King Valkyrie

Yaaaaaass king! When a dangerous new visitor threatens the livelihood of New Asgaard, King Valkyrie is forced to take up her sword once more to defend her people. A dangerous new visitor? In a Norwegian fishing village? Namor confirmed!! So this section of the review has been rewritten - you're not seeing the original text, because when I got these figures, the Love and Thunder trailer hadn't been released yet (shout out to Walmarts that will put things on the shelf before the street date, and to self-checkouts where you can scan Camberdoll Bandersnatch UPCs for the same price when the computer system won't let you buy Thor toys), and this used to be a whole bit about the lack of a trailer. Jokes, conspiracy theories, etc. Not that Valk has much to do in the trailer yet, just sitting around like a dour Marlene Dietrich, but specificity matters. Thanks for ruining all our hard work, Marvel! This is not Valkyrie in her business suit, but in her new armor - way to get out of that boardroom, your majesty! We knew this design was coming, thanks to a selfie taken during the costume test, and it doesn't seem to have changed much between the concept art (which is what initial toys are always based on, thanks to how long they take to make) and the final product. This is sort of a blend between her two previous looks: her dark Sakaraan scavenger gear and her white valkyrie armor. It's sleeveless, but with distinct Asgaardian-style armor protecting the torso. She's got fingerless gloves and leather pants, and has a knife sheathed on her right boot. The likeness is good, though the shape of her collar actually messes it up slightly. How's that possible? Well, the collar comes up quite high, then cuts back with a sharp corner; this leaves just a little flash of skin visible below the jawline when viewed from a normal angle, blending in with the face and making her jaw look wider and squarer than it really is. Her articulation is standard, but you can't take full advantage of it. She's got ankles, knees, thighs, hips, chest, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, and head. The skirt is short enough that it won't significantly block her hips, but her waist-length braids really limit what you can do with the head, and her big blue cape means balancing her is always a challenge. Her only accessory is her sword Dragonfang, which can be held in the right hand. No scabbard this time, but that's fine, since the dang thing never fit anywhere anyway. And naturally, the chest balljoint means the pattern of her top will get broken when you move her around, but since it's such stark black and white, you can still find ways to line the pieces up. The Build-A-Figure for this series is Korg, and Valkyrie has his head and club. When Hela was set to take over Asgaard, she called herself a queen. [Would we have her in place of a Dark Lord? --ed.] So why is Valkyrie a "King"? Why not, honestly? When you're in charge, you can call yourself whatever you want and it means what you say it means. This may be our third Valkyrie toy, but it's not a rehash of anything we've gotten before. -- 05/09/22

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