Welcome to our Action Figure review of the Marvel Legends 6 inch Okoye figure. Okoye is a build-a-figure assembled from parts spread across the Marvel Legends Black Panther wave.
Assembly
To build Okoye you need parts spread across 5 different Marvel Legend releases. The Okoye wave is made up of movie figures of Black Panther (head), Erik Killmonger (Leg) and Nakia (Body & Spear). You then need the comic book figures of Black Bolt (Leg) and Namor (arms).
With all parts collected, assembly is push and click and there were no issues in getting the full Okoye figure built.
Sculpt & Paint 5/5
The face print technology has brought the Marvel Legends facial likenesses on massively in the past 18-months, but it seems to suit female likenesses better with some stunning printed heads recently including Gamora and Hela. Okoye is perhaps the best of the bunch so far with a hyper realistic look with shading around the face and the best eyes I've seen on a £20 figure for a long time.
On top of this is the intricate tattoo across Okoye's head which is replicated really well and shaded just enough to be visible, but not that it looks painted - brilliant work.
The body of Okoye is just as impressive as the head with an unprecedented amount of sculptural detail including numerous panels and textures. The overriding colour scheme is tones of red through orange and to gold and each area is painted neatly and with washing in place to further enhance the detail and patterns.
While the body looks fantastic, you can see inaccuracies to the final screen costume with the neck piece being less ornate and the shoulder panels being smaller - perhaps this was another example of Hasbro working to an early concept image?
The cynics initially looked at the Black Panther wave and the inclusion of this figure and Nakia and felt the body was a direct reuse - just repainted. This simply is not true, despite the closeness of the Dora Milaje outfits. Okoye has distinctly different parts throughout and I can't find a definitive re-use, only perhaps a retooling of areas to tweak them?
Articulation 4/5
Like all the female releases to date in the Legends MCU line, Okoye does lack a couple of key joints that exist on the male figures. She comes in with 16 points of articulation in total with the arms and torso taking the hit on joints we do see on the male bucks.
The head is ball jointed and has a pivot and with such a slim neck and no hair to impede movement the mobility of the head is full on. The torso has a basic ball joint under the chest piece and this allows the upper torso to rotate and to lean with a very tight ratchet movement - beware that leaning the torso back too far on such a slim figure will expose a large gap and the joint itself. There is no waist joint sat under this.
The arms are ball jointed shoulders and these are not impeded by the shoulder armour panels. Elbows are single joints, not doubles sadly, and although these rotate they do only bend to a right angle which puts some posing out of reach. The arms finish with pivot wrists.
Legs have a full set of joints with ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The skirt section however does impede leg movement. Despite being a slim figure, Okoye stands perfectly well with no support required.
Accessories 4/5
Both of Okoye's accessories come with the Nakia figure and it isn't immediately obvious if these are for Okoye or Nakia - and I guess you could use them on either.
The first is what looks to be the tip of a spear - broken off at the shaft. I am not recalling seeing this in the movie (I may be wrong) so this again might be an early concept or deleted scene. The piece is cast well and is a lot sharper on a harder plastic than some recent accessories. Paint is simple with the plastic being black and the blade then painted silver. It sits in either hand for posing purposes.
While not seen in this guise in the film the smaller weapon head is closer to the spear heads we do see on screen. The second accessory, the full spear, features a double blade type of affair and again I may be wrong, but I am struggling to see this represented on screen either in Black Panther or Infinity War. I also checked to see if the heads could be swapped - but they can't.
The larger spear is again crisply cast in a hard plastic and does feel quite brittle. The shaft is cast black plastic but is sculpted with a turned twisting pattern up its length. The blades are painted silver - and neatly painted at that with no obvious leakage onto the shaft.
Being nearly 7 inch long, the spear is easily wielded by Okoye in one hand or both and you won't be short of posing options.
Summary
While many argue standard human figures should not be build-a-figures, I find these recent BAF's like Okoye and Mantis a real pleasure to collect and build. While you could say Okoye would have been better as the main release and Nakia as the BAF, I dont think it makes much of a difference as both figures are stunning.
Okoye has a near perfect head sculpt and facial print with a very well executed outfit, albeit slightly differing from the final on screen ensemble. Similarly, the weapons may not be 100% screen accurate but they are well cast and really add a dimension to the posing of the figure of this formidable warrior.
Even with the 16 points of articulation Okoye still delivers on all fronts and for me is well deserving of walking away with a 5 out of 5 score.
