Cloak & Dagger

Whose bright idea was it to release these as two separate figures and not a multipack? Could be worse, I guess: they could be swap figures. A hooded vigilante in the war on drug crimes, Tyrone Johnson uses powers of darkness as Cloak. Tandy Bowen channels her unrivaled possession of Lightforce into signature light dagger weapons, earning herself the name Dagger. So yes, these are solo-carded figures, but we're going to review them as a set because: come on. Even Hasbro knows the score, because the art on the sides of the packaging shows both of them, no matter who's inside. Considering that Cloak & Dagger's whole shtick was that they got their powers as teen runaways, it's weird to see Cloak depicted as an adult. He uses one of the larger bodies, but what's really weird is seeing him with a beard. Even accounting for comicbook time, he's got to be in his mid-to-late 20s by now, but that doesn't make it any less odd at first blush. The usual way of doing things is to paint Cloak's body solid black, and put that inside a fancy cape. That works pretty well, but it's not what Hasbro has done here. Instead, both the body and cape are molded from a semi-translucent plastic - it's a smoky black, so it still looks dark, but the little bit of light that can shine through makes it look immaterial, like it's fading in from another dimension. The blue portions of his cape are painted, as is the clasp that hold it closed and the details of his face. The hood is permanently attached to the head, and it's large enough that it bunches up where it meets the shoulders. A very nice look! With that clever piece of business in mind, it's a shame that Hasbro didn't get equally inventive with Dagger and cast her from glow-in-the-dark plastic. Other than her head, hands, and that dagger-shaped cutout on the front of her costume, she's pure white, yes? So why not make her luminous? Or at least luminescent. It would suit the character perfectly! Although her costume makes her look quite a bit like Moonstone, Dagger stands apart thanks to her use of the smallest (current) female body. The chest appears to be a new mold, with a more petite bustline than we've seen on the other women - suitable for someone who's young but no longer a teenager (when they got their powers, Tyrone was 17 and Tandy was 16), and was a ballet dancer in her civilian life. As mentioned, the patch of skin you see on her torso is painted on, so the line of it gets broken when you move her chest joint. Her hair is flexible PVC, so it doesn't block her head too badly, and the sculpt has it tucked behind her ear so that we can clearly see the white crescent shape painted around her right eye. Which also should have glowed. Dagger is smaller than Cloak (and isn't wearing a giant curtain draped over her shoulders), so she gets an accessory. It's a strange little thing, depicting her energy daggers. Three of them are attached to a curving arc, making it look like she's just tossed them at an enemy. Personally, I can never get accessories like this to look right and properly sell the idea of motion - how about you? Both figures come with pieces of this series's Build-A-Figure, the robotic SP//dr. Dagger gets the torso, Cloak gets the head. It's strange that Cloak and Dagger would be sold as individual figures, and not as a two-pack... and it's even stranger that people kept buying him and leaving her behind. Seriously, I saw in stores a couple times, but had to order him from Amazon. What the heck! -- 12/12/18

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