Welcome to Flashback Friday: The Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this series you’ll get a discussion and brief review on some of your favorite Pops and Dorbz from the MCU. Here, we really appreciate the shared universe so the figures will come from film, television, and streaming. Yellowjacket from Marvel’s Ant-Man set is this week’s choice for discussion.
Discussion: Yellowjacket who is one of Ant-Man’s most notable villains gets the Pop treatment for the film’s release. He will only be in one film within the MCU because like most villains he was killed off so unless there’s some weird magical stuff going on in Infinity War we’ve seen the last of Yellowjacket within the MCU. Corey Stoll gave life to the character who I thought was enjoyable to watch on the big screen. One of the major problems with the villains is that they aren’t focused on enough which makes you less invested in the character. The only two villains that have been really successful in my opinion are Loki from Avengers and Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Hopefully, as the MCU continues to evolve they’ll give us strong antagonists that the audiences can invest in and care about.
The Ant-Man Funko Pop Vinyl set is pretty small compared to Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy. It only features six Pops, four of which are variations of Ant-Man, and two versions of Yellowjacket. This is a missed opportunity in my opinion because they easily could’ve added Hope Van Dyne which is the only strong female character in the film. They teased she would become the Wasp during the post credits teaser. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that really wanted a Hank Pym Pop. They could’ve created one with him in his old Ant-Man suit and an older version of just Hank like we see in the movie. Even the side characters get no love from Funko. I’m sure we’ll get an expanded set for the Ant-Man sequel which hits cinemas in the summer of 2018.
Yellowjacket was released in 2015 and was available wherever Pops were sold at the time. I know I saw him at Barnes and Noble, GameStop, Hot Topic, Target, and Walmart. His price is pretty much as low as you can get when purchasing a Pop. You can find him for $7.00 and he hasn’t been higher than $15.00. Since he’s not a very popular or well-liked villain I don’t imagine the price will go very high. If you’re looking to purchase Yellowjacket right now you’ll want to check Amazon, eBay and our very own Facebook group for availability. The link to the group can be found right here. This is a great Pop for anyone that collects MCU or villain Pops because it’s a cool design.
Description/Review: As you can imagine the color scheme for the suit is black and yellow similar to the bee in which the name was derived. The majority of the helmet is black with some red dots on the forehead and the nose. Yellow and transparent lenses complete the helmet. A gas mask type piece of equipment covers the mouth which allows for breathing. The upper and lower body of the suit is covered in black and yellow which follows a yellowjacket pattern. The back of the suit features two “legs” that protrude around the arms and shoot lasers towards his foes. They look to be adjustable as well. Overall, I really dig the design of the suit and it’s a really cool looking piece for any collection.
What’s next for Yellowjacket? As far as I can tell, Yellowjacket will not be returning to the MCU unless there’s some updated version of the suit in the Ant-Man sequel or if Thanos and Death pull some craziness in Infinity War and its untitled sequel. There may be comic versions of the character turned into Pops but as far as the MCU goes I think we’ve seen the last of him.
What are your thoughts on Yellowjacket? Sound off in the comments section below.
Would you like to see a specific Pop or Dorbz in a future article? Post your choice in the comments section and you just might see your favorite character “Pop” up in the coming weeks.
Check back next week for another MCU flashback. Excelsior!
Matt Norris