Sorry, change-o-bot fans, if you didn’t know it already, I’m bumping all regular content this week so that I can get through a review of all six figures in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends A-Force set, which was released through Toys R Us during San Diego Comic Con. It’s Day Four, I’m over the hump, and I can’t think of a better way to introduce today’s figure then with a couple of licks from The Kinks… Well, I’m not dumb but I can’t understand, Why she walks like a woman and talks like a man, Oh my Loki, lo lo lo lo Loki….

…Well, we drank horns of mead and danced all night, Under Mjolnir’s electric light… Ok, enough with The Kinks, I made my point. Yes, this figure represents Loki’s return in female form after the events of Ragnarok and also as she appeared in the A-Force book. It’s also a bit of foreshadowing to the present landscape, where half of Marvel’s main characters have been turned into women… but don’t get me started. Anywho… It’s kind of crazy that in the five years since Marvel Legends returned, this is the first comic version of Loki we get. Well, at least there will be an MCU version in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok wave. In the meantime, I ain’t complaining, so let’s check her out.

Hello, God of Mischief! Lady Loki looks absolutely stunning, thanks to a deft mix of paint and a bit of original sculpting. She’s built on one of the better female bucks and includes those extra touches like bicep and thigh swivels, missing from the standard Legends femme bodies. Alas, she’s still got those rotating hinges in the hips, but I guess you can’t have everything. The boots are painted in a pale brown, while the rest of the outfit is metallic green with a striking fish-scale armor pattern printed on the thighs, biceps and torso.

Original sculpted bits include the belt and sash, which hangs on her hips and sculpted boot tops, which simply hang around the knees. The boot tops are kind of clever in that they add a unique look to what was otherwise just paint, but they can get a bit floppy when posing her. They’re kind of similar to the ones on the recent Rogue figure. Lastly, we get a cape with sculpted fur shoulders, which is easily removable. The paintwork on the belt and sash is especially nice and includes some gold discs placed over the brown belt, and a brown border on the sash. What a great looking costume!

And that brings us to the portrait, and it is simply fabulous. She’s beautiful, the paint applications for her eyes and lips are perfect and her hair looks amazing, complete with gold adornments throughout. Her horned crest is sculpted as a separate piece and really looks like it could be removed, even though it’s permanently attached. The hair does inhibit her neck articulation quite a bit, but that’s pretty unavoidable with sculpted hair like this.

If you had asked me how badly I wanted a Lady Loki in my Marvel Legends collection, I’d say it was pretty far down on my list. Hell, I still haven’t gotten around to picking up the Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue of her, but that’s mostly down to how damn expensive it’s been. Nonetheless, having this figure in hand and seeing how fantastic she turned out, I’ve become an easy convert. Indeed, I’d say so far this is my favorite figure in the A-Force box. Yeah, I still love Monica finally getting a figure, but in terms of sheer wow factor, Hasbro really outdid themselves with this busty Asgardian trickster. It’s also a version of the character that feels appropriate for a Con Exclusive box. By no means essential, but she sure is nice to have. After all, It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, Except for Loki. Lo lo lo lo Loki. Verily!

Welcome back to the first theme week I’ve done in a long while. It’s day three of my look at Hasbro’s SDCC 2017 Marvel Legends A-Force set. It’s also Wednesday and this is usually my day off from bloggery. So, let’s compromise with a look at the one figure in the box that I decided warranted the least attention: Singularity!

For starters, I should qualify that I have no affinity for this character. I encountered her in my early readings of A-Force before I dropped the book and I can’t recall running across her since. In fairness, she appeared right about the time the “Powers That Be” running Marvel Comics went insane and I decided to channel more of my comic dollars into publishers like DC and Zenescope, as well as going back to older Marvel books I’d missed.

That having been said, this is a pretty cool looking, albeit simple, figure. As her name suggests, this character is literally a sentient singularity and she kind of looks like a nebula pressed into human form. The figure uses a beautiful mix of translucent blue and purple plastic with sparkly glitter mixed throughout and the effect is damn near spectacular, especially given some bright lighting. Given her size, I’m tempted to say she’s built off of the Nico Minoru buck, but that figure had so much unique sculpting, I’m not sure how much of it they could have reused, other than maybe the upper legs, arms, and lower torso. Either way, she’s a smaller figure that is evocative of a teenage girl.

I’ve had my share of translucent figures, but none have looked quite this good, and I’d say that’s because of the gradations of blue and purple in the plastic. Also, while translucent plastic isn’t the best at holding sculpted detail, the portrait is still pretty damn good. They even did some halftone printing on her face and the eyes are painted in white.

