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
