Of all the figures in the Legendary Comic Book Heroes line (at least, in the first two series, as advertised in various comics some time ago), Sara Pezzini was the one I most looked forward to. Not because Witchblade is my favourite comic - in fact, I dropped it after #103 (not because of the new bearer, but a general lack of inspiration in the writing - the switch from Sara to Danielle was simply a convenient time to bail) - but because it was my first. Years ago, for some reason I can't remember (though I suspect the photo of Yancy Butler as Sara on the cover had something to do with it) I bought the TV series tie-in reprint of Witchblade #1, and the then-current #51, and for nearly the next half-century of issues it remained my only purchase each month. No matter how many other comics I now buy, and how many other heroines I've become enamoured of, Sara remains special because she was the first.
Of course, Sara's superhero name isn't 'Witchblade' - she's the bearer of the Witchblade, an ancient living weapon that bonded to the NYPD detective during a botched stakeout, and gives her the ability to generate super-strong armour (usually shredding her clothes in the process - hey, it was the 90s), produce various spikes and tendrils as the occasion demands, wield energy swords and whips and so on, throw fireballs, and now and then grow wings, bore through solid steel, heal life-threatening injuries, destroy city blocks at the wave of a hand, become psychic, commune with the spirits of past bearers, see the future... or whatever else the writer wanted her to do that issue. Kind of like Superman, she's got so many powers it's no surprise she doesn't use many of them - she's probably lost track of what she can do. Moreover, all that's out of date now - despite the bio on the packaging referring to the above (with less flippancy), Sara recently gave up the Witchblade to a new bearer.
So the bio is out of date, but how's the figure? In a word, great. The sculpt is highly detailed, giving good account of Sara's sexy-90s-comic-book unrealistically perfect physique, and the Gigeresque texture of the Witchblade's armour. Sara's face is attractive, in a very comic-book way, strongly reminiscent of the style of art her book sported when she was reaching the height of her fame (nowadays it's more painted and artsy), and her hair is sculpted to be blowing dramatically in the wind. The detail on the armour is immense, and includes the requisite gemstones on gauntlets, most importantly the large red gem on the back of her right hand, which is the heart of the 'blade, or something along those lines. Sara is more or less in scale to other Marvel Toys/Toybiz figures - she's a tall woman, but not unrealistically so. The paintwork is for the most part sharp and effective - everywhere where skin is showing is cast in that colour, with only a little variation in tones between pieces. There's a subtle highlight on her hair, which is effective without drawing too much attention. The paint applications on her face are good, though the eyes aren't as clear as they could be - nonetheless, the overall effect doesn't detract from the sculpt. The 'blade armour (aside from the gems) is a dark bronze/green, with heavy applications of bronze highlights - it looks good, much like the Witchblade's typical appearance in art (it's gone through many looks, but this is a good choice), and the sculpted armour areas match quite well to the smaller tendrils covering parts of Sara's body, which are painted only. The camera flash has lit those areas quite brightly compared to the armour - trust me, under normal lighting the transition from sculpt/paint to paint only is quite fluid.
Sara's well articulated in most ways, but not all. There's one missing joint, and for this figure it's a real drawback: she has no swivels in her arms, meaning that her hands (and forearms) can't be turned away from parallel to her sides. What that means is that a character who's famous for her Witchblade gauntlet can't really 'show off' said gauntlet, as many notable comic covers have her doing - she can't hold her hand up with the gem facing out in front of her, which is as close to a 'famous pose' as she has. Shame, that. On the up side, the rest of her is articulated heavily, but without a great deal of impact on her sculpt - the ball joint hips are the most visible, and compared to some they're not too bad. Her neck is on a ball joint, and the hair is cast in soft plastic so that, even though it's fairly close to her back, it can be coaxed around, allowing the head to turn over a reasonable range. Her shoulders are one-sided ball joints (combined swivel/pegs, but the difference is negligible) with the right shoulder limited by the overhanging armour, but not as much as you'd think, she has double-peg elbows, and peg wrists, though without a swivel they're of limited use, and they only move inwards. She has two swivels in her torso, with limited ball joint motion, but the upper one is quite restricted by the sculpt of her chest - nonetheless it does allow her to twist her torso somewhat realistically, rather than turning only at the waist. As I said her hips are ball joints (double-sided, good range of motion); add to that double-peg knees, calf swivels, ankle peg joints and side to side 'rocker' joints, and peg joints at her toes, and she can do all sorts of things with her legs and still plant her feet firmly on the ground. She doesn't come with a base, but there are peg holes in both feet for one - short of providing a base, it's nice that she at least has the option of using one, if you have a spare.
As part of the Legendary Comic Book Heroes 'Pitt series', Sara comes with one piece of the Build-A-Figure Pitt, his chest, shoulders and head. I don't know who Pitt is (not Brad, I take it), but whoever he is, he's going to be freakin' huge. In BAF series the girls, being the smaller figures, tend to get the chest/head pieces, which are usually the largest pieces - keeps the amount of plastic per box roughly constant I guess - so buying just female figures I've seen my fair share of BAF chests, and this one is hands down the biggest, bulkiest one I've ever seen. The sculpt is very good, the paint simple but very well-executed, and the piece includes a kind of jacket held on with chains, which is a separate soft plastic piece - if you wanted, you could presumably have a topless Pitt by removing it prior to attaching his arms. Given how far forward his head is hunched, the neck ball joint has a respectable range of motion; other joints are very stiff ball joint shoulders (which will attach with a swivel to the arms) and a rocker peg joint to attach to the lower torso. I'm not interested in owning a Pitt, but if you're a fan, and like some of the figures in this line, it may well be worth getting the others to complete the Pitt BAF - he looks like he'll be a really good monster of a figure.
