Hasbro Marvel Infinite Series Daredevil Armored Review

Matt Murdoch a.k.a. the Daredevil lost his sight in a childhood accident involving an undisclosed radioactive substance that fell off a truck.

The mystery waste enhanced his other senses so well that he can fight crime. It sounds kind of hokey now, and it kind of did when Daredevil debuted in April 1964 too, as reflected in its poor sales.

From then til 1979, creative teams couldn’t revitalize the flawed character. With the book on its way to cancelation, Frank Miller started illustrating and eventually writing Daredevil.

His darker take on the character —Daredevil fighting more street level crime, Elektra getting killed by Bullseye only to be resurrected by the Hand, and the fate of Jack Murdoch redone in tragic detail in The Man Without Fear—had books flying off the shelf, and it’s done well since.

As a result of the character’s difficulty catching on, his costume changed as often as the creative teams, leading to at least four iconic uniforms (all red, yellow and dark red, the black suit just covering his mouth, and the extra metal armor).

In their latest rendition, we get the Hasbro Marvel Infinite Series Daredevil Armored.

The figure’s best feature is the paint. The design is fairly complex, a series of red shapes around his torso, and arms, silver for the metal, black for fabric, and peach for the section of face he’s left uncovered. (Why do superheroes without invulnerability do that? Chins are more, not less susceptible to fists, knives, and pretty much anything else a supervillain can hit with?) A few months ago, I wrote an article about Hasbro’s inability to get paints right on the Infinite Series, and this Daredevil is better. There’s a scuff on his chin, but the rest of the paint is where it needs to be.

I’m especially impressed with the red back of his metal knee pads. It’s some good detail work.

The sculpt isn’t quite as good. There are no mistakes, but what I’d described as a design flaw. On his left arm, he’s got half of his staff connected to his arm. It looks cool, but the accessory staff is noticeably bigger. The accessory staff also doesn’t latch to his wrist, which means no matter what Daredevil is doing, his arms can’t be symmetrical. I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea or why, but let me be clear: it is a bad idea.

The rest of the sculpt works though. The armor sticking up looks awesome and is textured well. The horns are also a great little touch.

For articulation, he’s got the new Marvel Infinite standard:

-ball joint head
-swivel/hinge shoulders
-swivel/hinge elbows
-ball joint hips
-double hinge knees
-ball joint feet

Methinks Hasbro has been paying attention to I Am Elemental, whose figures have nearly identical articulation.

 

Daredevil comes in standard Marvel Infinite packaging.

I’d recommend not buying this particular Hasbro Marvel Infinite Series Daredevil Armored. I was excited to get him, but the different size staffs are a deal breaker. He can only look weird or be photographed from the side, and there are quite a few 3 and ¾ inch Daredevils. You’d be better served with one of those.

You can get Daredevil from the Hasbro Toy Shop for $9.99 or from Amazon. However, your best bet is probably eBay for finding this Marvel Infinite Armored Daredevil action figure.