Family Matters 3-Pack with Scarlet Witch Action Figure

Marvel Legends
Family Matters 3-Pack with Scarlet Witch Action Figure
By Hervé St-Louis
June 21, 2021 - 11:00

$39.99 USD
Release Date: February 24, 2019

Daughter of Magneto and twin sister of Quicksilver, Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch was introduced in X-Men #4 (1964) as a villainess who is also a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Later, Scarlet Witch and her brother Pietro, escaped the control of Magneto and joined the Avengers where she remained a member for years, and encountered the Vision, the synthezoid who fell in love with her. Wanda Maximoff has been a mainstay in Marvel Comics and even recently had her own television show. As a witch whose powers very few understand, she has remained enduring and popular enough. The exclusive Amazon Family Matters 3-Pack reunites her brother and her father.

There have been several Scarlet Witch action figures, two of which were based on the comic book look of the character. The first one is a Toybiz version that I have stored away somewhere. It did not look very good. The second one is from Hasbro, and it shares many parts of this current Scarlet Witch’s body. The other ones are of course based on the movies and resemble actress Elizabeth Olson.

Likeness

While the costume is like the classic Scarlet Witch suit, the colour is not. The metallic paint does look nice, but Wanda Maximoff usually had a spandex costume, not a one like this one. I understand why Hasbro made this call, as anything less vibrant would not compare well with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) versions of the action figures.

The curly hair and face remind me very much of George Pérez’s rendition of the Scarlet Witch. The suit obviously is not the same, if based on the 2000s version he drew in the Avengers’ comic when he worked with Kurt Busiek. However, if you search hard enough, you will find some 1970s and 1990s Wanda Maximoff by George Pérez that look very much like this action figure.

Sculpt

The sculpt uses a standard Hasbro Marvel Legend female body with a few changes. As mentioned above, it is the mostly the same body, safe for the feet and the head. The problem with this sculpt, which Hasbro likes to reuse is that it is too skinny and does not render beautiful women. Her arms are very thin. Her legs too. And then, she is too tall, and towers over most male figures from other lines, such as Star Wars.

I could see some characters like Tigra benefiting from this mould but not the Scarlet Witch who is not an acrobat. Wanda does suffer from female static hair syndrome. She has so much hair that it renders he head articulation unusable. The best part of the sculpt is still the George Pérez inspired head even if the hair foils any type of articulation. The cape is good. I like that it does not cover her whole back and that there is an opening at the top.

Paint

Hasbro used a metallic paint on the leggings and the red parts of the suit. There is not much to say. You either like this or not. I’m not a fan. The face paint, however, is exquisite and the best part of the figure. She is beautiful. The red used is more crimson than scarlet. The highlights on the hair are nice.

Scale

While shorter than her brother and her father, Scarlet Witch is still taller than my G.I. Joe Classified Snake Eyes and just a tad taller than Black Tom Cassidy. If you display the character next to the other current exaggerated Marvel Legends scale, she will look okay.

Stability

Scarlet Witch is stable because of the support afforded to her by her cape. Without it, she would fall easily as her legs are too scrawny to support the weight of her hair.

Articulations

Scarlet Witch has the typical Marvel Legends Hasbro articulations which means no bicep curls, no waist curls, no double elbows, and head constrained by too much hair! Surely, the G.I Joe Classified Lady Jaye action figure, there is very slow progress happening. As mentioned, because of her big hair, Wanda’s head cannot move much. Sitting on her cape, the situation worsens. She cannot lookup or down, as her cape blocks any motion.

Her elbows do have curls, which is a design used in Hasbro’s Star Wars action figures. It’s better than nothing, I guess. It feels like Scarlet Witch has curls at the top of her forearms where thy connect with her gloves, but it appears not. Instead, she has she can rotate her wrists and move them up and down. Her hip joints are limited, and she cannot do a Van Damme split the way G.I Joe’s Scarlett, Lady Jaye, and the Baroness can. She has double knee articulations, but they are so thin, that I am afraid of breaking them. They also seem a bit stiff.

Luckily, she has thigh curls and shin curls. Her ankles can bend up and down, and pivot. That is a good feature. Scarlet Witch’s shoulders are stiff and limited by the cape. Let’s just say that this action figure is partly immobilized by her cape and hair.

Plastic

The material used for this action figure seems to be PVC. While the cape is rubbery, it is made of the same material as the head cover.

Props

I wish that Scarlet Witch came with an extra pair of hands like her father and brother. The grasping hands are good for spellcasting but that’s it. She does come with two spinnery spell energy outbursts. They are translucent pink. They are the same used in the Scarlet Witch and Vision two-pack based on their MCU appearance. Wanda Maximoff’s powers have been represented in many ways over the years. There has been a tendency to increase the energy outburst part of her powers more than in the past where the energy was more like a hiccup or invisible waves. They roll around her forearms very well.

Packaging

Scarlet Witch came in a large box with brother Quicksilver and father Magneto. The back of the box featured. Funnily, we can see how she looked when she was dressed in green in her original appearance on the cover, even though she was called the Scarlet Witch!

Cost

This set was released at $39.99 USD originally. The price varies according to Amazon’s whims and algorithm. Currently well over $100, just wait for the algorithm, to reduce the price significantly before purchasing this set. I received many prompts by Amazon to purchase the set at $55 CAD while the WandaVision streaming series was on. Once these series ended and that I purchased my set, the price jumped to $249 CAD. This price play is ridiculous. It is not based on demand but on Amazon’s desire to sell off the stock by creating artificial desirability by jacking the price so much. If the price was based on demand, it probably would have increased while WandaVision was playing as this is when most collectors would be interested in the Scarlet Witch.

Availability

As an exclusive to Amazon, this is the only place to purchase the set without using the secondary market such as auction sites. Hasbro will surely release another Scarlet Witch action figure based on her comic book appearance. Why do I make such a claim? Well since WandaVision’s ending, Hasbro has released a Scarlet Witch inspired by her look in that series and a new Quicksilver based on his appearance in Avengers Age of Ultron.

I am not a fan of this action figure because it reuses a bad female sculpt and has limited articulations that are impaired by elements of the sculpt. Yet, I’m okay with having a second Scarlet Witch action figure as this one is a vast improvement over the Toybiz version which I’ll have to get out of its box and review one day.

Rating: 7.5/10