Black Panther Basic - SHURI!

Marvel's Black Panther - Basic Series 01 - Shuri (w/ Customization) - Hasbro 2018

I think I'm the only person I know who wasn't blown away by the Black Panther movie. My expectations were set really high, and by the time I saw it, it was almost inevitable that I would be let down. My biggest complaint it that the Dora Milaje didn't really have a chance to shine. I was expecting some crazy spectacle on par with the beach invasion in Wonder Woman. I also really disliked the Erik Killmonger character. I usually love all villains but I found him disappointing and overly cocky. Some things I loved about the movie included the snowy Jabari tribe on the mountain, Wakanda itself, and T'Challa's genius little sister, Shuri. She was just so smart, funny, competent and cool. I hope that she will get the full Marvel Legends treatment when the sequel hits, but in the meantime I was excited we got this basic series figure to tide us over. I got her when she first came out, but I waited to post a review until I got a chance to customize her a little (her figure was a little too basic IMO). Let's check out Shuri below!

I think the biggest discrepancy in the sculpt of this toy is Shuri's hair. The toy depicts her as having short cornrows that end at the nape of her neck. In the movie, she has long braids that were often gathered on top of her head with several longer strands hanging down her back.

This figure deserved a lot more paint apps. Something about the final version was just a little lacking. I decided to spend five minutes adding a few simple changes. First, I painted the edge of her neck armor black and the little teeth by her chin white (these were left unpainted plastic that blended in with her skin). Next I darkened her lower eyelid. And finally I drybrushed over her white facepaint with a color that matched her skintone. My goal was to make dots and lines not look so unnaturally bright. In the movie, these details were indeed  bright white, but on this scale the white looked too bold. The dots and chin line also look twice as thick as they are intended to be. By drybrushing to tone down the white it gives the illusion of finer detail. I'm super happy with the end result.

Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!

Here are the three Wakanda ladies together: Nakia, Shuri, and Okoye.

Here is Shuri with two previous non-movie Basic Figures, Black Widow, and Gamora.

And finally here are all the Basic Series MCU ladies together: Gamora, Scarlet Witch, Shuri, and Black Widow.

Cheers!