When I first heard that X-23 was going to take over the Wolverine mantle, I was indifferent. Laura wearing the Astonishing duds of Logan didn't do much to hype me up but nonetheless, I thought she looked rather sexy in the outfit. Suffice it to say, when a Wolverine (Laura Kinney/X-23) Marvel Legends came into the radar, I knew I had to get it. Lo and behold, here we are. So let's jump right into the review.
I honestly was not into comic books when this storyline came to be. Heck, I'm not even into them now. Once in a while something catches my attention but I know I can't get pulled into them like I used to be. Again, the sight of Laura in the Wolverine outfit had a polarizing effect. I really liked X-23 in the X-Force outfit and none of her other costumes really stuck to me. This one, however, did manage to catch my attention because I happen to like the 'modern' version of Wolverine's classic tiger stripe outfit. Seeing it on a lithe and sexy Marvel heroine like Laura, I have to say that it works. The polarizing thing about it is that they barely did anything to change it. It is almost an exact clone of Logan's costume, save for the fact that Laura lets her hair down through a hole in the mask and the boots are different. Other than that, it's hard to point out what they changed and what stayed the same. I don't have an issue with it though. Again, it's one of Laura's better costumes.
Kind of a lame pose, but oh well. The action figure still looks good.
The only accessories we get for this Wolverine are two alternate heads. I should be a bit more excited for the fact that we finally get a mask-less Laura Kinney face but I'll show the pics and state why I'm not that elated. Two alternate heads and no hands and that awesome BAF piece (I'm sadly not going to build)? Meh. Been worse.
Let's get the fact out of the way that this is definitely a familiar body mold. Why wouldn't Hasbro reuse it for this character? Now how it is used is the real question and truth to be told, I personally like it and it fits. Laura is one of those weapons that came out ln the lithe side and this mold definitely represents the Wolverine clone just fine. Newly sculpted heads, new hands, and I believe new boots definitely makes this body genuinely fitting for Laura Kinney. Of course, it's not perfect. With a recycled body comes the good things and the bad things, which I will talk about in the articulation department. Other than that, it's a good representation and the added new parts definitely disguises the the familiarity well enough. I guess the only complaint I have is that the heads may be a bit too much on the huge side. I'll show that later.
And the backside view... shows us a good idea of how much work was put into the hair. Looking at the hair, mind you. So as far as the color scheme, it's Hasbro so it's good for what it is. Some fuzzy areas especially on the thinner lines on her boots and there are some inconsistency in the yellow, like they didn't add enough layer on certain parts. Regardless, nothing drastically terrible. Aside from the claws not looking metallic as they should, I like the color palette they chose to represent Laura in her Wolverine costume.
And with the close up of her masked face, it's obvious to see some imperfections on the coloring. Still, it's a nice head sculpt even if it's a little odd that Laura is wearing a pretty fancy girly colored lipstick when she's snikt-ing around.
I wanted to be excited for an alternate mask-less face for Laura since we haven't gotten one since the Toybiz days. And those days were horrendous, might I add! But what we get with Wolverine Laura Kinney isn't any better in my opinion. First, it's not the color imperfection on her chin... it's the size of that head. It's a pity because I actually like the way it is made; the way the hair goes over her left eye, the angry expression, and the fact that we haven't received this before in her X-Force version. It's just a shame that it is proportionally off and aesthetically, it just doesn't look good for me.
Now on this part, I usually talk about the articulation but I'm going to go over something that I'm very happy that Hasbro added: Laura's third claw on her foot. They didn't do this for X-Force X-23 for some reason and doing this for Wolverine Laura is both baffling and relieving.
As far as her articulation goes, she's pretty standard for this mold. The elbows bend a little past ninety degrees, which is always nice to see on a female Marvel Legends. I only tried to do some dynamic poses with her masked head since it both looks better/proportioned than the maskless and not to mention, it has hair with some dynamic sculpting that really helps with some of the action shots I was trying to make.
I didn't want to do a standard comparison with the previous Laura Kinney figure that we go so instead I took a picture of them 'implying' a confrontation. I like both these figures a lot! While I'm more likely to gravitate towards the X-Force look (that was a fantastic run), I do like Laura in this classic yellow and blue color for Wolverine. Don't know why, but it looks pretty cool on her. That and I'm glad Hasbro put some care into these action figures of Laura Kinney.
At the end of the day, this is a pretty good action figure. It's got some flaws for sure but for me, they're easy to look over. I can't bring myself to replace the X-Force Laura with this action figure, but at the same time, I can't just put this away either. It's literally the only one that interested me out of that Deadpool wave 2. For those who are a fan of Laura Kinney taking on Wolverine's mantle (regardless of how her run as Wolverine was never handled correctly it seems), this is a great action figure to add. Definitely enjoying her on my X-Men/X-Force shelf. So that's about it!
Until Next Time!
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