Review: Marvel Universe X-23

today lets take a look at the new X-23 figure.

a little background for those not familiar with the character, X-23 is essentially a clone of Wolverine. the Y chromosome from Wolverine's dna sample was damaged and the geneticist working on the project started working on a female clone. a successful clone was established on the 23rd attempt. X-23 is basically the same as Wolverine except the obvious fact that she is female, and instead of 3 claws on each hand, she has 2 per hand and one in each foot. her claws were actually extracted and laced with adamantium when she was young.

now, the figure.

X-23 comes sporting her X-Force uniform. The paint is very clean and crisp, with nice straight lines on the legs stripes and shoulder slashes, and the silver on the nose of her mask, which is something they left out of the Warpath figure. the various buckles are also painted silver, which are some small details that could have been overlooked

She comes on a mostly new body (it might be 100% new, as i dont immediately recognize any of the parts), highlighted by the fact that she is of smaller stature that the other female figures. her hair is sculpted in a way that doesnt block articulation, which is a definite plus. she also has newly sculpted wrist and boot straps, completing her comic accurate appearance. the wrist straps can also turn so that they match whatever position you have the hand in.

i would like to point out that she does not come with her foot claws. while it would have been cool to have them, she doesnt use them often enough while fighting to say that they should have been sculpted on her boots, and i dont think that this figure is big enough to make any kind of retractable claw like the Marvel Legends figure has

Articulation:

*head swivel

*neck hinge

*disk/post shoulders

*disk/post elbows (or "sigma elbows")

*mid-torso (back/front and swivel)

*ball joint hips (very restricted)

*thigh swivel

*double hinge knees

*boot top cut

*hinged ankle

*extreme foot tilt






X-23 is only the 2nd female figure to have the disk/post elbow articulation (the other figure being Jean Grey) first popularized by the GI Joe Sigma Six line (hence the term "sigma elbow"), and the range of motion allowed with that elbow articulation makes her far more poseable that the other female figures, who had hinged elbows and no bicep articulation.

The extreme foot tilt was a welcome surprise on this figure, as the posing possibilities increase dramatically when you add that very versatile joint. all that extra posing ability is immediately reduced, however, by her extremely restricted hip joints. i dont think i have run across any MU figure that has this much trouble with any of their joints. the joint is very stiff, to the point it feels like i might snap her leg off. and when you are actually able to move the leg, you cant move it very far. for a character like X-23, having relatively no hip articulation is very detrimental.

overall, X-23 is a very good figure. if you are already picking up the X-Force characters (like the Warpath/Wolverine/Deadpool set), then getting X-23 is a must, as she gets us one step closer to getting a complete team. the figure is a nice package, with the hip articulation be the sole drawback

Review: Marvel Universe Steve Rogers

first things first, i have a complaint. the name on the package is "Steve Rogers Captain America". is that really necessary? must the figure be labeled as Captain America for it to sell? Any kid that would buy the figure because it was labeled as Captain America, would immediately pass on the figure, exclaiming how it doesnt look like Captain America, regardless of how interested they would have been in the figure itself.

fortunately the figure stand he comes with is properly labeled "Commander Rogers"

first, a little background. i've always been a big fan of Captain America. i was devastated when they killed him off a few years back and even drew a memorial picture on the gear locker in my office (you can see it in my deviantArt). When Bucky became the new Cap, i was pleased with how they had handled the whole situation.

a while later, they undid the whole death and Steve Rogers was back. i was angry about how it was handled, but i wont turn this into a rant. shortly there after, Steve passed the shield off to Bucky officially, letting him be the 1 and only Cap, with Steve taking on a position similar to Nick Fury. again i was very happy with how things turned out.

this figure represents Steve in this new role. The figure is very nicely done, hitting all of the visual cues of the costume perfectly, including newly sculpted fingerless glove hands, shoulder straps, cargo belt, and shin straps. the paint is very clean, perfectly pulling off the white/red/white leg stripes and the stars/stripes on his chest, shoulders and back. it is very easy for white paint to look really bad over dark colors, but the white paint on this figure is very bright.

Articulation:

*swivel head

*hinge neck

*disk/post shoulders

*bicep cut

*hinge elbows

*wrist cut

*mid-torso (full 360)

*waist cut

*ball joint hips

*thigh cut

*double hinged knee

*boot top cut

*hinge ankle (restricted)

*extreme foot tilt (restricted)


Steve here has all the required articulation, including the new foot articulation that i mentioned in the Scarlet Spider review. Unfortunately the shin guard/boot top/strap things hinder it and the ankle joint significantly.

