A member from the Fwoosh Boards in Spain got Emma Frost from LCS. Here's some pics. Some of his write up Still not a fan of her head, but it does look better in hand.
Just give us a Wolverine that's this accurate to Cassaday's art style. And Beast and Kitty and Colossus and Armor and...
Yeah, I figured Emma's shoulder articulation was going to suffer due to the way her cape attaches to the front of her outfit. I'm not sure what a good way around this would have been. Either way she looks good and Emma doesn't need to do cool posses. She just needs to stand there looking attractive like the consolation prize after Jean's death that she is.
Bout the only solution I could think of would be a soft goods cape, but even that would still restrict articulation
Yeah, and I can't recall the last time Hasbro employed soft goods on a Legends figure. Not to mention they never seem to turn out great at this scale most of the time.
There's got to be a balance between those plastic capes and cloth ones though. Like their Star Wars line goes too far with the cloth while Marvel goes too hard with the plastic. Although, I am actually really digging the cloth cape NECA gave their Dracula figure and I shouldn't. It doesn't feel as cheaply made as most other soft goods and it doesn't look bulky on him.
I wonder what the consumer research shows. The plastic cloaks often look quite good, but they clearly impact articulation (and, of course, the capes themselves have no articulation). There is a wide range of options for cloth capes, some of which look amazing. The nice capes that are capable of holding shape are costly on the 3rd party market, but I have no clue what the overhead might be for a company mass-producing them when compared to plastic. I would guess that there are some logistical tricks when it comes to manufacturing and packaging everything together on-site. And, of course, there is the cheaper option like Beast’s lab coat. However, do the fabric options actually look better to the average consumer? Do most people like breaking up the all plastic look? It’d be a great question to ask during a Q and A.
The problem with figures like this particular Emma is that regardless of if it's a plastic or cloth cape, articulation would still be hindered because the design dictates that the cape wraps around her arms rather than over her shoulders/around her neck.
Apologies for the double post but you posted while I was typing and I wanted to add that NECA included a nice cloth cape with their Rennet figure as well. While I like the cape, I’m not sure if I prefer it to plastic or not, but it works , is more functional, and certainly wasn’t a deal breaker.
It comes down to how the soft goods are made. You can't just throw a cloth over a figure and call it a day. Certain seams will have an effect on the flow of the material without using bendy wire. The wandering Jedi Obi Wan has a magnificent soft goods cloak because of the seam work that was put into it and sets it apart from other offerings.
Speaking on cloth capes and stuff...looking at Mafex's new Magneto with the wired cloth cape and back at the Marvel Legends one...despite the price, I may have to pick up that Magneto as it just looks so much better. I might have gotten their Gambit with the cloth coat, too if it wasn't sold out as I really HATE plastic coats and capes as it makes your figures unable to pose as much as they can with cloth ones. Yeah, I know it would be not as "cost effective" for Hasbro, but maybe the characters that wear coats and capes could I dunno be upscaled like War Machine was or something... In the case of Emma and her cape...her design is really a pain no matter what.
I think a good example of soft goods done well is with the Black Series Clone Wars Anakin. They did a stretchy spandex underskirt to preserve articulation and did plastic robes on top to make it look good. That's the kind of route I wish they'd gone with characters like M'Baku with multiple layers to his skirt.
Hindered arm articulation was always going to be an issue with the astonishing emma design and there really just isn’t a good way to get around it. I also understand not giving her double elbows cause like they would not be any better than the single ones because of the cape. Still going to get her and definitely one of my most anticipated figures from this wave
Yeah, I don't dig that coat at all. Every stitch makes it look so fake as if he poorly sewed a bunch of cloth together to make a Frankensteined jacket. Although, it does look better than those plastic atrocities Toy Biz gave the likes of Gambit way back in the 90s.
