Review: Marvel Universe 3-3/4 inch Cable

The Facts

• Real name: Nathan Christopher Summers
• Occupation: Adventurer; former freedom fighter and US Government agent
• Mutant with telepathic and telekinetic abilities
• Infected with a techno-organic virus
• Possesses superhuman strength
• Born in modern times to Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor (a Jean Grey Clone)

Sculpt/Paint

Cable is a hulking beast of a Mutant, just like in the comics the proportions of this action figure are exaggerated a bit. Rest assured though, his sculpt works and has a lot of nice detail from the waste up. Most of the body parts are unique to the figure. His hands hold on to his weapons well and have a decent amount of detail. His techno-organic arm is a real nice piece and is not a rehash of Winter Soldier’s similar bionic arm. (Hasbro could have easily done this, but took the high road.) His head sculpt is great. His hair and face are very well detailed especially the cheek bones, mouth, and chin. You can really get a feel for what Cable has been through by looking at his face, chiseled and grizzly yet trustworthy, is how I would describe it. I would definitely want to be on his side. His legs are muscular and decently sculpted, but nothing to brag about here. His belts, vest, and pouches all look great and feature nice rivet and button detail as well as some texturing on his right shoulder shield.  They are made out of a somewhat flexible material yet manage to stay in place when you want them to.

The paint app on Cable is great, but my figures legs and humanoid hand have a little less cleanliness than I would like. However, the wash applied on his face, hair, and humanoid arm are phenomenal, I do not recall such a nice wash on any other 3-3/4 action figure in recent memory. Again, this really brings out Cable’s facial features and gives this static action figure a personality. There is also a wash put on his techno-organic arm which highlights the panels and musculature nicely. But wait, there are more washes!!! His right shoulder protector has a great grain that his highlighted by a wash and his weapons also have washes and weathering applied. Seriously did Hasbro stop by a Games Workshop painting contest and drop off 5000 of these figures and say have at thee?

Articulation

Cable includes a waste joint and the split thigh/hip joints. Hasbro continues to use this split thigh joint on a lot of figures and I am not an anatomy expert, but my thighs don’t split in the middle and rotate, I prefer the GI Joe legs that move at the hip. He does however have some nice ankle joints that feature East/West movement as opposed to just your typical North/South movement. Cable has a nice range of movement in his neck and can easily evoke different emotions with the positioning of his head. His arms move well and can pose nicely given the large chest piece and attachments. Cable poses in a commanding way and gives of a real air of determination and steadfastness.

Accessories

Nathan comes with a hand gun, a rifle, a Psi-Mitar, vest, and belt with gun holster that properly wraps around his thigh for stability. Both the rifle and hand gun are expertly sculpted, painted, and I really like the weathered look they have to them. The hand gun fits nicely in his hand or holster while his blaster rifle can be held convincingly with one or two hands or stowed via peg on the back of his vest. Other than a figure stand, that is about it for accessories kids!

 Pros

1. Predominately new sculpt
2. Excellent paint app. Lots of emotion and grit conveyed by the washes and weathering
3. Great commanding poseablitly
4. Variant edition featuring Baby Hope from the Messiah War comic.

Cons

1. Slightly messy paint app on legs and right hand
2. Not a fan of the split thigh articulation
3. Lack of light up left eye (ok I had to make some type of flaw up)
4. Seriously, how cool would it be if his eye lit up?

Not knowing much about Cable I was still looking forward to this figure and rightfully so! The details and paint app are top notch. This figure inspired me to pick up Messiah War and learn more about Cable. I will admit going out in August of 91’ and purchasing X-Force #1 for it’s supposed collectability ( This was about the same time I learned that something that says collectible on it, is not necessarily collectible!) and never actually reading it, I may be rummaging around for that comic in the next few days….