Written by Dan Hickman • Staff Writer
Happy New Year! Welcome back to Dan’s Toybox as we charge into 2021 with the first review of the new year. We’re kicking off 2021 with a review of the “Joe Fixit” Build A Figure wave of Marvel Legends, released in late 2020. What better way to start with a fan favorite figure like Jocasta? Dig in as we discuss Ultron’s Bride in all her plastic glory.
Jocasta was originally constructed by the villainous Ultron to serve as his mate. In order to help her gain sentience, Ultron based her mind and thought patterns on the Wasp, Janet Van Dyne and brainwashed Hank Pym into merging Janet’s lifeforce into the robotic body. Jocasta was named after the mother/wife of Oedipus, from the legendary story. Upon gaining sentience, Jocasta realized that Janet would have to die, in order for her to live.
She alerted the Avengers, who were able to defeat Ultron, and reverse the transferral process, causing Jocasta to revert to an empty shell. She was revived later on, once again by Ultron, using the remnants of the Wasp’s “mental residue”, leading Jocasta to escape from the Avenger’s custody and lead them into yet another Ultron devised trap. Thankfully, Jocasta’s love for Ultron wasn’t stronger than her aversion to his evil. She betrayed Ultron, once again, and aided the Avengers in defeating him… yet again.
Jocasta has had a long history, both with the Avengers and on her own and has been rendered beautifully in plastic in this wave of Marvel Legends. Let’s take a closer look at her now.
Jocasta comes with two pairs of hands, one set fisted, the other posed using the same sculpt as the Scarlet Witch hands from the Mutant Family 3-pack. She also comes with the BAF Torso piece. Not many accessories with this figure, but the different hands do look very nice. One commonality I’ve noticed throughout this wave is the difficulty swapping hands out. The tabs are very snug, which is great as the hands don’t easily pop out… but makes changing them very difficult. In fact, the only figure that the hands swap easily on is the Iron Man from this wave. We’ll get to him later.
Jocasta features a very simple paint scheme: silver, red, and gray. Her body is molded in a very light gray, which shows terrible marbling all over the entirety of the figure. She features silver painted highlights on her torso, head, and legs, which unfortunately aren’t done very cleanly on my figure, and show breaks and uneven coating throughout. The red eyes are, in my opinion, the nicest features on the figure as they are vibrantly painted.
Sadly though, this is the best looking part of the figure as far as I’m concerned. I was very excited to hear about this figure and promo pix really looked great. Additionally, as I started posing her around and working to loosen the many stuck joints, I had the displeasure of seeing a great deal of scuffing and chewing occur at the shoulder joints. I noticed that each of the figures in this wave had a great deal of stuck joints that I needed to loosen.
Sadly, the finished product has so many defects and blemishes to it that it’s really hard to overlook the problems. Hopefully any copies that you readers find are in better shape! If you do find some that are relatively clean with paint apps, please reach out and let us know. I’m hoping my copy is the exception to the rule, but I’m afraid it may not be.
On the plus side, the sculpting really looks wonderful on Jocasta and she’s definitely based on a very beautiful female body mold… Baby got BACK, indeed!!! Unfortunately, this design also causes some articulation issues with the figure. Seems like we find something good, only to find the bad along with it.
I am disappointed with the relatively limited articulation that the figure has. Jocasta’s head will turn side to side, but due to the sculpting will not look up or down very well at all. Her shoulders will rotate 360 degrees and lift out to her sides, but again, needed loosened and caused some chewing when I moved them. She has a bicep swivel and a single jointed elbow that bends to 90 degrees. Her wrists on both sets of hands turn and hinge fairly easily. She has a torso/diaphragm pivot and twist which only bends back to a limited degree. She has NO waist pivot and her hips sculpt prohibit her from doing splits much further than a 45 degree angle. She has an upper thigh cut, double jointed knees and ankles that hinge and pivot.
If I’m being honest, this wave wasn’t really a priority for me. I really only wanted a couple of the figures and hadn’t intended to finish the BAF, however, my family surprised me at Christmas with several figures in this wave and I ended up buying the last I needed online. Jocasta, from a distance, is a nice looking figure, but up close… just not terribly impressive. At the suggested retail price point of around $20, Jocasta gets a mere 2 out of 5 Toyboxes.Thanks for hanging out and be sure to check back for our next review in a couple of days! Until then… GEEK OUT!!!