Aurora is a French-Canadian heroine, member of the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight and twin sister of the gay superhero Northstar. Introduced in X-Men #120 (1979), Aurora has had a weird biographical trajectory as is usual with heroines. Switching from proper and repressed girl to inhibited seductress and adventurer. This is the basis for her infamous split personality, something that scores of writers have played with over the years, healing her of the condition, only to bring it back, changing her powers, removing them, slowing her super speed, only to reactivate it later. This has left Aurora, a mutant capable of super speed, flight, and bursts of lights a complicated and messy character.
As an action figure, there have been at least four Aurora toys to date. The older is a Toybiz five-inch figure that came with an Alpha Flight set in the late 1990s. Next, there was another smaller-scaled Marvel Universe 1/18 Aurora action figure in 2012. A Heroclix was released at some point too. This Aurora action figure would be the first 1/12 figure of the character. As this is not a popular character, this may be the only Aurora 1/12 figure available for a while.
Likeness
This figure is based on the classic John Byrne suit introduced in 1979. Aurora has had other costumes since, but this one would be her “iconic” one, matching Northstar’s. She does have elf-like ears on the exposed side. Her hair is black without any of the silver touches both her and her brother have in the comics.
Sculpt
She has a standard Marvel Legends female body. I don’t know which one was used, but fellow Alphan Snowbird appears to sport the same build. Vindicator has another one. With this build, Aurora is very thin and skinny. Her neck is quite thin, and her head sits very upward because, seemingly to allow for mobility of her head because of her long hair. Her face sculpt is beautiful and clean. It reminds me of actress Anya Taylor-Joy’s face. Her hair is long and wavy but a bit messy. Her build is muscular.
Paint
Hasbro cast the figure is silverish white plastic and painted the black coat above to minimize paint bleeding and fuzzy lines. It works well as the only fuzz is found on her buttock. Her face paint is nice but does not use Hasbro’s better 3D face painting technique.
Scale
Aurora stands just about 6 ¼ inches and is thus shorter than most male Marvel Legends action figures but in scale with most women, though slightly tall for her gender. As she was sold in a set promoting a team, she of course looks great with her fell Alpha Flight colleagues and especially with her brother Northstar.
Stability
Stability is an issue for Aurora. She is prone to fall constantly, and you may have to put her on an action figure stad to stabilize her. She can still stand on her own but will frequently fall. All of the Alpha Flight women have the same problem, with Snowbird being the worse because of her heavy cape, and Aurora being the most stable of a bunch of unstable action figures!
Articulations
Her ball-joint articulation is useless because of her heavy hair. She has no butterflies in her shoulders, although she can raise them to 90 degrees. Because it is a female Marvel Legends sculpt, she has single elbow joints that can rotate. She has wrist joints. He open hand and fist can be switched with Vindicator’s as they are the same colour and compatible. Her torso can swivel slightly and even though it is on a ball joint, it does not pivot much. She can raise her legs at about 85 degrees and do 45 degrees split. She has thigh swivels and double knee articulations that work well. She has no calves’ swivels. Aurora has rockers at the ankles allowing her to move her feet up and down and pivot them side to side.
Plastic
She is made of PVC and the base plastic for her body is silverish white. Her head is cast in her natural skin tone with a glued-on hair piece.
Props
Aurora and the rest of the Alpha Flight set comes with no extra props.
Packaging
Now the packaging is exceptional. It is a wide box containing Aurora, her brother Northstar, Vindicator, Snowbird, Puck, and Shaman. There is a double cover to the box with beautiful comic-like artwork about Alpha Flight and brief descriptions of the characters. The packaging for the box set is one of the best that I have seen for Marvel Legends.
Cost
When released in 2019, the set retailed at Amazon for $109.99 USD and $179.99 CAD. I was able to purchase this set for $111.29 CAD which is about $84.33 USD. That was quite a deal. The price for this set has increased since on Ebay. Currently, Amazon Canada lists this set for $159.99 CAD, much less than on Ebay.
Availability
Amazon USA has run out of this set but not Amazon Canada. That’s where I would get it instead of auction sites. Aurora is not a special action figure. She is plain and cheap looking. Yet, it’s the only 1/12 available for collectors. She is not usually sold separately, unless if found in an auction.
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