REVIEW: Marvel's Jubilee

It's been a long while since my last review, and I've been itching to do more. My initial plan was to do a complete take on the Wave 18 and 21 figures however getting employed got in the way of things and messed up my free time (Though I'm not complaining, it's hard to live a bum's life broke. Having a job guarantees you more money for more plastics. Lol!) So without further a do, here's 1/3 of Marvel Universe's Wave 21 lineup, Jubilation Lee.

Whenever I hear of Jubilee, I always think of X-men The Animated Series during the 90's. Most probably cause she had a prominent role in the series. Growing up as a 90's kid, I never got to follow the X-men series on TV that often for I was a die-hard Power Rangers fan back then. Though I consider myself as a casual follower of the series maybe. I knew who they were and what their powers where, but I never got to know the plot. It puzzles me up to do this day why I didn't give much attention to X-men back then. My toy stash's content were made up of roughly 70% of X-men related figures and I still went ahead and played with my Power Rangers instead.

It's only recently that I've gotten hold of a copy of the complete 5 seasons of the said series and it was nostalgic! Playing the first episode introduces you to none other than the mall rat herself Jubilee, and how she discovered that she can generate "sparkles" which reminds me of  a Katy Perry song.

When the announcement of a Jubilee donning a pre-vampire? (not sure) costume and Professor X figure for MU came, I was ecstatic! These are essential characters in completing one's X-men line up and we badly need more mutants in the line as we had enough of Iron man and Spider-man figs. They were said to be part of Wave 21 together with Blastaar, which means they'll be the 4th Wave to be released for 2012. 

Apparently, Jubilee was stripped off her
power  and was turned into a vampire. o_o

During the so-called "MU drought" which lasted for almost half a year, pictures of Jubillee, and Prof. X, on hand, started to circulate the internet. It is said that these figures were popping out at underground stores and not before long jacked up priced Jubilee and Prof. X were found on Ebay. There were rumors that these figures might have been leaked out of the factory by some employees or so. It weirded out collectors, since the 1st wave for 2012 wasn't even released yet back then, while the 4th wave was making its way on some stores already.

Finally the MU drought was halted with the announcement by Sir Eric (Thunderbreak of Cybph) regarding a MU distribution, however it had an unusual assortment which included wave 21. Click here for more info about the said distribution assortment.

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Where did I acquire it?:  Robinson's Galleria distribution event
How much?: Set of 8/ Php 500.00 each (approx $10.00)
Condition during acquisition: MOC

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Packaging: 

Nothing new about the packaging, it's still the standard one they use for Marvel Universe. The card art shows Jubilee in her modern outfit. At the back we have Dazzler as the card character.  

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Accessories: 

Jubilee comes with a purple power up of some sort and a collectible comic card. I initially checked the photo on the back of the card, which I always do, to see how the accessory should be placed. However it definitely is misleading.

Seriously, didn't the hole on the accessory give you a clue that the hand was suppose to go inside rather than making her hold it from the tip which make no sense at all?! 

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Sculpt:
PROS:

• The sculpt details on the head are decent with the inclusion of a visor and earrings. 

•  Each glove has a unique strap sculpt. 

• The sculpted X buckle looks great as well

CONS:

• The visor could have been a separate piece.

•  The face sculpt of the figure seems off specially in a side view perspective. I don't know if it's just me, but her face seems like protruding forward than normal.

• The use of the new female mold gives Jubilee longer legs making her taller which is a major no no. Jubilee is suppose to be small! She's officially listed at around 5'5" and with this mold, she towers over other female characters who's suppose to be much taller than her. (see size comparison below)

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Paint:
PROS:

• Uhm.. none? Probably the glittery pink they used on the visor?

CONS:

• Paint app totally wasted this figure. If there's one thing that collectors hated about this figure, is that her eyes were everywhere. Spent a lot of time trying to get a perfect or even a decent eye placing and believe me there's a lot of derp eyed Jubilees out there. Check this one for example:

Quasimodo variant

• Paint wash on the coat doesn't give depth to it. Hope they could have gone with a darker shade  of yellow or brown.

• I'm just not digging the modern/ pre-vampire/ vampire look that she has on. Looks kinda plain to me. Wish they could have given us the 90's version instead, which is rumored to be an upcoming variant. A simple repaint could have given us this:

Pardon the quick edit, but you get the idea.

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Articulation:

          PROS:

• Articulation is its saving grace. Using the new female body mold it gives us tons of articulation compared to the old buck. Ankle rockers has always been a great addition in the recent waves.

CONS

• Some of the collectors I know had a problem with the wrist swivel. It was so tight that when they attempted to nudge it, it broke. 

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Size Comparison:

(L-R: MU Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, Astonishing Wolverine)

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Angle View:

Click to enlarge

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Overall Grade

It's definitely a must get for X-men fans since Jubilee is one of the most prominent characters specially in the 90's. However, this is one figure that could have been done better with minor alterations. It just saddens me that they didn't put much effort in terms of quality control ,specially with the paint app on the face, with this one. It's hard for me to recommend a figure like this. Figure wise, its meh, but Jubilee will always be Jubilee, and it certainly fills the gap on one's mutant collection. Though I still do believe that we deserve a better one.

Accessories - 2/5
Sculpt - 3/5
Paint - 1/5
Articulation - 4/5
Value - 3/5
Final Grade - 2/5


Also worth mentioning, check out this step by step Jubilee fix done by Miko Matsing. http://micromatsing.blogspot.com/2012/07/jubilee-repairs.html here's a look of the final outcome:

Before & After