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

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