23.05
Disclaimer: Graphic content warning: Partial Nudity… again.
Packaging
Wave 72 is a Wolverine themed wave. The packaging features the classic Wolverine comic title logo and features art of a Wolverine minimate used in the top, left corner of the box. I think it’s a nice touch when themed waves are labelled appropriately.
The Figures
Weapon X Wolverine
There aren’t a lot of unmade Wolverines left at this stage. DST have brought us over 65 different versions of the short, furry man over the years. We’ve seen seen civilian Wolverine. First appearance Wolverine. Gaijin Wolverine. Age of Apocalpse/Astonishing/Age of Ultron/Movie/Grant Morrison Wolverine. But we’ve somehow never seen a real Weapon X Wolverine Minimate… until now.
This look debuted in the Marvel Comics Presents series back in 1991 where we learned the origin of Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton. I call it a ‘look’ rather than a ‘costume’, because Wolverine is essentially nude. What he *is* wearing amounts a helmet, a brown harness and underpants, but it’s still an iconic look for the character.
Wolverine’s helmet is a virtual reality device used to train him. It’s nicely sculpted piece and looks very similar to how it appeared in the comics. It’s all silver and is detailed to look like it’s made of multiple metal segments. There’s a red visor-like panel in the front, and we can see tufts of Wolverine’s black hair poking out the back. My figure has a tiny bit of silver paint slop on his hair at the back, but it’s not very noticeable.
Weapon X is also wearing a harness with three metal devices attached to it. They’re covered in small, tech-looking details. I assume these devices contain the battery and computer power that runs the VR helmet, because two of them are connected directly to the helmet by two black cables. However, given the positioning of on of the panels right on his crotch, and the tube connecting it to a space in his helmet right near the visor, you’d be forgiving for thinking that it was a device for torturing patients of the Weapon X program by making them pee into their own eyes.
The cables are made of a very flexible black rubbery plastic. The hose/cable parts that DST have used over the years seem be improving each time. The ones used for wave 19’s Apocalypse seemed more like cast pieces that didn’t bend easily (and sometimes broke). Wave 60’s Pyro came with more flexible tubes, and these seem even more flexible again.
Weapon X’s chest block tampo features muscle and hair detailing. The legs are also given some muscle definition, and there’s a good amount of hair detailing on the forearms. He’s also got wrist bands that are the same colour as his harness and underpants. DST has only included clawed hands with Weapon X. There’s been a little bit of griping on chat forums about the exclusion of regular hands but frankly, I’m fine with it. I can’t imagine displaying Weapon X with sheathed claws. He does, however, come with a spare hairpiece. You’ll need to remove his harness to display him with hair, though, as the helmet is connected to it via the aforementioned tubes.
I can’t really imagine this figure needing anything else. It’s accurate and faithful to the source material and is well executed.
MMC Score – 10 out of 10
Lady Deathstrike
Lady Deathstrike is one of the first X-Men villains ever made as a minimate. She originally came out in the 9th wave way back in 2005, and is only preceded by Magneto & Ultimate Sabretooth. I always thought it was an interesting (and awesome) choice to release her as a figure so early in the line, given that she wasn’t someone that casual fans would rattle off in a list of X-Men villains. The choice to make her was no doubt aided, at least in part, by the fact that the character appeared in X-Men 2 the year before.
The Minimates line has mutated (get it?) a lot since Lady Deathstrike’s first release. Long time fans of the line have talked about Deathstrike as a good candidate for an update for a long time. DST have not disappointed.
This look is Deathstrike’s most well-known costume. It’s the same costume she was portrayed in back in wave 9, but there’s so much more detail now. She’s wearing her brown skull cap with red trim. I always interpreted this as being made of leather, but DST have given the brown parts of Deathstrike’s costume a bronze, metallic finish. While the choice might not seem in line with most interpretations of the character, I don’t mind it at all. In a way, it speaks to her cybernetic nature as a being supplemented with metal parts. The detail in her eyes and sculpted brows is very nice. Her face sports a rather sinister grin. It looks feminine, but evil.
The bronze continues onto her padded shoulder/chest piece. I like to think of it as high fashion, leather armour. As with the original figure, this is a separate piece, but there’s more sculpted detail on the new version. Where the original figure used a flat piece with some painted details to indicate the ribbing/panels of the armour, this piece is sculpted. The sculpting combined with the metallic paint create a really nice sense of texture on the costume.
She’s been given the loincloth piece first used with wave 38’s Shadowland Elektra. Just like Elektra’s, it’s red, but Deathstrike wears hers backwards so the wider part hangs at the front. It’s a suitable piece of parts re-use and works well for this look.
Her legs are also decorated with the same bronze paint and feature both musculature detailing, as well as the kind of banding that so many comic characters have (Cable’s arm, Gideon’s arms, Dark Beast’s pants, Colossus’ whole body, etc…).
All these innovations and updates are wonderful, but the change I’m most excited about is her chest detailing. Aside from a very crisp, and clean (and very revealing) white blouse design, we can also see the cybernetic implant detailing all over her chest. It’s a detail that was missing from the original, and I’m so glad it has been included here.
Her arms are plain white arms with red bands around the bicep. The lower arm uses the flared sleeve piece that we saw on the O-Ren Minimiate from the Kill Bill line (it’s also been used on numerous other figures). It’s simply, but effective. Yukio has also got herself a new set of hands. Standard minimate hands simply wouldn’t do for a villain who’s most well-known weapons are her elongating, razor sharp fingers. DST had a go at creating special hands for her back in wave 9. The results were acceptable at the time, but as the line has gone on, collectors looking back at her have commented on how thick her fingers were, giving her amusing nicknames like ‘Lady Bananfingers’. Her new hands are actually the exact same ones used for the Mojo figure from this wave, so I’m not sure who they were intended for first, but they work equally well on both figures.
All in all, she’s a pretty spot-on interpretation of the character in Minimate form. She doesn’t come with any accessories or swappable parts, but I honestly can’t think of any she would need. She’s never really been known for carrying a gun or a sword. She is her own weapon.
The elbow joints on my figure are a little loose, which makes her a bit hard to pose at times. I suspect that’s just a little production niggle and wont be an issue across all the figures.
For me, this is a 10 out of 10. I can see how purists might want a flat brown on the ‘leather’ parts, though. So if you don’t agree with me, why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.
MMC Score – 10 out of 10.
Review and pictures by Nessex.
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