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What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?
Tech savvy and brave, Nebula is an intergalactic opportunist who is ready for adventure.
Yes, "Heist Nebula" is only a side character in someone else's story, but isn't it nice that this line is willing to go a little deeper than just the stars? What If...? is an awesome show, and the more cool toys we get from it the better. Obviously things in this reality went a bit better for one of the daughters of Thanos - but it's weird to consider how that came to be. Like, regular MCU Nebula said her father had been replacing her bodyparts with cybernetics since she was a child, so how did T'Challa get involved so early in her life? He didn't even leave Earth until he was a teenager(ish), and he doesn't seem significantly older than her.
Heist Nebula has a rather unexpected look, and it's not just the face unmarred by electronics: she's got blonde hair. She's portrayed by Karen Gillan, who's famously redheaded, so you might expect that color; meanwhile, her comic counterpart had dark blue hair, so you'd really expect that color. But no. Instead, blonde. Weird.
Also weird? Despite the fact What If Nebula wears
a nearly identical outfit to move Nebula, the mold of this toy is not the same as the existing one. At least, not entirely. The legs are taken from that 2018 figure, but she's got a new chest. Why go to so much trouble? We're talking minor, minor things like the angle of her shoulders, or the number of lines on her belt. Who's going to care that much, and why should we worry about the opinions of anyone so persnickety? Her clothes are a lighter purple than in the movies, and of course, her skin is unblemished, so the arms can be taken from the standard parts pool. Really disappointing, though? The one tech modification she did have was a bit around her left eye - that's why she wears her hair Veronica Lake style, but it's not sculpted here.
It's not even like her articulation is substantially different
from the last figure: Heist Nebula moves at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. No surprises there. Her only accessory is a new sci-fi pistol that can be held in her right hand or stored in the holster on her new belt. You do get your choice of an open or trigger finger hand for the right arm, and a gripping or fist hand for the left.
Finally, she includes a mighty four pieces of the Watcher Build-A-Figure: the chest, hips, skirt, and collar.
Nebula was one of the figures that served as a spoiler when these were first revealed - it's one thing to create toys of the episode stars, who'd already been in the promos, it's another to solicit side characters way in advance of the release. Wong wasn't in the Shang-Chi toyline, y'know? Still, being able to reuse molds for her surely helped offset all the new we're getting with the others, so we can't fault them too much.
-- 12/25/21
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