Earlier this year, I happened to be in the right place at the right time to place an order for a very special figure - the Mondo Toys 1/6 She Ra. I can't remember the specifics, but I do recall it was a timed exclusive, so it was one of those blink and you miss it type of deals. I'd been curious about Mondo stuff, but their Batman releases weren't exactly blowing my mind (sad, as I am huge fan of the show). She Ra happened to really have my interest because for whatever reason, the effort required to collect anything MOTU is almost herculean. It was easier to preorder a limited edition figure like this than it was to find something interesting on a Walmart shelf.
Much to my surprise, Mondo actually succeeded in delivering on its promise - the figures will be in the hands of collectors before the end of the year (2022). Promises are made all the time, but they generally never actually meet them, particularly for larger figures like this one. So, now that she's here, lets take a look at what She Ra is all about.
Being my first Mondo release, I had no idea what to expect. Turns out the product was well protected, featuring corner protectors on the internal package to protect it. There's a slip cover with some art - I'm no expert, so I can't name them, but I believe the gold one is associated with her transformation sequence. The paper itself is kind of flimsy, so the protective abilities of said slip cover is questionable at best.
The actual art box itself is made of a decent grade cardboard. Art is attractive enough, and again, I don't know enough to actually comment on the art itself.
Front flap is magnetic, and opens up revealing the contents, as well as a promotional photo of the figure. I guess they could have gone for an arrangement where each of the two trays is on one side, but maybe that costs more. It's just kind of funny to have a picture of what you're getting inside the box literally right next to the contents of the box.
If you look at the contents of the set, you'll notice that there's a bit of repetition. Basically, there are several looks you can go for, including ones inspired by her Classic action figure and the Filmation animation. You'll notice one of the weapons is her Axe-Comb, very much a toy reference, along with that one tiara that has what look like glasses built in.
There are two Power Swords, with only the gold one being capable of being stored in the scabbard. The bangs are meant to work with the Classic Tiara, and the secondary rear hair piece has an opening for the scabbard on her back, which will make articulation matters worse (more on that later). There's also a Kowl figure with basic articulation (just rotating shoulders), a stand, and the most important thing, a wired cape.
Know what you're not going to find? A manual, which makes securing the accessories on the figure a bit of a tricky endeavour.
So lets get this out of the way - there's a whole slew of QC problems with this figure. To their credit, Mondo is working to resolve these issues, going so far as to proclaim they will ship all customers a completely brand new head. My figure had quite a few QC issues, and this was before actually handling the figure. Mondo actually sent me an entire new figure, but sadly even between the two sets I could not assemble a perfect set.
QC issues are the usual, ranging from bad paint apps to loose joints and ill fitting parts. These are things that you would expect to see on a mainline toy at Walmart. Unlike Hot Toys and most other 1/6 companies, the hands are made from a fairly rigid plastic, which makes inserting the weapons really difficult, and is liable to result in paint loss on the hand or the weapon itself. I've seen scrapes on my weapons and flakes of flesh coloured paint already - I'm not doing any further investigation and depressing myself... at least I have a spare set. There's also the fact the weapon handles are all different sizes, which coupled with rigid hands means some weapons are going gripped tight, others are like landing a 747 in the Grand Canyon.
While it's not as bad, to see them on a $250 USD figure is a bit disheartening. But, I will say this - despite all the flaws, this figure STILL looks better than the Batman releases I've seen from Mondo.
I'm just hoping my new head will actually have the lipstick on the actual lips.
It's a shame because the actual figure itself is quite striking, featuring some great detailing , particularly on the outfit and the various armoured parts, particularly the scabbard. which has a beautifully detailed unicorn.
The classic She Ra colour scheme is very visually striking, is enhanced here by using a mixture of gold and bronze rather than just gold on all the applicable sections. The red cape, of course, always stands out (in a good way).
Aesthetically, I am generally happy with the figure - the look is unique to this figure, but it clearly is a faith representation of the character. However, what I don't understand is why does She Ra feature almost no musculature on her arms, specifically lacking biceps of any sort. What's even stranger is that they went ahead and gave her triceps and relatively developed shoulders.
It just looks really , really odd.
My biggest beef with the figure is the articulation. This is probably where the figure is most "action figure" in its design. Beautiful as she is, the body just don't pose much better, if at all, than your run of the Marvel Legends. In fact, arguably it poses less as Legends actually have additional hinges that allow the arms to cross, though I think the 90 degree elbows are still a thing. She does feature double jointed knees, which honestly aren't going to see much action from me as her ankle articulation is virtually non existent, and her skirt restricts positioning of the legs anyway. I mean, you COULD try to do more with the legs, but then you risk damaging the skirt.
So you're basically doing variations of standing poses and if you're feeling really frisky, She Ra can pull off a mean Irish Boxer stance.
I'm not going to lie - as much as you can position and light and all that stuff, it's the wired cape that saves this figure from looking like it's just standing there looking annoyed. I don't know how good the cape is, but I don't care. It's clearly functional enough that an idiot like myself can actually futz into something decent looking.
Just make sure you clip it in the right place, which are the straps across her shoulders. If done right, there should be a small pocket meant as a cavity for the scabbard when mounted to her harness.
I should also give props to Mondo for REMEMBERING they have the scabbard in the first place and to design around it. It sounds sarcastic, but you wouldn't believe the number of figures I've seen where they just slap accessories on as an afterthought and really screw up the functionality and total integration of the set.
Then there's Kowl, which I remember as a character flying around spouting all sorts of wisdom and other babbling words. I don't know if that was their intent, but stylistically this figure appears to be very close to its Filmation appearance. I guess when you look like that, it's really hard to make you look edgy. But, it's not knock - the character never really did look particularly threatening so this does just fine, and the paint on this figure is quite acceptable, which really is the only thing you can ask for. Plus the figure has sufficient heft to it, and can actually stand properly without fear of blowing over in the wind.
Articulation is limited to the two shoulders, so very basic.
So ultimately, She Ra isn't so much a bad figure as much as a flawed one. She's a departure from my typical Anime waifus, but that's an art style thing. The work Mondo put into sculpting her and the actual design of the character and the accessories that go with the set are great, and as I mentioned, she certainly looks better than some of the other more touted Mondo releases. QC is generally not as tight with American companies versus Japanese ones, so while its unfortunate, I was expecting it.
It's really the design of the basic body that is the biggest let down for me, followed by the unfortunate restrictions placed by the skirt, though that could have been somewhat alleviated by a thinner material or integrating some slits or having multiple skirt sections - premium ideas, yes, but this is a premium figure.
Once again, I have to commend the company for actually trying to fix things proactively, or at least I haven't heard any collectors with pitchforks and torches like I do whenever a Hot Toy figure gets screwed up. For that, coupled with hopes of body improvements, I'd look into getting another Mondo release provided the IP interests me.
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