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Gamora and Nova, together again! (Sort of)

In anticipation of Avengers: Infinity War, we’re spending the week looking at some of the previously unreviewed MCU minimates. Today, we’ll be checking out this two pack from Guardians of the Galaxy; Gamora and the Nova Corps Centurion.

Packaging

Remember how a moment ago, I said ‘Gamora and Nova, together again’? Well, that’s because DST like to play little games with how they package minimates. When Gamora got her first comic minimate, it was waaaaaay back in wave 23 (circa: 2008) and she was packed with Nova. Obviously, the 2008 Nova was the well-known New Warriors member, Richard Rider (in his Annihilation-era costume), as opposed to this generic army builder in this pack, but I still think it’s a little bit of fun when DST throws an Easter egg like this our way.

The packaging is what we’ve come to expect from MCU waves: A logo matching the film title, and an image from the mass marketing campaign. I do like the cosmic pattern and the star map design in various shades of purple that’s used to decorate the negative space, though.
The box has a single window that allows us to see the characters inside, as well the weapons they are packed with.
The back of the package contains the usual mini-bios and an image of the entire wave.

The Figures

Gamora

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Gamora shares her comic book counterparts green skin and dark hair, but the filmmakers have obviously given her much more of a ‘real world’ look. In lieu of her skimpy swimsuit, thigh high boots and hooded cape, she’s given leather pants, a leather and mesh top, and leather gauntlets. The filmmakers have still given a little nod to her original costume, as the leather of her top covers the front of her torso, but the mesh leaves her cleavage and navel exposed, mimicking her comic book look.

DST have done a great job of creating the details of Gamora’s costume. An all/mostly black costume has the potential to look very dull as a minimate, but the paint work and details in her costume really help her to stand out. She’s been given mid-grey line work to show the seams and overlaps in her outfit’s leather-work. It’s present on her upper and lower legs, her waist piece, her chest block and on her gauntlets. She’s also got a little line of black paint running from the forearm to the opening of the hand to replicate the thumb-loops on her gauntlets. The attention to detail is great. Gamora also has some little grey rectangles on her hands. I’m not 100% sure what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d assume they were meant to be jewellery (poster art for the film shows her with rings on her fingers). If not, they still look quite cool. The same grey is used for the decorative pattern across her décolletage.
Her costume is given even more depth with the use of blue highlights down the leather on her torso and upper legs. If you have a look at the promotional art for the first film, it matches perfectly.
Gamora’s torso even has the black bands and mesh detailing on it. The green of her skin has very cleverly been applied with a very fine cross hatch pattern in it, so the black of the plastic underneath shows through, giving the look of fine, mesh fabric. It’s the sort of detail you don’t notice until you really pick the figure up and take a good, close look at her.

The face paint is also very detailed. Gamora’s comic book gold discs around her eyes are replaced by very fine, symmetrical scarification around her forehead and cheeks. These markings, as well as her lips, are a darker shade of green. The paint edges are crisp, and clean. The registration between the colours is beautiful. My only criticism is that the face just isn’t quite Gamora. Her expression is bland. Zoe Saldana brought a real attitude to Gamora that I just don’t see in this face. The film posters showed her with a knowing smirk. I would have loved to have seen that smirk here. Or perhaps even an angry face, baring her gritted teeth as she leaps into battle. This face is remarkably passive for such a butt-kicking anti-hero.

Gamora doesn’t come with a lot of sculpted parts. Her hair and her sword are the only non-standard parts. Her hair is a nice piece. It’s a deep brown with reddish highlights added at the tips with some dry brushing. I feel like the shape is close, but not perfect. It could, perhaps, be a little flatter on the top and flared towards the ends. Then again, when translating a human shape into a block figure, certain proportions have to change, and I think this might be an example of that.

Her sword is extremely detailed for such a small piece. It’s pretty accurate to what we see in the film. It splits at the end, just like in the movie, and is covered in the same markings. DST probably could have gotten away with just creating flat surfaces for this piece, but they have gone above and beyond.

Gamora is an example of what a good paint job is worth on a minimate. There’s not a lot of extra parts to bowl people over, but the crispness and accuracy of the paint application will make MCU fans very happy. Her only real downfall is her lack of characterisation in the face.

MMC Score – 8 out of 10

Nova Corps Centurion

When is an army builder not an army builder? When there’s only one available per wave. DST has a tradition of releasing characters like generic soldiers or henchmen as an ‘army builder’: a figure that appears in a wave more than once, however the Centurion only appears once across the Guardians waves. It’s bad news if you are trying to get multiples of the figure, but it does mean that a spot was opened up for another character, which is never a bad thing.

The Nova Corps is a little bit like Marvel’s version of the Green Lantern. They are intergalactic police, of sorts. We’ve seen a comic universe version of the Nova Corps Centurion back in wave 50. Marvel comics have focused on a couple of humans to take up the mantle over the years, primarily Richard Rider and Sam Alexander. Guardians of the Galaxy had a couple of featured Nova Corps members such as John C Riley’s Corpsman Dey and Glen Close’s Nova Prime, but for the most part, the Nova Corps were cannon fodder for Ronan to annihilate.

The Nova Corps Centurions draw inspiration from their comic book counterparts. They’re mostly blue uniform with yellow highlights echoes what we saw Richard Rider wearing back in the New Warriors comics. The MCU version, however, gives a more militaristic look to the outfit.

The Centurions wear a blue jumpsuit, with dark grey rubber and metal armour. The translation from screen to figure is, once again, very good. DST have put a lot of detail into the paint on this figure. We can see detailing on the front of the boots, as well as on the armoured parts of the legs. Even the blue jumpsuit has the seam lines worked into the leg design of the figure. The Chest block features even more intricate design work to replicate the yellow block pattern covering the abdominal region and the three connected yellow circles on the chest. When you look closely, you can see all the line work that has been done on the dark grey ‘metal’ parts to indicate the ridges of his armour, and it’s impressive.

His gloves have two shades of grey extending down from the forearm to the hand that you really don’t notice at first, but it’s a level of detail that is very much appreciated on closer inspection. His arms are adorned with the red Nova Corps insignia. There’s a tiny bit of misregistration on the insignia of my figure’s right arm, but when printing details at this tiny scale I can forgive minute errors like this.

What is a little bit harder to forgive is the paint work on his helmet. It’s a beautiful little sculpted piece with tiny rivet marks and indentations to show the seams of the metal. Unfortunately, the delicate sculpting has been highlighted with some very sloppy paint work. The red and gold that should form the star and helmet highlights respectively is a bit of a mess on mine. It’s a real shame that the focal point of the figure (his head) is messy, as it really detracts from the wonderful work done on the rest of his body. I can’t say for certain that it’s a problem with the whole wave, but if you’re picking this pack up or buying it online you want to insist on pictures of the actual product first.

The Centurion comes with a gun/blaster type weapon. DST have done a pretty decent job of following the style guide on this one. It’s recognisable as their weapon from the film. The paint application is better here than on the helmet. The weapon that I am actually a little surprised to not see is his wrist blaster. Centurions in the film had a small, blast firing weapon mounted to their forearm that looked a little like the sort of thing Tony Stark might have pop out of his Iron Man armour. It appears on some of the artwork too. It’s not a huge omission, but it would have been nice for anyone army building these guys to have a little variety in their weapons.

All up, the detail and accuracy of the minimate is top notch. It’s just a real shame that that your eye is drawn to the messy paint job on the helmet.

MMC Score – 6 out of 10.

If you don’t agree with me, why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.

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