Flashback Friday: Captain America in the MCU

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 from the MCU. Here, we really appreciate the shared universe so the figures will come from film, television, and streaming. Captain America from the Captain America: The Winter Soldier set is this week’s choice for discussion.

Reflection: This week marks the 52nd Flashback article since I joined the PopVinyls team as a contributor. At the time I was trying to figure out what I could talk about weekly that I really enjoyed. I thought about Game of Thrones, Marvel, The Walking Dead, and WWE. I never ended up writing about the two most popular shows on TV but I think that will change in the coming year. However, I did do a couple of pieces about WWE, specifically the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Division which I really enjoyed. I received a lot of positive feedback and interaction from the readers so I’m sure I’ll be revisiting that subject in the near future.

I eventually settled on writing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe because I really enjoy the films and the characters and it just made sense considering how many MCU Pops I owned. It’s been a lot of fun talking about all of these amazing characters and with the amount of MCU Pops being released there will be no shortage of characters and variants that I’ll be able to discuss. I hope you the readers have enjoyed going back in time each week with me and revisiting some really awesome Pops.

Looking back, I can’t believe I’ve written so many Flashback Friday columns. It’s been a true pleasure and I look forward to continuing this series over the next year. I’m going to be looking for ways to improve the reading experience and hopefully increase engagement with all of you. I really appreciate each and every one of you who have taken the time to read one of my articles over the last year and supported me and this great site.

Discussion: This week’s selection is from my favorite Cap film in the MCU which is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was released in 2014 to a large opening weekend with high praise from fans and critics. It was labeled as a political thriller and it didn’t disappoint. What made the film really standout for me was the suspense. You knew Winter Soldier was going to be an antagonist throughout the film but was there someone else in play pulling the strings? The big reveal with S.H.I.E.L.D. showed just how little the audience knew and it was a fantastic twist that people didn’t see coming. Another great addition was the choreography of the fight scenes between Cap, Bucky, and the rest of the team. Everything just clicked and it was no surprise that Marvel Studios brought the Russo brothers back to direct Captain America: Civil War, Avengers 3 and 4.

The Winter Soldier set was released in 2014 and gave us four different Captain America Pops. This is the only one in the set that doesn’t have some kind of variation. While I really like the set I was a bit disappointed that there were only 7 Pops. I would’ve liked to see a battle damaged Cap, Steve in plain clothes, Natasha in plain clothes, Falcon, Nick Fury, Brock Rumlow, and Aaron Pierce. That’s six more Pops that could’ve easily fit into the set and rounded it out a bit more. I’m really hoping that they go back and add some characters and variations to that set.

The Captain America: Winter Soldier set is already three years old and it’s highly unlikely you’ll see any of the Pops in normal retail stores that sell Funko products. I’ve found out that this Cap has been vaulted which means production has stopped. Whatever the production count was is now all that’s available to collectors. Vaulted pops usually see an increase in value especially if the character is popular. Cap has been going from $30.00 to $50.00 for a while now with the average slightly over $40.00. Amazon and eBay will probably give you the best results if you’re looking to add Cap to your collection. I’d also check out our fantastic Facebook group where you can buy, sell, and trade. If you’re looking for something it’s safe to assume one of our members has it.

Review: This Captain America pop looks like the character at the end of the film when he dons his original costume. That costume resembles the one he wore in Captain America: The First Avenger. He really is the Star Spangled man with the faded blue suit and helmet. The bright and vibrant red, white, and blue shield brings the design full circle. Overall, I’m really happy with the look of Cap and I think it’s a great addition to any collection. You’ll definitely want to pick this up before the price increases.

What’s New? Looking to add more engagement with the readers I’ll be adding a trivia section to each future article. The questions will be related to the MCU property from that week. There will be two questions and if you successfully post the correct answers you get to choose which set and piece I cover the following week. The only restrictions are they have to be from an MCU film or television series and I have not written about them already. The first person to post both correct answers wins.

Q1. Who does Jasper Sitwell name drop as a high-risk target that HYDRA is keeping tabs on?

Q2. Which actor would use the line “cut the check!” when something had gone right or when the filming of a scene was completed?

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article. Please check back next week for a brand new Flashback Friday and as always Excelsior!