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Hindsight is a heck of a thing.  When Phase 2 of the Marvel movies was still going, it was, generally, pretty well-received amongst fans. There was no real common consensus as to which of the sequel films offered therein was the best and which was the worst. Time seems to have solved that little mystery, and now people seem to agree that the weakest entry was Thor: The Dark World.  When the movie was good, it was really good, but when it was bad, it really pulled me out. And don’t get me started on the mounted turrets in Asgard!…Getting distracted.  Sorry. Anyway, one of the major issues with the film was its main antagonist, Malekith, who was dreadfully boring, which isn’t exactly what you want from the guy stepping in to replace Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.  So, let’s look at him and his pack-mate Thor!

The Packaging

Thor and Malekith sport the wider-windowed packaging, themed around The Dark World‘s stylings.  Not the most thrilling packaging, but it shows off the figures and gets the job done.  For pictures, head on over to this set’s database entry.

The Figures

Thor

You can’t have a set of toys based on a Thor movie and not have Thor, so here he is! Hemsworth’s Thor has stayed pretty consistent looking throughout the Marvel films, but his design did take a slight jump towards his modern comic look starting with The Dark World (and, by nature of him having almost the same design, Age of Ultron). This figure is based upon his full-sleeved look from a lot of the film’s fight scenes.

Thor uses six add-on pieces for his hair, chest/cape, wristbands, and boots. These pieces all originated here, though they were all later used on the Wave 61 AoU Thor. They do a pretty good job of summing up his look from the film and have a lot of nice detail work.

Thor’s paint work is generally pretty nicely handled; the base colors are applied fairly cleanly, and the detail work is nice and sharp. The face doesn’t really scream Hemsworth, and he definitely looks a bit too old, but, overall, he seems pretty cool.

Thor includes Mjolnir and a clear display stand.  The lack of a flight stand seems odd, since it showed up with the AoU release, but I suppose the pack’s somewhat jam-packed as it is.

Thor’s a solid look for the character, and a decently constructed ‘mate, and probably the best long-haired and armored Thor ‘mate for the movies.

MMC Score — 8 out of 10

Malekith

Zzzzzzzzzzzz…….Oh, sorry! Must’ve dozed off for a sec there. Malekith does that to me sometimes. *Ahem* Well, here’s Malekith. Look at him. There he is.

Malekith has add-ons for his helmet/hair, hands, and torso/cape. These parts are all pretty well-sculpt, and are accurate to the source material. The hands are shared with the Dark Elves, which is reasonable, since he is their leader. All in all, he looks like the guy from the movie, so that’s good.

His paintwork is mostly blacks and off-whites, which are done reasonably enough. The level of detail on the legs is actually pretty fantastic, so you can see that DST was definitely putting in the effort on this guy. The basic head depicts Malekith with the right half of his face all scarred up, as it is in the second half of the film, which is a somewhat interesting look. He doesn’t really look a whole lot like Christopher Eccleston, but he doesn’t not look like Eccleston either. Also, the eyes aren’t accurate to the movie, where they’re mostly black.

Malekith is packed with a spare, unscarred head, which matches the regular look, as well as a clear display stand.

Malekith isn’t particular thrilling, as a character or as a design.  That kind of bleeds over into the figure, I’m afraid.  While DST certainly put in their all for this release, there’s just not much that can be done to redeem such a bland character.

MMC Score — 6 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.

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