Review of Luna Lovegood - Harry Potter
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

I've been reviewing toys online for 20 years. In that time, much has changed. But one of the most distinct changes has been with female action figures, or more specifically, how many female action figures there are. Once, they were rarely produced, even when they were main characters. When they were, they were shortpacked and scalped. And the quality? Well, let's just say it was rarely good.

That's all changed. We regularly get the female characters in films, and while they can still be harder to get (depending on the license), they aren't one per five cases anymore. In the aughts, I might have reviewed a female figure once every few months - in the last month, I've reviewed three.

Tonight's is another fan favorite character from the Harry Potter series by Star Ace.  Luna Lovegood has just started shipping, and will run you around $200 - $210, depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***
They made a shift to this newspaper style design with the last couple releases, and I like it quite a bit. There's a cigar band wrapper too, and an excellent photo of the actual character right on the front. The figure and accessories are held inside the interior plastic trays, and it's fairly collector friendly. They did use more of the sticky plastic on the smaller accessories this time, but that's probably only a nit for me.

Sculpting - ***
I was very pleasantly surprised when I pulled Luna out of the box. She was immediately recognizable, and they captured the unique nose, lips, and facial shape.

If you saw this sculpt, without hair and without paint (as we often do in early stages), you would have been quite impressed. It's a young Luna, and the expression, with slightly arched eyebrows and the small, pursed lips, goes a long way toward character recognition.

It's also realistic, with a soft skin texture that avoids it looking like a Barbie. She has funky earrings too, and the rooted hair is thick and tight.

Which is the one area where I think things are getting thrown off - the length and thickness of her hair. There's a lot here - a lot - and it's very long. I used a ton of product to try to give it some reasonable shape, and it was still very hard to manage at all. Fortunately, Luna is the sort of character who did not pay a tremendous amount of attention to her appearance, so the wild hair isn't too far off. But it was never this long - at least not from my memory. I think the brave collectors out there - those braver and more talented than me - will be able to trim the hair up into something that better compliments the portrait overall.

This is a younger Luna, and she comes in at about 9 1/2" tall.

Paint - ***
While there's nothing extraordinary about the paint work, it is solid quality and relatively realistic and lifelike.

The eyes are clean, the skin tone even, and the eyebrows and lips extremely neat. A big plus is the color of the rooted hair, which is closer to her blonde look than is normally achieved. Compare it to the photo on the box, and you'll see it's much more realistic in color than most blonde doll hair.

There aren't a ton of tiny details painted on the accessories, but what's here is very clean. As I said, it's not ground breaking work, but it's certainly in line with the price point.

Articulation - ***1/2
This smaller female body is quite posable, and you should have no trouble getting stances that flow in a natural way.

The ball jointed neck gives her lots of tilt and lean, and of course the rooted hair doesn't get in the way. The shoulders, elbows, and wrists can take most normal arm poses, while the hips, knees, and ankles work quite well in shallow to deep stances.  I know some folks like to complain about the knees, but I prefer these to the skin covered designs.

The robe is posable as well, with thin wires in several edges, like the sleeves and bottom. This will enhance the look of more dynamic poses, as well as allow you to create a better hang off her shoulders in more static stances.

Accessories - ***1/2
She comes well equipped, including a couple accessories we were supposed to get with Ginny but didn't.

There's extra hands of course, but they are all rights. She comes with open hands, but you can swap in three different gripping rights to work with various accessories. They popped on easily, and remained in place while I was working with her.

She has her specific wand of course, and she also has her very, very character specific butterbeer cork necklace. The tiny cork looks quite realistic too, and is a great addition.

There's the spectrespecs, and they fit cleanly on her nose and ears. While I think the portrait stands up fine on its own, I suspect I'll be displaying her wearing these glasses. They're just that cool.

I believe Ginny was advertised as having a quill pen and ink well, but we didn't get it with her. Instead, both items are here. There is a small hole in the inkwell to attach the pen, but it didn't work for me. The hole was too big, and the pen simply fell over. I think a little poster tack will fix that right up.

She has some science-y goodies with her because, well, science. There's a test tube rack and three test tubes. One is clearly empty, while the other two have some sort of potion inside. There's a square bottle too, and this one is intended to be a Polyjuice potion. They all look great, and even if you don't use them with Luna, you can add them to your Doctor Frankenstein display.

She comes with the same large book bag that Ginny had, and it's the same excellent materials and construction. It's big enough to hold both her books - another copy of Hogwart's: A History, and a new copy of Advanced Potion Making - and the two (yes, two) copies of the Quibbler. The magazine is particularly well done, with every page printed.

Finally, she has a pretty standard display base with plastic support rod.

Outfit - ***1/2
Her outfit consists of her outer Ravenclaw robe, school sweater, shirt, tie, skirt, socks, and shoes.

We've seen this outfit a number of times, although the Ravenclaw logo is new. It's nice to finally have someone representing the House on the shelf. The outer robe is extremely nice, and the inclusion of the thin wires in several spots make it all the better for posing. The sweater is a little baggy - I think I mentioned that with Ginny too - but the overall tailoring is nice.

Fun Factor - ***
As you add more and more of the kids to the shelf, the display options get better and better. I doubt anyone is picking up just Luna - I love her too, but she's not really a stand alone kind of character - and adding her to the shelf with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, and Ginny is the way to go.

Value - **
The price point is a bit tough for me, coming in at just over $200. There's quite a few accessories that help, but considering what we are seeing from some other companies in the $180 range right now, this one feels about $20 or so overpriced. Of course, the run size is probably a big factor, but without knowing what it is, it's hard to judge.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing.

Overall - ***
If I were a more courageous man, I'd get out the scissors and work on the hair. I think the sculpt itself is quite good, but the long, thick hair is making it tough to see it at times. I'm hoping to see one of the many talented collectors out there take a whack at it.

We now have three of the four houses represented on the shelf. Okay, so technically we have all four - Newt was a Hufflepuff - but we only have three of the house robes. How about a young Cedric to round things out?

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***
Paint - ***
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth is at $224, but with free shipping.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I just looked at Ginny Weasley a couple weeks ago. Before that I looked at one of the new Griphook figures, the prisoner version of Belletrix, the regular Bellatrix, Lucious Malfoy, Newt Scamander, teen Hermione, Dobby the House Elf, Dumbledore (Gambon), Teen Harry,  young Draco Malfoy, the Draco/Harry two pack in their Quidditch gear, the casual dress Hermione, the Casual Ron and Harry, Dumbledore (Harris), Hagrid, Snape, Tri-Wizard Harry, the young Hermione, young Harry and Ron, Voldemort, Sirius Black, Mad Eye Moody, and Sirius in his Prison Garb.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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