Pretty sure it comes from back in the four-colour printing days. Hulk and Lizard got purple pants because it contrasted well with the green, the colour separations staying distinct despite the crappy printing process.
@LigerPrime mentioned MCU Killmonger and being impressed by it. I agree with him, I saw it for myself last night; it is an incredible figure. Probably the best looking figure of the Black Panther wave. The jaguar spots are subtle but definitely there and the face has great paint apps. Black Panther already gave me a great first impression but Killmonger outdoes it IMO, both look great. I wish the comic Legends were painted as good as the recent MCU Legends. YMMV locally, some local Walmarts have it for $9, some have it full price.
One of my local Walmarts had the 2016 exclusive Black Panther for $9. When I got there, only 1 was left. Verdict? GREAT! You can take off the cape for a classic look. One of the swappable hands has a vertical wrist hinge, which greatly aids in posing with the staff! The Bucky Cap body is a standard buck, if you've been collecting ML since 2012, you know what to expect. A 6 year old buck that still tears the Mattel Multiverse bucks in half. My only criticism is that the hands are made of soft PVC and swapping some of them out made me feel like I was going to rip off the hand from the wrist hinge itself. Luckily I didn't. I suggest gripping/pinching as close to the hinge as possible when pulling the hands out. I saw the new Walmart exclusive Black Panther too, with pink highlights. I really like both head sculpts, that mask with angled back ears is cool. I wish the pink highlights had outlines scribed in but maybe that wouldn't be an accurate look. It looked good but I wasn't compelled to buy it just yet. Maybe I will later.
I've come to my semiannual dilemma of which MCU Captain America to add to my collection. There are likely only 2 figures left to come out: a "Nomad" Infinity War figure (which isn't useful) and an Avengers 4 "Avengers 1" costume. That last one will likely be the most full-featured, with the most modern engineering and their excellent face painting. But that costume is probably his weakest. So do I fall back to the Thanos Wave one? I really like that suit, enough to have looked at the SHF version.
My personal favorite is the Civil War version. The AoU version is a close second but the colors are too bright. My only regret is that the CW figure doesn't include any alternate hands. In particular I would have loved it if it had come with the pointy finger hand from TWS set. Cap can't lead the troops if he can't point to the enemy! Everyone knows that!
I do wish there were more splayed hands for normal stoic standing poses. My opinion on the blues changes based on the lighting. I know I like the white arms and brown boots on the AOU more. And I don't really need an unmasked head, especially a pre-2017 one.
For Legends, I still like the "Strike" suit figure from Winter Soldier the most, even though there's no red on the uniform. For SHF, it's the Age of Ultron version because it actually makes the extraneous red details look good. But, crazy as it may sound, my absolute favorite MCU Cap is the Marvel Select Civil War figure. Sure, he's not as poseable as either SHF version, and he's 7" scale instead of 6" scale. But the sculpt and paint (including the facial likeness) just hit all the right notes for me. The only real downside is that the chest seems a little narrow.
I have the Strange Select. It's probably not a bad line to collect in if you don't want to mix and match scale. Here's an interesting one: see the star on your Cap's shield? Flat. Every Captain America movie has a perfectly done shaped shield, minus the little grooves between the stripes. Every Avengers movie has the star divided into five symmetrical points. All the Hasbro Caps have the patterned star, which is interesting considering the first use of the mold was Winter Soldier Cap. The SHF versions use different shields. Personally I don't like the flat one now that I've seen the segmented one.
It's not bad but outdated. For the AOU Cap, Hasbro took the Strike Suit from the Winter Soldier movie and gave it a new torso that's bulked up a bit to reflect the extra padding. However, they just reused the same arms without retooling them to be a tad bulkier. So AOU/Civil War Cap looks a bit odd around the shoulders. What I wish Hasbro did, was make AOU/CW Cap's shoulders like they did for Ragnarok MCU Thor/Loki. With those they sculpted the shoulder pads as part of the bicep joint. So when the upper arm swiveled, the armor still covered the shoulder. Meanwhile, they are sturdy yet have enough give to pivot the shoulders outward without hindering the articulation. Meanwhile then pivoted in or out, the shoulder armor never looks like it's separate from the shoulder. It's a well made functional illusion. So if IW Cap has shoulder padding, hopefully Hasbro tools shoulder armor molded/attached to the bicep swivels like they did Ragnarok Thor/Loki. As far as which figure to get; I've got both AOU and CW. AOU has hand selection and colors that pop. CW is more subdued. If it comes down to colors and hands, get the AOU. Oh yea the shield can be a pain when using both straps. Easier to put on the last strap by detaching the hand, then reattaching it when the strap is on.
I just saw the shape changing Iron Man figure...wow, I'm surprised about the praise it gets. It looks comically bad and by that I mean it looks very accurate to the worst, most half assed art I've seen of it in the comics.
Well, I managed to get the Sandman torso from a board member, but the remaining parts I needed I was forced to go the Ebay/Amazon route. Guess I'll sell off the figures after. I had someone from the boards message me that they had the arms, but they flaked and never replied again. Still no luck on the Rhino leg from Ghost Rider or arm from Superior Venom, though =(
I didn't read all the way through this thread, but Target has the Spidey Homecoming wave for $9.99... if you can find it. I already had Tombstone, so I only picked up the Beetle. Isn't this like the 3rd Beetle figure? Geez. I can't wait for that Spidey/Lizard wave. BTW, what was the deal behind the Mysterio face with the skull and Octopus? I searched online and didn't see any reference to it in the books.
Someone pointed out that it just represents his illusion skills. It's also like a homage to the psychedelic influence on his character.
Okay, that sort of makes sense. I guess that's better than including greenish-gray cotton balls that mimic his illusion smoke.