invasion Ice Giant, has the Thor line redeemed itself?

The basic sculpt is pretty impressive. There's a nice bulk about the Destroyer but there's also enough detail to keep it from simply being a lump of plastic. The character's banded armour and ridged, robotic/mechanical style is captured nicely and the sculpt does a good job of conveying the character's look, although I do think the spikes on his shoulders and limbs are perhaps a little smaller than they should be.

The head sculpt is also a good representation of the character but half of it is cast from a semi-transparent plastic (which is also used on the torso but isn't quite so obvious.) The reason? The Fire Blast Marvel's Destroyer features - as you may have guessed - a Fire Blast play feature. Press the button on his midriff and the figure's insides light up. Strangely, Hasbro elected to use a red bulb, which seems an odd choice given the Destroyer appears to use a more orange/yellow energy blast effect. Oh well. As for the light-up feature itself, it's... OK, I guess. The chest lights-up nicely but I'd have preferred to see a brighter effect on the head/face-plate's illumination feature, as it's almost invisible in daylight.

Whilst the sculpt is pretty good, the articulation is rather problematic. For starters, there's no form of waist joint whatsoever. I understand that the light-up feature is housed in the torso, so I can almost let that go. But what's inexcusable is the fact that the shoulder joints only rotate on a single plane. As a result, it's actually very difficult to get any kind of dynamic poses out of the Destroyer. Yes, he's a golem/armoured suit so he's supposed to be a little stiff but there's so little in the way of movement here (and the fact that there's no base included doesn't help matters) that it becomes very difficult to get him to do anything interesting outside of three or four basic poses.

Leg articulation is fine, with the ball-joint hips (although no cut-thigh joint), double-bend knees and rotating ankle joints. The ankles may also be re-angled to a minor degree but it's really only included just to help with balancing the figure.

There doesn't appear to be any form of paintwork on the Destroyer initially but look closer and you'll see a very subtle dark wash has been used to accentuate the figure's limbs and back. It's a very cool effect that I like a lot. Unfortunately the use of clear plastic for his chest and face result in him appearing to be cast from two different colours. It's not massively obvious but you will, I'm sure, notice it, especially as these pieces do not include the dark wash effect.

Extras

The Fire Blast Marvel's Destroyer includes no extra pieces or accessories, unless you count the battery replacement instruction sheet.

Final Thoughts

The Fire Blast Marvel's Destroyer could have been so much more. Whilst the sculpt is fairly detailed (for a Marvel Universe figure, given how ''iconic'' most of their designs are) and the paintwork - where it's applied - is great, it's just too bad that the figure includes the Fire Blast feature, because - in my mind - the decision to do so has a seriously detrimental impact on the figure's design. Its inclusion not only limits the figure's articulation (although there's no excuse for the shoulder joints) but also the figure's look, as the semi-transparent chest and face pieces look as if they're from another toy.

On the plus-side, the Destroyer is a fairly solid-feeling toy. I could imagine he'd survive pretty much anything that was thrown at him and I'm sure kids would enjoy the Fire Blast feature (although personally I think having the button on his back would have been a better decision.) He certainly doesn't suffer from the stiff-joints/bendy connectors of the Invasion Frost Giant (although his wrist joints did ''crack'' when I first moved them) or some of the recent Captain America: The First Avenger toys and I certainly wouldn't worry about letting a child play with this toy.

If you're a fan of Thor or the Destroyer then you'll probably like this figure. The sculpt is good, the dark wash effect looks neat and the light-up feature - although gimmicky - does what it's supposed to do. It's just too bad he's really little more than a semi-poseable statue, as with some extra articulation, consistent paintwork and a better light-up feature (or better yet, no light-up feature at all) this could have been something special.

A bit of a missed opportunity for sure, but hardly the worst figure in the world.

Scores

Sculpt	B+
Paint	B+
Articulation	C+
Production Quality	B+
Final Score	B-

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