When the first Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends movie figures came out in 2014, I was just happy to finally own a 6″ Gamora action figure, so I was able to look past its faults easily enough. Three years later, my tastes have matured and I was ready for Hasbro to blow me away with their new GOTG Vol. 2 Gamora Marvel Legends figure. It looks like other collectors were ready for a new version as well, as the 2017 Marvel Legends Gamora is selling for $30+ online right now. At a glance, she’s one of the best-looking MCU figures ever–but does she hold up overall?

The Right:

The highlight of this action figure for me is that Hasbro knocked the Zoe Saldana portrait out of the ballpark with a likeness that absolutely clobbers that of the original Gamora 6″ figure from 2014.

While I imagine some people are going to balk at the very serious, expressionless face on the new Gamora Marvel Legends movie figure, let’s get real here: this is the same expression Zoe Saldana has on her face for like 90% of her screen-time.

I still find Zoe’s acting as Gamora to be pretty lifeless, but this Hasbro Gamora head sculpt captures the actress’ face perfectly. This is easily among the best likenesses–if not the single best likeness–that I’ve ever seen from Hasbro. Bravo for this beauty.

Just as strong as the face, though, is the beautiful color gradient paint deco on Gamora’s hair. The hair on this figure draws my eyes more than any other aspect of the figure, and looks incredible.

The sculpting on Gamora’s body is also top-notch work. There’s little sculpted seams and textures on her costume, and the jacketed look overall just looks far more compelling than the simplistic costume from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

In addition to her Mantis Build-A-Figure part, Gamora comes with three accessories of her own: a large rifle/gun/blaster, a sword, and the hilt of her retracted sword.

The blaster rifle has a paint wash on it that really brings out the details and makes it “feel” gritty and metallic.

The sword hilt can be attached to Gamora’s hip, where it clips in tightly and perfectly and looks great.

Alternatively, the full sword has a surprising amount of sculpting detail on it and fits nicely into either of Gamora’s hands with zero effort required.

With all of these clear victories, it sounds like the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Gamora Marvel Legends figure should be an easy ‘A+’, right? Alas…

The Wrong:

As far as sculpt and paint deco goes, the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Gamora figure is an off-the-charts success. But unfortunately, this is a Gamora action figure and not a statue. And while this figure looks amazing, I’m really disappointed in its playability.

As tends to be the case with Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″ female figures, Gamora’s arm articulation is sub-par. She has ball-hinge elbows instead of the double-jointed elbows that almost every male figure gets these days, and she has no biceps swivel articulation at all. With only ball-hinge shoulders/elbows and swivel-hinge wrists, Gamora simply cannot get into many fun sword-wielding poses that you might expect.

Compounding the disappointment, Gamora has a really hard time being posed with her large blaster gun. The gun just sort of flops around in her right hand most of the time, and the limited arm articulation and lack of flexibility makes it such that most two-handed poses you can easily achieve with the gun look pretty awkward. The rifle itself is pretty cool, so it’s a real shame that there are so few ways to pose ML Daughters of Thanos Gamora with it.

The articulation woes don’t stop there, though. Gamora’s ball-jointed upper torso being restrained by her jacket and her lack of a swivel waist are irritating, but the real killer is that she has no ankle rockers.

When you combine GOTG Legends Gamora’s lack of ankle rocker articulation with the character’s weird “high heel shoe boots”, you can a toy that’s super difficult to pose dynamically. And for the member of the Guardians of the Galaxy that should be the most flexible and deadly, that’s a big disappointment.

Overall: While there are plenty of things that I really like about this Marvel Legends 2017 Gamora figure–especially the amazing head sculpt and beautiful hair color gradient–there’s also a few things that really hold poor Gamora back from greatness. The loose way she can hold her gun, continued underwhelming arm articulation, and lack of ankle rockers makes this a movie Gamora figure that’s merely “really good” and not quite “all-out excellent”.

GRADE: B