Welcome to our review of the 2017 release of the Marvel Legends Jessica Jones. Jessica was part of the Marvel Knights wave of figures which included a Man Thing BAF. It include four figures from the Netflix Marvel TV shows with Jessica Jones from her first series, alongwith Daredevil, Punisher and Elektra from Daredevil Series 2.
Packaging 4/5
Jessica arrives in the standard Legends packaging with the wave having a deep red colour scheme to offset against the black of the box. The Jessica Jones logo looks fantastic at the base of the window, but Jessica herself looks a little pushed to the side by the enormous Man Thing Torso.
Round the back and we get a knee upward image of the Jessica figure alongside a short bio that sets up the show. Beneath this we have the BAF checklist for Man Thing.
"When a mind-controlling sociopath named Kilgrave resurfaces in New York City, Jessica Jones must use her gifts as a private eye to track him down before he causes more damage."
* I bought my Jessica Jones loose on the secondary market, the following images are stock photos
Sculpt & Paint 3/5
The 2017 Marvel Knight wave was one of the first to employ the Face Print technology. While this does give us a more realistic head sculpt, it isn't necessarily a perfect likeness of Krysten Ritter. I can't put my finger on what exactly isn't right on the head sculpt, but the cheekbones are perhaps not pronounced enough and the eyes not dark enough in terms of the mascara. The hair is a secondary piece and this flows down either side of the face and over the shoulder. It is cast in a black plastic with no paint apps.
The head is perhaps a touch too big for the body, and that too throws off the look a little. The body is made up of a sculpted black shirt over which is Jessica's trademark leather jacket. This is cast as a separate piece also, with a black gloss rubbery plastic used - and then silver paint applied to the zip and buttons. The legs are sculpted to look like jeans and are painted in a denim effect with various washes to stonewash them to the right colour. The legs too look a little out of proportion, a bit too bow legged for my liking. The legs end in the ankle boots which are also plain black.
While the sculpt may have minor issues, the paint is neat across the board. But the big miss for me in the whole sculpt is the lack of Jessica's trademarked scarf *.
* We do have a hack for that scarf if you see the bottom of this review
Articulation 3/5
Jessica has 16 points of articulation, standard for a female Legends figure and of course she comes with the usual restrictions that the female characters suffer with. The first joint is in the neck which is ball jointed with a pivot. Despite the hair being thick, it is still flexible enough to move with the head so not to restrict any movement. There is a waist joint hidden neatly under that jacket which allows full upper torso rotation and lean.
The arms are the basic "female" arms with ball joint shoulders, single joint elbows and a pivot wrist. This makes posing of the arms a little limited as the elbows can only bend to 90 degrees and not beyond. The legs are much more maneuverable with ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The shape of the legs does help their movement and Jessica can take up a number of poses including sitting if you have a desk to hand (as I did). She isn't the easiest to stand, even with the rockers being quite robust, and I've had to drop her on a stand for display.
Accessories 0/5
Jessica does not have a single accessory included. While a 1/12 scale bottle of Scotch might not have been appropriate, it might have been nice to see Jessica come with her camera.
Summary
Jessica Jones is an acceptable addition to a Netflix / Defenders display alongside Daredevil, Punisher and Elektra - although she is the weakest of the four initial figures. The head is a touch too big and not the best likeness, and the body is also off with those skinny bow legs. Articulation is standard for a female Legend figure - but when you are releasing a figure with no accessories and a basic paint job then it might have been nice to try a couple of new upper joints to help in posing.
I score Jessica Jones a 3 out of 5 and on the basis that we are unlikely to get another figure of her for some time (that doesn't use this sculpt like the SDCC 2018 release) then I would recommend you pick her up sooner rather than later as she is one of the few MCU figures of recent years that is climbing rapidly in price.
Jessica Jones Scarf Hack
As I said in the review, the one thing missing from the Marvel Legend Jessica Jones release seems to be her gray scarf which became an iconic look for Series 1 and into The Defenders.
Thankfully there is a relatively simple hack for this and all you need is the head scarf from the Star Wars Black Series Jyn Erso (relatively inexpensive figure) and a pair of sharp scissors.
Pop off the scarf from Jyn Erso and also pop off the head from your Jessica Jones figure - it should pop off relatively easily but if you feel any resistance give it a warm with a hair dryer or in hot water to ease it along. Take your scissors and cut around the hood section of the head scarf. Test fit this round the neck. Keep trimming a bit at a time until you are happy with how it sits. The edge needn't be too tidy as the hair will flow over the edge when the head is popped back in place. Once your done drop Jessica's head back in place and push it down over the scarf until it clicks.
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