One of the biggest surprises for me in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 was the heavy female presence. As popular as heroines have become in the print comics over the past few years, the movies have still been quite a boy's club. From all the advance merchandising, I had a clue that Ayesha and Mantis would have decent roles in the movie, but I had no idea that almost every scene would have such a strong female presence. Mantis is a character that has a bit of a convoluted history in the comics. Her origins, powers, and appearance have fluctuated quite a bit from her appearance in 1973. In the film, her origins are still a mystery, but her powers seems to be limited to empathy and telepathic suggestion. But considering how much they developed Nebula in her second film, I'm hoping we'll learn a lot more about Mantis in Avengers: Infinity War and GOTGv3 (both of which she's been cast in). This figure is extremely well made. The likeness and execution is practically perfect. Let's check out Mantis below!
Here is the entire wave with her Build-a-Figure pieces. Deaths' Head II does not have a piece of Mantis. Note that the distribution of the pieces has been shuffled since the first announcement. (Ex Nihilo no longer comes with Mantis' head for instance).
If I had to dredge up some complaint about this figure, I could say that her head has a downward tilt (due to her hair). But the thing is, it really works for Mantis as the shy naive character they introduced us to in the film.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
And all the movie Mantis' I've been able to collect so far. From Left to Right: Pint Size Heroes, POP!, Mini-Mates, Marvel Legends, Rock Candy, and Dorbz.
Cheers!
I recall years ago James Gunn promised more female characters for Vol. 2 and I was happy to see he lived up to his promise of adding them. He gave Gamora more development, same with Nebula, Ayesha was great and Mantis was very funny but also cool. So immediately, I gravitated to her since she was allowed to be as funny as say, Drax.
ReplyDeleteAyesha was the surprise character for me. That arrogant, irate rage was so amusing. It reminded me more of 80s cartoon villains like Cobra Commander and Starscream than modern superhero-film baddies. Kudos to Mr. Gunn for sticking to his promises (i was going to say "guns" but it wasn't nearly as punny as I had hoped haha).
DeleteShe is stunning! Odd choice for the build a figure though. I really don't want the whole wave, but she is certainly tempting.
ReplyDeleteHasbro made an interesting point about the retooling necessary to make an existing body type (like Ex-Nihilo or Death's Head) into a break-apart Build-a-Figure. They said that Mantis needed to be a completely new sculpt so it made economical sense for her to be the BAF, despite her small size.
DeleteThis figure is awesome. Especially that added ankle twist. I'm also glad we got a figure of another obscure Marvel character; Never in a million years would i think they'd make figures of Mantis and Ego
ReplyDelete