Oh, hey there, Walgreens. I see you there. Knowing you have been offering up the best Marvel Legends store exclusives over the past couple of years, looking all good. Oh, what is this now? A NEW exclusive that actually contains the parts to make THREE new characters, all of whom, I might add, are in the line for the first time? Now I gotta hunt down and buy three of them? Pretty sneaky, Walgreens. Pretty sneaky.
So, I wasn’t expecting to take a look at this new release so soon, if I am being completely honest. It seems like just last week when we took a look at Emma Frost, and I know a lot of people are still on the hunt for her, so I did not expect this figure to be here already. But then, on a normal Monday afternoon when your wife stops by Walgreens to grab a few quick items she texts you and asks, “do you need Dani Moonstar?” Bwu-huh? Yeah, I need her, and all of them that they have! Well, that particular location only had one, but I am thankful to have this so soon, even though the hunt will continue to find a few more copies of this, because I NEED all of these characters on my shelf. Sure, Dani Moonstar might get the on-packaging naming rights and configuration, but Wolfsbane and Karma are just as important to this release as well, and it is CRAZY that we are knocking out three New Mutants all in one shot.
Walgreens has never been timid about supporting new parts in their store releases (see: The Thing), but that is pretty rare for retail exclusives. At first glance, I thought this was a pretty savvy choice for an exclusive because it could be built on mostly existing parts, which would allow the new heads, hands, and accessories to consume most of the tooling budget. However, unless I am mistaken, a lot this figure is new and not, what I originally assumed, based mostly on the Kitty Pryde figure. I think some of the parts are indeed shared, but, c’mon, this is Legends. I know the focus of the interest of this figure lies mostly with the new character likenesses and whatnot, but this body is most certainly shorter than Kitty, and there are a lot of unique details in the boots and gloves. That pretty much makes this base perfect for a New Mutants base that I hope gets to be reused in the future because, while this knocks out three important names, there are still more that need to be brought to our shelves.
As I said, Dani gets top billing here, and that makes sense since she also gets the most accessories, and is, arguably, the most well-known of the three. The latter part could be argued forever, but frankly, I don’t care about the package configuration one little bit, so long as all of the characters are done in a way that does them justice, and I believe that to be the case here. It is funny because I am torn when it comes to uniforms – I love the uniformity of them when they actually all match (as the New Mutants do), but at the same time, I do like a bit of variety in my display. However, with so many color and differently-clad Mutants already populating my shelf, I am enjoying the idea of having a little corner of the X-Men display in proper matching team outfits.
As is the case with most recent Marvel Legends releases, all of the head sculpts and likenesses in this set are very strong. Dani could have easily been generic in her features, but I find her look to be very appropriate for her as a character, and also a bit different than other ML females with her longer chin and thinner face. Her headband is actually sculpted on, so this is likely not going to be one of those cases like Moonstone (not to be confused with MoonSTAR), where her head is redecoed and re-released over and over again. Her wrapped twin ponytails look cool, and again, give her the uniqueness she demands, even as she is otherwise dressed just like her teammates. This set includes two gripping hands to help facilitate her bow (solid plastic string) and arrow. Dani can hold her bow in a fairly convincing “firing” pose, but the lack of butterfly shoulder joints limit that somewhat. Overall though, I am quite pleased with this as a Moonstar release, and I am happy to finally have her on my shelf.
Karma is the second character included in this set, and the one that I most surprised to see included. Not because she is not deserving, but when you have a set that makes two unique characters possible it is an outlier, tackling three and once is pretty much previously unheard of. Karma is a smart inclusion though, because while Moonstar and Wolfsbane take quite a bit of new parts to realize, Karma really only needed a unique head. So, we got that and a pair of the standard female open/spell casting hands and it all came together. The likeness is good here, but most certainly the least interesting of the three, but that is not the figure’s fault, that is just how Karma looks. I do love the pink used for the powered-up eyes and the darker tone applied to the upper lip opposed to the lighter color on the bottom adds a unique effect. Speaking of, I find it weird that I am actually opining for the inclusion of one of those now-overused ML power effects here, but I certainly have plenty already in the library I can use for her.
Okay, while I love Moonstar and Karma is great, too, Wolfsbane is the one I was most looking forward to in this set, and man, it is so cool to finally have her. Rahne is a character with the fun concept, and her design is so “toyetic” that of all of these, I am most surprised by how long it has taken to get her in ML. I am happy that, while her new head is most certainly the highlight of the entire set (at least for me), Hasbro and Walgreens did not get cheap and lazy, and did include the furry hands that we needed to complete the effect. When you have a wolf girl head, it does not matter one bit that your clothes match your friends’ get-ups because you are going to stand out no matter what. This body also poses well, so Rahne most certainly requires that more than the other two for her more dynamic and iconic poses. Wolfsbane is most certainly my favorite of this set, and until I find two more, she will be holding it down on the shelf because she looks great.
What a rad release. I know, people are already grumbling about having to find three of these (I am a bit concerned myself), so I REALLY hope that Walgreens does a good job of getting multiples of these out their stores, as well as having plenty of online stock, too. I admit, as painful as it can be track down multiples of a store exclusive, it is a pretty ingenious approach for Walgreens, and with the rumor of the Stepford Cuckoos possibly getting the same treatment, you might as well just plan on living at Walgreens for the foreseeable future. The New Mutants are long overdue in ML, so I hope this is just the start, and we can get a Sunspot, and maybe a Magik in her uniform as well (with a possible powered down Rahne Sinclair head included, too), because this formula works really well.
Keep your eyes peeled at Walgreens for this release as it is hitting now, I know I am still going to be camped out there until I find a couple more of these.
