.

With their name being in the title of the movie, the Avengers got something of a focus in the Infinity War merch, that that didn’t completely stop retailers from going into full cross-over mode, especially when it came to the Guardians.  Today we have a look at perhaps their most marketable members, Rocket Raccoon and Groot!

The Packaging

This pairing is packaged in the same basic set up as all of the Infinity War sets, itself a slight variant on the standard Marvel packaging.  It’s colorful and suitably distinct from prior assortments, and it showcases the figures pretty nicely.  There are no character-specific bios, but there’s a basic plot synopsis of the movie.  Like the Black Panther and Ebony Maw pack, this set also bears the TRU-exclusive sticker, since these figures had already made their way to certain TRUs before being hastily re-distributed.  What’s intriguing about this particular pairing is that, while it’s totally a natural choice to pack just the two of them together, thanks to use of micro-figures and such, it’s actually the first time we’ve gotten a straight Rocket & Groot two-pack.

The Figures

Rocket

After being relegated to being an unarticulated pack-in for his first two releases, we finally got a proper Rocket Raccoon Minimate in Wave 71 for Guardians Vol. 2.  At first glance, this figure might seem like a straight re-release of that one, but he’s actually a little bit different.

Rocket uses the same head, shortened arms, and belt/tail piece as his Wave 71 counterpart.  He gets a new set of legs, more divergent from the standard Minimate legs than the last ones, and also swaps out the normal Minimate torso of the last one for the comparatively smaller torso from NBX’s Sally.  Both of these are minor changes, easily missed by a quick glance at the figure, but they result in a figure that actually looks a fair bit better than the last release.

Rocket’s paintwork is not that much different than the Wave 71 release.  It’s mostly just amended to fit the newer pieces.

Rocket is packed with a rather large rifle (the same one included with all of the other IW Rockets), which is kind of comically huge (larger than the Legends version, even), and pretty much impossible for Rocket to hold.

This is by far the best version of Rocket we’ve gotten, and definitely warrants the purchase, despite how similar he may be to the last one on the outside.

MMC Score — 9 out of 10

Groot

Groot has a much more divergent design in Infinity War than his pack-mate, so he is fittingly a more unique figure.

He uses the standard body as a starting point, but really only keeps the arms and pelvis.  The head is a unique piece, which replicates Groot’s noggin pretty well.  Likewise, the hands and feet are new, and do a respectable job of translating Groot’s tree-like appendages.  He also uses the smaller torso that we saw on Rocket, and swaps out the usual legs for another set of arms.  This results in an overall quite slender look, which helps to differentiate him pretty well from the original Groot.

His paintwork is pretty standard for this character.  Lots of brown, and some decent work on the detail lines.  I do appreciate that the arms and legs have different detailing from each other.

Groot is packed with a clear display stand…and that’s it.  Shame we couldn’t get his portable game or anything.

Groot is an essential variant of the character, and a notably different version than prior figures.  He could use an accessory or two, but he’s otherwise a solid offering.

MMC Score — 8 out of 10

Agree? Disagree? Why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.

Review and pictures by Glantern.

[starratingmulti id=”1″]

[starratingmulti id=”2″]