Merchandise Review:
The Marvel's Greatest Moments: Adam Warlock vs Thanos was released in 2000 as a Previews Exclusive. As is the case with most releases of this type, the set was done on the cheap, using pre-existing molds. Sometimes the results of such endeavors are surprisingly good, and sometimes the results are unquestionably bad. Unfortunately, this release proved to be the latter, which I'll explain over the course of the review.
 = crap on a cracker, = passable, = well done, = NICE!
PACKAGING
The packaging for both of the sets in this line is absolutely gorgeous. The figures are held within an extra-large blister, which is decorated by nicely-rendered images of the characters depicted within. The card-back is fairly thick and sturdy, and adorned in a cool, golden-yellow border and great graphics overall. The overall effect is certainly eye-catching, and it really makes for an excellent MOC display.
SCULPTS
Thanos - | Warlock - 
Here's where things begin to go wrong. As I mentioned above, both of these figures are, obviously and somewhat understandably, redecos of pre-existing molds. Thanos is simply a repainted version of the Thanos figure from the Silver Surfer animated line. The only changes to his mold can be found in the form of the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand. However, its a subpar attempt at best. They added the knuckle-dusters in addition to the gems, but only extended them a 3rd of the way down the closed fingers. It just doesn't look right, and the effect smacks of laziness. To make matters worse, That hand still sports the pointing index-finger, which I guess is okay if Thanos is delivering the "Infinity-Poke of DOOM", but looks silly otherwise.
As for Warlock...ugh, where do I start? Well, in his case they chose an older Spider-Man mold which had already been reused once before in the form of Quicksilver. Its passable for such characters, but Warlock just isn't that slender, and it doesn't look quite right. However, the worst part about this mold is the gimpy, withered left-hand. What the sculptor was initially thinking when he initially sculpted this eludes me to this day. My best-guess is that he intended it to mimic Spidey's web-shooting hand-pose, minus the extended Thumb, Index, and Pinky fingers. However it instead looks malformed. Almost as bad is the choice for a head-sculpt, which they pinched from a 1996 Archangel figure, and it looks NOTHING like Warlock's features. The face is too elfin, and the hair is just...wrong.
Lastly, these figures seem to be molded in a lower-grade of plastic than the usual Toy Biz releases.
PAINT
Thanos - | Warlock -
The bad just keeps on comin'. Thanos is molded in a darker shade of blue this time around, but its too dark, almost a midnight-blue. Instead of orange, they went for a more golden look, but the yellow they chose is just too bright. They also use a dark-gold paint to decorate the glove and boot edges, which looks fine against the yellow portions. However, they use the same paint to add in the stripe down Thanos' torso, and its barely visible against the dark blue. And for some inexplicable reason they painted the stripe and ear-guards on Thanos' helmet in, get this, flat-black, and it really makes me wonder what was up with the painting guides that were sent to the factory. The final insult would be Thanos' face, which is painted in a very dark purple. His lips are edged with black. His eyes are painted a shade of red which barely registers against the dark purple. And his chin is brushed with a lavender color that makes it look as if he dipped it into a big bowl of ice cream. Its really, really horrid, and looks like absolute CRAP. All that being said, somehow they managed to paint the Infinity Gems in their proper colors and in the correct order.
In Warlock's case the paint-applications do the job just fine and look pretty good, assuming you have a well-painted one. Toy Biz suffered (and STILL suffers) from frequent sloppiness in the paint apps, so that's something you have to watch for when selecting your figures.
ARTICULATION
Thanos - | Warlock -
Keeping in mind the time in which these figures were released, the articulation is fairly standard. Thanos has 8 points of articulation: Head, waist, and wrist swivels; T-crotch hips, and ball-jointed shoulders. He loses half a gem for lacking hinged elbow and knee joints. Warlock has 11 points of articulation: Hinged elbows, knees, and ankles; T-crotch hips, pegged shoulders, and a neck swivel. In Warlock's case, there seems to be some degradation of the mold from re-use. As a result, his articulation is rather loose. Because of this, he loses half a gem.
ACCESSORIES
Nothing to write home about. Thanos comes with zilch, and Warlock comes with his staff and cape. The cape is made from the same plastic the figures were molded in, and as a result its very stiff and heavy.
VALUE
If memory serves, this exclusive set was priced at around $17.99, and I'm here to tell you it wasn't worth that at the time. Why? Because the paint on Thanos is so shoddy that he looks awful even inside the blister. You shouldn't pay MORE for substandard paint-jobs. The quality of the packaging makes it a better deal for the MOC collector, but it was still a pretty poor value. If you pay more than $20 for this set today, you're getting shafted in my opinion.
THE VERDICT
This easily ranks as one of the biggest disappointments in my collection. My belief is that if you aren't going to do something competently, you shouldn't do it at all, and this certainly holds true here. Toy Biz/Diamond could have done a much better job on this set, and done so rather easily. First, they could have selected a better body for Warlock, and they certainly could have selected a better pre-existing head. The head and body that was originally used for the Iolaus figure in the 1995 Hercules line (later re-used for an Archangel figure, and even the exclusive Marvel's Gold Captain Marvel figure) would have been a much better choice, and would have required just a small amount of re-tooling to remove the wrist-bands from the forearms. Thanos would have required even less work to get right. A decent paint-scheme would have worked wonders for starters. They also should have retooled the left hand into a standard fist, and there was no real need to add the knuckle-dusters at all. They could have just added the Gems and that would have been just fine.
In closing, yes, I realize that repaints are done on the cheap and it's an easy way to turn a profit. But even so, it should still be done well, and that wasn't the case here. So, I graded the set accordingly. Unless you are a huge fan of the characters, or a completist, I wouldn't bother picking these up unless I could nab them for $10 or less.
Photos:
Taken with my Fujifilm Finepix A 345 Digital Camera. As always, click for the bigguns!
Review by CORVUS - Thur, January 05th, 2006
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