Deadly Royalty!

Well, it's only right that since I reviewed Infiltrator Duke a few posts ago that I follow up with Baroness. Why? their both royal titles.  And also because FuSe has been reminding me every day how enamored with Siena Miller he is and how much he wants to get a Baroness figure despite not being a huge toy collector (for now...heheheh...).


Well I have to admit, Anastasia Decobray is indeed very impressive out of the packaging. They don't have her in any sort of pose whatsoever on card and sometimes her shades aren't quite put on correctly.  This makes it tough to know if she'll be able to wear them any way other than crooked .  So what to do?  Get a Baroness with shades on right. That's what I did.

So exactly how impressed was I with Attack on the G.I. Joe Pit Baroness? Click on to find out!

Like: The body sculpt is perfect for a female action figure of this scale.  Somehow just making her stand without really posing already makes her look as good as her movie counterpart.  It's got something to do with how the shape of the hips and the length of the legs are in perfect proportion.  I also think it's the super high heels that create this illusion, much like how real high heels do on a real woman.  Yes, we're talking about real, non-plastic women. ;P

Like: That she doesn't come with hip holsters but has two small holes in the side of her thighs where you can peg on her pair of pistols. I think this works beautifully because having 2 holsters would completely unbalance the figue and destroy its sleek lines. And she can'r just have one holster, so this is the best option, which turned out really well.

Like: The paint, which is really well done.  From her hair to her face, to her little details on her leather suit like the silver studs and the gold buckle.

I've seen many a review which says Baroness looks uper hot with her shades on and horrible with them off.  But I have to say I don't think she looks that bad. Well they definitely didn't get Siena Miller's likeness down like they got Duke, or Zartan  or Hawk, or Storm Shadow, but they didn't do a terrible job either.  As far as female faces go, she's not bad at all. I think the only one that I've seen recently that is better is Jean Grey.  But then again, Hasbro weren't trying to make her look like a living, breathing female. ;) There we go again about real females.

Like: That she is highly poseable. However she stands, kneels, wields her twin guns, kicks, etc., she looks like a supermodel workin' it. Check it out:

Like:  That her Big frickin' Gun actually hs a missile that looks like a nanomite warhead.  That's a nice change from your generic, one-colour 'I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-this' missile.

Dislike: After taking her out of the package, there's very little to dislike about Baroness.  She does, though, need her stand because her high heels make balancing her really difficult, just like balancing on real heels for real women are. (And there we go again.) So this makes posing her in any action sequence tough. 

Dislike: That she comes with an odd grappling hook tied to what I can only assume is some sort of anchor that fits on a large vehicle.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9.5/10 - Her proportions are fantastic. And if her face were more like Siena Miller's, she'd be the perfect movie Baroness.  So she just falls a little short in the likeness depatertment here.

Poseability: 9.5/10 - She can do most anything you'd want a Baroness action figure to do. The tradeoff is that her balance was sacrificed when they gave her the high heels.  Thing is that it might be a worthwhile tradeoff, since the figure looks really good any way she poses on her feet. It's just that you'll need a stand to to keep her upright, unless you have the patienece of well, a patient person.

Fun: 9.5 - The Baroness is really a neat figure to have leading your COBRA forces.  She's also cool enough to put in a one-on-one fight with any Joe. Attaching her pistols to her thighs or having both guns in her hands is also tremendously eye-catching. She'll be a real star in any future action figure comics that I might happen to put her in. ;)

Value: 9.5 - Right now with the price reduction and Joes everywhere on a nice big discout, they're all worth it. I got mine at US$9.20 or so, and that about a 30% or so off retail here.

Overall: A solid 9.5 - Baroness is an all round solid figure.  I'd say if your going for movie likenesses, you can get her--but leave her shades on.  But all the same, I appreciate Hasbro's effots in trying to come up with a 3.75" scale figure with removeable glasses AND a try to make her look good at the same time.