.

ave 4 is the first “proper” wave to feature the new, box-style Marvel Minimates packaging which now is an enclosed box with pictures of the Minimates in action poses. People were initially worried that the chase figures would be “blind packed”, that is, the Unmasked Daredevil figure would be randomly packed into a box with a picture of Battle Damaged Daredevil on it, but thankfully that is not the case, and the picture shows off an Unmasked Daredevil with a nice “VARIANT ENCLOSED” banner on it.

Similar to the Giant-Size X-Men Boxset, pictures of the 2 Minimate’s heads are on the side of the box. Unmasked Daredevil’s face is shown rather than his Battle Damaged version.

Another point (which I forgot to add to the Battle Damaged Daredevil review, but applies there too) is that the old Daredevil – Man Without Fear logo seen on the wave 1 Daredevil sets has now gone. In its place is the generic Marvel Universe logo, which is a shame, as I really like the Daredevil logo and thought it looked great on the old cards. It will be interesting to see if the Hulk set coming up in wave 6 (Gamma Ray Hulk and The Leader) will be tagged under Marvel Universe or whether it will retain the Incredible Hulk logo.

The packaging is a smaller than the old carded 2-packs and the Magneto and Professor X exclusive, and immeasurably cuter. The figures are packed in a bubble tray, and have no twist-ties holding them in. A clear tray piece fits over the top and then locks in.

The wave 4 chase figure is an “unmasked” Daredevil, who shares the same body as the wave 1 Daredevil. The body in general seems a lot tighter than my original, who, like a few of the first wave figures, was plagued by some loose hands and feet. The paint app on the body is fine, as it doesn’t have any complex detailing.

The main difference is obviously the head. Daredevil has the same face as the wave 1 figure too, but instead of his mask, he has a hairpiece with some glasses attached.

There are two problems with this figure. The first is concerning the hairpiece itself. It’s just a repainted hairpiece from the Peter Parker figure, and while the ginger and red colours look OK (MUCH better than the original Peter Parker version), the paint app isn’t great. The front “prong” of hair is still brown on my figure, either it hasn’t been painted or the paint has chipped.

The second problem with this figure is that, well, it just doesn’t make much sense. Why would Daredevil be in costume yet wearing glasses in a Matt Murdock style? It makes a lot less sense than the Unmasked Spider-Man figure. We all know that eventually there will be a Matt Murdock figure in civilian clothes, and this figure will instantly be forgotten.

Overall, Unmasked Daredevil is an uneccessary variant, the worse of the Daredevil Minimates so far.

MMC Score – 5 out of 10

Review and pictures by Danny Mills

[starratingmulti id=”1″]