Valkyrie

Long live the chief! An honored warrior, Valkyrie uses her strength and skill to defend Asgaard. Wait, Asgaard? We know Valkyrie appeared looking like this in Endgame, but is this figure based on Thor: Ragnarok? It's certainly what the bio seems to be implying, since the only thing she was using her strength and skill to defend in Endgame was Peter Parker's skinny butt. Maybe they were speaking more globally, in that she was fighting in New York to protect "New Asgaard." (Fun fact: Tønsberg, the town where the Agaardians settled, was the same place the Frost Giants attacked in Thor 1 and where Red Skull got the Tesseract in Captain America.) The one thing that indisputably marks this as an Endgame figure rather than Ragnarok is the hair: as an Avenger, Valk wore her hair in two thick braids, like her 616 counterpart; that's what this figure delivers, with its braids reaching all the way down to her waist. The likeness is printed this time, so it looks quite a deal like the real woman. There was a "casual" Valkyrie in the Thor 3 line, so this one is wearing her fancy white battle suit. That means all new molds. The design is simpler than the super-ornate things other Asgaardians have worn, but there are still armored panels all over, layered plates, and weird demi-skirt things that hang over her hips but don't actually meet in the front or back. She's got a separate cape that plugs into her back and is sculpted blowing to the side. The armor is white with gold armor, and thin blue outlines around the waist. That's the same color as her cape, too. I distinctly remember when Ragnarok came out, someone made a piece of fan art that blended her two costumes - armor plates, dark fabric, no sleeves - and it looked really nice! Better than either of them looked alone. But action figures rarely get to be based on fan art, so this one goes for screen-accuracy. She's also not wearing the white war paint on her eyes any more (despite the character portrait on the box showing them), so we can be sure those weren't tattoos. Valk moves at the ankles, top and bottom of the knees, thighs, hips, chest, wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and head. Her cape hangs away from the body far enough that none of the joints really get limited by it, and the braids are PVC, meaning they'll flex out of the way when you move her head. She has the same accessories as the last release: her blue-bladed sword and its black scabbard, which still doesn't attach to her in any way. Thanks, team! There isn't really anything else she uses in the film (except a winged horse), so there's nothing else they should have given her. Her part of the Thor Build-A-Figure is the right leg. His stripey pants make it feel like it belongs to Absorbing Man. It's great to get Valkyrie in her secondary costume, but it makes us miss the days when ToyBiz had the Lord of the Rings license and was making 6"-scale horses; she needs her pegasus! -- 12/23/19

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