Dave's Toy Rant:

     Avengers Animated Ant-Man

CAPSULE

     A well-detailed, very well-articulated figure.  The gimmicks are a
little weird (he doesn't grow so much as stretch), but interesting.  A very
good figure at a good price.  $5.99 at Toys R Us.

RANT

     Well, to start with, Ant-Man has 12 "regular" points of articulation.
Swivel neck, waist and wrists, universal joint shoulders (restricted somewhat
by shoulderpads), hinge knees, elbows and ankles (ankles don't move much,
though) and restricted ball joint hips (legs can spread apart to an angle of
about 60 degrees).  The bluish-grey, black and red armor with yellow and
green accents is faithful to the show and looks pretty good.  The helmet is
removable, and the figure stands about 5.5" (13cm) tall not counting the
antennae on the helmet.  Closer to 5.25" with the helmet off.  The head is
posed so that Ant-Man is looking down, a ball-joint neck (like on the 7" DC
Superman Blue) would have been a good idea here.  The helmet's visor is made
of translucent green plastic, but the clear part mainly covers his hair, so
you don't see much.
     The big gimmick for this toy is that he grows.  Sort of.  Actually, his
shins, forearms and waist extend.  At full extension, he's 7" (18cm) tall and
rather spindly...a basketball partner for Beast Machines Cheetor.  His arms
only extend a couple millimeters, barely enough to notice, just enough to
look weird.  Still, I don't think it'd be too hard to kitbash this toy into
Machine Man, eh?  Thanks to bulky boots and jointed ankles, he can stand
pretty stably at full height.
     Of course, he wouldn't be Ant-Man if he didn't shrink.  There's also a
micro-scale Ant-Man included, and a backpack jet for him to ride in.  The jet
normally is pegged to the back of the main figure with its wings folded in.
By bringing the magnet on big-Ant-Man's forearm near the cockpit of the jet,
the wings pop out and the cockpit opens (and more often than not, the little
figure is launched across the table).  One nifty thing about this magnetic
gimmick is that the magnet in the jet is not visible, but rather is hidden
behind unmoving plastic.  It's opposite polarity to the figure's magnet, so
the jet can sort of hold onto his arm.  But the cockpit wants to open in that
case, which looks odd.  The little figure in the jet is an inch (2.5cm) tall
and lightly chromed.  His legs are a single piece snapped into his pelvis,
but the joint is very loose and he tends to fall apart.  Forget about getting
it to stand up.  The arms move independently.  I'm not sure if the head is
supposed to turn or if I'm just twisting soft plastic here.  Oh, and the jet
is silvery and red, 2" (5m) long and with a wingspan of 2".
     Ant-Man's wrist-magnet is opposite in polarity to Falcon's.  This has
two effects.  One, the two can cling to each other magnetically.  Two, they
can't activate each other's gimmicks.  Ant-Man's magnet is strong enough to
support his weight hung from a metal object.

     Overall, while it's not necessarily a good Giant-Man/Ant-Man toy
(stretching is not growing), it's still a very cool toy in its own right.
Snap it up if you can find it.

     Dave Van Domelen, seeing more Kangs and Hawkeyes, but no Wonder Man,
Vision, Wasp or Captain America....