When NECA initially announced a quarter-scale Gal Gadot Wonder Woman action figure–the only scale they have the rights to make DC Comics figures in, with some minor exceptions–many things were different. Wonder Woman had not yet opened, though it was a presumptive hit; the $149 million movie went on to gross over $800 million internationally. But action figures with all-original sculpts take over a year to make and market, and between Wonder Woman‘s release and then came Justice League. That $300 million team-up movie, beset by director problems, made only $657 million internationally, and was dwarfed by Marvel’s Black Panther and Infinity War.
What’s a Wonder Woman action figure to do? Well, this one grabbed the best timing it could under the circumstances, possibly by coincidence: it’s hitting stores just as the proper sequel, Wonder Woman 1984, released its first images and announced production; it’s also believed to be the big surprise presentation at San Diego Comic-Con in less than a month. You should be able to pick this figure up at independent comic and toy stores and online retailers starting this week; NECA is expected to announce bigger distribution plans for their toys at retail later in the year.
Is she worth your $109.99? Let’s take a closer look.
The box, in bright Wonder Woman movie color scheme, is a beauty, standing out against the mostly black packaging so many action figures come in. And the side panels may look like the movie posters, but they’re not: it’s the figure itself doing the poses.
The likeness doesn’t look quite as perfect as some of NECA’s when viewed straight-on; I suspect it was closer on the basic sculpt, and that the paint makes her head look a bit bigger. But from an angle and the sides, it’s way more recognizably Gadot.
The figure comes with her movie-accurate sword, shield, and lasso, plus three pairs of hands: sword-holding, lasso-holding, and fists. You will have to destroy the packaging to get them all out.
First things first: you have to attach the bottom bootstraps. This is challenging, but I recommend being in a warm place to make the plastic more pliable.
To get the shield on, it’s best to put the shield-hand on separately, then pop it on the arm. The hands, fortunately, pop off without much breakage anxiety, and stay on reasonably well.
The lasso isn’t rope like you’d expect; it’s a bendable wire piece, and can thread through the loop on her belt (after I took the picture, I noticed there’s a clip you can just snap open to hang it fully pre-looped).
Alternately, you can unfurl it to snare dastardly villains.
The weapons are fantastically detailed, and having seen the actual onscreen armor up close on the WB studio tour, I can attest that the deco and battle-damage dings look highly movie-accurate, but one detail fans may call into question is the double-jointed elbows. It’s an easy enough effect to do on exaggerated male superhero figures with over-pumped muscles, but on more realistic females there’s no easy way to conceal the articulation.
The upside, of course, is that you can do her signature pose, and you wouldn’t want to sacrifice that.
Her knees are also double jointed, and the skirt is flexible to allow poses up to and including a split. Her neck articulation is limited by her hair, and mid-torso articulation is limited by the armor, but you can twist her upper body a bit. Her feet have holes in the bottom to fit foot stands like the one that came with their Catwoman figure, but in a warm climate her feet get softer than her thighs and calves, making her top-heavy, so you’ll probably want a doll stand for her.
NECA have hinted on Twitter that they’re not likely to do more DC movie figures any time soon, but if Wonder Woman makes you want to collect the core three, their Ben Affleck Batman is still available at his original price, and you can find Henry Cavill Superman even cheaper. Alas, Aquaman doesn’t seem likely to join them just yet.
Wonder Woman, however, as the one DC movie-verse character so far that everybody seems to feel positively about, is likely to disappear from stock much more rapidly, and yes, if you collect in this scale, she is worth it. Don’t wait for the sequel to come out, or you may well find she won’t stick around as long as her Dawn of Justice entourage.
