Kitty Pryde

Just another teenager, going through a phase. With her ability to elude attacks by making herself intangible, Katherine "Kitty" Pryde is an expert of defense. When Kitty Pryde was introduced, she was supposed to be the first member of a new class of X-Men. Chris Claremont decided that the book had gotten away from its roots as a school, so planned to introduce a bunch of new kids who needed guidance and training. The idea was nixed (later to be revived as The New Mutants), but Kitty was already on the scene. Originally a teen whose mutant abilities had just manifested, she's been allowed to grow and age, to the point where when the original X-Men came to the future, she served as their professor. ToyBiz made a Kitty Pryde in their Marvel Legends run, and while it was nice enough for the time, things have come a long way in the intervening decade. When she was first introduced, Kitty was drawn in a very typically "Jewish" way: that is, she had curly hair and a long, straight nose. Those features have been toned down these days - her hair is mostly straight, with just a little bit of a wave where it's pulled back into a ponytail. The facial sculpt makes her look appropriately youthful, adult but young, and her lips are painted just slightly darker than the rest of her skin. Apparently Kitty only uses gloss, not lipstick. Like ToyBiz's Kitty, this one is made on a reused body with a few new pieces. The toy represents the costume she wore during All-New X-Men, which looks a lot like the traditional X-Men uniform, with a dark body and a yellow stripe down the center. She gets new forearms so she can have the gloves with a split at the top, a new chest that's molded with flared shoulders and a definite edge that makes the yellow portion feel like something worn above the black. She also gets a new belt, which has the red and black X-logo buckle, but instead of a solid belt coming off that, it's two thin bands that create the "frame" of a belt (for lack of a better term). It all comes together to re-create the comic look very nicely. Kitty moves like all the rest of the figures who use this base mold, with joints at the head, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, hips, thighs, knees and ankles. Her ponytail does limit her head somewhat, but were you really planning on having her look up at the sky? She gets one fist, and one splayed hand - pretend she's reaching out to touch someone so she can phase them to safety. The toy doesn't depict her powers at all, because toys never can, but she does get an accessory. Or a pack-in. Something. It's Lockheed, her pet dragon! The previous Lockheed was semi-anthropomorphic, but this version is a full-on Paul Smith pure animal. Instead of a special clip to attach him to Kitty, he's simply shaped to sit on her shoulder - his tail wraps around her neck and his wing fits between her head and her ponytail. He has no articulation, but is done in a shiny purple color and gets dots of yellow for his eyes. Naturally, Kitty comes with some of the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure for this series. She gets the right arm, which is approximately half as big as she is. Huge! But that's not all! She comes with one more piece, something we've been waiting for since March. Remember how Red Onslaught only came with a Red Skull head, not the one we really wanted? Kitty's got the one we really wanted! She comes with a Magneto-shaped head that will allow you to finally finish off the real Onslaught. Thanks, Hasbro! Kitty Pryde shows why Hasbro are the current kings of action figures: the designers started with a reused body, but added new specialty parts when needed; she has a terrific face sculpt that's been expertly molded and painted; she comes with one accessory that's perfect for her, one BAF piece that's specifically made for this series, and one BAF piece that's a gift to the fans more than half a year after the fact. And this is the kind of thing they do all the time! Compare Hasbro's "average" work to Mattel at their best, and the difference is clear. -- 12/26/16

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