HUNTRESS

BATMAN: HUSH MAFEX (MEDICOM TOY)

A year and a half ago, I took a look at my first MAFEX figure, Hush.  I ended that review noting that I was really pulled in by the announcement of Nightwing, and that he was the figure I was really after.  So, for my *second* MAFEX review, I’m looking at….still not Nightwing.  Look, I gotta be patient.  In the mean time, I do have another one, and this one’s another Hush based one.  Let’s take a look at Huntress, why don’t we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Huntress is figure No. 170 in the MAFEX line-up, the eighth Batman: Hush figure to join the line.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 38 points of articulation. Hush marked my first experience with the MAFEX set-up as a whole, and he was an interesting experience. Huntress has some similarities, but also some deviations, to work a little better with her particular design. The movement still has more of a smooth flow than a Figuarts figure, but she winds up a little bit restricted in a few spots, most notably at the neck and shoulders. The neck is pretty much unavoidable, due to the hair, but the shoulders are a bit of a bummer. Huntress has a unique sculpt which is, as expected, based on her Jim Lee-illustrated appearance from Hush…more or less.  There are some slight changes to the design to make it work a bit better in figure form, with the most evident being the change to longer shorts, so as to offset the placement of the thigh swivels.  Honestly, it’s a design change that I really don’t mind, so I can’t knock it.  As with Hush, it does a respectable job of translating Lee’s art into three dimensions.  It’s a very clean, very balanced translation.  There are two different heads, one calm and basic, the other a little angrier, with a more dynamic flow to the hair.  She gets a bit of mixed media, with a cloth cape; it’s a well tailored, and it’s even got a wire running along the bottom, so you can get some rather impressive poses out of it.  Huntress’s paint work is very sharp and very clean, with no notable slop or anything like that.  It definitely matches well with the printed colors from the book, and they even got the cape and the painted purples to match up okay.  Huntress doesn’t quite get the array of accessories that Hush did, but she still gets a fair bit.  There’s the extra head mentioned above, plus five pairs of hands (in fists, two styles of gripping, relaxed, and open gesture), her staff and a display stand.  The hands are notably a bit inconsistent on how well they stay on the wrist pegs on my copy, with some of they just falling right off.  It’s more than a little bit annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m still very patiently waiting on my MAFEX Nightwing, but given how much I enjoyed Hush, I decided to explore the line just a little bit further.  While I’m a little bit hit or miss on the Helena Bertineli version of Huntress in the comics, her appearances in Justice League Unlimited really solidified my love of the character.  Back in the DCUC days, I really wanted a good 6-inch version of her in this design, and…well, the DCUC one was a 6-inch version, but I struggle to call it a “good” one.  MAFEX gave me a better option, so this was the one I jumped in on.  She’s not perfect, but she’s close.  I really like her, and I’m happy to be able to replace the DCUC one with a far superior model.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of her in action, I helped out on one for their YouTube channel here.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.