Say what you will about Natalie Portman’s performances in the Star Wars movies, but Padmé is one of my favorite female characters across all of Star Wars and one of my preferred actresses in general. So I was thrilled when Portman was cast as Jane Foster in the Thor movies, and elated to hear she’d be returning for Thor Love and Thunder. Somehow, Hasbro has never produced a Natalie Portman Jane Foster figure before in their 10+ years of producing MCU movie figures. But Portman’s time has come: Marvel Legends Mighty Thor is shipping now! Is this a worthy inaugural ML Natalie Portman?

We’ve had comics-based Lady Thor Legends figures twice over now from Hasbro, and it turns out the movie version of Jane Foster Thor isn’t all that big of a departure from what we’ve seen before (despite Hasbro putting all-new tooling dollars into this MCU figure by necessity).

Obviously, the biggest difference between this and the comic book style ML Lady Thor figures is the live-action likeness to actress Natalie Portman. We actually get two heads for this action figure—with and without helmet—and both have a very clear resemblance.

I was hardcore into collecting Star Wars action figures for about two decades, so I know a Natalie Portman portrait when I see one. And both these heads have a definite resemblance to the actress. It’s not spot-on like a $250 Hot Toys would be, but I still think the likenesses are very solid for this scale and price-point. I actually prefer the helmeted head, as I think Hasbro nailed Portman’s chin and mouth best here.

The rest of the figure is also nicely done, and benefits heartily from the new-age enhanced pin-less articulation. Not only does MCU Mighty Thor get biceps swivels (so did the comics version a couple years ago), but there’s pin-less double knee and elbow hinges as well. Butterfly swivel shoulders would have been nice for more hammer-wielding dynamic poses, but I suppose you can’t have it all.

The complete articulation scheme is as follows:

• Ball-jointed head, hips and upper torso
• Ball-hinge shoulders
• Double-hinged pin-less knees and elbows
• Swivel biceps and thighs
• Swivel-hinge wrists
• Hinged feet with ankle rockers

Unfortunately, Jane’s permanently affixed cape gets in the way a little bit, preventing her arms going straight up and inhibiting action stances. It’s not a dealbreaker imposition, but it is a frustrating one. This is one of those days I wish we could just have wired fabric capes (though I loathe soft goods capes on statues, they don’t trouble me on action figures as much).

For accessories, we get a leg of the new Korg Build-A-Figure, plus a new Mjolnir hammer and the aforementioned extra interchangeable head. There’s no alternate hands, which totally sucks in this instance because I think this figure definitely needed a tight-gripped hand that could strongly and solidly hold Mjolnir.

And speaking of which, I think Mjolnir is the weakest part of this product. While you can see the sculpting detail of the exploded pieces (compliments of Hela) that have been reintegrated into the hammer head, there’s zero paint deco on the hammer head itself to make said details stand out. It just looks very plastic and toy-ish. (Mighty Thor’s armor and costume could have also used a paint wash to not look quite so freshly-washed and squeaky clean, IMO.)

Worse still, even to my half-blind eyes, Mjolnir was obviously and glaringly over-scaled next to Jane the moment I pulled it from the plastic. It almost looks comical that it’s so off-scale from how it should be. The oversized nature also makes it too heavy, so it wobbles excessively in Jane’s rubbery plastic grip. I think an extra hand with Mjolnir permanently attached would have worked far, far better.

You can watch me blindly struggle with the subpar execution of the hammer and see my other initial reactions to this figure in the unboxing video and review above, if you’re feeling particularly bored and self-punishing.

There’s also only an open left hand for Mjolnir-summoning action, but I would have liked at least one fist included. I know these tooling-intensive MCU movie figures are expensive to produce, but I think an extra hand or two should be minimal enough inclusions to fit into the budget.

Overall: I think Hasbro did a generally good job here, creating a nicely detailed and articulated Jane Foster Thor movie figure with a notable likeness to Natalie Portman. Where this release falls short is the accessories, which include a Mjolnir that feels oversized and under-painted, as well as a lack of any interchangeable hands to grip the hammer tightly. I think there could have been a bit more deco on the main figure itself as well, although both heads being winners makes up for a lot, as do the pin-less joints.

GRADE: B