{"id":17787,"date":"2012-04-02T03:05:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T08:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17787"},"modified":"2012-04-02T13:16:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T18:16:16","slug":"marvel-legends-madame-hydra-madame-masque-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=17787","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Legends: Madame Hydra
& Madame Masque Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>One is a former love interest of Tony Stark, heir to a powerful east coast crime organization, and hides her scarred face behind a golden mask. The other was the leader of another powerful criminal operation, fights Captain America, and likes the color green. One odd couple for a review, huh?<\/p>\n

If that doesn’t sound like much in common, it’s not. While both characters first appeared as villains* in 1969, that’s about it when it comes to similarities. Well, that and they both have “Madame” in their name – which was good enough to catch the attention of the folks at Hasbro looking for figures that would have easy running changes and could share packaging. In this particular case, both of the “Madames” are featured on the box art with a nameplate that reads “Marvel’s Madames!” instead of promoting one figure over the other. <\/p>\n

* – Masque appeared a year prior as Whitney Frost.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Madame Masque is the “official” figure for the wave with Hydra being the variant. This is particularly evident when it comes to the details on Madame Hydra’s costume. I’m sure that many different artists have drawn her many different ways in her 40+ year history (as Madame Hydra and as Viper), but the opera length gloves and double belt would appear to be staples for her classic look. Since she’s sharing with Masque, those details have been overlooked for logistic purposes. I don’t mind that much, but I’m not a committed Madame Hydra fans; some Viper aficionados may feel differently. <\/p>\n

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Before I get any deeper into the review, I need to point out Hydra’s hair. When I bought her, I felt like the hair was sitting too high. I tried to wait on fixing it, maybe until after I took review pics, but ultimately the super glue got the better of me. The Hydra in these pics has the hair slightly lowered and then glued tighter around her head. Also, to retain some neck articulation with the lowered head, I made some small slits into the hair so it would spread over the shoulder. I should<\/em> wait until the review is done to make customizations, but this one got the better of me. <\/p>\n

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Largely, that’s because the Madame Hydra head sculpt isn’t the best. And that’s particularly important here because, other than paint, that\u2019s the only piece these two figures don\u2019t share. <\/p>\n

For a base, they both use the most recent ML female body. It works, but it\u2019s somewhat tiresome because the last four Marvel ladies I’ve bought have all shared it. It\u2019s not inherently a problem, but after years of Mattel torturing collectors with a insufficient buck system when it came to the women, I\u2019m a little keyed up on the issue. The buck system works best if there are different body styles to choose from. Some women need to be curvy, some thin, some tall, some short. The limitation of the standard comic book artist notwithstanding, I don\u2019t think all the Marvel women should be the same figure with different heads and paint. <\/p>\n

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Anyway, so the heads. Neither is going to be winning any year end awards (oh, if only toy companies cared and strived to win awards), but Masque is the infinitely superior one of the two. I don’t like that Masque looks so sullen, but it’s a good looking face and the raised mask and rivets get the details right. <\/p>\n

Hydra, on the other hand, well… I don’t think she looks as bad as some folks online are saying, and I did try to photograph her from some more flattering angles, but it’s the head needs some work. It’s very different from the prototype (you can see a better comparison here<\/A>). I can’t tell if it’s a paint or sculpt issue, but I’m leaning towards paint. If the eyes were higher and the eyebrows more realistic, I think the figure would’ve have come out a lot better. <\/p>\n

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Earlier I criticized Hasbro for using the same buck over and over, but there are a couple other new sculpted pieces besides the head. The upper torso<\/del> and the gloved hands are both new for this figure. The gloved hands are decent – I love that they’re raised instead of painted on, but the lack of wrist articulation is annoying. The wrists are slightly bent for better poses with the gun, but the tradeoff is they don’t look as good in any neutral positions. <\/p>\n

The upper torso (thanks to Bigbot & Jason Todd for pointing out this is reused piece from Maria Hill!) piece gets the Masque details right with the high collar, zipper, and straps, but the anatomy just isn’t working. The tight zipped up top shouldn’t be cinching between the breasts, the breasts shouldn’t be pointing to the ceiling, etc.. Hasbro already screwed up with Hope and gave her a “bare-chested” upper torso that looks ridiculous on a girl wearing spandex and yet they somehow managed to have their Wave Two women actually look worse. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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Paint is really the main thing that separates these two figures and, for the most part, the QC was sharp here. I think Masque came out better between the two. I know I just praised Hasbro the other day for not<\/em> giving their FF Spidey (or Fantomex for that matter) blue highlights, but I think they work really well on Madame Masque. Possibly because her secondary color is a navy blue and the two blues simply blend together well. I’m not sure what it is, but I almost always hate the highlight colors, but even I have to admit they work here. <\/p>\n

