Marvel Legends Nico Minoru Review & Photos Doctor Strange

Earlier this week I talked about the figure in the Marvel Legends Doctor Strange series that was most peoples’ favorite in the wave in my Marvel Legends Iron Fist review, but today I’m going to let my inner Goth roar and take a look at my most-anticipated figure in the series. The Marvel Legends Nico Minoru figure is shipping out for online orders next week–does the first-ever action figure of a member of the Runaways team earn my approval? Read on…

Marvel Legends Nico Minoru ReviewThe Right:

I never thought I’d live to see the day that one of Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways would get a mass-released action figure, but truly this is a great time to be a Marvel collector and alive.

And not only did Hasbro choose to start off the likely-never-to-be-completed Runaways team roster in this Doctor Strange Series, but they’re also giving us our first ever Gothic Lolita Marvel Legends figure. Craziness–and amazing. Thumbs up.

For those who don’t know her, Nico Minoru AKA Sister Grimm is usually the character most associated with leading the Runaways, and is also a founding A-Force member.

Marvel Legends Doctor Strange Series Nico MinoruDue to the fact that she’s a teenage girl wearing a Gothic Lolita style dress, you’d expect Nico would require quite a bit new tooling. And she does! To my untrained eye, I see a brand new head, boots, alternate arm, skirt and upper torso on this figure. (Am I missing anything, sharp-eyes expert readers?)

Back of Marvel Legends Sister Grimm FigureThat’s a lot of new tooling required for a one-per-case little-known character, so I am highly impressed with Hasbro for going to such efforts to make this Nico Minoru Marvel Legends figure look great!

Side View of Marvel Legends Nico 6" FigureMy favorite part of the sculpt is probably Nico’s gravity-defying (or is it gel-enabled) stylin’ ponytail, which looks amazing authentic to its comic book appearances. Love it!

Docotr Strange Marvel Legends Nico 6" FigureI’ve heard some folks complain that this Nico figure’s face doesn’t look Asian enough, but flip of through my big box of Runaways comics, the head sculpt here is looking pretty dang accurate to me. Nico’s character design may not like Asian American enough to satisfy some collectors, but this figure certainly looks like Sister Grimm to me.

You might have noticed that Nico has unnaturally pink eyes. While in the comics Nico’s eyes fully light up in pink when using the magical abilities granted to her by the Staff of One, I think the pink pupils on this figure are sufficiently eye-grabbing and a captivating touch.

Marvel Legends 2016 Nico of the Runaways Six Inch FigureThe power-using eyes are complemented by perhaps this action figure’s coolest feature–a partially translucent pink alternate arm! Yes, you get the whole arm as an accessory this time, as the forearm has a different sculpt with the forearm protector Nico only has on when using her powers. Phenomenal attention to detail here by Hasbro!

The articulation on this 6″ Marvel Legends Nico figure is strong–not perfect–but strong. Nico isn’t Spider-Girl, so she can get by without a swivel biceps, double-jointed elbows and a swivel waist. Every other important point of flexibility–including my beloved ankle rockers–is present and accounted for.

Size Comparison Marvel Legends Mystic Rivals FiguresAnd as Nico is a teenager, the mold is about a head shorter than your typical Marvel Legends figure, as it should be. Fabulous.

Back of Package Marvel Legends Enchantress Nico Mystic RivalsWhat’s also fabulous is the opaque pink effects piece that wraps around Nico’s staff, making it look far more deadly and supernatural than it otherwise would. Of course, there’s a reason I haven’t really talked about the Staff of One yet, and that’s because it tragically falls squarely into…

Flacid Marvel Legends Staff of One The Wrong:

I’m getting a sense of déjà vu, because just like in my 6″ Iron Fist figure review yesterday, my biggest complaint about this figure is once again plastic quality control. But whereas Iron Fist’s rubbery legs were his greatest sin, Nico has a slightly different issue: her Staff of One is, well… limpy.

The Staff of One is made of a cheap, rubbery plastic, and mine seems to have been permanently bent into a flaccid state by being packaged with the hard plastic magic effects piece around it.

Nico Marvel Legends Runaways Figure Holding Own ArmMaking matters worse, Nico’s wrist is molded out of the super-soft black plastic, and as a result the Staff falls out of her hand incredibly easily–especially with the heavy magic effects on it. As a result, she can hold her own (severed?) extra arm more tightly and stably than she can the Staff of One. Alas.

Marvel Legends Nico Minoru Figure PackagedAnd even if it wasn’t riddled with QC issues, Nico’s Staff of One is way too short and stubby–it’s supposed to be a long staff and not the Wand of One. This looks more like Sailor Moon’s Moon Rod in length than a proper Staff of One. The Rod is also totally unpainted, which doesn’t help matters at all.

