“I am the Black Panther, and I have come for retribution!”
Ahead of the cinematic release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Hasbro released a mixed wave of Marvel Legends figures including those from the movie alongside comic book adjacent characters. While the wave included movie figures of Nakia, Namor and Okoye alongside an updated Everett Ross from the first movie, there was no movie Black Panther in the wave, only a comic book release accompanied by a Hatut Zeraze. This was likely due to confidentiality with Disney & Marvel heavily protecting the fact that Shuri would take up the Black Panther mantle in the film. This omission was corrected in early 2023 with the release of a single Shuri Black Panther figure. The figure was not exclusive, nor linked to any wave and simply sat as a single release in the short-lived plastic free packaging series, coming without any window and using artwork and photography to depict the content.
Black Panther is a brand new sculpt recreating Shuri’s suit as seen in Wakanda Forever. Like the prior releases of T’Challa the suit is cast entirely in black plastic featuring an embossed texture and more deeply cut sculpted panel lines. A selection of these lines within the suit are then picked out with gold paint, with a small amount of silver used on the upper chest and on the thighs. Despite the slim profile of these suit lines, the paint application in the main is neat and tidy. The gold colour does struggle against the base black and looks muted in places, while the reverse of the figure is devoid of any painted detail at all save some triangular panels round the lower legs.
The Shuri Black Panther helmet is similar in styling to those we’ve seen previously with a Panther shaped mouth piece, nose and pronounced ‘ears’ at the top. Shuri’s facial ‘dot’ markings are recreated on the suit as silver details with further silver lines under the eyes, and on the eye panels themselves. A couple of gold lines can then be found further up on the helmet and extending to the rear. While T’Challa Black Panther figures nearly always featured both a masked head and an unmasked Chadwick Boseman head, there is no place in this set for an unmasked Letitia Wright headsculpt, which is disappointing.
What we do get is a solitary pair of alternative hands allowing Shuri in her suit to be displayed with either clenched fists or extended Panther clawed hands. Both hands use the same textured black base as the suit and also feature small sections of gold markings.
Articulation is pinless and pretty much unencumbered by any part of the costume. There are 18 points of articulation in total, a fairly set standard for many Legends figures, but again less than was given to the T’Challa Panther figures, with Shuri notably short on butterfly shoulders and with a simple torso ball joint rather than the full torso pivot. So while arms and legs have a full range of motion, the torso lacks the crunch for some of the more dynamic positions we see when Shuri is fighting in costume. There is enough to have some variation in display but not as much as you’d get from a comparable T’Challa Black Panther.
Despite essentially being the main protagonist of Wakanda Forever, the Marvel Legends release of Shuri’s Black Panther is certainly lacking when rightly compared to figures of her brother T’Challa from the original movie and subsequent appearances. Not only is this 2023 release lacking an unmasked head for Shuri, the articulation is scaled back and therefore limiting on posing options for a character that is intended to be seen as agile and cat like. Visually, the figure is on point, albeit with the gold maybe needing to be a bit brighter but that doesn’t quite balance out the other issues. At the moment this remains your only Shuri Black Panther option for the Cinematic collection and while it does the job, there is very much a feeling of what it could have been with a few more tweaks.
ep Track of all the Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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