SHADOWCAT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After being captured by Sabretooth, Katherine Pryde becomes the youngest member of the X-Men and trains to become the team’s ghost assassin.”

While generally one of the team’s more peaceful and friendly members in the mainstream universe, Kitty Pryde of the “Age of Apocalypse” universe is a far harder-edged character, as today’s figure’s bio hints at above.  She was one of a number of characters to become more edgy and extreme in this altered universe, but perhaps the sharpest turn, at least of the character’s that still remained “good”-aligned.  She’s previously been one of the characters untouched by toy treatment, but that changed with the most recent assortment.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shadowcat is figure 4 in the Colossus Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s obviously the first AoA-version of the character, but also the fourth Legends release for Kitty, the third under the Hasbro banner.  The figure stands a little under 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  At first glance, she appears to be an all-new sculpt, but her legs and feet are actually a rather clever re-use of Lady Deathstrike’s legs.  Apart from those pieces, she’s all-new, though.  Generally, it’s a pretty good sculpt.  The proportions on the body are well-balanced, and the details are sharp and clean.  The head has been a point of contention since the figure was shown off.  Much like last year’s Invisible Woman, the face has some definitely odd qualities to it, especially given how the expression works out.  Ultimately, much like Sue, this is a sculpt that looks a lot better in person than it did in the prototype shots.  It’s still a little wonky, but from proper angles, it’s actually not a bad sculpt at all.  The color work on Kitty is pretty strong.  The paint application is cleanly handled, and I really like how the metallic blue of her costume turned out.  Shadowcat is packed with two sets of hands, one set of fists and one of open gesture, as well as two pairs of gauntlets, one set with the claws extended, and the other without.  She also gets the torso and pelvis of the Colossus Build-A-Figure, which is by far the largest piece, offsetting that she’s the smallest of the individual figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Kitty is a character that certainly ranks highly for my selection of favorite X-Men, and while the AoA interpretation isn’t really much like the character I like, I can still appreciate the distinctly divergent take on the character for the purposes of the story.  I also do kind of dig the changed up design, so I was certainly happy to see her crop up here.  The face is a little weird, but the figure is otherwise quite well-rendered, and it’s always cool to get a design we haven’t seen in toy form before.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.