When I first heard of the Phase One collectors set, I got excited. From the promotional picture above, it seemed to me that it was going to come in a replica brief case from the Avengers movie, with all the movies, including case files on the different Avengers. Without hesitation I preordered it, it was due out the same time as the Avengers was slated for a home release so I figured why not?
To my (and others) dismay, the release was delayed and instead I received a bluray copy of the Avengers free of charge courtesy of Marvel and Amazon as a thank you for my patience while they fixed whatever was wrong with it. I honestly forgot about it until about a week ago when I received a email from Amazon reminding me that they will be shipping it out on April 2nd. Again, I got excited, thinking it was going to be one of the top Marvel collectibles out there to date. I mean after all it's description was quoted with;
"Collectible packaging with exclusive memorabilia (prop reproductions and artifacts) from the motion pictures"
So, I waited.
Finally, it's the second! My package arrived via UPS and from the size, I got excited. Thinking surely it was a full size briefcase replica.
Instead, when I opened it, I was a little let down. I was expecting a full size briefcase, but instead I am greeted with a 12x9 case. I still holdout hope for it, because it looks shiny so surely it must be brushed aluminum or maybe even diecast right?
Oh, a try me button, wonder what it does?
Ah, it lights up the Shield crest on the outside, that's cool, now let's get it out of the box and take a looksee
Another disappointment. The case feels like cheap plastic, like a grade above the toys you get out of the dollar store. Again though, I brush aside the disappointment, after all I was promised movie prop replicas and stuff, so how bad can it be if the case was a little cheaply made?
Oh! Looks like it has buckles, nice!
Let down again, the "buckles" are the same cheap plastic as the rest of the case, and very thin feeling at that. I am afraid at some point in the future they are going to get snapped off. Let's go ahead and open it though, surely it gets better.
Oh, very nice looking, the cube is the centerpiece on what looks like a motherboard, the movies are to either side, and case files are in the lid. Also, there seems to be a keypad, maybe I can push in some keys? Seems cool.
Another let down. The "holder" for the case files is a tad loose, I am afraid that if the case gets opened wrong, the contents of these files will spill out and thus be lost or put back wrong.
The tesseract is removable, so I took it out to see what was underneath. Couple LED's, nothing more, just to make the cube have a glow when the case is opened. The circuits look kinda cool though.
Upon closer inspection of the circuits, I can see that they are just painted molded plastic. So far this has just been one big of a let down as far as collectibles go.
Even the keypad is molded on and the numbers unpushable. Really, how hard would it have been to just put a dummy keypad on? It didn't have to do anything, but it could still allow you to push some buttons.
The entire "circuit panel" lifts out and as you can see, it's just one big piece of molded plastic, with that cheap feel to it.
The only purpose lifting out the board does is to allow you to change the batteries on the LED's, I thought maybe I could put the files here so their contents wouldn't get scattered about, but if I did that I couldn't put the movies, nor the cube, back into their proper place.
This is the lid without the files in it. The logo is semi transparent and when you have the cube in place and activated, you can close the lid and see the glow of the cube flickering through the shield.
The movies, in gloss hard stock sleeves. The artwork I like, so no complaints about that.
The tesseract, seems okay, battery operated. The only problem i have is there is no on switch, you have to impact it fairly hard on a hard surface to get it to come on, and even then it just flickers, there is no solid on mode.
Sorry for the shoddy quality, best I could do.
Okay, it has a certificate, so surely my disappointment will lift now as I should be getting to the "movie prop replicas".
First up is a confidential letter from shield. Inside contained a overlay decoder and a shield keycard. So far so good, I am impressed with both of the items and the card actually feels like a real keycard.
Up first, is the Thor case file.
My first impression of the files, from the advertising above is that they were going to be real folders. Instead they are made of gloss paper, seems a tad cheap and disappointing to me.
Oh, look, goodies.
Thor's hospital bracelet, seems and feels like a actual hospital bracelet, that's a plus.
The drawing from the Thor movie, explaining the different planets and how they are connected. Instead of notebook paper though, the gloss paper is once again introduced.
Photograph of Thor "landing" during the storm, this is also gloss paper, but since it's a photograph I didn't mind too much.
A page from the children's book Jane's father showed her about Thor, gloss paper here again.
Considering that Shield keycard actually felt like a keycard, I was disappointed to find that these were instead made from gloss hard stock paper.
To save myself some time, unless otherwise noted, everything pictured from here on out is on the gloss paper, I will make notes of what the items are though.
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Up next, we have Tony Stark's file.
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A pamphlet from the '64 Stark Expo
A page from Howard Stark's journal, referencing the cube.
Tony's note to Pepper saying they are no longer making weapons (this too sadly is gloss paper)
Tony's Iron Man prototype drawings, and yes when you press them together the entire armor suit can be seen just like in the movie. This is made from a waxy type of paper.
A blueprint of the arc reactor.
A (gloss paper) newspaper clipping as seen in Iron Man 1.
A ticket to the Stark expo.
A business card of one Aldrich Killan.
Up next, we look at the Hulk's file.
A research article from Culver University.
A redacted SHIELD letter about Banner.
A screw on plate for the lab Banner was working in. This is made from a very thin metal.
Blue prints for the vehicle weapons seen in the movie.
A replica soda label from the beginning of the Incredible Hulk. This is made from a sticker type material.
A newspaper clipping from the movie.
Up next, we look at Captain America's file.
A selective service certificate of acceptable card listing rejection for Rogers.
A photo of Rogers pre super solider program.
Captain America trading cards and a photo of his girl, all sadly made of gloss paper.
A notice of fraud committed by Rogers for falsifying his enrollment records.
A gloss paper notebook page of the drawing Rogers did inbetween shows.
Rogers' physical exam sheet.
And lastly, we have the "top secret" SHIELD file. Also, it arrived like this, nice quality control Marvel.
Black Widow's redacted SHIELD file.
Hawkeye's redacted SHIELD file.
A photo of the tesseract while it was in Hydra's control.
Agent Coulson's business card.
A photo of the tesseract powered up.
A redacted SHIELD evidence file.
Ah, but what's this? The decoder seems to go with this file. "Director Fury has ordered you be sent to battleofnewyork.net to receive further operational debriefing.
Ah, but what's on the site you ask? Just a video of the coming phase two project, with clips from Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Ant Man and brief discussion on the new Captain America movie. A video I'm sure will find its way on to youtube eventually. Nothing else.
All in all, I am let down by this whole "collectors" edition. I feel as if I paid for the movies only and got cheap memorabilia for free. I expect this kind of cheapness from a mass produced product, but not something that is suppose to be a limited run, limited collectors edition that came with a certificate of authenticity. If this is the quality of Marvels collectibles now, I don't expect I will be buying any in the future. Because I forgot I ordered this almost a year ago, the only Avenger movie missing from my movie collection was Captain America, if I had known then what I know now, I would've just saved myself the money and disappointment and just bought Captain America and cancelled my preorder.
In my opinion, save yourself the cash and just buy the movies, you can probably get them for a whole lot cheaper then you would this. If you don't own any of the movies, then I guess you might want to give this a look at. On the whole it's nice, but I am let down because I believed the hype and thought that I was getting some awesome collectible and instead I got let down big time.
In my opinion, Marvel should have gone with this, but that would be too cool now wouldn't it?
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