Close-Up of Missing Paint Deco on Doctor Strange Legends Nico Minoru FigureIn addition to all the problems with the Staff of One, I’m also disappointed a bit with the paint applications on my Nico Marvel Legends action figure–there are several areas where the pink paint hasn’t quite been applied properly or where there’s some paint bleeding onto another color. And when you have a figure that’s black and pink, that really is a problem.

Marvel Legends Nico Review and PhotosOverall: I feel bad giving the Marvel Legends Nico figure a grade that’s honestly lower than I’d like to give it, but while Nico is a fantastic character choice and a mostly well-done figure with lots of new tooling, I’m heartbroken by how bad the Staff of One is sculpting-wise, paint-wise and quality-wise. For such a crucial accessory to come out so poorly is really crippling. I like this figure a lot–and love the effects piece arm–but it’s definitely not one of Hasbro’s best all-around efforts this year.

GRADE: B+

Comments

Marvel Legends Nico Minoru Review & Photos Doctor Strange — 14 Comments

  1. Just FYI regarding the shortened Staff of One:

    “Nico was later revived by the Staff of One, using her last spell as well as her blood as a sacrifice to bring her to life.[24] The spell restored her missing arm and the rest of her body. Her staff is now half the size of what it was, while the other half seems to have been made into a gauntlet on her new arm. It appears that her staff and her gauntlet both work similar in forms of magic spell, as her previous Staff of One did.”

    It’s comic accurate. 🙂

    • You know, I read Avengers Arena and it was one of my favorite series of the last few years, so you would think I would remember that. Haha.

      Even so–I’m not thrilled with the little Staff of One, even if it is accurate to the more recent comics. It just looks goofy being so small. Oh well!

      • Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’d much prefer a longer Staff of One, but I’m so thrilled we’re getting a Nico at all (and we get the cool alternate arm out of it) that I’ll take what I can get!

  2. You may be able to straighten the staff by dipping it into water that was heated to boiling, then straighten the staff and let it cool in that position. But, yeah, point taken. We shouldn’t have to do this. I get the impression that Hasbro’s QC budget is diverted to profit margin…

  3. I’m wondering if a soft-plastic staff is so as to prevent it from easily snapping in half like all of Namor’s tridents do.

    I haven’t received my cases yet, so I can’t determine this yet.
    Just a guess.

  4. “I never thought I’d live to see the day that one of Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways would get a mass-released action figure, but truly this is a great time to be a Marvel collector and alive.”

    I believe the reason Hasbro did it is because someone high up in the marketing dept. recognized the need to market an Asian character and the pickings are unfortunately very slim. With that said, I’m hoping to see that one day Hasbro come out with a Shang Chi action figure. Furthermore, has there been a Marvel Asian male action figure ever made? Not to my knowledge. Anyways, I commend Hasbro for taking notice and putting out an Asian action figure.

    Since this is a Dr. Strange series, I find the upcoming Dr. Strange movie very “strange” with no pun intended. The Ancient One a Caucasian? If you remember, the Mandarin was Caucasian as well. So Marvel is still batting a perfect 1.000 in keeping out an Asian male to have a major role in any of their movies. Is the reason just plain ignorance or is there a conspiracy going on at Marvel? Hmmm.

    • Correction, I just remember that Toy Biz put out the comic version of the Mandarin. Still that’s just only one.

    • Ben Kingsley is white?

      Oh, you probably meant Aldritch Killian as the “real” Mandarin, as Ben Kingsley’s character wasn’t *truly* the lead baddie.

      Also: remember, there is an actual, comic-style Mandarin somewhere in the MCU (in-universe, not in any of the movies or anything yet); he was hinted at in the short that came out with Iron Man 3 where Trevor Slattery goes to prison. So, Marvel definitely has an Asian character coming up some time in the next several years, probably if/when they do an Iron Man 4. Hopefully, though, we get other Asian characters before that, as “oh, we have an Asian character maaaybe sometime in the next several years” isn’t quite good enough.

    • I can remember a Marvel asian caracter male action figure, the Radioactive Man, he is chinesse.

    • Actually I think there is actually an even better version for her here…In the tie in comic prequel we learn

      Minor Spoiler

      There is a team of Masters of the Mystic arts which include Wong, Daniel Drumm (aka the Brother of Voodoo) Tina Munro (the mother of Nico) and Kaecilius (aka the big bad)
      If so other than Enchantress this set really seems even more on point

  5. In this DOCTOR STRANGE wave it would have been nice to get a comic accurate WONG. Even a film WONG would have been acceptable, as he’s a fairly major character. I was upset that they yanked THE ANCIENT ONE (obviously, I’d have preferred a comic style one, but really, who’s going to want “old Asian guy” action figure). I’d have been happy with movie ANCIENT ONE, because then you get a female movie figure in the mix, but Enchantress bumped AO out.