Here we have Wicked Lady in-hand, and while the figure itself looks promising at first glance, this is as nice as the figure is going to get. Considering how everyone except Tuxedo Mask has the same outfit but in different colors with alterations either as shoulder pads and longer back bows for the inner Senshi or upgraded costumes for Moon, it's great to have a more elegant dress you would find from the villains usually. In fact, with how easy it is to reuse any tooling for the scoutfits, I'm surprised this is the only villain we got in the line. Her outfit has that gothic tones with the black and maroon, with hints of navy blue and pink between the "blouse" of the dress. Being made of more rigid materials, the dress may inhibit some of the articulation for the legs. The outfit may look nice, but the skin tone is either hard to photograph or annoyingly inaccurate like the first run of Senshi were. It even sucks since this is the only version of the character we have without an Animation Color Edition, and believe me, we will get into why that is paramount. If you look closely, her elbow joints may be cracked, but at least later Senshi releases rectified that. The hair, I always questioned the decision to make it translucent; I get that they wanted to make some sort of more opaque at the base and fade into translucent to represent how thin the hair gets at the tips of the twin tails, but was the execution really that great to begin with? To make matters worse, there have been reports that the hair buns on top have a tendency to snap off, if not then the ball joints used for the twin tails will do just that! Honestly, aesthetics are all over the place. Either there is no logic in choosing the materials for the figure or they treated her more like a statue than a poseable figure. Granted, the Sailor Scouts are more delicate than other Figuarts, but what's stopping her from having equal quality to the others?
Her head sculpt is honestly the best part, from the detailing on the hair buns to represent parts of her hair rolled up with the subtle lines in addition to the upside down crescent representing the Black Moon Clan. As for the hair, we have the continued discrepancy of the painted areas either having full or partial coverage, and I don't think the bangs should be like the latter. That especially goes for the curly bits. What is she supposed to be, Super Saiyan Pink? Anyways, she has three alternate faces, Luna-P but corrupted, a stand for Luna-P, 7 alternate hands, a racket, a shuttlecock, a giant ribbon piece or whatever those Met Gala dorks wear that sometimes has fur, and pieces for a display base.
Her articulation is the same as the Senshi, but for the sake of revisiting this mold after years of mostly reviewing many Legends and McFarlanes that share the same articulation, why don't I bring up the points here? Wicked Lady features a head joint that can look left and right, another meant for looking up and down, another for head-tilting motion, ball-jointed ponytails, shoulders that can move front and back on ball joints, in and out on hinges, swivels within the upper region of the sleeves, deep single elbow bends, and hands that hinge up and down as well as in and out. There is a diaphragm joint and a slight ab-crunch joint that is hindered by the bottom flaps of her dress, but the legs are on ball joints that can't really pose much due to the rigid flaps, slightly swivel at the thighs, bend at the knees, and the feet can swivel, hinge, and pivot. Honestly, getting her displayed with the base is very cumbersome due to how thin the figure is in addition to requiring that the ribbon piece is properly leveled with its own connection piece while not interfering with the arms or legs. And that's nothing to say about the cracks that develop from the clear plastic!
Now why am I not showing her with the alternate hands? Remember when I said that the ponytails are notoriously brittle from what other people said?
Well what if I told you that this figure actually broke on me out of the package?! And it wasn't like this when the seller shipped it to me! I opened the damn thing and found that the wrist peg had been snapped off! You see that nub on the wrist joint?! IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A PEG YET THE FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT BROKE DURING ITS SHIPMENT!!!! The seller barely made a good refund, so he or she gets the partial blame for the broken crapshoot! The pegs are too small to withstand any pressure from anything involving the hands, so much so they will snap off without any proper give! WHO FORGOT TO LOOK OVER THIS DURING QUALITY CONTROL?!?!
So I tried gluing the hand back on because I'd rather it look presentable at least, and hey, the glue didn't ruin the rotation at the base of the wrist at least! Gotta take what I can at this point! But guess what??? THE OTHER HAND SNAPPED OFF WITHOUT WARNING!!! I CAN'T EVEN GET ANY REPLACEMENT PARTS BECAUSE THIS SHITTY WANNABE DIVA BITCH HAS HER PRICES SKYROCKETING BECAUSE TAMASHII REFUSES TO MAKE AN ACE VERSION OF HER YET WE GET ANOTHER VERSION OF SAILOR MOON NEXT YEAR??!! FUCK THIS PIECE OF SHIT FIGUART!!!! I'D RATHER PLAY WITH TITANIUM MEGATRON THAN THIS!!!!
Meanwhile, in the other side of the quality spectrum, we have Zoisite Moon who reuses the obvious tooling seen here. The purple on the bows, elbows, and boots make for a neat contrast from the usual red/pinkish red, though is she fooling anyone who is familiar with the proper deco? Main differences for any one who has the ACE version include translucent hair, metallic odangos, and metallic paint used for.the purple and blue on her costume.
Her head sculpt is mostly the same as the regular version, but the biggest addition is the Zoisite face with those evil eyes. Makes me wish we got a regular version of the Shittenou general, but oh well. Btw, Zoisite is either a male or female depending on the dub, though usually a male like in Japan. Most of the accessories are the same that came with regular Moon...
...but new ones include a Moon Stick with a Silver Crystal, a boomerang, and a hand holding the Moon Tiara as a glowing disk with a corresponding blank forehead faceplate to boot.
Even Luna has an alternate expression this time! Given the several faces she's had from the reactions towards the stupid moments of Usagi or Artemis, you would think she would have more than just a smile and a shocked face that looks more like that one clock.
Even regular Sailor Moon is surprised that her imposter is the better figure than the evil version of her daughter, though she's crying because of the flashbacks from having her superhero identity stolen briefly. Overall, Zoisite is a cool repaint, and her accessories are compatible with regular Moon, but it makes me wish we had proper villains. Hell, the lack of any other character beyond the main 10 Senshi sucks for the line. We didn't even get Starlights and the Minis don't count!
Final ranking: ⚠️AVOID⚠️ (for Wicked Lady)
⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (for Zoisite Moon)
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