Marvel Legends X-Men’97 Goblin Queen review

Goblin Queen was one of the triumvirate of terror featured in probably my favorite X event, Inferno. Hasbro teased a Goblin Queen when announcing the Ghost Rider Engine of Vengeance HasLab, but it was disappointingly a super modern (read overly PC) version of Madelyn Prior. Ironically Madelyn would be featured in X-Men ‘97 in a very brief, but memorable Inferno homage.

This gave Hasbro an excuse to get another crack at Goblin Queen in an even more sanitized version for retail. With zero likelihood of a comic accurate Inferno-era Goblin Queen, the X-Men ‘97 figure will have to serve as good enough. Let’s see if she’s worthy of a throne or if I feel completely burned.

Packaging: Hasbro went with a quasi-retro style for this line with windowed packaging and an animated image of Maddy. The window shows off all her accessories and the paint job even if Maddy is not a figure that would ever have numerous options on the peg to determine the best paint job.

I wish this series had a bio or some sort of write-up to further explain the characters.

Likeness: Goblin Queen mostly looks on model from the cartoon series. Mostly.

For a frame of reference, Maddy’s original costume covered her neck and sleeves with her top ending around her under boob. She basically wore a loin cloth skirt and tattered thigh high boots. In full fairness, the HasLab version was pretty close save the cut and crop of her top.

Given this is based on Goblin Queen’s look from the cartoon series, this wasn’t going to be nearly as titillating.

She’s basically wearing a corset with a cloak held together by a jeweled clasp. Even with the softened “animated” hair, it’s a nicely done sculpt with a better flow than a lot of ML female hair sculpts. There’s some bounce to it without looking like a hairpiece.

I dig the head sculpt as well as it gives Madelyn a sinister sneer. This is a one-off sculpt as the ML team actually sculpted the reference material’s corset lines. The thigh high boots basically start just below her hips, so they look a little silly despite the ML Warbird having more exposed skin. I wonder if the hips from Warbird would work on Goblin Queen?

Her cape isn’t a tattered mess like the original, but it does have some unique folds and points to make it look like a demon-influenced design.

Scale:  She’s got those pesky high heels, which while accurate, raise her height beyond what she should clock in at especially compared to Cyclops or Havok.

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Paint:  Goblin Queen is one of those cases where the ML team got more panicked than Disney. On X-Men ’97, her skin is exposed in the small section between her corset and boots. The ML team opted to paint that a lighter shade of black almost as if Madelyn is wearing pantyhose.

I do appreciate that the X-Men ’97 design gave Goblin Queen those opera style gloves. They’re done via paint, but they look fine. Ditto for her black fingernails, which is a nice touch. The jewel paintwork is crisp as well.

Her hair could use a bit of a wash, but I like the orange red hue. Madelyn gets a pinker skin tone than most figures, which is interesting. Maybe if you set her against a fiery backdrop, it would be more fitting? The face printing paintwork is outstanding. I really love her blood red lipstick.

Articulation:  Madelyn didn’t always lead the charge as Goblin Queen instead having her demon armies fight on her behalf while she manipulated the X-Men and X-Factor into combat. On X-Men ’97 she was more active, firing energy bolts at the X-Men.

Still, as a gesturing character it’s nice that she has the updated articulation scheme with bicep and double-jointed elbows. They definitely add to her poseability. She’s also got great range with the upper torso joint.

Goblin Queen has:

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

Her heels basically make it ridiculously challenging to keep her to stand without the use of a stand. And as always, I tend to use the McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse stands, which keep most figures up with no problem.

Accessories:  Goblin Queen has a strong amount of accessories.

She has a swappable set of fists and the translucent energy swirls that seem to get tossed in with any magic users.

She has another fun accessory with baby Nathan. That’s a great inclusion and will be of great use for any Inferno diorama shots. This is largely a reuse of the baby Nightcrawler that came with the VHS Mystique figure (available on Amazon) with a new head sculpt.

The X-branded blanket is solid. Did Professor X contract out with Amazon?

Worth it?  Goblin Queen goes for the standard price of $24.99. I got her from GameStop so I could lower her down to $20. Considering she tends to go for more than that — nearly double — I won’t complain about that price at all.

Rating: 9 out of 10

This isn’t the comic book Goblin Queen, but it’s likely the only option we’ll get for Madelyn in figure form. If the legs were painted more accurate to the cartoon, this would be a solid stand-in. My biggest beef is the challenge in getting her to stand.

Where to get it?  I grabbed X-Men’97 Goblin Queen from GameStop, but she’s also available from Amazon.

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