Avalanche is not a character I love, but he’s been in the background of a bunch of classic stories and completes a team that I have particular affection for, Freedom Force. I do love to complete a team, especially a villain team. Let’s take a look at Avalanche!
Avalanche is part of a retro wave, so he comes on a nice thick card. Amazon shipped mine in a box supposedly sized especially for this figure, but it managed to get dinged up anyway. Not a big deal to an opener like me, but was perhaps a harbinger of things to come.
Avalanche comes with an extra set of open hands to go along with his fists and that’s it. I’m not sure what else he needs, maybe a blast effect? The figure has uniquely sculpted torso and a solid build, which works for Avalanche because he’s often depicted as a thicker guy. He’s got a nice surly expression that’s appropriate for villainy too.
Avalanche is one of those characters who is drawn differently from issue to issue, often with a costume change depending on the artist. I had to look it up because he’s not the kind of guy where I have his costume memorized, but my impression was that he usually had a big “A” on his costume. I spent an inordinate amount of time researching his appearances and I can’t really find anything that matches this costume exactly, not even the card art! It’s fairly close to his Villains for Hire look, but that has different details.
The articulation is where I really hit some trouble. He’s got fairly standard articulation with nice double knees and elbows and slightly hindered shoulders and head due to the shoulder pads and helmets blocking some movement. I didn’t notice until I was almost done photographing the figure that the left bicep was stuck and I was sheering off the shoulder peg when I turned the arm, so that’s now hanging on by a thread.
Paint is minimal. The face print does nice eye work, but makes his lips look a bit too red. The silver parts are that swirly marvel legends metallic plastic that often looks like it isn’t mixed all the way, but it looks decent here.
Before I almost twisted the arm off, I’d have said that this was a solid figure with a non-ideal costume choice, but now I’m tempted to just chuck him in the trash rather than go through the trouble of trying to get a replacement.
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Source: The Fwoosh
