I'm kind of new to the whole "army builder" concept. For someone who collects mostly female figures, there really hasn't been a lot of opportunity for a female army of any kind. Sure, 3.75" figures have had a few fun armies: female Cobra Troopers from G.I.Joe and the Gorgons from Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S., but in larger 6-7" scales I don't believe historically there have been any. However, in the last few years we saw an Amazon Army in Wonder Woman (which sadly received no real army builder toys), several varying-species ladies from Mythic Legions, and of course the amazing Dora Milaje from Black Panther. When we got the Okoye and Nakia figures this time last year, I was smitten. But I wanted more and wished for some more Wakandan soldiers. I honestly never expected Hasbro to come through with this amazing solution though. This Dora Milaje figure comes with three unique heads and really fills out the ranks. I hope they do the same with classic New Mutants figures someday. Let's check her (them) out!
I won't pretend this figure is about anything other than these gorgeous heads.
Because of the need for some extra bodies, I bought two Dora Milaje figures and one extra Nakia figure (you can find her clearanced in several stores now). This gives me two bodies with the new deco, two with the old, and Okoye with her unique gold armor as the keystone. I like symmetry.
The body on the Left is the new Dora Milaje body, on the Right is the Nakia body.
Where the Dora Milaje body has lots of painted details, the Nakia body has excellent paint washes (Gold over the orange and dark gray on all the silver armor). The new body is more colorful, but somewhat flat. The older body is less detailed, but more cinematic looking (especially with the armor and accessories).
Here are the accessories. Again, new Dora stuff on the Left and older Nakia stuff on the Right.
The painted details on Nakia's weapons are really nice. The Dora Milaje weapons are mostly raw unpainted plastic.
I had fun posing all these figures. This post will be a little atypical since the Dora Milaje figure is basically identical to the Nakia figure reviewed last year. (So prepare yourself for a ton of group pics).
For these turnarounds, the old Nakia body is in the middle.
The Nakia body has paint washes on the back, the Dora Milaje bodies are somewhat neglected from the rear.
Dora Milaje comes with the Right Leg Build-a-Figure for M'Baku.
Last night I scoured IMDB and assembled a list of all the Dora Milaje actors. Then I tried to figure out who these heads are likenesses of. Honestly I struck out. The head without tattoos is Ayo (played by Florence Kasumba (seen below)) but the two tattooed heads have me stumped. If anyone knows please share! I feel like these must be real face scans.
Fun Fact I discovered in my OCD research: Florence Kasumba appears to be the only actor in both the Dora Milaje and the Amazon army from Wonder Woman. I'm especially glad she got an action figure after learning that.
Below is a photo of Kasumba as Senator Acantha from Wonder Woman.
Cheers!
Great blog. I look forward to reading more of your post.
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