11.06
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Packaging
Wave 41 was a diverse wave. We’ve got characters from the Avengers, the Spider-Man universe and the X-Men. There doesn’t seem to be a theme uniting them all, but it was a wave I was happy to get. We’ve already had a look at the Mr Sinister and Nimrod 2-pack here, so we’ll just be focusing on the variant figure in this review.
This wave’s packaging features a brilliant blue background, as well as all of the regular features we’re used to: large single window, concept art headshots on the front of the box, an image of the whole wave on the reverse, and mini bios. Fun fact: the mini bio for Age of Apocalypse Mr. Sinister is exactly it is for regular Mr Sinister. An interesting choice, given that this character had a distinctly different life in the Age of Apocalypse to what he had in the 616 universe. The bio is vague enough so as to be correct for both versions of Sinister, but given that Modern and Classic Mandarin each received their own bio, I thought we might see the same treatment here.
The Figure
Age of Apocalypse Mr. Sinister
Wave 41 has delivered our first Minimate of long time X-Men foe, Mr Sinister. And our second one! The variant in this wave is Mr Sinister as he appeared in the Age of Apocalypse. Mr Sinister (often referred to simply as ‘Sinister’ in the AoA) is a Victorian era scientist with a passion for genetic manipulation and villainy.
You might not think ‘geneticist’ when looking at Sinister’s rather theatrical ensemble, but you certainly do think ‘villain’.
In the Age of Apocalypse he created the Elite Mutant Force, a group of powerful mutant siblings (including Havoc & Cyclops, and Aurora & Northstar), as well as working with Beast to create Apocalypse’s genetically engineered army of Infinites.
Sinister had risen through the ranks to become one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen, along with Abyss, Nemesis and Mikhail Rasputin, before ultimately betraying Apocalypse.
His Age of Apocalypse look is different enough to warrant a second figure, but there are also plenty of visual clues to connect him to his 616 counterpart. Both costumes feature the metallic banding around the limbs, but here they are silver, rather than indigo. His hands and feet are bright blue. Depending on the artist that drew him, he either had thigh high boots, knee high boots, or something more like a buccaneer boot. DST have used the same bulked-up cuff piece debuted on AoA Magneto, and it looks appropriate enough here.
Sinister’s chest block is decorated to show his white decolletage and blue under garment peering out from underneath his red armour. Unfortunately, there’s no printing on the left or right of the torso block, and so the blue doesn’t continue around the sides.
The face is printed clearly and crisply on a white head block. The diamond on his forehead and his eyes are both red, while his goatee and facial detailing is all in black. He has a bit of line work on his forehead making it look as though he is observing something through narrowed, disapproving eyes. AoA Sinister has traded in his short, down to business ‘do’ in favour of something a with a bit more flair. DST have sculpted a new piece to replicate his long locks. It cascades over his shoulders and down his back. It even has little beads sculpted it in, painted red. It’s a small detail, but I’m very happy to see DST have added it here.
Sinister is usually depicted wearing a sort of cape made up of many long strips of fabric. AoA Sinister uses the same idea, but rather than a dense cluster of strips, he only has a few trailing behind each shoulder. His shoulder pads and cape have been sculpted as a single piece that fits nicely between the torso block and the head piece. It’s underside is red, and it’s outer is blue. The sculpt is quite nice. DST has done a good job of creating the look and flow of fabric on this piece with some slight tapering and flaring at the ends of the strands.
Because his cape doesn’t cover his whole back, it’s quite obvious that the reverse of his torso block has no printing on it. A little bit of detail here would have been nice, but as most people won’t display him facing backwards, it’s a fairly safe corner for DST to cut.
Despite a few undecorated surfaces, DST have done a great job recreating of Sinister’s Age of Apocalypse look, and given us another villain for Magneto’s X-Men to fight. I’m really pleased to see him as the variant, because if he wasn’t released here, I doubt we’d have ever seen him made.
MMC Score – 8 out of 10.
Agree? No? Why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.
Review and pictures by Nessex.
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