Marvel Universe 3.75" Wave 10 Mystique

I was in the midst of packing and rearranging all my toys in preparation for the arrival of the baby, and that meant...cracking open all my unopened stuff!  And boy do I have a ton!  Some of the stuff I held back on because they kinda lost their appeal after I'd left them unopened for a bit; some of them I freed from their plastic and cardboard prison and went, "Ooooh...Now I know why I got this in the first place.  'Cuz I though it was awesome!" or some such.

But once in a while, one or two of them turn out to be real gems and I wonder why I never got around to opening them sooner.

Then the wife surprises me with this very figure for our got-to-know-you anniversary on April 10th, just 9 days before the baby arrived, sneaking all the way down town and back to pick it up.  What a gift--I was truly touched!


And I still am.  Strangely, I hadn't snagged Mystique yet because when Wifey and I came by it in the specialty store, it was S$22.40 (US$17.20) and I don't have to tell you that way overpriced.  But watcha gonna do when the ol' shapeshiftin' mutant wench is so hard to find? Wait for the price to drop, of course.  But thanks to my dear wife, I didn't have to!

On to the review!!!

Like: The sweet head sculpt.  Excellent right down to the "classic" features one would regard as a mysteriously ageless beautiful female.  And if you were a female shape shifter you'd probably make yourself look that way 24/7--and that's what Mystique seems to have done or what Hasbro seems to have done with Mystique!

Her hair is also a good length and sets her apart from most other female characters.  It's perfect classic Mystique hair.

To top it all off, the skull on her forehead has also been sculpted on but it's actually a small round circle with 2 really shallow eye holes.  Compare these to the skulls round her belt, which are more detailed with eye and nose sockets and some even with a mouth/teeth.

Like: Her colors.  She's exactly the right shade of blue.  The entire figure minus the torso and hands has been sculpted in that color, with the white painted on for the forearm portion of the gloves and boots. (The hands are molded white.)  The torso is the reverse, with the blue painted onto white parts.  Ditto for her skirt piece--that's white plastic as well.  The best part is that both colors match whether they've been painted or molded as such.  You wouldn't be able to tell them apart unless you examined Mystique up close under some decent light. :)

Like: The look on her face.  While it may look very neutral to some, I think it hides all her cunning.  Her head is sculpted in blue plastic with the yellow of the eyes, the red of the lips and the curve of her eyebrows all picked out sharply.  Her hair is molded in a dark red and then washed to make it darker and bring out the highlights.  There's an eerie beauty in the whole look combined with sense of danger.  She really looks like she's up to no good!

Sweet tiny sculpting!

Like: The way they've shaded her white parts.  It doesn't make her outfit look dirty or anything but instead really enhances the folds in her skirt and the overall depth and shape of the figure.  And of you've attempted painting toys or anything similar, you would know that white is one of the toughest to highlight and shade.

Dislike: Not all her paint is sharp.  As with the Enchantress, her torso paint is a little sloppy at the arm pits and on the lower torso.

Like: Her articulation, specifically the waist swivel and chest pivot. While these are nothing new in the female Marvel Universe body, in Mystique's case, both are free and unhindered, with the chest pivot especially free to bend all the way back. :)

I prefer her with dual sidearms!

Dislike: Her head is reduced to swivel only.  More's the pity--her hair doesn't seem like it would get in the way of potential up and down movement because it's shoulder length.  That's way shorter than say Jean Grey or Carol Danvers.  But there isn't even a slight up and down movement because Mystique's hair s just long enough to get in the way.  And the way the neck stalk is positioned for the this female body, it seems like only a character with little or no hair like Secret Wars Storm, will enjoy any movement at all.

It's really such a pity because proper head movement would've made Mystique a real must have!


Like: That a simple skirt piece really makes the figure.  It's the classic characteristic of Mystique's costume.  It's a separate from her body but isn't removable.  And it's the hips of the figure that's keeping 'em on.  It's got just the right near-ankle length, and is well shaded, with the belt of skulls nicely inked black and then picked out in gold.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 8/10 - This is classic Mystique!  There's no mistaking her the minute you spot her on the pegs. And you'll see here from miles away if she's there because of her unique coloring.  And perhaps it's this blue skin and white "costume" that makes her really pop in the package and most certainly out of it as well.

Her paint could be better, but we're talking about lots of tiny painted-on detail, so I guess I wold cut Hasbro some slack on that.  Al least there aren't any major paint splashes or spills. :)


Poseability: 8/10 - And unhindered waist and a flexible chest pivot atop your standard double-hinged knees and swivel hinge ankles allow her all sorts of agile poses.  And Mystique needs them because she's an expert and-to-hand combatant after all.

The skirt piece also has the added advantage of helping her balance in some poses where here center of gravity would be off because of her smallish feet, which is common in all female Marvel Universe figures.

I'm a huge fan of all-action poses so any extra balance points are a big plus for me! ;)   Pity about her head though, because if she had good up and down movement there, she'd be the ideal female articulation model for the line. As it is, she's probably the best.  But it could've been by so much more.

Fun: 9/10 - She could be anybody!

All right, so maybe she doesn't look so great as part Mystique, part anyone else, but really, all you gotta do to "shapeshift" her is, well, use the figure you want her posing as! ;P

Powers aside, what's not to love with a very agile, highly capable hand-to-to hand combatant who likes her oversized handguns?  It's like a John Woo movie where every hero is a dual pistol wielding expert marksman who achieves one shot one kill.  And when the ammo runs out,, out come the kung fu moves and bloodied mouths.  Yeah.  Sounds like Mystique to me. ;)

Value: 7/10 - Our fave evil female shapeshifter is overpriced unless you can find her in the wild, in which case she's about worth it for the tiny detail they've put into her.  She comes with an M-16 with grenade launcher attached, your standard figure stand and HAMMER File--in this sense she's par for the course.  But if you take into consideration the paint used and the very fine tooling of her belt and her well done paint, she's a keeper.  But I wonder why they didn't give her two desert eagles instead of that assault rifle.  It's just not spy-like, just not ShMystique.

Overall: 8.25/10 - I have to give her a bump--she's Mystique!  And a well done, classic one at that. Perhaps that it's because she's a villain or because she's doesn't have regular flesh colored skin, but Mystique is easily my favorite female figure of the line by far.  And I think lots of people feel the same, hence the high demand and scarcity of the figure.  I guess there's just some sort of mysteriousness that she exudes, one would even say a mystique of sorts... ;P