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<\/a> “I’ve defended and avenged… fought the incredible and the mighty… and carried the worthy to their great reward… I am Valkyrior… Brunnhilde, shield maiden of Asgard… I am Valkyrie! “<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Valkyrie. Valkyrie #1, Vol. 2 (Nov. 2010).<\/p>\nEver feel like Hasbro is trying to crush you with figures to review? No, that\u2019s probably just me? Well, how about at least figures to buy? No sooner does BBTS ship out my Ant-Man wave, then is HTS bein\u2019 all \u201cwe got Hulkbusters\u201d (and, not to be outdone, BBTS just dropped the \u201cRhino\u201d is here bomb, I\u2019m used \u2013 and when does HTS have their SDCC exclusives up? Oh yeah\u2026). <\/p>\n Anyway, I\u2019m swimming in Marvel figures over here and so despite just doing an Ant-Man week and reviewing the rest of the Marvel Ant-Man wave last week, we\u2019re going to double down on some Hulkbuster Wave reviews this week and bring back the old Marvel Two-A-Days!<\/em><\/p>\n I figure I\u2019d start with Valkyrie because she\u2019s the one that I\u2019m the most conflicted about. On paper, if you told me the list of names included in the wave: Movie War Machine, Blizzard, NOW! Dr. Strange, NOW! Iron Man, Thundra, Vision, & Valkyrie \u2013 I would\u2019ve told you that Valkyrie was my big want. I\u2019ve always had an affinity for the characters and I\u2019m not really a huge fan of the Valkyrie figure we got from Hasbro a few years ago. In practice, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m a huge fan of this one either, though for entirely different reasons. <\/p>\n Valkyrie, the character, is kinda difficult to explain. Calling her a female Thor isn\u2019t really apt (and besides we have one of those now), but she does share similarities with him. She is the Asgardian Brunnhilde, and like the early Thor, her \u201cpower\u201d was given to various humans to wield over time. And, also like Thor, she has since appeared simply as herself in more modern comics. This works out for me as to how I view the two figures we\u2019ve gotten. The first Valkyrie figure is more reminiscent of her time with her powers channeled by one of her human hosts while the figure is undeniably Brunnhilde. <\/p>\n The biggest part behind that reasoning is her immense size. Clocking in at 7\u201d, Valkyrie continues the trend of the Asgardians and some of their villains being much bigger than our average Marvel heroes. I\u2019ve tended to be okay with this. Thor looks great that big. The Wrecking Crew, while out of scale to be sure, look great fighting him on the shelf. Valkyrie continues that trend. I\u2019m a little less enthused here because I\u2019m not used to seeing her this way and she doesn\u2019t tend to hang with Thor, but I\u2019m not going to get hung up on it. She\u2019s a good size and I like the variety she brings to the shelf. <\/p>\n Her sculpt itself is mostly good and captures her most recent look in Secret Avengers. I like the new head sculpt and hair, though I wish they blended together better at the seam between them. The long braids are well sculpted and angled out to hang over her, uh, chest. Both the upper & lower torso are new as well to get the basic costume details right. The arms and legs are reused from She-Hulk. The arms are my only complaint on the sculpt, the forearms are just too narrow \u2013 they\u2019d be too narrow for nearly any character, let alone one the size of Valkyrie. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The paintwork is fairly straight-forward since she\u2019s mostly cast in dark blue. The paint on the sculpted details is well done as the paint on the face. The arm details are relegated to paint only. They do stand out a tad as a result, but it could just be that they draw attention to the already weak forearms. <\/p>\n Articulation is also pretty well the same as we\u2019re used to for the line. Ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, mid-torso, hips, & inverted ankles; swivels at the biceps & thighs, double-hinge knees. Everything things works pretty well, but since we\u2019re using older buck parts there are a few issues. The neck is limited since it\u2019s one-piece instead of a true ball-joint, but the real issue is the hips. These use the old style where the peg goes up into the torso instead of laterally into the hips. This type of joint just doesn\u2019t work that well as it causes a lot more fiddling to get deep bends at the hips. I\u2019d be happy if Hasbro would stop using it. <\/p>\n Valkyrie includes one accessory, her sword Dragonfang. While I\u2019m not a fan of the costume and there are a little bits like the hairline or the hips pegs that bother me, it\u2019s really the sword that doesn\u2019t quite work. It\u2019s because it\u2019s the same one that came with her first figure \u2013 the one that\u2019s nearly an inch shorter. It\u2019s not a bad sculpt, but it\u2019s sized for the original and it just doesn\u2019t look big enough for this Valkyrie. The articulation allows for two-handed poses, but both her hands won\u2019t fit on the hilt. I see it as a cost saving measure, they already had Dragonfang done, but it would\u2019ve been nice to see it upscaled. <\/p>\n Overall, I think this one is probably a keeper. My only real disappointment is that we didn\u2019t get a bigger, better Dragonfang. The things I don\u2019t like visually are probably more because I don\u2019t like this iteration of the costume. I know pants are in, but Valkyrie did appear in Secret Avengers in more classic-inspired looks based on the artist and I would\u2019ve like to see that. The same goes for the cape. I miss that too. But neither of that is on the figure and I do like this one better than the previous one even if it\u2019s more on model than this one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/reviews\/mlimages\/2015\/valk01.JPG?w=640\")
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