Star-Lord was the 22nd Hot Toys figure that I owned, and I was super excited to add Peter Quill to my collection! The MCU boasts so many amazing characters, it probably seems weird for me to exclaim my immense appreciation for a character while ranking them at the lower end of my Top-25 characters list, but make no mistake, Peter Quill is an incredible character and while he isn’t my favorite Guardian of the Galaxy, he is an essential part of that team and was vital in getting The Guardians over with audiences.
In the first Guardians film, Peter Quill was the character whose eyes we as viewers watched the film through. He was from Earth and was (half) human, so while Marvel Studios took us to all of these alien worlds throughout the Galaxy back in 2014, Quill was the character that grounded the movie for us human viewers as he was (at least initially) the character that was most relatable.
Peter Quill is one of the funniest characters in the MCU, and quite frankly, he was cracking jokes and making light of things before it was cool to do within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These days, we have a re-imagined Thor courtesy of Taika Waititi and Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, but back in 2014, Marvel Studios hadn’t really embraced its comedic side to the level that it was flaunted in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. No one was really sure where the proverbial chips would fall in terms of the audience’s reception, but the film ended up being a huge hit with moviegoers and spawning a new MCU franchise.
Today, a lot of people love The Guardians of the Galaxy, and Star-Lord is regarded as one of the MCU’s most popular characters. Chris Pratt has been entertaining moviegoers for nearly a decade as Star-Lord at this point, and his sarcasm, wit, and unabashed love for popular culture (in the 1970’s and 1980’s to be exact) make him one of the MCU’s most unique characters, but there are far more layers to Peter Quill beneath the surface.
Like I myself have done often in my life, Peter Quill uses jokes and laughs to divert the weight of heavy and stressful situations. It’s how he copes, for at his core, he is still that little kid that was abducted by aliens on the day that his mother died. Quill talks big and carries himself with bravado, but inside, this is all a ruse that he orchestrates to hide the fear and frailty that truly define this human that exists in this huge, bold Universe.
Though Quill likes to carry himself as if everything is a joke and as if nothing really matters, he is all too aware of life’s tragedies and its unfairness, and he is fully capable of caring and loving, even to a fault. I relate a lot to these aspects of Star-Lord as a character and this is one of the reasons that I love the character as much as I do. This side of Quill is best illustrated in Infinity War during his heated confrontation with Thanos on Titan. A lot of fans denounced Quill as a character over this scene, but it’s my favorite Star-Lord scene in the entire MCU, because knowing the character as we do, it was just so sad to see him lose his composure as he did. I mean, Peter Quill is Joe Cool in the face of all adversity, but in this specific scene, we see his true self; we see Quill with all of his walls down and it’s just him and his raw emotion; his pure and sincere love for Gamora, and it’s beautiful and it’s tragic to see him exposed as he is and to watch him just lose it over the horror of the realization that the love of his life has been taken from him forever. It’s Chris Pratt’s single greatest MCU scene in my opinion, and one of my favorites.
That being said, I do also love the smart-ass attitude and the casual bravado with which Quill typically carries himself. Though it may be an illusion and a front, it’s still entertaining as hell to watch Chris Pratt do his thing in the MCU, and Peter Quill has been responsible for many of my most sincere laughs as a MCU fan! His dynamic with his fellow cast members is sensational, and as good as that has been with his fellow Guardians, it was equally good when Quill finally got to mingle with some of the heroes of Earth that emerged during his time off world, as seen in Avengers: Infinity War.
Out of the box, the Hot Toys Star-Lord figure is far better than I imagined he would be! The head sculpt is incredible and the clothing is perfect (Ravager garb), and the weapons and accessories (which include guns and Bubble effects pieces) compliment the figure perfectly. Star-Lord comes with two versions of his helmet; one an alternate head sculpt, compete with light-up red eyes, and another that presents the helmet as forming around Star-Lord’s face, but I just can’t bring myself to pose my figure with either of these options because the Chris Pratt head sculpt is so darn flawless!
Though I added this figure to my collection relatively late in the game, I am so glad to have him, for I don’t think Hot Toys will top this Star-Lord figure in the future.
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