I have to confess, I never got into Heroes. I tried watching a couple of episodes, but I've seen too many 'ordinary people discovering they have powers' stories to really care about another batch of them, and I didn't find any of the cast (crucially, either of the main female characters) interesting or appealing. Still, the show's a bit of a geek cultural icon, so I figured it was worthwhile to have this figure of Claire in my collection, just to mark her place in the ranks of heroines in general. Not being an avid watcher of the show I don't know Claire's face that well, but this seems to be a decent likeness of Hayden Panettiere - not perfect, but action figures rarely are, and this is well into the respectable standard so far as the 6" scale goes. Moreover, the cheerleader costume is spot on, instantly recognisable even to me, who's probably only seen the publicity photos of Hayden in wardrobe once or twice, never mind the show itself. The striking contrast on the red and white sweater is clear (on the 'clean' pieces, anyway - more of that later), the skirt is accurate, albeit ugly (but so's the real thing - I'm not a fan of cheerleader skirts like this at all), and everything is sculpted with a fair degree of realism. It's actually a nice subconscious effect - she's a normal person in a normal outfit (well, cheerleader, close enough), but the design of the clothes gives her a sense of the bold, iconic visual image that we associate with superheroes. All the paintwork is nice and clean, with subtle work on the face, and a nice clear logo on her sweater - the Wildcats (for some reason, presumably something in the show unless they're fan-made, there are photos on Google of her in an identical outfit sporting a 'Trojans' logo). Articulation, sadly, isn't so impressive. She has a ball joint neck, but it's all but immobilised by the hair - she's looking off to her left, and you'd better learn to like it because it's not changing. Her shoulders are nice recessed ball joints, with fair ranges of motion for such well-concealed joints, there are tilted swivels at her elbows, and swivel wrists. Those last two, in combination, allow for her arms to be 'hinged' without needing actual hinges, but with the hands sculpted very much for their intended purpose, it's difficult to make her look good if they're not on her hips. She has a ball joint waist, completely concealed under the hem of the sweater - excellent design - but from there on down there's only a pair of swivel thighs beneath the skirt. With the shoes sculpted with curved soles - realistic, but not good for balance - it can be a bit of a challenge to get her standing stably. Both feet have peg holes, but no base is included. What is included is a painting of a dissected woman - I gather there's a guy in the TV show who does prophetic art, so I guess this is one of them (and perhaps the woman is Claire, though it's not much of a likeness). It's quite large, if it's to scale, and printed on glossy card - there's no frame, and it's a touch thin to represent an unframed canvas, but all in all it's a decent effort. She also has two extra body parts - not someone else's, like Syler's brain, but an alternate head and left arm, showing physical injuries, since Claire's power is a healing factor. The wounded head has bleeding scratches on her face - there is a shallow sculpt to them, but the paint overwhelms the sculpts a bit, so it can look like a paint-only job to a casual glance. Impressively, the wounded head also has half-closed eyes, as if Claire is dazed, and more ragged hair. The alternate arm is straight rather than bent at the elbow (though it still has the swivel there), and has a nasty fracture of the upper arm, with a bit of bone protruding from the wound, visible through the torn sweater. The sculpt is good, as is most of the paint, but the dark patches representing bloodstains on the red sweater are a bit haphazard. The arm pops off at the peg nice and easily - though it won't fall off on its own, so all's well - but the ball joint neck is very tight, and in all honesty, no matter how hard I push, I'm still fairly sure the ball isn't quite properly seated inside the non-wounded head that I'm displaying the figure with. That ball could definitely have stood to be a bit smaller - I'm surprised this wasn't corrected at the prototype stage. All in all she's a collectable, not a figure to be played with - she's for fans of the show to put on their desk or shelf as a mark of their fandom (or in my case, just recognition of the TV show's place in geek lore). And as such she's quite adequate - her articulation's not much good for moving her, but neither does it affect the sculpt much, and on looks alone she's a good representation of the character, with the added bonus of the wounded parts. If you're a fan looking for a 'plastic statue', there's no reason not to pick her up.