I don't know who design the FC female, but that person REALLY needs to take an Anatomy class. I understand that everyone has their own view and biases of the "ideal" female body. I also understand that these figures/dolls were designed with the intention of clothing them so body proportions were slimmed to accommodate this. However, there's no excuse for some of the blatant errors. First off, FC female body is taller than their male counterparts. Look at Phoenix who at 5'6" towers over the 6'3" Captain America. Using a 1:8 scale conversion system, Phoenix has calculated scale size of 6'5" .... that's one tall woman. Second, the designer needs to model these dolls after someone other than Kate Moss. Most Marvel heroines are athletic, well tone and eat more than 2 grains of rice a day. Even clothed, Phoenix, Black Widow and Storm look a little anorexic. However, those mistakes are minor when compared to the arms. In addition to the anorexia, the arms suffer from Simian-like phenotype. Normal anatomy dictates that the length of the arm should a tad more than 1/2 that of the legs (from toes to hips). If you measure these FC bodies you'll see that the proportion is greater than 2/3.

If you've made it this far, don't worry, I do more than rant and rave :-). Below are instructions on how I modified the FC female body to a more acceptable state.

1) The upper arms: cut out roughly 5 mm from the mid-biceps region and added Magic Sculp to build it up. Examine the female upper arm. Unlike males, the female biceps and triceps aren't as well defined or bulky. They flow smoothly from one muscle to the next with minimal definition. The deltoids are well form and prominent, but that dam cheesy ball joint prevents me from doing much there. From a frontal view, try to make the upper arm look somewhat like a dumb bell, thicker at the deltoids and elbows and slimmer in the middle (aka the shape of the humerus bone).

2) The lower arm. I cut off another 5 mm from the mid-forearm region. Again, Magic Sculp was added to smooth out the features. Try to make this area as smooth as possible going from a thick elbow region to a slimmer wrist area. I also filled up those joint holes with Magic sculpt. This not only makes it more pleasing to the eyes, but also functions to tighten the elbow joint.

3) The thighs: the typical woman (maybe I should say typical comic women) has an hourglass figure. There's not much you can do for the pelvis (cursed TB joint system), but you can add to the upper thigh to accentuate the hourglass shape. I added Magic Sculp to sides as well as the back of the thigh. If you examine a well tone athletic girl, you see those quadriceps femoris curves slightly outward right below the gluteus maximus before narrowing inward towards the back of the patella. Of course you'll have to adjust the amount of clay/epoxy added depending upon the outfit of the figure in question. If you constructing a character that wear pants or spandex, take this into consideration and make the thighs about 1.5 - 2 mm thinner than the desired finished size. Spandex or cotton outfits will add the extra bulk. The character's proportions should also be taken into consideration. Obviously Wonder Women and Batgirl have different build so you need to customize each body differently.

I also filled in the joint holes by the knees. Again, this should tighten the knee joints as well.

4) The lower leg: women, even the athletic ones, have smoother gastrocnemius (calves) compared to their male counterparts. Unlike the male calves, the female muscle flows more naturally from the patella to the lower shin area. Again, take into consideration the outfit of your character. If she wears boots make it 1-2 mm thinner. You should also cut off about 0.5" from the lower leg or boots. This will make these bodies more in scale with the FC males. I've adopted a strict 1:8 scale so character like WW will require less cutting than Batgirl or Supergirl. I also added epoxy to eliminated the high heels .... which sane heroine would fight crime wearing high heels ... okay Black Canary does, but she's in a league of her own :-).

5) The torso: okay Toy Biz did a pretty good job with this area. Customize it according to your character's proportions. Obviously Wonder Woman would be different from other female characters. Okay, I better stop before this article gets an R rating .

To summarize, doing these simples modifications, you can make the FC female body looks 100 times better. Remember to compensate for body proportion based on the character as well as their outfits. If she's completely draped in spandex, you'll need to make her a tad bit slimmer. Have fun, experiment and show the customizing world that you're not just limited with what you're given.