When I first heard that they were going to make a new Marvel Legends Spider-Woman in her new costume, I was pretty excited. While I'm not the biggest fan of her new duds, I do think it looks cool and it has a lot more redeeming qualities than people give it credit for. Promo shots made the figure look really good and I couldn't wait to get my hands on her. So does this figure do my excitement justice? Let's find out.
Marvel was going through, and is still possibly going through with purging the 'sexist' and dominantly male comic book universe. Spider-Woman along with her bestie, Carol Denvers (at the time Ms. Marvel) were victims of such purging. While I can honestly admit that there are plenty of things to like about this new costume, there are also plenty not to like especially when paired up with her classic costume. NOTHING beats the classic, but again, I am not one to shy away from change. I do like Spider-Woman's new duds for certain reasons. The side art of this wave has been really good. I like the artist they got! And the promo shot of the figure just shows how limited we are with what can be done with this figure; or Hasbro is just bad at posing their toys.
As an action figure, there are plenty of things to like about this new Spider-Woman. Hasbro may have recycled a body mold that I do not agree with, I mean, come on, it's not the sexy and well endowed Jessica Drew that we know, but again, Marvel's purging. So despite the younger and skinnier body mold, I do think it has some good things with the sculpting. For one, I do appreciate that Hasbro took the time to add her logo through sculpting it out rather than using paint. It gives it depth and doesn't give me the impression that this was a complete 'last minute' thought of addition to the wave. Other than that, there's really nothing else that is new with the figure other than the face, which I will talk about in a bit.
My figure's paint application is clean and no overlapping paint and/or missed mark. I do wish that her boots were sculpted to give more depth to it. Still, the colors do work well with each other and the shades of red and black that Hasbro chose does Jessica's new costume justice so I can't complain about that. Overall, the paint job is well executed for the body.
The face is where I think this figure's highlight is. It's well done both in paint apps and sculpting. Her lips are lusciously red pink and underneath the glasses...
...are beautiful accurate green eyes. Again, the face is the highlight of this figure for me because the lack of accessories is really bothersome. Though Spider-Woman's glasses do come off so I suppose that can be considered an accessory. Definitely in need of alternate hands and venom blast effects.
Articulation is where this particular figure of mine got really frustrating! The upper body is as expected. Her head is limited because of the hair, no waist swivel, though there is an ab crunch, very hindered arm movement because of the lack of double jointed elbows, and while all that sounds bad, I knew I was going to be working with that so I wasn't at all shocked. Though annoyed me is that this initial figure of mine has quality issues with the legs. It seems the joints are either glued together, or just connected as one whole peg so Spider-Woman cannot move her legs past a neutral position at all! I can force it, but the plastic is strained and no matter what, it goes back to the same position. That is really disappointing! I had to remedy that by purchasing a loose one on Ebay. What can I say? I'm a Spider-Woman fan and I'm not about to have a new Marvel Legends of her without everything she has to offer(which, as I have mentioned, isn't much, thanks to Hasbro's lack of attention for this character).
After that purchase, I have myself a standard Hasbro female mold with the articulation that I was expecting. Still limited, but leaps and bounds better than my first figure. With that in mind, she's not that much of a disappointment. Still, if I have to depend on Bandai Tamashii Nation's Yellow Thunder, then we still have an issue that Hasbro can't seem to get away from.
Here she is next to Spider-Woman figure from the Thanos BAF Wave. As you can see, she is less endowed and not as curvy. Having these two side by side definitely shows where route Marvel has gone in regards to representing their female heroines. In my honest opinion, one can never downplay the classic costume!
This was the figure I wanted to like the most out of all the figures from this wave but in the end, it's really hard to recommend her. Having a figure with some quality issues, it was a downer and it deterred much of what I wanted out of this new Marvel Legends Spider-Woman figure. Still, she has a few redeeming qualities like clean paint (both figures of mine), a nice sculpted upper body, a good looking and accurate face, and in the end, it's a Spider-Woman figure. Those who are a fan of Jessica Drew will get something out of this. If you are a fan and detest her new costume, then this figure definitely isn't for you. That's about it for this review, which concludes this wave. Next review will be about the BAF itself!
Until Next Time!
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