WWE Basic Series 70 Carmella figure review

After the first prototype pictures surfaced, I decided I was good on getting the Carmella figure. It looked nothing like the NXT (and now SmackDown Live) Staten Island Princess. And of course I saw her on the pegs and the lack of the hunt convinced me to get her in spite of her issues.

Once I had the figure in hand, I still wasn’t won over, but wanted a Carmella to pair with my Enzo and Big Cass. The power of factions I suppose especially when it convinces me to get a figure that’s far from fabulous.

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Packaging:  This is the regular Basic packaging. I like the prominent position of the NXT colors and the big character portrait. That definitely helps when rifling through the pegs.

The back is just a checklist of the other figures in the wave. That’s a nice touch as well as the note stating what this attire is based on.

Likeness:  I don’t really see Carmella at all in this head sculpt. Carmella is the opposite of unattractive. This sculpt doesn’t capture either her smiling or serious look well at all.

I think one of the main issues is that the sculpt doesn’t nail Carmella’s exact mean girl smirk. This figure looks like she’s deciding on which smoothie to order. It lacks the confidence and cockiness I associate with Carmella. Giving her a slightly open mouth smile like the package might have helped as well.

So, I don’t complain the whole time, the hair is really exceptional. It’s layered precisely how Carmella keeps it, which isn’t the case with most of the women wrestlers.

Mattel tried to shortcut Carmella’s knee pads by painting her lower knee area black. That works fine right up until the joint making for an ugly connection.

 

Scale:  Carmella is 5’5”. That puts her taller than the 5’1” Alexa Bliss and shorter than the 5’6” Bayley and 5’10” Charlotte Flair. Carmella is scaled right to Alexa, but Bayley and Nikki Bella are a little off.

 

Paint:  I’m not convinced the sculpt is fully to blame for the sketchy likeness. The paint deserves some of the credit too. Carmella uses heavy makeup with heavier eyebrows, huge fake eyelashes and wide eyeliner. It gives her eyes a certain pop that the figure completely lacks. I still think Mattel needs to just completely redo the head sculpt, but better makeup paint apps would help a lot.

Carmella’s outfit is solid. Mattel is improving on the outfit lettering even with white. Carmella’s top is painted on. This looks better here than the clumsy one size fits all tank top the females typically get. The tank top is pretty involved with the red to white, lettering, leopard print and red lining. That’s tough, but Mattel got that down great.

 

The tights are almost as good. The Fabulous lettering is great, but the white lining is sloppy. Even the boots have strong paint work with the leopard print.

 

Articulation:  The not-a-Diva articulation continues to hurt the female figures. It’s the same with almost every figure and the complaints remain. Double jointed elbows and knees would help immensely and an ab crunch would also help. Carmella’s hair naturally hinders side to side movement to a degree.

Carmella has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee
• ankle

Accessories:  Carmella is in the running for an Elite figure over on WWE.com. She would benefit from the Elite treatment so she could get her leather jacket and hat. Nikki Bella got a unique hat with her Basic and while the reasons are obvious, it’s odd Mattel didn’t include one with her too.

 

Worth it?  Basic figures are $10. The female figures are pretty much priced correctly with what you’re getting.

Rating: 5 out of 10

I’m hoping Carmella gets another shot at a figure. This head sculpt is pretty terrible and she definitely needs her ring gear.

 

Where to get it?  Target is the best bet here. Toys R Us and Wal-Mart will eventually get these in as well. As always you can check Amazon to spare yourself the driving around.