Captain America Armors Up For New Square Enix Play Arts Marvel Variant Figure

Legendary hero Captain America has gone through more than his fair share of costume revisions over the years. Some have been more well-received than others, but the man has always stayed true to the core concept designed by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. It's hard to argue with the classic stars and bars. In fact, it's so hard to argue with the good ol' red, white and blue, even Cap's most radical revamps have incorporated the scheme because it's impossible to top. That even holds true when other characters that have suited up under the guise of the Captain like Bucky and Sam Wilson.

I thought for sure that Square Enix would take the character through some unexplored territory with its upcoming Play Arts Marvel Variant version, but even the talented team there found that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. While the Square Enix version of Captain America is immediately recognizable, it lacks much of that trademark Play Arts touch. It's not the most outrageous armored Avenger we've ever seen, and that oddly makes it kind of a boring figure.

Play Arts' brand director Hidemi Matsuzuka shared the newest pictures of the upcoming figure on his Facebook. The unpainted prototype was shown off at SDCC this year, but like the Black Widow, seeing the painted prototype offers a much clearer idea of what to expect from the final piece. Instead of getting a bright blue color scheme, Square stuck to a bit of a darker vibe, with a blue/black ombre effect. It gives the upper armor a weathered look, while also looking a bit more modern, too.

Where Square really deviates from the standard pattern is in the leggings, which feature large stars across Cap's thighs above the knee pads. The heavily armored look fares far better here than it did back in the '90s; a dark time for many a costumed hero. The sheer number of panels makes his upper body look a bit disjointed. It will however allow for better posing and articulation, and is nowhere near as outlandish as the Tetsuya Nomura Batman figure coming soon.

That's a bit of the problem with this Cap. For a line called "Variant," there's just not that much variation in the design. At least with the Iron Man and Spider-Man figures introduced previously, there was a different vibe about their style. This Captain America plays it a little too safe, which is something I'd never thought I'd say about a Play Arts Variant figure.

No release date or price has been announced as of yet, but the release schedule Square has for the rest of the line hints that Captain America will be available late this year or early into 2016.

Learn More About Captain America With This Handy Video