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Mezco’s Latest Marvel One:12 is a “Hela” Good Figure

Thor just can’t seem to get over his sibling rivalry. First he repeatedly fought his brother Loki–leading to an alien invasion of Earth. Then, in Thor: Ragnarok Thor and Loki have to team up against their older sister Hela.

Played by Cate Blanchett, Hela was a formidable foe who dug up the secrets of Asgard’s past–and in combat she took Thor’s eye.

Now this neo-classic cinema villainess has come home in Mezco’s One:12 Collection figure line.

This figure is 1:12 scale (about 6-inches, but a bit smaller than Marvel Legends). It has 30 points of articulation, two interchangeable heads, eight interchangeable hands, two Necroswords, and a logo display base with post.

The first thing I noticed when unboxing Hela was her incredible outfit. The black bodysuit has a texture which greatly increases the feeling of detail. But the stunner is the green printing on the outfit. The lines are incredibly clean, and despite the texture of the suit, the striping is uniform in look, feel, and thickness.

She comes with two heads — the thorny, crowned head as well as the stringy-haired, hair-down head. This immediately makes the figure the best Hela produced. Hot Toys failed by not including an alternate head without the helmet. Even the Marvel Legends figure had alternate heads–but the Legends cannot compare with Mezco in terms of detail and screen-accuracy.

The outfit does have some odd shoulder straps that are tricky to place. And they reveal some of the shoulder joint articulation on the figure. But it is not distracting from the overall good look for the toy.

Admittedly, the hair in front of her face does hint a bit at a J-horror villian, but the face has an incredible likeness to the actress as shown above.

Switching the heads on the figure proved a bit tricky. The outfit slides on the body, so it was difficult to get a tight grip and pop the alternate head on the neck peg.

My biggest fear is for the crowned head. The points on it feel thin and if the figure were to take a fall, or the head stored in Mezco’s parts baggie they include with all the One:12 figures, I think the branches could break off easily. If this is the head you display I’d be sure to use the included base and figure post. And if you don’t display this head, keep it safe (perhaps in the original box).

Likewise, Hela’s wrists are so thin that as I swapped out some of the alternate hands I feared breakage. Wear and (literal) tear on these wrist pegs is a common issue with figures, and I wish Hela had come with a back-up set of pegs in case this happens.

The figure is incredibly fun to pose. With the pointy helmet and the two Necroswords she can be quite imposing. What the Necroswords lack in paint app they more than make up for in sculpt.

The figure is absolutely perfect, and, as I mentioned above, the best movie Hela figure made in any scale.

But that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been a couple improvements.

First, the iconic pose of Hela is her holding Mjolnir right before she turns it to rubble. None of the hands included with Hela appear large enough to grip the stone end of Mjolnir. I think an alternate hand probably super-glued to Mjolnir will be needed for that pose. It would have been nice if such a hand and Mjolnir were included with Hela. (And, while I’m making a wish list, a crumbled Mjolnir would be awesome for display as well.)

The second thing this figure lacks is Hela’s ornate cape. In her “queen” mode Hela dons a flowing cape that adds to her look. Fortunately I was able to rectify this thanks to the UK customizer Scottacus Customs. While pricy ( £ 25) they have a “Goddess of Death” wired cape that is tailored specifically for the Mezco figure.

Those are items I would have in my wishlist to make Mezco’s Hela the “Ultimate” Hela release. But, out of the box, you still get an amazing figure. Mezco continues to impress me with each passing release.

Strong recommend.

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