Hasbro has done MU collectors a solid by reissuing some of the earlier, harder to find, figures in this line and I’m eternally grateful for it. While I still get a majority of my MU figures online, I’ll concede that’s its been easier to find these guys at retail and I’ve been able to fill in some of those nagging holes in my collection. Today we’re looking at Mystique, who is by no means a new release, but one that I wanted pretty badly and finally found hanging on the peg in one of my local toy aisles.
Yep, it’s the same basic style of card we saw when we last looked at the Marvel Universe line, only Mystique was released under one of the HAMMER waves. The card also points out that she is a Fan’s Choice Winner, which probably isn’t a big surprise to anyone. The character artwork has been kind of hit and miss lately, but I think Mystique’s is definitely a hit, as its a nice dynamic pose, that’s got her in mid leaping kick. Mystique doesn’t exactly fill out the bubble like some figures, but she’s helped along by the huge assault rifle that’s mounted next to her.
Overall, I think Mystique’s sculpt is pretty solid, albeit simple. I’m very happy with the way her head turned out, and the rest of the body is standard female buck with white paint apps to make up her gauntlets, boots, and top. Her skirt, for lack of a better word, is sculpted in soft plastic along with her belt of skulls and hangs loosely on her hips. I like the way Hasbro went with this, as it doesn’t inhibit her leg articulation at all. Alas, Mystique does have a bad case of man hands. They’re seriously huge and out of proportion with the rest of the figure. The paintwork is so-so. It’s pretty sloppy on her boots, but does feature some decent blue shading on her back and boobs.
Mystique features the standard female MU articulation. Her neck is ball jointed, but her hair makes it act more like a swivel. Her arms feature universal movement at the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the wrists, but are missing the bicep swivel present on the male figures. Her legs have universal movment at the hips, double hinged knees, and ankles with swivels and hinges. She can swivel at the waist and has a universal joint in the torso.
Accessories include a personalized figure stand and the Top Secret documents. You also get the assault rifle that we’ve seen in this line before. I thought the gun was a strange choice for Mystique, but I’m not one to complain about extra accessories.
All in all, this figure gets the job done, but when compared to some of the newer MU figures I’ve been getting its easy to see that the line has come a long way from when Mystique was released. She still features some of the nagging paint issues that the line was struggling with at the time and the lack of a bicep swivel in the females still irks me. I’m pretty happy with her, but I wouldn’t mind seeing her revisited later on down the line. In the meantime, I may pick up a second Mystique and try to customize her into Copycat.
FigureFan Zero 