I was pretty excited when I heard that Kitty Pryde was coming to the MU lineup, as I’ll take all the X-Men figures I can get, but then I heard and read some initial reactions to the figure. Most of them were either lukewarm or downright unfavorable. I tried not to let it bother me, because at the time I was trying to deny the very existance of the Marvel Universe line, since I wasn’t having any luck finding them. Then I happened upon this figure hanging on the peg when I least expected it. I didn’t take a lot of time to check her out in the store, because it was just so amazed that I was able to find an MU figure I needed. Turns out, I like her quite a bit.
It may have sounded like i was slighting the head sculpt here, but I’m really not, because I think it’s fine for a figure in this scale. She’s not gorgeous, but she’s not ugly either. And let’s face it, Hasbro has a seriously troubled past when it comes to making attractive ladies in the 3 3/4″ scale. Did y’all happen to see Rise of Cobra’s Cover Girl? Yikes! So yeah, the head sculpt is just fine and the hair is sculpted in a nicely detailed, and neutral style so it isn’t all crazy wind blown like Ms. Marvel’s.
The body sculpt is very generic, as this figure relies almost completely on the paintwork for detail. That’s not to say it’s not a good body sculpt. I know some fellow collectors who have taken issue with the proportions on some of the MU female figures, but I think Kitty looks just fine.
The coloring on this figure is a pretty simple two-tone black and yellow uniform. Her belt is also painted on. The paintwork is pretty solid, although I confess it wasn’t until I started scrutinizing some of the photos I took that I realized there’s quite a lot of bleeding on the edges, as was the case with Ms. Marvel. The difference here is that the problem areas aren’t as obvious, which gives Kitty the illusion of having a much better paint job than she really does. Although, the paintwork on her face is actually quite good.
Ms Pryde comes with a figure stand, a profile card and a pretty amusing Top Secret document referencing her time spent lost in space. She also comes with Lockheed her space dragon pal. Lockheed is just a very simple piece sculpted in soft purple plastic. It’s not the most exciting accessory, but I like that Hasbro included it.
Kitty sports 17 points of articulation, which ain’t bad for a figure in this scale, but it’s not up to par with many of Hasbro’s other 3 3/4″ figures. She has a ball jointed neck. Her arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the wrists. Her legs have ball joints in the hips, she has double hinged knees and her ankles have both swivels and hinges. She also has a ball joint just under her chest and a swivel in her waist. The most infuriating thing about this figure is the lack of swivels in her biceps. I’m constantly being rebuffed in my efforts to pose her because of these missing swivels.
Goes to show you, you can’t always rely on the opinions of others. Apart from some missing articulation, I think Kitty Pryde turned out just fine. I’ll confess, she wasn’t at the top of my list of X-Men that I wanted to see released in this line, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to add her to my collection.
FigureFan Zero 