Marvel Studios smash hit Avengers: Age Of Ultron was the next big adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by not only introducing us to Ultron but also bringing us a number of new Avengers too. Scarlet Witch being one of them. Even if she initially wanted to destroy the Avengers, she and her brother Quicksilver soon realised the error of their ways after Ultron revealed his master plan to them and they joined with the Avengers to help in defeating him.
Name: Scarlett Witch
Line: Movie Masterpiece Series
Product Code: MMS 301
Manufacturer: Hot Toys
Released: 2016
Price: $199 – $266 USD MISB
Scale: 1/6
Accessories: Various hands and items as well as a display stand
I’ve been pretty sparse with my Hot Toys reviews, but with good reason, firstly, I don’t buy every figure anymore or as many figures as I used to and secondly, I was waiting for my pre-orders to come in and ship them all together to save on shipping costs and that day finally came recently, with a bundle of Hot Toys making their way to me in good time from the always excellent folks at Animarket.
Tonight I’m reviewing Scarlet Witch (with Quicksilver to follow very, very soon) but truth be told this isn’t my figure it’s actually my brothers, he’s more of a Scarlet Witch fan than me and when you live in the same house it makes it a lot easier to fill out collections when you aren’t buying every single figure yourself.
With that said, the more I worked with her during the photo shoot the more I liked the figure, so I might pick up the Civil War version for myself, seeing I know my brother isn’t getting that one. But we’ll see what happens as I keep my pre-orders a lot looser and a lot more commitment free then in the past, as the options online are quite plentiful if I happen to change my mind.
Now onto the review of Hot Toys Age of Ultron Scarlet Witch!
LIST OF PARTS
Inside the box you get the following items:
One Scarlet Witch figure
Eight interchangeable hands
Two necklaces
Two Scarlet Witch power flame effects
One Ultron Heart
One display stand
SCULPTING
One of the main focus points on any Hot Toys figure is going to be the head sculpt, with every new figure announcement there is always heated discussion among fans in forums and Facebook groups about how good or how bad the likeness is to the actor or actress.
Scarlet Witch was no different. However, most sane collectors agreed that the prototype was close and just needed some slight tweaks to make it a home run.
Thankfully, Hot Toys have done just that, in my opinion. It was already a strong likeness to Elizabeth Olsen, (as Scarlet Witch) but now I feel it’s been refined just enough to make it close to perfect, the only thing they can do to make it better, is to refine the paint applications with each continued release.
(Like for the next two upcoming Scarlet Witch releases which use the same head, much like they are now doing for Hawkeye and Captain America’s Steve Roger’s Head.)
Which I’ve got to say, doesn’t bother me one bit, make an excellent head sculpt to begin with, there is no reason (or point) to constantly remake it when you don’t have to, that’s just smart business and a welcome change as far as I am concerned.
PAINT
I don’t think there’s anything new I can really say here as far as paint applications go. Hot Toys continually put out the best mass produced painted figures in the market, no one can come close to surpassing them yet, they are all still struggling to keep up and it’s not just the heads, it’s the whole package! A lot of companies don’t bother to paint things like hands or bodies properly, not Hot Toys, it’s things like this that make them the best.
The care and attention to detail are second to none. Scarlet Witch is another shining example of this. The paint application on the face is extremely realistic and brings an unparalleled level of realism to the figure and excellent job by JC Hong and his team. If I had one nit pick, it would be that on the translucent hands, the flesh tones look a little flat when compared to the standard hands, otherwise, it’s what you would normally expect from Hot Toys.
ARTICULATION
Scarlet Witch uses what I guess we can call by now the standard Hot Toys female TrueType body, which appeared around the release of Jill Valentine, Baby Doll and Resident Evil Alice figures. Which we haven’t seen a release of it by itself yet, either, but we can only hope and pray for that!
It’s a great base body and has a few different leg, arm and bust variants to make it quite versatile. This particular version has the following articulation:
Ball jointed neck, ball jointed chest, ball jointed shoulders, double jointed elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, ball jointed waist, ball jointed hips, double jointed knees and ball jointed ankles.
You can get Scarlet Witch into a good number of poses and she’s not hampered too much by her clothes, the only part where she struggles are her boots, the ankles are restricted a bit by the plastic, if the boots were a little softer, I think there would be no issues. So wider stances are a bit of a no-go for her. Otherwise, it’s all good, nice and tight joints, she is a pleasure to pose.
OUTFIT
Yet another category Hot Toys by default excels in. They have mass produced 1/6 clothes down to a fine art. Now there are other companies that are catching up. (in my opinion, Blitzway are the closest) But Hot Toys still consistently nail it with each new release and keep pushing that envelope more and more.
I’m very impressed with Scarlet Witch’s Jacket and multilayered dress the tailoring is great and they don’t look oversized at all, plus the darkened effects on the end of the jacket look fantastic.
The stockings or leg warmers are a bit annoying as they don’t really have a way to stay up, so from time to time as I changed poses I did have to pull them up and adjust them, but it was never a big deal, once you pose her up, they aren’t going anywhere.
ACCESSORIES
You aren’t getting a lot of accessories with Scarlet Witch. A few extra hands, some “power effects” attachments and “Ultron’s heart”. Compared to other releases it’s not much, but then there’s only so many things they could have given us, maybe a few more magic effects in different sizes?
(BTW the magic effects were a little tricky at first to figure out which way they went on, seeing the instructions are pretty useless, but once figured out, you’ll never get confused by them again!)
Ultron’s heart is a nice inclusion, but not really needed and will be left in the box by me.
I feel the choice of hands is great, there is enough variety to get a lot of great poses from Scarlet Witch and I did have a lot of fun trying different combinations out and playing around trying to get the best poses out of her.
You also get what I’m calling the “standard Marvel display stand” which at first I didn’t think I’d like, but now I have a group of Avengers assembled I have actually come to like the stand a lot more now.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There aren’t really too many things to look out for with this figure, handle her carefully and read the instructions are two good pointers. Also, take care changing the hands out, I haven’t had a problem with the female figures wrist joints yet, unlike some of the males ones, but it never hurts to heat up the hands a little to make them a touch softer, if you want to be extra careful!
PRICE
I paid $199 USD from Animarket, which worked out to be not too bad seeing after the deposit upon placement of the order when you finally have to pay the remaining amount it sure makes it a lot less painful on the bank account. Especially when you can have your orders shipped in one big box together (with plenty of bubble wrap and padding too btw) works out to be a pretty good deal, I have to say.
Also, because I refuse to support the local sellers as they do not know how to pack an order properly, let alone a simple thing called “business ethics”. Unfortunately, most Australian sellers of Hot Toys figures don’t know or have these two simple things, a shame really, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
OVERALL
I was indifferent about Scarlet Witch at first, after having a play around and posing her up for this review she really started to grow on me a lot. Even though this isn’t my figure, it has really brought me around to potentially buying a Scarlet Witch for myself. But if you only want one in your collection I would strongly suggest this one as she looks great with Quicksilver, but it really comes down to what costume you prefer the most as to which Scarlet Witch figure you should buy. She definitely looks great on a shelf with her fellow Age of Ultron Avengers!
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