Madame Hydra is not as well done. Most of the little details are still clean, but some of her parts have a deeper green that doesn’t quite match up and I still think that the paint is primarily what’s messing up the head sculpt. The green highlights in her hair are a little messy, but I do appreciate that they’re there. <\/p>\n

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Both figures feature the same articulation: ball joints at the neck (limited), shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles, swivels at the forearms and thighs, double-hinge knees, and the mid-torso joint. All the joints work well, but I found that both my figures tended to fall over a lot during photography (it was annoying). Despite all the articulation, I would like a little more. I’d like to see bicep and calf swivels because I don’t think the ball elbows and ankles are a good enough approximation. I also want ball wrists for better gun poses. <\/p>\n

Before I jump into accessories, I need to remember to point out the Arnim Zola piece. I tend to forget that in the individual reviews because the BAF gets a review to itself later. It’s important this time because the running change in the figure also means a running change in the BAF part. That’s right, if you buy Masque you get a torso for the traditional Arnim Zola, but if you buy Hydra you get a torso for the Red Skull instead! <\/p>\n

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I think Hasbro\u2019s idea to give running change figures running change parts is a brilliant one, but there were a few flaws this time around. One, I don\u2019t really need a Red Skull version of Arnim Zola. Two, the arms and legs don\u2019t come back apart easily enough. So unless you want to buy all the non-running change figures twice to have both figures, you can\u2019t just swap out the Red Skull chest when you want that one. That might be good for Hasbro’s bottom line, but it kinda sucks for the consumer. If the figures came back apart more easily (but not like Mattel’s fall apart C&Cs) this running change thing would be a loot cooler. <\/p>\n

In addition to the BAF piece, both figures include a handgun and a rifle. The handgun is pretty cool. I love Masque’s gold gun so much that I wish I had two for her to use. The rifle is not so cool. One, Hasbro keeps using it over and over and two, the trigger is next to the clip. Oops! The pistol can be stored in the belt which is a cool feature (love stowable weapons), but I find myself wanting to glue the belt down in a specific spot. It bugs me when it flops around and rides up on the figure. <\/p>\n

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Overall, neither of these figures are really screaming to get into my collection. Arnim Zola being a must have is really the driving factor behind my purchase of Madame Masque. She’s a cool figure in her own right and, honestly, it’s always nice to get an Iron Man villain. I want to like her more, but the sad expression and weird upper torso (the two pieces primarily sculpted for this figure) are a little off. Still, she look great next to Madame Hydra.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t going to buy Madame Hydra (I don\u2019t have the previous ML Baron Strucker or the Agents) and I wasn’t really interested in the Red Skull version of Zola either, but having to go “so long” without finding Masque (I still have two MLs left to find) with Hydra sitting at my TRU while some TRU coupons were burning in my pocket more or less made the decision for me. I have some purchase guilt with Hydra, but I do like her more with the lowered\/tighter hair.<\/p>\n

Even if I find myself not terribly interested, there’s one thing I can’t complain about: two female villains. That could be a sign of good things to come. <\/p>\n

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For more Marvel reviews, check out our Review Index<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One is a former love interest of Tony Stark, heir to a powerful east coast crime organization, and hides her scarred face behind a golden mask. The other was the leader of another powerful criminal operation, fights Captain America, and likes the color green. One odd couple for a review, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[122,34,10],"tags":[1420,24,1458,473,1455,1456,2575,1457,1421],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-4CT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27326,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=27326","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":0},"title":"Marvel Legends Captain America Infinite Hydra Agent Review","date":"March 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26574,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26574","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":1},"title":"Marvel Legends Captain America 2 Red Skull Review","date":"January 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29622,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29622","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":2},"title":"Hasbro Releases Giant-Size Images of the Next Marvel Legends Wave!","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26791,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26791","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":3},"title":"Marvel Legends Spider-Man Infinite Black Cat Review","date":"February 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32383,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=32383","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":4},"title":"Absorbing Man Week! Marvel Legends Beetle Non Review","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3883,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3883","url_meta":{"origin":17787,"position":5},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Marvel Legends U.S. Agent + Poll","date":"February 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17787"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17822,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17787\/revisions\/17822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}