When it comes to Diamond Select Toys, the action figures that come with elaborate bases are nearly always the coolest ones. The larger figures can be impressive, but Diamond excels when getting creative with the extras.
Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, is as generically costumed as figures get — in a basic blue bodysuit with the Fantastic Four logo. So when it comes to action figures, she can always use jazzing up. Previous toy companies have often utilized variants, with a fully painted “visible” figure as part of the run, and a clear plastic “invisible” version as a running change. The best ones for display, though, are the half-and-half versions that depict her mid-change.
Diamond’s does two out of three — she can display as a fully visible version, and become the phasing variant with swap-out parts. (This is similar to DST’s figure of her husband Reed, who had swap-out stretched extras — the days of trying to gimmick figures to mimic super powers with a play feature are long gone.) The coloring on her costume is quite nice, as it’s neither fully matte nor fully glossy, it’s a good compromise. It’s shiny if the light hits it just right, but more or less flat in full daylight.
Sultry Sue
Sue’s face sculpt has a bit of a Slavic look to it, and an expression that appears slightly peeved — it’s the Invisible Woman as Russian supermodel. Up close, her neck is too long: it seems to have been engineered that way so that her head can turn with all that sculpted hair, and create the illusion that under the hair, her shoulders are higher than they actually are. From a distance, it works. Only up close does one realize she’s a bit of a giraffe.
Her hair is a paler blonde than usual, and her skin tone pale as well. Perhaps it’s just getting a head start phasing out.
For articulation, Sue sports upper arm cut joints, disc-and-pin knees and elbows, a cut waist, and mid-torso ball joint. Due to the swap out parts, she also gets cut joints mid forearm and at the upper thigh. Hips are full ball joints; the neck is a restricted one. Ankles are the usual rocker hinge, and wrists are disc-and-pin.
Hands on
Two different sets of forearms allow for either long black gloves, or disappearing wrists. The package contains twelve hands in total: six black-gloved, and six “invisible.” Above and beyond that, the invisible shield accessory features a permanently attached hand with unarticulated wrist, which keeps it held in place properly.
Her other power accessory, an “invisible” energy ball, splits in half to allow her holding-hand to grasp the post that connects both hemispheres.
Then there’s her base, which looks like large impact effect. It features two footpegs, but also a hole for a clear post that plugs into her back. She can either stand in the effect, stand on one foot, or even “hover” in the air thanks to the post’s ability to support her full weight.
It might not necessarily hold her indefinitely on the shelf, but she’s light and it seems in no immediate danger of bending.
A Lady Knows How to Accessorize
The figure will cost you around $27.99, which, considering it’s a slightly larger scale (7 inch) than a Marvel Legends figure with a lot more accessories, seems about right. McFarlane’s basic 7-inch figures come cheaper, but as soon as he throws in a card-holder and extra accessory, they go up to $29.99, so this is still competitive.
Sue enables DST collectors to complete their Fantastic Four teams, joining recent releases of The Thing, Human Torch, and Mr. Fantastic. Thanks to all the display options allowed by the accessories, she can stand relatively neutrally in a group pose with the team, or in a dynamic pose with power effects, either solo or in a battle scene. This kind of flexibility is rarely seen in a figure at this price point, and is more common to Mezco’s $100 and up One: 12 Collection.
If you’re a fan of the character, or just clear figures in general, she’s worth it. Unless, perhaps, you’re a stickler for how her face and hair should look.
Check out more images below to see the figure in action, and in-package.
