Geek Review: Marvel Legends Series Ant-Man Premium Electronic Helmet

The Smallest Avenger. The thief-turned-hero. The one to kill Thanos (a long shot most likely, but we know we all want that to happen).

Scott Lang a.k.a Ant-Man is best defined by his ability to shrink and grow, as well as his affable personality, thanks to the loveable Paul Rudd. He also rocks a cool suit to go with his ice-cool demeanour, especially with his iconic helmet that allows him to shrink to enter tight spaces or expand to become Giant-Man and go all-out kaiju on his foes.

Toy giant Hasbro is back with a new Marvel Legends 1:1 scale replica of Ant-Man’s helmet, and does it look good.

This is the same version we’ve seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but also in Avengers: Endgame, FYI.

Straight from the labs of Pym Technologies (better known as Hasbro, but we jest), this helmet comes ready to wear and play right out of the box.

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All you need to do is just attach the two antennae to the sides, install some AAA batteries for the lights and you’re good to go.

Up close, you can see that Hasbro really devoted a lot of effort into the detail of the helmet. It looks sleek and simple, and it bears the two red stripes near the eye sockets that make it stand out. The eye sockets themselves are tinted red, as was the case in the movies.

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The interior is none too shabby. There is a headband to keep your noodle in place, with an adjustable strap at the back for tightening and loosening. The eye sockets have padding on them to keep your face from bumping onto the front of the helmet itself.

Putting on the helmet is rather simple. Just raise the flap at the back, loosen the back strap, and the helmet will slide on without much issue.

One potential deal-breaker might be the fact that the helmet’s interior width isn’t adjustable, so it won’t fit heads that are too large. Furthermore, the rubber padding by the chin area is comfortable, but might accumulate dust and grime over time, and will be hard to clean off.

Additionally, we found that the flap on the back doesn’t close very tightly, meaning it will dangle very awkwardly at certain angles. We also discovered that it comes off pretty easily. Putting it back together is much, much, harder, as it doesn’t catch on well. We needed to use a bit of force to be able to snap it back into place.

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To activate the helmet lights, you’ll need three AAA batteries, the housing of which is located near the mouthpiece. Simply pull it off, open the housing using a screwdriver, and you’re good to go.

The switch for the lights is located on the left side of the helmet. The lights can switch between red and blue, but… That’s pretty much all there is to the helmet.

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No voice modulation or sound effects to give it some added cool factor. The helmet doesn’t flip open to the front unlike in the movies or even the Marvel Legends Iron Man helmet. Okay, maybe the latter flaw is due to the fact that the battery housing is out front, so perhaps that couldn’t be avoided. Still, it would’ve been nice to fully emulate the way Ant-Man operates down to a T.

That said, the Marvel Legends Ant-Man helmet is still a solid option for cosplaying or just putting up for display. The paint job is exceptionally good, as well as the detailing for both the interior and exterior. The S$199.99 price point might put some off, considering how underwhelming the features are for this thing.

On a funnier note, it’s fitting that, amid all the anticipation of Avengers: Endgame on April 24, this helmet arrived in the Geek Culture office. It’s almost as if Paul Rudd himself is giving us hints as to what we’d expect in that decisive three-hour conclusion to The Infinity Saga. But that’s a story for another time.

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