I admit, I feel a bit sorry for Kennedy - she's got a few loyal fans, but for most of Buffy fandom she was doomed from the start. Not only did she only get half a season to make her mark, she was saddled with a woefully misguided romance with Willow: the characters simply weren't a match, and the fact that Ken was put in the space vacated by the wonderful Tara just made it all the worse for her. If ever there was a character set up to fail, she was it - which is a shame, as she seemed to have the makings of a decent action/adventure heroine by herself, a kind of Faith Junior, without all the baggage. Ah well, poor Ken, never got to shine. At least she's got an action figure now. From the neck down, she's the same figure as previous super-articulated Buffy figures. It's not the best one out there - I find the shoulders, hips and knees particularly narrow to look at - but it's quite good, and capable of a lot of poses. One odd feature this time around - which isn't present on the Faith I have - is that all the left hands are sculpted as clenched fists, so they can't hold anything; aside from the hand the arms are identical to previous versions, but it's worth noting that my Ken is using the leftover bare arms from Faith, hence the open left hand, and the tattoo on her bicep. For those keeping track: neck swivel/peg, double-sided ball joint shoulders, double peg elbows, swivel/peg wrists, ball joint sternum, double-sided ball joint hips, double peg knees, swivel/peg ankles, peg toes. Kennedy comes with a leather jacket (same as the earlier Faith figure), which is a soft rubber vest and separate arms with sculpted sleeves - the vest tucks in beneath the edges of the arms, so it just looks like an articulation join, so it's a good way of implementing the jacket without mucking up the arms' appearance of articulation. The jacketed arms have swivel shoulders and swivel biceps, rather than ball joints. Phew, lot of articulation - the super-articulated Buffies are excellent figures to unpack and pose. Seeing as they all have the same body, it's just the paint that creates the different 'outfits' worn by the characters in each wave. It's not a bad effort, and fair enough, seeing as there weren't many specific 'costumes' in Buffy, compared to the kinds of things most action figures need to replicate. Ken's not a bad job - her top is perhaps a touch more shiny than it should be, and her hairline isn't quite perfect, but she looks pretty good overall, and her pants are quite nice, with a good combination of colour and finish - even though the sculpts are identical, they look quite distinct from the tan pants worn by this wave's Willow (who I'll be reviewing shortly). So far as the heads go, Kennedy isn't so great. She's pretty clearly based on one specific photo, the one used on the figure's packaging - the problem is that she's got this subtle, confident grin, and it doesn't translate at all well: the sculpt ends up looking like she's smiling condescendingly at a small child. Or when she's holding weapons, she looks like a complete maniac who could give Drusilla a run for her money in the insane department. Damned shame, because Iyari Limon is quite lovely, and the figure just doesn't catch it - the face is technically passably pretty, but you would not want to be in the same room with anyone wearing that expression. It's a sad fact that, for all the good points this figure has, the facial sculpt simply kills it. The accessories, at least, are pretty outstanding, especially by today's standards with accessories being a rarity. Ken doesn't comes with a base, which isn't so bad - she don't have peg holes in her feet either, which is a bit more annoying (I think one could have been worked in between the ankle and toe articulation areas without weakening the foot). She comes with the Slayer Scythe, the ancestral mega-weapon which... oh who cares, it was a dumb idea, but it looks good, with strong, clean paint apps on the blade head drawing attention away from the goofy stake arrangement at the other end. (As as I always feel compelled to point out when the subject arises: it's not a scythe, it's a bardiche. They're not even close.) Willow came with one too, on the basis that it was part of some spell she did; I gave them both to Ken, on the basis that she looks insane with just the one, so she might as well look insane and really kick-ass. Ken also comes with a two-handed crossbow, a machete, and a stake, all good work and well painted. At the end of the day, she's got some good points and some not-so-good points... but that damned face sculpt can't be ignored. Once again, Ken gets the short end of the stick. Poor Ken. (Mind you, I guess I shouldn't sound to high-and-mighty about her - when I had her during the first two seasons of the fan-written Buffy sequel Watchers, I turned her into a grizzly bear at one point.)