Once in a lifetime there comes a figure that must be obtained, at any cost, to you and those around you. Pilfering piggy-banks, selling your crappy napkin-drawings on ebay, who the hell needs a TV anymore, sell that thing! Blow-up your dad's bicycle for insurance money! The most grievous of collateral damage is necessary if it ensures your possession of that figure. This is not that figure. But I suggest blowing-up your dad's ugly moped anyway.

Name: Isadorra of the Ironspynne Clan
Line: 7th Kingdom
Manufacturer: Four Horsemen
Released: Summer 2009
Price: Online: $20.00
Scale: 6.00 in. (figure in 6.15 in. tall)
Accessories: Staff, Sword

     There's no denying this figure's cool-factor. The sculpt doesn't suffer much with the newer articulation of these female 7THK figures, in fact, it improves the sculpt in some ways! Remember how skinny the girl-arms used to be on DCUC 4H figures? The new elbow joints demand beefier biceps while the forearms are still defined.
     Isadorra stands a little over 6 inches, nowhere near the gigantic proportions being mistakenly reported elesewhere (I'm just asking for trouble, aren't I? xD ), about the same as a female DCUC figure. There's an optical illusion with this figure, the legs look LONG, and in turn, the figure itself looks very tall. The skirt makes it look like the legs connect directly to the waist! There are actually some functional joints under there, it's too bad the skirt isn't removeable because it also limits leg-movement.
     The engraved details are remarkably sharp and distinct, the paint makes them outstanding. There are no soft ambiguous blobs or incomprehensible tech-devices sculpted onto the figure, everything looks like something. Well, except for the bony spines, they're painted like bone but have no texture at all. I guess Izzy sucked them smooth before turning them into ornaments. Nice. The chest-armor's design is a little convoluted I think, like a tribal design, where have we seen that before... lol. The bones and face scars make her look like she's in a wild tribe anyway so it works. I'm not sure what kind of earrings she's wearing, they just look like long shiny purple warts coming out of her earlobes, EEEWW! But like I said, everything still looks like something, in this case it's super sparkle warts. Mold-lines are almost non-existant! Almost.
    And just to settle it, the face-sculpts on the Allux and Izzy figures are indeed different, I asked the 4H directly for confirmation. Sculptor Eric Treadaway is responsible for both these lovely ladies, thanks Eric! The face is gorgeous. Remember that hot bitchy chick in high-school that could get with any guy she wanted? Remember how she never seemed to want YOU though? This figure has that chick's face. You hate everything she stands for but you'd still jump her bones at the drop of a hat. She has cool hair too, not a lot of women can pull-off that zombie-cannibal ponytail look.

Sculpt Score: 9 / 10

 

     After months of seeing crappy paint-jobs in-stores on many, many of our once beloved toy-lines, I was blown away by the incredible paint-job on the face of this figure. It expresses contempt, malice, pride, cunning, the list goes on and on, all this on one face, incredible. It's amazing how a little paint can transform similar face-sculpts into completely different people. The black lines are gloss, and she has METALLIC PUPILS! How badass is that, right!? Don't let my crappy pictures fool you, the face is much richer than it appears here.
     The rest of the body is mostly up to snuff, but there is some paint bleed and off-center-ness at the tiny details like the rivets on the boots. This is common to all toy-lines, so we're not gonna freak out about it! I love how most of the paint has a soft matte finish, it makes the figure look hand-crafted and have that "quality custom" feel. The dry-brushing on the boots is half-assed, but they still look good. 

