I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit lately with regards to Marvel Legends reviews, but with Deadpool 2 hitting theaters this week, now seems like the perfect time to start catching up! And so, today I’ll be posting my first Deadpool Marvel Legends Sasquatch Series review, featuring the first Hasbro 6” scale version of a character who’s grown to be a headliner in her own right in the decade-plus since Toybiz did her: the Deadpool Marvel Legends X-Force X-23 (who’s available online now for MSRP)!

The Right:

When Toybiz released the first-ever X-23 action figure as part of their Marvel Legends Series 12 (Apocalypse Series) back in 2005, MANY collectors cried foul, citing that Laura Kinney wasn’t a “Legend” at all and didn’t belong in the lineup.

Fast-forward 10+ years, and X-23 has been featured in one of the best-reviewed superhero movies ever, had multiple solo comic book series of her own, and even taken over the Wolverine mantle (for now). There’s no questioning X-23’s credibility these days, that’s for sure!

And thus, when Hasbro announced their own X-23 Marvel Legends figure, this time nobody complained she wasn’t a worthy character (although some people DID complain that this isn’t the X-23 Wolverine costume which is her current look—I suspect we’ll also be seeing that version sooner than later).

With X-23 being one of the founding members of one of the more iconic modern X-Force teams, this figure being released makes complete sense and complements the previously-released Hasbro X-Force Warpath and Wolverine figures nicely (I’ve just about given up on poor Wolfsbane).

The first thing that I noticed when I got this Marvel Legends X-23 figure out of her package is that I love the head sculpt. Rather than sticking us with yet another ambivalent stone-faced head, Hasbro sculpted X-23 with her teeth bared ferociously. This meshes nicely with Laura’s aggressive personality, and makes this one of my favorite female head sculpts in ages.

X-Force X-23 also has her hair sculpted in a windswept way that makes it feel like this is an “action” figure captured in a particular dynamic moment and not just a static statue. Love it.

The other part of this figure that really jumps out at me is her boots—the five straps on each boot may seem like overkill, but aesthetically the boots look super-cool. I’m glad that Hasbro even included little sculpted laces on them!

The rest of the figure looks impressive as well. Because Laura has her midriff showing in this costume, the upper body being split into two to facilitate the ball-jointed upper torso works and looks perfect.

While I never expect figures using the Marvel Legends teen girl mold to have a flawless articulation scheme, Deadpool Legends X-Force Wolverine has a good amount of poseability overall.

Her articulation includes: ball-hinge neck/shoulders/elbows; ball-jointed hips and upper torso; double-hinged knees; swivel-hinge wrists; swivel boots and thighs; and hinged ankles with rockers. She’s no Pizza Spidey, but she does have plenty of posing possibilities.

And while the arm articulation still isn’t up to the standard I want to see (and I will certainly complain about that shortly), I do appreciate that the single elbow joint hinge has a wider range of motion and can bend more than on many of the female figures Hasbro has done.

Because she uses the teen girl body mold, X-23 is slightly shorter than your standard Marvel Legends 6″ figure. That said, Hasbro makes up for that slight loss of plastic by giving us a big honkin’ piece of plastic as X-Force X-23’s sole “accessory”: the Sasquatch Build-A-Figure torso!

X-23 is the smallest toy in the wave, so it makes sense to put the biggest Sasqutch BAF piece here. I’ll review Sasquatch as a whole later this month.

The Wrong:

While this X-Force X-23 Marvel Legends figure is actually better than I was expecting it to be, it still has its fair share of drawbacks.

The first thing that drives me absolutely bonkers about this figure—and many ML Figures in 2018—is the floppy add-on belt they stuck on X-23. The belt is way too big and flops around uncontrollably whenever you pick up the figure and move it around. This style of add-on bits that don’t fit properly drive me up the wall. (GAH!)

While not everyone will care as much as I do about the floppiness of her belt, I reckon more people will be a little irritated with X-Force X-23’s sub-par arm articulation.

It’s 2018, and female figures not getting double-jointed elbows and biceps swivels when almost every male figure has them just does not fly with me. As a character whose primary thing is attacking with the claws on her hands, the lack of these articulation points is especially notable on X-23.

Finally, as much as I like the boots on this figure, they’re missing something: X-23’s foot claws! I understand that having removable claws for the feet might be difficult to implement, but I’d at least like permanent ones if that’s the case. The feet claws are an important part of X-23’s ability set, and it sucks to not see them represented here at all.

Overall: I’ve never really bonded with the X-23 character in the way that so many other fans have, so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this figure. Having her in-hand, however, she largely won me over with her ferocious expression, proper scale, dynamic wind-swept hair, and straight-up cool design.

I’m disappointed Hasbro didn’t implement her foot claws or find a way to increase her arm articulation—and the floppy belt drives me bananas—but this is otherwise a fine figure of a character who was long overdue for an upgrade. Here’s to hoping we see the Wolverine X-23 Marvel Legends everyone is waiting for before the end of 2018.

GRADE: B