The articulation is standard female buck stuff. I’m not running through it on each of the figures this week, unless there’s something vastly different, so I’ll refer you back to Monday’s Monica Rambeau review. The only real difference here is that she has swivel cuts in her lower legs. I will say that my Singularity has a few issues. The ankle hinges are stuck, which is odd because there’s no paint on the figure, and that’s usually the cause. I’m sure I can boil them free, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Also, the swivel cut on my figure’s lower left leg is a little loose. This is normally the kind of thing you get when you try to force a stuck swivel that won’t twist. In this case, however, it came out of the box like that. It’s not a big deal, just a bit of a gap between the two parts of the leg.

As I’ve said many times over the years, I don’t need to be in love with a character to enjoy an action figure, and Singularity here is a great example of that. I also think that she’s the first figure I’ve looked at in this set that truly feels right as an exclusive. Monica and She-Hulk are characters that should be available in normal waves, not through some difficult to get Comic Con set. Whereas I’d argue that Singularity here isn’t as essential to a collection. Although, if you happen to love the character, I guess you would be inclined to feel different. Either way, Singularity is a cool figure. She’s not one that I would consider a “must have,” but I wouldn’t have minded picking up to get a BAF part, and I certainly don’t mind getting her in this set.

That’s right, folks, it’s all Marvel Legends, all week as I break down the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive A-Force box set figure by figure. Yesterday, I kicked things off with a look at the packaging and a review of Monica Rambeau, today I’m checking out Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk.

If you’re trying to figure out the order I’m going in, I’m started with the two figures that I think were most overdue. Before this set Monica Rambeau had yet to have a Marvel Legends figure, and as for Shulkie here, this is her first appearance in the modern Legends reboot. But…

We were teased with her all the way back in the 2013 Hit Monkey Wave on the Red She-Hulk package, which was supposed to be part of a shared slot. Even the name on the package is “Hulkettes.” These days, the shared-slot figures are both included in the assortment case, but back then they were running variants, and it wasn’t uncommon for one of those variants to never come out. Such was the fate of Jennifer Walters. But here we are, four years later, and we finally got her. Is this a case where it was worth the wait? Did we get an entirely new figure? Mmm… Yes and no.

Shulkie borrows quite a bit from Red, which really comes as no surprise as this is a very specific, taller female buck. The legs, lower torso, and most of the arms are pulled from the older figure, with the chest, hands, and obviously the head being different and/or new sculpts. As a result, from the neck down, this figure actually uses less original sculpting than Red She-Hulk, as a matter of fact, there’s absolutely none at all. The costume is achieved entirely by paint, and that’s fine because it actually looks quite good. The white paint over green plastic should have been problematic, but instead it’s bright and clean with absolutely no bleed through. The metallic purple used for her one-piece is quite vibrant as well. There are a few little chips and scratches on the white paint of her belt, but nothing worth getting upset over.

Unfortunately, the new head sculpt isn’t the hit I was hoping for. It almost looks like they went back to the forbidden well that is the old Madam Hydra head and did some reworking on it. I’m not saying that’s the case, but this one does indeed remind me of that figure, and that’s not a good thing. It’s facial structure is too severe to really work as Jennifer Walters, and the eye paint is uneven making her left eye look smaller or like it’s about to slide off her face. Granted, the paint thing might just be an issue with my particular figure. Keep in mind, none of this is terribly noticeable at casual glance, but it all rears its head under scrutiny. The hair also looks off, like it’s way too high in the front. I’m not going to say this portrait is terrible, but after coming off the wonderful Monica head, this one feels like a drop.

I’m not going to run down all the points of articulation, since it’s almost all identical to Monica. Suffice it to say, the older, ball jointed hips are a bummer. These are a pain in the ass to work with and they feel a little dated. Jennifer may be a powerhouse, but she’s also a pretty limber gal, and her figure just feels a little too stiff.

Waiting so long for She-Hulk turns out to be one of those good and bad scenarios. An all new body would have been most welcome, especially since the hip articulation on this one hasn’t aged well. On the other hand, the 2013 She-Hulk would have been a very different look, and I’m much happier to get Jennifer in this more traditional costume. You could argue that we could have had both, but who knows whether Hasbro would have released this figure if they had also released the previous one. For all my pissing and moaning, the truth is that I still like this figure well enough, but I think Hasbro could have done a much better job on the head sculpt and paint. A-Force Shulkie is not the homerun that Monica Rambeau is, but I’m still happy to have her.