It’s apparently removable. I didn’t know this ahead of time and was at a loss for how to get her out of the tray she comes packaged in. She’s packaged with it facing down and you have to remove it to put it in back in right side up. I’m glad it pops out – I tempted to leave her on display without it to save space, but I also worry this might be an area prone to breakage years from now.
So all that sounds good, right? And articulation is standard fare we’re used to, so it’s also good – though the ladies could really use getting that boot swivel back. So what’s causing me to hesitate with my rubber stamp? One thing: Paint.
The feathers don’t bring this problem. They’re gorgeous with a nice metallic overspray and carefully painted and exact-looking eyelets. Good there. But the rest of the figure – just feels too playskool? Maybe it’s the bright primary colors, or maybe the completely unwashed (not like that) neon green hair. Something in the paint just throws her off visually. I really do love the green hair, but it just needs some color or variation. There’s also the matter of her size, like Angella, she’s shorter than the POP lot. I don’t mind as much here since she doesn’t need to be taller than Glimmer per se, but it’s apparently going to be the norm on these last few POP figures.
If you don’t count that giant removable plume, Peekablue included two accessories, the trademark shield and a new fan-turned-blade. They’re both nice pieces. The shield actually has some paint on it again, so it’s looking sharp. The fan has a touch of metallic on the center and looks like it could be deadly if Peekablue were inclined to use it instead of holding back from getting involved.
Overall, Peekablue isn’t a bad figure. She’s not hitting that button for me because the feathers are sucking up so much of the budget that the rest of the figure just doesn’t look as sharp, but it makes a good overall package. It might also be that I haven’t really displayed her with the feathers on… I’m trying to save space here, y’know? The longer I look at her though the more and more I do like her. The face sculpt is great and the colors grow on you, even the monotone neon hair. I may end up with two just so I can work that into a custom at some point. But, yeah… I’m just not going to display her with those feathers. If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.
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Re the name – I’m assuming it’s a take on ‘peek-a-boo’? It does sound like one of those cases where the name came first, and was hastily given a bit of a twist to add a little – heh – colour.
Speaking of her colours – I love ’em. So, so terrible in such a good way. She arrived at the office just as I was putting together an horrendously complicated spreadsheet full of colour formatting that matched her perfectly – it was like fate. Tasteless, gaudy fate.
There are a couple of things that kind of detract from her awesomeness for me (not enough to dull my joy at getting one step closer to a complete vintage POP lineup) – paint again, there’s blue flecks all over the damn place, and the hair really gets in the way of the fan, preventing it from being completely vertical. Plus… she looks pissed. Just really, really mean. Like she had a bad time getting here and just doesn’t want to even mention it (I suppose if I were posted from the US to England, inexplicably taking in half of Europe on my travels, I’d be a bit miffed too).
Great review, as per usual! Nifty figure, but I find that her hair, while perky, is big enough that it hinders the installation of the feathers.
Whats not to love about having a Vegas showgirl in your toy collection! Having said that I found the paint job (especially on the feathers)an unexpected surprise, the only wonky paint on mine being the eye thing on the belt. In the last photo of the review it looks like Etheria has their very own Victoria Secrets runway show.
Her hair makes me angry there’s no ML Polaris yet.
I know, right? a few tweaks and we have a retro style costume for Polaris!
(as an undercover Vegas showgirl! LOL)
@Evil Monkey Pope: You and me both brother, you and me both!
that last pic is so true. it’s crazy how much space the pop figures take up. too much.
i sold my peekablue because i didnt have the cojones to display her sans plume.
but i sort of regret it now that i know it’s ok to do haha
I’m right there with ya. She’s a good figure and I want to like her more than I do. I opened her up, made sure all the joints worked and immediately put her up on the shelf.
I had trouble getting her out of the tray also (I suspect most did). I wasn’t sure if the feathers were removable so I didn’t want to try and force it, so I cut the plastic tray down the middle. Wouldn’t you know, once I got her free of the tray the feathers popped right off!!!
It appears your Peekablue suffered the same assembly issue as mine. If you look closely at her lower legs (and compare her to Netossa, who had those pieces first), you’ll see that they were swapped. Not a really difficult fix, but a disappointing one, nonetheless.
The paint bugs me, too, but more because of her outfit than her hair. The vintage toy had green and red on the decorative plume on the front of her bodice, but Mattel made the whole thing blue. That move actually brings her closer to the Filmation model, but the overall lack of paint detail makes the figure itself look sadly toyish against the brilliantly coloured feathers.