S.H. Figuarts Wonder Woman 84

My latest import addition is the Wonder Woman 84 figure from Tamashii Nations. I had skipped out on their Justice League Wonder Woman figure from a few years back, because, although the articulation and body looked good, I couldn't get past the awful face sculpt. I always felt that the SHF JL version resembled a caveman. So I opted for the Mafex Justice League Wonder Woman, which, until now, I considered the best WW figure in the 1:12 scale. Now that this new one is out, it has become my favorite.

When I saw the promo pics for this figure, I immediately noticed the new, improved face sculpt. I thought it looked good. Now that I have her in hand, her face sculpt is really good. She does look like Gal Gadot, even more so at certain angles. She comes with 2 face sculpts (forward and looking to the side), an extended lasso, a single harness strap to peg into her side for when she's holding her lasso (her regular lasso that hangs is also attached via a peg), and 4 pairs of hands (fists, lasso holding, relaxed and open palm). I think both face sculpts look really good. The regular one, where she's looking straight, can sometimes appear cross eyed in certain light. If you look closely, you can see that her left pupil is slightly more inward than the right. It's very subtle and only noticeable from very far away and in certain poses. I wish they had given her some extra faces, like an angry and a smiling one. But Tamashii Nations seems to be stuck on giving their movie figures an extra face that looks off to the side. But other than that, the figure is fine.

The colors on her outfit are really nice, the brighter red and blue really pop. This outfit is much brighter than the ones from other films. I guess they went with that to give it a more vibrant 80's vibe, since the film takes place in 1984. The paint is crisp and clean, and the details of the sculpt, from her strapped boots, to the material of her lasso and denim skirt, and even a few battle damage scratches, are all well done. Her hair is in a few pieces that articulate. You remove the front piece of her hair to change the face plates. That front piece has a strand of hair on the right that's also attached to a peg that can articulate when moving the head, as is the left strand and the back of her hair. You simply have to move these pieces when posing the head.

As for the articulation on the rest of the body, it's pretty good. The head is on a ball joint. The shoulders are on ball joints with a very good butterfly joint and they swivel at the top of the arm. The elbows are single jointed but bend in far enough, and the knees are double jointed. The legs are on ball joints and can swivel a bit and kick far up and back, as well as out (though she can't do the splits), the ankles can move forward and backward and swivel slightly to the side. Her upper torso is on a ball joint but doesn't have a lot of range. Her waist has slightly more range, but can't crunch too far forward or back. She could've used some extra articulation in the torso area for more expressive poses, and a wider swivel on her legs so that she can cross them more, but what she has is pretty good. You can get her in decent action poses. She can balance on one foot, but that takes some work, mostly due to the narrow design of her heeled feet.

One cool thing about owning the Mafex Wonder Woman is that her sword and shield can fit well in this one's grabbing hands, as well as the Mafex loose lasso. I haven't tried to see if the JL body strap can fit onto this body, but I know from reviews that I've seen that the SHF JL version body strap does fit this figure, as do those accessories.

Tamashii Nations is planning on releasing another version of Wonder Woman 84 wearing her golden armor with wings, and based on how much I like this one, I will also be getting that one. Wonder Woman is one of my favorite super heroes, so i'm glad to own 2 nice articulated versions of her. I would love it if Figuarts released a Lynda Carter version, but for now, Gal Gadot will suffice.

S.H. Figuarts Wonder Woman 84 is a very nice figure, and with the improved fact sculpt that looks much nicer than the previous release, fans of this new version of the princess of Themyscira would be wise to pick it up. It took a few years, but Tamashii Nations finally gave us a Wonder Woman that looks great!