This is actually my second crack at this design, the first was kinda mid so I'm not surprised to discover I never even bothered to upload it. The original was made mostly using her Excalibur body with her Juggernaut wave arms, and it just never looked right with the teenage proportions.

This updated version was made using the new Astonishing X-Men figure, with the original Juggernaut wave head (I don't love the Cassaday heads), AoA belt, and Excalibur collar. Shaved down and re-sculpted the neck, and painted.

The design for both versions was based on the Exceptional X-Men series, though the AoA belt is a change of my own. The figure was fairly cheap at the time, and I liked the idea of pulling from every Shadowcat figure.

As an aside, I am so happy the Exceptional series, and this design, came out when it did. I was planning the original custom back when the initial solicits for those books came out, because I was so sick of people putting her back in the standard Black/Yellow outfit that I was planning to design my own costume for the collection. I wanted something more like her Excalibur design, but reflective of her maturity and less... 80s poofy sleeves.

I was still at the early stages of figuring out what I wanted when I came across the solicits, and it was basically everything I wanted. The Black/Blue looks so much better on her, the design calls back to her Excalibur days without being as... 80s, and that black/blue combo really pops against the other X-Men figures without being completely alien.

It also (and I'm not sure if it's intentional or two people drawing from the same well) calls back to X-Men Evolution, which I do appreciate as well. I was planning to use that show as my starting point for my own design, had it come down to that.