Review: Hasbro 3-3/4 inch Marvel Universe SDCC Exclusive Baron Zemo!

The Facts

• Real name: Heinrich Zemo
• Has a son who took over the mantle of Baron Zemo by the name of Helmut Zemo
• Occupation: Criminal entrepreneur
• First Appearances: Avengers #4 March 1964, Captain America #168 June 1971
• While working on a top secret Nazi weapon called “Adhesive X” during WWII Captain America broke into Heinrich’s lab and during the fight Cap’s shield shattered a vat of the adhesive spilling it on to Zemo and his mask.
• Heinrich also attempted to steal an experimental drone plane from the British and while trying to stop him Bucky and Cap were both flung into the ocean.
• His son Helmut was disfigured by Cap in a boiling vat of “Adhesive X” and his face now has the appearance of melting wax (a la Raiders Of The Lost Arc)
• Both Baron Zemo’s were credited with organizing different lineups of  “The Masters Of Evil”

Sculpt/Paint

The overall sculpt is nice, the body uses wave 14 Doctor Strange but the head sculpt is all new for this figure. The hands are sculpted rather open and he is unable to truly grip either his sword or gun. Good details on the face and head really capture the “masked” look. I like the silver paint for the eyes, as we never really see Zemo’s eyes in the comics and this is a nice touch of mystery! There is some great shading and detailing on his collar, his face, and the fur on his boots. The paint on the aforementioned pieces is really stellar and is as good as what we saw on Cable last year. His fur collar is removable, as is the fur on his boots for some odd reason. Speaking of odd why does he wear so many fur accents? Perhaps if I was a baron I would understand… I just hope nobody from PETA runs into him…

Articulation

Zemo poses nicely, my figure’s joints were a little loose but overall not bad. He uses the same articulation set as Cyclops and Cable from prior MU waves. The big negative here though is the hands as mentioned above he cannot hold his weapons with any type of grip, they just kind of sit in there until you move the figure then they easily fall out perhaps he could use some “Adhesive X” here.

Accessories

As with most Marvel Universe figures there are few accessories. Zemo has the only accessories of this three pack. A sword and a Mauser type gun. The sword is a little chunky and the gun is actually pretty nice and to scale unlike some other versions of the Mauser that Hasbro has put out there.

Pros

1. It’s a treat to have this guy in 3.75” size; we haven’t had one since Secret Wars!
2. Great head sculpt and paint detailing
3. A value as part of a 3 pack for $29.99 I could easily see Hasbro charging that much for him alone as an exclusive
4. Great packaging on this set too, I am not usually one to go into detail on packaging but this is special and is what exclusives should be packaged like, nice art and shiny foil!

Cons

1. Loose joints on my figure made him a bit wobbly (too much Hefeweizen perhaps?)
2. Lame hand sculpts make it impossible for him to hold his weapons nicely
3. Will be hard to find for $29.99,(3 pack price includes Radioactive Man and Tiger Shark) most of the EBay prices I have seen are between $40 and $60.

Being a huge Cap fan I was excited to see that we were getting an updated version of Zemo and was hoping to get my hands on one for a reasonable price. After patiently waiting for Hasbro Toy Shop to put the SDCC exclusives up for sale I did! I have to say all three figures are really nice and feature great paint apps. Zemo and Tiger Shark have stellar head/face sculpts. The packaging is great and will look snazzy on display in my collection!