>>11426614Her return happened after all season 2's toys had been released, so there wouldn't have been an opportunity to release her then, but not releasing her in the movie or season 3 lines was baffling. The 5" movie villain line gave us another Zedd with the same inaccurate sculpt as his season 2 toy, making it a completely useless figure for everyone who already bought him. The season 3 line had five monsters of the day over Rita, one of which ended up being cancelled.
The only sense I can make of the Rita prototype not being included in either of those assortments is that they were saving her to be an incentive for the cancelled Lord Zedd's Dome of Doom playset, similar to how Alpha-5 was included with the Power Dome. We've never seen physical photos, but the playset got far enough along to have an assortment number, MSRP, and case count.
By the time the playset was cancelled I guess it was too late for Rita, but I have to imagine they already knew the playset was cancelled when Witchblade was cancelled, since Witchblade was photographed and included in the catalog and on packaging, and the Zedd playset wasn't. One would think they could have slotted the Rita they knew would no longer be included with a playset in her place, but they didn't.
Then there was the 2017 debacle. A new 5" Rita was made and going to be included in a Then & Now 2-pack. The movie bombed though, and that second assortment of 2-packs which would have included Rita never got released. Bandai could have released her the following year in their Good vs Evil 2-packs, which is what they ended up doing with two unreleased Ninja Steel villains, but rather than finally releasing 5" Rita in one of the other packs, they just re-released two Dino Charge villains.
Sucks that it took 31 years, but if nothing else, I'm grateful for Playmates' line righting that wrong and finally giving Rita her 5" action figure.
