This started as a review of the Mr Toys MT2021-08 head and clothing set; it ended up as a project to get to something like a definitive Huttslayer Leia (see Part V).
Part I (Mr Toys MT2021-08 head and clothing set for S12D body review)
(for Part II, with a different body and head, see here)(for Part III, with the HT head modified, see here)(for Part IV, with the TT head modified, see here)(for Part V, Towards a definitive Huttslayer Leia (?), see here)Mr Toys released its second take of
Princess Leia in her
Return of the Jedi slave Hutt-slayer outfit this year. The promotional photos looked so good, I ended up preordering the set. It arrived today, and I put it on the recommended TBLeague S12D body.
The whole set arrives in a long narrow plastic envelope, with the various items packed in plastic baggies atop a long cardboard black-background information card with a photo of the assembled set. The body is not included, but Mr Toys recommended S12D for its set. This is unfortunately quite tall for Carrie Fisher; S25B would have been more appropriate.
The set consists of the head sculpt (molded plastic with an attached "real hair" weaved braid, "metal" bikini top (made of soft plastic and string), bikini bottom (made of plastic, metal rings, and two pieces of cloth with wires for posing), boots (made of fabric and plastic), two bracelents (one for the upper left arm and another for the right wrist) and a vibro-ax as the sole weapon. This selection matches Mr Toys' earlier version of the set. The vibro-ax is very clean, and larger and more streamlined than Sideshow's version of the weapon that came with their Lando Skiff Guard set.
The clothing works reasonably well with the S12D body, although getting it properly attached presents some challenges: the neck strap of the bikini top is too long, other straps and laces are too short (to look right when tied, but very difficult to tie), and one needs to open and close a metal ring on the bikini bottom to put it on the figure body. All this could have been handled differently. In terms of function, the bikini bottom might have worked better with more metal parts and more rings, to allow it to hang more naturally; as it is, it often rides up or bends in unfortunate ways. It should have been reasonably easy to provide a sort of "underwear" portion by attaching (or pre-planning) a length of cloth connecting the fabric pieces on the bikini bottom.
Apart from the inaccurate choice of intended body, the real disappointment is the head sculpt. It was fairly obvious that the promotional images utilized a prototype based on (modified from) the Hot Toys Bespin or Endor Leia heads. In the end, Mr Toys created a somewhat different head sculpt that is still not quite right. It improved on their first attempt by giving the head a larger forehead and a finer hair sculpt. However, the hair is arguably too tight on the head and lacks sufficient volume to recreate Leia's onscreen appearance; the resulting head possibly looks too small. Moreover, perhaps influenced by the aforementioned Hot Toys head sculpts, Mr Toys gave this head "sideburns," but, unlike the Hot Toys versions and the prototype, made them line the sides of the face rather than stick out. They can be peeled off, but leave behind indentations (grooves) of the face surface, that would require filling-in and repainting. Finally, the facial features do not quite capture the actress' likeness, although it is closer from some angles than others.
Mr Toys has provided a fine head (and hair) sculpt, in itself, but has not captured the likeness entirely successfully, and has fallen far short of the advertised prototype imagery. One advantage of the present head sculpt is that it is a very close match (in most light) for the TBLeague suntan skin tone of the S12D body (at least of the older ones). That was not always the case (especially combining HT Leia heads with TBLeague bodies). An enterprising customizer could probably get a lot more out of this set.
For the sake of comparison, here are several other takes on the character's likeness, alongside this one. Note only two of them have the screen-accurate earrings (an omission perhaps easily solved).
I hope this was useful.
As always, what do you think?
(for Part II, with a different body and head, see here)(for Part III, with the HT head modified, see here)(for Part IV, with the TT head modified, see here)(for Part V, Towards a definitive Huttslayer Leia (?), see here)#productreview #starwars #princess #leia #rotj #jabba #slave #scifi #female 
