If you’ve been following this toy blog for the past few months, then you’ll be aware of my love/hate attitude towards the female characters in Super7's retro styled 5.5 inch Filmation figures. They (mostly) all look the part but god help me if I can get them to stand. Well fate has somehow intervened and my prayers to the plastic gods (or rather whiny emails to Super7) have been answered. We have here, what may very well be the zenith of the 5.5” Filmation females, if not the entire line. Hyperbole from a desperate man with not enough figure stands, or a genuine fix to a decades-long problem? That’s for you to decide, I’m too busy reviewing an action figure of Hordak's personal sorceress, Shadow Weaver but based upon her appearance in the classic, 80s She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon show. But this is slightly different from previous Filmation toys I’ve reviewed- instead of upgrading a vintage design, Super7 has designed her from scratch as she never had a toy back in the 80s. So let’s see if they’ve captured the spirit of the cartoon or not.
It’s easy to dismiss a simplified character like Shadow Weaver. In the cartoon she’s drawn with no face, just a hood with a small eye window; no legs because she just floats across the screen like Orko; which seems like the Filmation animators were trying to squeeze in another character without having to eat into the animation budget. But thing is, the fewer details a character has the easier it is to mess it up. Shadow Weaver’s face consists of a pair of white eyes, so if they’re not to snuff then the face is ruined. Thankfully, Super7 have kept up their standard for excellent headsculpts, simple as this one may be. As I just said, Shadow Weaver’s face is literally a pair of eyes, the bridge of her nose and some forehead but what little face there is has been well realised. The eyes are completely yellow, but sculpted in an evil squint to add to her malevolence. A nice little touch is her nose which protrudes the hood out slightly, giving more definition to the head. The hood itself (I mean, it’s really the head but you get the idea) has a great cartoonish quality to it. The top end of the hood twists and gnarls, like a rat's tail. The rest of the body is also a clever use in minimalism. Shadow Weaver is covered from head to toe in her crimson robes but Super7 didn’t phone in the body. From the folded sleeves draped down her arms, speaking of which, look at her hands! Previous women in this line all had the same hands as vintage Teela and Evil Lynn, one gripping hand and a weird looking, downward facing open hand. Both hands are molded in a really nice flat avocado, the right hand holds her accessories just fine but best of all is the left hand. Super7 finally did something about that flipper-like appendage that comes on the original female MOTU body. Instead there’s a far superior open “spell casting” hand, or just casually open. Whatever. The point being why couldn’t She-Ra and Teela have this hand too? Or anything that didn’t look like a comedy weight fell on it? Either way, it’s a great addition, but it doesn’t end there. The rest of her robes go all the way down- with an excellent Horde emblem belt- as one solid piece instead of legs and feet. While this means she can’t fit in any MOTU vehicles she can sure as hell stand like a champ. After all the MOTU reviews where I have to recommend buying one of those 3D printed stands, over and over. Not with Shadow Weaver, no messing with the legs for 15 minutes; no searching the house for a piece of blu tack; no searching online for stands made special for female MOTU figures. None of that here. She just stands, which I am more than happy for sacrifice vehicle accessibility. I would like to also point out that while the figure has no actual legs, the robes are sculpted to show Shadow Weaver placing one leg in front of the other, which is a nice little detail to add. Last but not least is the fabric cape which, like on the 5.5" Filmation She-Ra, is made of a basic, coarse material that’s slightly translucent. It’s a close colour match to the body and hangs very nicely. For a character not known for their dexterity it’s really cool Super7 tried to make this figure stand out in their own way- an artistic license I wish they took more often.
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| Size comparison with Super7 filmation She-Ra |
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| With MOTU classics Orko |
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| With Super7 filmation Hordak |
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| With MOTU classics Hordak |
Would you be shocked if I told you articulation is limited? Well, by 5.5 Filmation standards it is. Which means very little. The head turns slightly left and right but goes no further due to the headsculpt. Both arms rotate at the shoulder, but can only go forwards until they’re pointing up as the hood stops them rotating completely. And they both move back until they’re at a 90 degree angle because of the hood, again. A new bit of articulation is at the wrists, letting both hands to rotate completely, adding a little extra display options. The classic “power punch” action give some swivel in the waist, but obviously the torso will always snap back, so you can’t really pose it. Mine seems to have too tight a spring as I can’t set the torso dead straight. It doesn’t ruin the figure but I feel it will be if I try to force the torso to how I want. So not the greatest amount of posability but I don’t care. She stands every time I set her down and that’s a fair trade off for a character who wasn’t exactly doing karate kicks every episode anyway.
For the accessories you two kinds of magic wand; the wand of crystal which a perfectly fine weapon. The design is basic but cleanly made with some well painted strap detail on the handle- which is something you wouldn’t of seen back in the 80s. My only gripe is I wish the sphere on the end was a clear plastic, just like on the 6” filmation Shadow Weaver to give a powered up look. You also get the wizard’s wand from the cartoon episode “Bow's magic gift". It’s slightly shorter than the other wand and has a nicely done flame coming out of the crescent-shaped end piece, making it screen accurate, so it’s nice to see Super7 have been doing their homework when it comes to accessories, but there’s more. Best of all, there’s a clear stand so you can have the figure floating! So the one figure that doesn’t need a stand comes with one anyway! Is it essential to the figure? Not really, but it’s great to get something like this nonetheless. And, of course, I can’t leave out the collector’s card with an excellent illustration of Shadow Weaver on one side and a brief history of how the original concept sketch later became the design used in the show.
Shadow Weaver is a bit of an interesting figure as she isn’t an upgrade of the vintage toy because there was no Shadow Weaver toy back in the original She-Ra line, so Super7 have taken some artistic liberties with how such a toy would look, and I think they’ve done a brilliant job. This is exactly the sort of thing I like to see. Take an old concept (or a reimagining in this case) and fix it up for modern tastes. Granted, Super7 had a blank canvas to work from but have excelled in providing better than what the original toys did-especially those hands- to make up for the general lack of articulation. When the figure looks this good, who cares if it barely moves? As I’ve said in a previous review, this line has already ended, so it’s bittersweet to see Super7 go a little outside the box on the classic MOTU style knowing I wont see any more. So sadly your evil horde only has two members, but if you’ve always wanted a 5.5" Shadow Weaver to go in your vintage horde collection this one will fit right in with added sense of security knowing she’ll never fall over.
Company: Super7
Price paid: £24.99
Bought from: Forbidden Planet
Age: 15+
I keep passing on the vintage style filmation, but I will admit that I have wanted to pick Shadow Weaver up. Such a good looking action figure!
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