It’s the third week of my romp through Marvel Legends’ recent X-Men Wave and today I’m checking out the first of the three X-Ladies in this assortment, Kitty Pryde! She’s always been a fun character for me, and it’s particularly intriguing to follow her growth as a student of Xavier’s back in the day to a full fledged Guardian of the Galaxy now. As a certain villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe once said, “You’ll. Never. See. This. Coming…” and he’d be right! It would have been impossible for me to predict the path that Kitty has traveled. She’s always made out pretty well in the comics, but not so much in the TV and Film world. I’ll bet she’s still bitter about getting shafted in the Days of Future Past movie.
Here’s the lovely Juggernaut Wave packaging. You get a branded X-Men symbol on the top flap and spiffy character art on the side panels. I like how nobody in this wave has to share a slot with others, hence every figure’s name appears on the bottom of the front panel. The tray here is absolutely packed with stuff, from the giant Juggernaut arm, that probably uses almost as much plastic as Kitty, to the Lockheed figure, and a very nice bonus head for your Red Onslaught BAF from a few waves back. I’m going to let Kitty phase herself out of the package and we’ll check her out!
So, I’ll say straight away that this is a fantastic looking figure and features her more contemporary look, which also happens to be my favorite. Granted, there’s a lot to choose from. Hasbro could do a massive boxed set based on Kitty’s gimmick of wardrobe changes. This one, however captures the feel of the original black and yellow design, with the added style of the V-neck and a modern belt. It translates beautifully into this figure thanks to some sharp paint and the original sculpting on upper torso and gauntlets.
The portrait is excellent. It’s become a common gripe that Hasbro can’t do female head sculpts any justice, but Marvel Legends has been proof positive that it simply isn’t true. Sure, you’ve got your Madam Hydras, but most of the 6-inch Marvel ladies have been great and Kitty here is another example of that. The face sculpt is pretty and I really love how they did her pony tail. The paint on the facial features is excellent, although the paint for the hair doesn’t always line up with the sculpt. Still, not too shabby overall.
The articulation here is everything you might expect in a modern Legends lady. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There are ball joints in the legs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. You get swivels in the thighs, but alas, none in the biceps. Finally there’s a ball joint just under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. It’s good, but I do have a few quibbles. The lack of swivels in the waist and biceps is annoying, and the elbow hinges don’t have as much range of motion as I would have liked.
Of course, Kitty comes with Lockheed and he is a fantastic little sculpt, cast in a beautiful metallic purple plastic. He’s basically just a squishy little guy and while I dig him a lot, I wish Hasbro had done a few things about him a little differently. His feet are flat as if he’s supposed to stand, but his tail curls down below his feet, so he can’t stand, at least not on his own. The idea here is that the tail is supposed to curl around Kitty’s neck so he can stand on her shoulder. It works OK, but I think they should have taken a page from Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Kitty Pryde and made it so Lockheed could better clip onto the arm.
The other accessory in the package is the Magneto-style head that is meant to replace the Red Skull head on the Red Onslaught Build-A-Figure, and it is indeed a welcome inclusion. I can’t recall Hasbro ever bundling a piece to improve a BAF from a previous wave, but they were promising that this was coming since before the Red Onslaught Wave shipped and they sure did make good on that promise! The Red Skull head was a damn fine sculpt, but to be honest, now that I have this head, the old one will probably never see the light of day again.
Drax: “Quill, your new girlfriend is a liar. She is not a cat made of shadows.”
Three figures into this X-Men Wave and Hasbro has yet to falter as Kitty takes her place besides Wolverine and Cable as another top notch release. The Toy Biz Kitty was a solid enough effort for her time, but if I still owned mine, she’d be getting replaced right now by Hasbro’s sublime new effort. Is this the Wave that can do no wrong? Check back next Monday as I double down with a look at both Iceman and Havoc.
FigureFan Zero 