X-23

Height: 10.5cm to top of head.

Articulation: 27 points overall - universal joint neck; 5 points each arm: universal joint shoulder, universal joint elbow, swivel wrist; mid-torso ball-joint; 7 points each leg: ball-joint hip, thigh swivel, double-jointed knee, calf swivel, universal jointed ankle.

Colors: Molded black, fleshtone and dark brown. Painted silver, black, fleshtone and red.

Accessories: Stand.

Release Data: Released Fall 2011 at an MSRP of $7.99.

Author: RAC

(more...)


X-23, the young clone of Wolverine, is one girl you don't want to mess with. Created as a living weapon by the mysterious Facility, she has been rescued and adopted by the mutant protectors of Utopia. Despite her dark past, she has found a place with the X-Men and X-Force, serving as a powerful soldier in defense of the mutant species.

Created as a living weapon by one group of people, she now proudly serves as a living weapon for another group of people on X-Force, the X-Men's black ops team- that being the group of superheroes that do all the heroic skulking and murdering Cyclops needs done.

Hey Kids! Comics!

I'm not a big fan of X-23- never read any of her book or saw her debut on X-Men Evolution. So, why would I get the toy when I don't care about the character? Because she's a new female mold, finally: X-23 is only the second female body mold in the main Marvel Universe line. So at last we get something with modern articulation!


The Figure

I'm not sure how much use they're going to get out of this body. It's pretty strongly tied to X-23's usual appearance which is very slender, presumably since she's supposed to be pretty young. It's noticeable next to the old female body type, but standing up next to male figures, particularly Commander Steve, she looks really skinny. She's a bit stylized; her torso is shortened somewhat and her legs lengthened. Then there's the shins, which are oddly curved in a way shins should not be. Shins are by and large pretty straight in reality and these sweep forward and inward. It's easy to see the body's designed for mold reuse though, as the belt and bracers are separately-molded pieces, meaning the only parts that would need swapped out for another character are the big, clunky boots.

She's dressed in her skulking and murdering Tom Clancy's X-Men X-Force uniform, which includes a slightly-more-covering top than her usual which looks like nothing so much as club wear. Plus a domino mask so as to keep the identity of the only girl in the world with adamantium claws a secret when she's out on missions. Good news is there's a whole boxset of other X-Force figures out there if you want a team. Bad news is that they use gray where she uses silver, so it's not a perfect match.

She's got a universal joint neck, and with it the usual problem that plagues long-haired figures. That being the hair, despite being soft plastic, blocks the head from tilting back significantly. She can look almost straight down and the head swivels without restriction, though. Her arms, which look almost freakishly thick relative to her body, can swing almost straight up, and swivel without issue. Because a bicep swivel would be difficult at this size, she's got the universal-joint elbows that you commonly see in the Marvel Movie lines. They reach a 90 degree bend and swivel in a natual arc, having the defined elbows in back that I rather dislike. The wrists swivel, and- this is a major selling point for Wolverine and Wolverine-derived characters -the claws are fairly straight.

The torso joint is where her top ends, logically enough, and has no swivel problems and worthwhile front-to-back tilt. The hip joints seem to be designed to look good rather than get great range; the end result is slightly more than a swivel but with few lateral movement possibilities. When the leg is raised, that range decreases. That being the case, the thigh swivels, when combined with the rocker ankles, become very important for achieving any kind of decent pose. The thigh swivel is unrestricted, and the knee doubles over into a tight V. As with Steve, there's also a calf swivel to make up for the lack of swivel in the new style ankle. But that ankle performs much better here than on Steve. X-23 can point her toes, turn her foot so far it looks like her ankle is broken, and all points in-between. The only thing they don't do as well as I'd like is lean forward, because otherwise her articulation is plenty good enough for her to crouch effectively. If they do reuse this body, I'll be interested to see how other lower legs fare.


Accessories

-Stand

It's a Marvel Universe Stand, thicker than usual Hasbro stands to accomodate for larger figures. They're pretty good! Her stand is out of frame in one of the gallery photos, supporting a back kick.


Closing Remarks

I wish she weren't quite so slim, as that could end up limiting the figures on which this body can be reused effectively. But that's the good news, because it's a body I'd like to see reused. It's not perfect, but it's a vast improvement over the previous female MU body, and it's up to the current MU articulation standard, which is my favorite in the 4" scale right now. I think that's enough to make it an Excellent figure.

-RAC