Rogers is a good sized figure too. he has a build that looks fitting for a super soldier. by comparison, he is much stockier than the previous Marvel Universe Captain America figures, and a good deal taller than the Cap figures from the movie line. He does scale perfectly with the Bucky Cap figure from the movie line though, which is a definite plus.

a quick note on accessories, he comes with an assault rifle and a pistol. i was hoping he would have a holster for the pistol, but i think that would mess up his comic accurate appearance. i havnt decided yet if i will be displaying him with the guns or with the triangle shield that came with the First Appearance Cap figure a while back. When i play Marvel vs Capcom 3, i use the Commander Rogers costume for Cap, and he uses the triangle shield in the game. really, its the main reason i even bought the First Appearance Cap figure.

all in all, i was super excited to get this figure, and it didnt let me down. i highly suggest picking him up if you see him, especially considering there is a Secret Avengers Beast figure, Nova figure, and Moon Knight/Ant-Man 2pack coming soon to round out the majority of the Secret Avengers team.

and oh yeah, be on the look out for the 6in version coming around the first of the year in the first wave of the renewed Marvel Legends line!

X-Force!

I started working on custom figures as a fun activity many years ago, but recently i've take a more serious approach to customs (some of which you can see at my Deviantart, check the link in the side bar --->)

Last night a finished up 2 Marvel Universe scale figures I had been working on: X-Force's Wolfsbane and Elixer

Wolfsbane was made using a Black Widow body with parts from the Timber accessory from one of the Snake Eyes figures.

I removed BW's feet and attached the lower legs from Timber, then shaped Timber's head until it was roughly human shaped. then i hit the whole thing in black and used a combination of a silver sharpie (as a base coat) and silver paint to do the details

in what i felt was a moment of clarity, i carefully trimmed off some of the body fur from Timber and attached those pieces to the calves and forearms to go ahead and lock in that comic accurate look

i would like to add that she is ridiculously hard to stand now...

for Elixer, i started with a Marvel Universe Silver Surfer figure and the head from a GI Joe Crimson Guard.

i picked up a gold sharpie so i could use the same sharpie/paint combo that i have had such success with when dealing with silver, painting the arms below the "sleeve" and the face.

i carefully painted the black for the costume, the line to distinguish the sleeves, and went back and hit the hair with a little silver

last thing i did was give he entire figure a coat of flat clear except the gold parts, so they would pop a bit more compared to the duller colors

Review: Marvel Universe Scarlet Spider

i figured nothing would be more fitting for my first review than the recently released Marvel Universe Scarlet Spider figure.

Scarlet Spider is one of my all time favorite characters, and I am definitely excited to see a figure that really does him justice.

This figure uses the more recent Spider-man buck (basic body), which eliminated the small size and slightly odd proportions of the earlier MU Spidey figures. This buck also eliminated the sculpted lines in favor of painted lines. It is hit or miss as far as Spider-Man figures go, but it is a real benefit when it comes to using the buck for other characters like Scarlet Spider. On a side note, I'd like to see this buck used on some other characters like Daredevil, who's earlier figure could use a redo.

Articulation:

*ball jointed head

*ball jointed shoulders (peg and hinge is the correct term i believe, but not one i like, i think i will start using "disk and post ball joint")

*bicep cut

*hinged elbow

*cut wrist (for wrist rotation)

*mid-torso (allows for front/back, side to side and rotation
*ball and socket hip joint

*thigh cut

*double hinged knee

*disk and post ankle (front/back and rotation)



the figure is a rather plain red (which is accurate to the character) with accessories of sculpted silver wrist bands, brown ankle pouches, a well painted brown and silver belt, and of course his trademark blue hoodie

the hoodie is a very well sculpted rubber piece, with just the right amount of sculpted folds, the hood in the back, and even sculpted draw strings on the front of the hoodie. the spider symbol on the front and back are painted very well, which is sometimes hard to accomplish with that much sculpted detail. i would also point out that the hoodie doesnt hinder his mid-torso articulation at all

of debate among some fans is the fact that Scarlet Spider's white eyes are outlined in black. in most source material, and most previous figures of Scarlet Spider (even the Super Hero Squad figure), the eyes have been plain white with no outline. for my tastes, i think the black outline looks good

a couple things that i would have like to have seen different, only those initial Spider-Man figures came with a web-shooting hand, every figure since (including the black costume, Iron Spider costume, and now Scarlet Spider) has had a fist and an open palm. i would like to see one day if we can get to the point where we have interchangeable hands so we are not as limited with possible poses.

another thing, some of the more recent MU figures have had a newly designed foot joint that adds a major side to side tilt, allowing the foot to tilt all the way sideways. Scarlet Spider really would have benefited from this joint more than some of the figures that actually got it (Apocalypse for instance), but i imagine his foot is a bit small to try adding the extra articulation.

all in all, even if you aren't a huge Scarlet Spider fan, this is still a solid figure that demonstrates everything that Hasbro is doing right with the Marvel Universe line.