After a long run of X-Men themed Marvel Mondays I thought I’d mix things up today and check out something that just arrived a few days ago. Hasbro has been serving up a bunch of these Deluxe Riders sets, which bundles a figure with some kind of small vehicle. I haven’t picked up a lot of them, but I did review Black Widow, Deadpool, and of course last week’s Professor X. Now it’s time to go nuts with Doreen Green aka Squirrel Girl. Chitty chuk Chhhtt! I think that’s squirrel talk for let’s do this!

It’s times like this when it’s fun to think back to the origins of this Modern Legends line. Back then, I never would have thought Hasbro would have gambled on giving us a regular release of Squirrel Girl and yet here she is debuting in a big deluxe boxed set. The package is the same format as the Deadpool Scooter set, which makes sense, since this one is very nearly a straight repaint of that scooter. There’s a little assembly required, but nothing too bad. Let’s start with a look at Doreen!

Obviously SG is a rather unique looking character and that’s beautifully reflected in this all newly sculpted figure. There’s a great feeling of depth on this gal, mainly thanks to the half-jacket which is sculpted separately in soft plastic, and the belt that fits pretty snug around her waist. Her outfit features a ton of plastic furry fringe from the lapels of her jacket to the rings around her shorts’ legs and the tops of her boots. The belt has a subtle texture and sculpted pouches on either side. And for a color palate that is rather muted, there are still some nice flourishes. Her jacket matches her boots with just a slightly darker shade of brown than her top and shorts.

From the back, Doreen is mostly tail. That big bushy squirrel tail comes right off the top of her butt and plumes up her back all the way to her head. It’s a wonderful sculpt and I’d love to tell you that it doesn’t make her almost impossible to stand, but that’s not the case. She’s ridiculously back heavy and just about every shot I took of her is involving some trickery to get her to stand.

In a word, the portrait is perfect. And that’s no small feat considering how bad Doreen has sometimes looked in the comics. I’m getting flashbacks to Erika Henderson’s god-awful art from the 2015 book when I was wondering if Marvel will truly hire anyone to draw their books, regardless of talent. Here SG looks super cute, her face is beaming with a perfectly cheesy grin. The paint on her eyes is particularly sharp and well executed. The hair sculpt is fantastic and nice touches include the tiny acorn earrings and the headband with those tiny squirrel ears.

 

The articulation here toes the line when it comes to female Legends. That means we get the rotating hinges in the shoulders instead of the double-hinges, and that makes sense here to maintain the sculpt of the jacket sleeves. Otherwise, you get rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and have swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. Finally, we get a ball joint under the chest, both a ball joint and hinge in the neck, and while the tail may have a swivel in there, mine doesn’t want to move.

You can’t have Squirrel Girl without her army of squirrels, and this set includes three of them and they’re each unique sculpts! Two of them are sitting up on their hind legs, one with a pink bow and the other eating an acorn. The third is positioned on all fours, although it would probably work as a leaping pose too. I have no idea which squirrels these are. In fact, the only two names I remember are Monkey Joe from the old days and Tippy Toe from the dreadful 2015 book. Maybe the one with the bow is Tippy.

As mentioned, the scooter is an almost straight repaint of Deadpool’s and it works surprisingly well. The red and black are replaced with turquoise and white with some black trim to the mirrors, exhast, and horn. The white panels on the side bring out the details there making this ride look a lot more retro to me, and that’s cool. You still get a sticker showing the gauge on the handlebars, but the mirrors are just left as black plastic. I would have loved some silver paint or stickers on those. The only sculpting changes are the added wicker basket, which covers where the Deadpool logo was on Pooly’s Vespa, and the seat. All in all, it’s a decent transformation that makes this vehicle work as its own thing. As before, the handlebars work in conjunction with the front wheel to make it turn. The horn can be clipped to either the left or right side, and the tires appear to be made out of rubber, which still impresses the hell out of me.

Unfortunately, it’s obvious that this scooter wasn’t made for the Squirrel Girl figure, as getting her to ride it in a convincing manner is tough. The foot pegs are a loose fit, and even if they weren’t it’s hard to get her to reach the handlebars with her feet pegged into them. I can kind of make it work by scooting her forward and balancing the tail on the seat, but it’s precarious at best. I think the way to go will be to display her half-off the scooter like she is on the back of the package.

The basket can hold all three squirrels, but you kind of have to jam them in there and let one hang over the edge. Two fit more comfortably, but either way they look fine in there.

Even with as prolific and dense as Marvel Legends has become Hasbro still manages to surprise me. At this point, I never would have doubted getting a character like Squirrel Girl at some point, because no character seems to be too small or silly to get the action figure treatment. But to come out and bundle her in a $40 set with a scooter? Well that takes a set of balls. Or in this case maybe nuts. Either way, this set came out great and that’s even taking into account the fact that Doreen isn’t a perfect fit for the scooter. It’s worth mentioning that this set came in an assortment with another rather unlikely release, and I’ll try to get to that one next week.