Points of Articulation - Getting Lucky With the Scarlet Witch!

In my first column, I said I wanted to try to review figures that I actually have in hand, and that tie in to what's currently going on in comics, when possible. Well, we get the ball rolling with a review of the hard-to-find Marvel Legends Scarlet Witch! After all, Wanda's mental instability led to Avengers Disassembled, the House of M and Decimation - and may have a key connection to Young Avengers - and the after-effects will surely continue to resonate throughout the Marvel U for some time to come!



Clearly Wanda's hex powers were working full blast last week. See, I normally step out of the office around 10:30 am for a short walk around the block, get some fresh air, you know? Well, I walked a different route, and spied a newly-opened toy store. I returned at lunch and discovered this rare Legendary Rider on the shelf for a mere $15.00 CDN.

According to the store owner, he received one figure of Wanda in one of his cases of Legendary Riders. So it seems this figure is continuing to make its way into the stores, despite the fact that it was supposed to have been pulled from distribution.

Several weeks ago, I emailed Toy Biz customer service and asked if the ML Scarlet Witch would be re-released. Here's part of the response:

The Scarlet Witch was recalled from Series 11, the designers were not satisfied with the sculping [sic] results. Several of the figures were released to the public before the recall, which is why some are being sold for such high prices in the secondary market. Currently, we do not know what the line-up for 2006 is, so we cannot confirm or deny any information on when, or even if, the Scarlet Witch will be re-released.

However, Toy Biz has since announced the next four series of ML figures and Wanda Maximoff is not included. Her brother, Quicksilver, was supposed to be part of the M.O.D.O.K. series but apparently now will also not be included.

Prices have come down quite a bit on eBay in the past two to three months. In the past, I saw a Scarlet Witch figure with a price of $80.00 U.S. - today the most expensive figure on offer has a first bid asking price of $24.99 U.S. and a Buy-It-Now price of $34.99, before shipping and handling. There are lots of others listed at a more reasonable price.

So, should you buy one? If you're a serious collector or a big Wanda fan, and you can find one at a good price, then I say go for it! Otherwise, the poor quality of this figure is pretty off-putting, especially if you have to fork over the big bucks.

As you can see, the basic sculpt is nearly identical to Mystique. The pelvis and hips have a peculiar diaper-like look, the limbs are thin and feel fragile. The paint on the Scarlet Witch is slopped on, leading to some fused joints. There are several paint flaws - including a brown smear on the bottom of her cape and a brown mark on her face. Although it is difficult to see in these pictures, her face also has a light "freckled" look, which I understand is common to this figure. The red paint for her headdress is slopped through her hair, brown paint for the hair is smeared on the helmet, and the helmet is bumpy and rough.

Although the sculpt is different, Wanda is similar in size and proportion to X-23. Personally, I prefer the slightly more-curvaceous female figures from earlier sets, with Storm being a fave.

I used Red Son: Wonder Woman and The Long Halloween: Catwoman figures for comparison purposes. Gah! Diana truly is an Amazon, while Selina is tiny.

In order to fit in with the contrived Legendary Riders theme of this series, she comes with a nice little hovercycle that sort of looks like her hat. I guess that's intentional, since Wonder Man's hovercycle looks like a big "W" - although I would have preferred something with a more traditonal look from the comics, like the hoverbike that Hawkeye and Mockingbird used to scoot around in West Coast Avengers.

So, what's the final verdict? You could pay a lot for this figure on the secondary market - but frankly, I don't think its worth it. If I hadn't stumbled into that toy store, if she hadn't been priced like any other figure - if I hadn't got lucky, in other words - then I wouldn't have her, plain and simple. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to add her to my ML collection, but I'd be pretty cheesed off if I had paid any more than $20.00 U.S. She just isn't worth it, no matter how neat it would be to see her standing next to Pietro some day.

Now, would it be wrong of me to try and re-create the puppet sex-scene from Team America: World Police with my Wanda, Vision and Wonder Man figures?