Paint Score: 9 / 10

 

    No, the restricting skirt wasn't taken into consideration for this score, it wouldn't be fair. The figure has almost all the articulation you could want, only missing a swivel at the calves. The way the artic was implemented into the figure makes me giddy as a customizer but a little frowny as a collector. It is VERY easy to disassemble this figure, it's built like SOTA's Street Fighter toys, mostly out of flexible-when-heated plastic (if someone knows the official terms for the kinds of plastics used in figures, let me know so I don't keep sounding like a total idiot, har har). She pops-apart like a ball-tree full of heated sockets. The problem is that all that soft plastic gets unstable after a while, meaning they can get stretched, and even tear, because the disks in the shoulders/hips are also very flexible. Worse, in hot weather you may not be able to stand the figure at all because the ankles will just go limp.
    There's a factory error on my fig on the left wrist-peg, it's squished! So that hand pops-off whenever I try to place something in it. It's annoying, so I just find other stuff to pop in there instead. Hooks, christmas lights, fishing-poles, whatever fits. The shoulders and ankles aren't as pretty as they are on DCUC female figures; the shape is right, the movement is improved, but the articulation is too obvious. Hey, at least the head has a full range of motion, even if it does mean popping her head off once in a while, lol. I believe it's just the hot weather that's screwing with the articulation at the moment, your experiences will vary.
     It's funny that even though the elbows are double-hinged, the upper-hinge is restricted by the sculpt. Fortunately, the small distance it CAN move makes a huge difference in how far the elbow bends, compared to a single hinge. Also, on either side of the Ab-Crunch, there are two caps glued in place. You can remove these caps to disassemble the joint easily (they're glued though).

Articulation Score: 8 / 10

     Oooooh, what happened here? Do you guys remember Gumby? This figure feels like Gumby sometimes, YARRR! Sometimes you want to bend a knee and the whole leg bends awkwardly instead. Sometimes you want to move the arm and the shoulder warps into something resembling chewed bubble-gum. I'ts not pleasant. But do not despair! It IS possible to have fun with this toy! You just need to move into a large meat-locker so the joints won't fall apart, problem solved!
    The weapons are nifty, Isadorra wasn't packed with a sword (factory error), but I have Alluxandra's; They're the same thing. I've got a confession to make, I was making fun of Crawford over at MCWtoys.com because he broke both accessories, the sword and the staff, and chalked it up to the plastic being defective. Yeah right, buddy! Pfft! A few minutes into my maniacal laughter, I snapped the staff at the same area he mentioned. Damn. Karma is a bitter plastic-coated pill to swallow.
     According to my calculations, the plastic is part of the problem, but the main defect here is how the staff is assembled. It's composed of three main pieces, as shown in the picture. They plug into each other with very thin BRITTLE rods. There is nothing to reinforce these connections! It's like connecting two large wooden dowels with a toothpick, you can't seriously expect a sound structure, no matter how much glue you use. What needed to happen here was the connecting rods should have been much thicker, or the holes should be much wider so the pieces can be glued directly to each other, without relying on a little rod at all. So in short, break the damn thing as soon as you get it so you can glue it back together and move on with your life.
     I love chicks with cool scars. Tallulah Black, Cammy, that chick from the Kuchisake-onna movie, HAWT. It bothers me that it doesn't bother me that I like them like that, lol? Anyway, I'm disappointed that I couldn't give Izzy a higher score. 

Fun Score: 7 / 10

 

     Um, $20 (plus like $8 shipping) for a 6-inch figure with brittle accessories isn't too great. If you pre-ordered both Alluxandra and Isadorra, you could get them for $35 a pair, saving you $5, but shipping still puts you over 40 bucks. A stand would have been appreciated, but the packaging is pretty and re-useable. You can display the figure and still be able to store it away in the package with no damage at all. It's a beautiful figure, but you shouldn't have to do repairs to brand new toys...and I just noticed that the right shoulder is broken too. Bummer. 

Value Score: 7 / 10

9 / 10 - Sharp and intricate.

9 / 10 - Silky smooth with small areas in joints missed.

8 / 10 - Excellent amount, but some is disfunctional.

7 / 10 - Everyone digs babes with scars, right?... 

7 / 10 - ...not if they cost 20 bucks!

80 / 100 - This is a Great Toy

A beautiful figure at too high a cost because of the problems included with it. And just so I don't sound like a total jerk, the 4H have already shipped me a replacement sword for Izzy, no charge. Great customer service, they respond to all question no matter how silly. Go ahead, test it out! ;D

-DrNightmare 

P.S. - Sorry about the weird pics everyone, sometime next week I should be up and running with a sexier camera!