CLEA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0014:  Despite how many figures her husband Stephen Strange has received over the years, this marks the very first action figure for Clea.

My comics reading is, at its core, very heavily influenced by my dad.  In part, that’s based on what he would buy me to read as a kid, which frequently included copies of some of his favorite stories from when he was growing up.  However, it’s also due to us effectively sharing a reading pile when I was growing up.  This resulted in some quirkier books that he was following becoming my first real introduction to certain characters.  In the early ’00s, Kurt Busiek had a run on Defenders, which eventually spun into The Order, where the “heavy hitter” Defenders went rogue, and it was up to the second stringers (namely Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Valkyrie) to stop them.  At one point, they assemble a team of distaff counterparts to Dr. Strange, Hulk, Namor, and Silver Surfer, which, amongst others features Clea as the counterpart to her husband.  It marked my first introduction to Clea, and it’s stuck with me since.  It sure has taken a long time for a figure of her to finally show up, but here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clea is figure 6 in the Mindless One Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the final of the singles, and something of an outlier, being a more mystically-themed figure in a set of otherwise Marvel Knights and street-level heroes.  On the flipside, however, she’s the only one that’s got any real ties to the Mindless One Build-A-Figure, so she’s got that going for her.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s making use of a decent little bank of re-used parts, largely centered around a slightly upgraded Phoenix base body.  She’s got a new head, upper torso, and sash piece, which add up to a solid approximation of Clea’s classic design.  All in all, a nice selection of new parts, though her hair on the head sculpt is perhaps a touch flat.  Still, overall not bad.  Clea’s color work is fun, because it’s a lot of purples, and you don’t see those shades quite as often.  The face get’s some very clean, very lifelike work, and the patterning on the legs is surprisingly well handled.  Clea is packed with two sets of hands and two of the swirly effect pieces in purple, as well as the right arm of the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I don’t know that I’d say Clea’s a character I had an undying need for or anything, but at the same time, it’s kind of surprising that she’s never gotten any sort of figure before.  So, in that regard, this figure is pretty cool, and she also turned out pretty nicely on top of that.  But mostly, she makes me want to put together a full line-up of the distaff counterparts from The Order.  What are the odds we might see a Ardina?  Probably really low, right?

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 and their eBay storefront.