Werewolf? Over there wolf. Wifwolf? Certainly not without wolf!
A member of the New Mutants, Wolfsbane trains with Professor X to master her powers of lycanthropy.
That'd be a real neat bio if it actually applied to this figure in the slightest. Like, it's true, but it's not relevant at this point: you know how if you watch football, the commentators might bring up where a player went to college, but then they stop doing that by the second year of their pro career? There's no sense in mentioning Professor X or the New Mutants with this Wolfsbane. She's like three mentors and two teams beyond that by now. So here, we'll write one that's appropriate: "After having her mind and free will erased, Wolfsbane lost the ability to revert to human from her half-wolf form. She joined the government team X-Factor in the hopes they could help cure her." See? That gets the important parts across succinctly without getting bogged down in minutiae. We're available for freelance work, toy companies.
We had a Marvel Legends Wolfsbane a few years ago,
as an alternate head for a different figure, but that figure was wearing a New Mutants class reunion costume, which is far from a memorable or desirable look. The high point of Rahne Sinclair's profile was being on the '90s X-Factor, so this is the toy we were waiting for. It's not surprising that Wolfsbane uses the same chest as Polaris, because that's a fairly unique piece, and it's only logical that they should share it, but the surprise is that her abdomen is different: while Polaris used a standard body with a floating belt, Rahne's three belts are molded onto her stomach. Her limbs are bare, so we can best appreciate the sculpted fur covering them.
That's all very good, and then we get above the neck. Like the last
Wolfsbane, this one is seemingly meant to be snarling, but the sculpt fails in its attempt to show that. She looks more like she's sneering, or like she just smelled something bad. We won't say the sculpt is poor, because it displays definite proficiency, but it doesn't suit this character. Frankly, it looks more like they were in the middle of making a Marvel Legends Feral and then decided to simply change the colors and hope we didn't notice.
Speaking of colors, Rahne's aren't the best. Her fur is too bright and vibrant, closer to orange than brown. If you look at the books
from the time, her shade was often much more muted than this, and even when it wasn't it was more toward the red side of the spectrum than yellow - either cocoa or brick red, not "Hulk Hogan hot dog skin." And consistently, her hair was redder than the rest of the fur, not the same color. The change in color means you can't even swap the superior existing head for this one.
What's truly frustrating, though, is that her colors don't match any of the other X-Factor figures we've had. The blue is too faded and the yellow is way too pale. Come on, guys, it is a team uniform, your one job was "make sure it's the same color." And yes, I'm aware these figures have been released over a span of six years, starting with Multiple Man in 2018, but that's not an excuse: you are allowed to write down the Pantone numbers of the paint you use, you know. And then use it again. Paying to paint her zipper and buckles silver doesn't make up for getting literally every other color wrong. PS: her belts are supposed to be blue, not yellow.
At least the articulation remains reliable.
A balljointed head, swivel/hinge ankles, hinged neck, double-hinged knees, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel thighs, double-hinged elbows, balljointed hips, swivel/hinge wrists, and a balljointed chest. She includes the same selection of hands as Tigra, either fists or clawing. The claws seem to have a little fur sculpted up by the wrist hinge, but the fists were reused even when Tigra came out, and are thus smooth. As long as they were molding a new trunk for this figure, it would have been great if they'd given her the extra hinge joint in the hips, like GI Joe Classified figures get: a lot of her poses in the book had her perching on things when she was at rest, and that would be easier to achieve with those joints.
Wolfsbane doesn't get any accessories, but she does have the largest part of the Series 12 Build-A-Figure, Zabu's entire torso.
Even with the sub-standard paint design, Wolfsbane is not a bad toy; she's fine, but as the last one we needed to complete a team, she could have been a real exciting piece, could have felt really special; instead, she's just kind of "there." What a bummer.
-- 10/14/24
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