One of the great things about the modern collectibles market is it allows me to talk about video games on my Toy Blog. From Street Fighter to Golden Axe, Mega Man to King of Fighters and even Metal Slug, there’s a lot of crossover from video games to action figures. But, it’s rare that I get to talk about one of my favorite modern video game platformer series here on FFZ, and that’s because the spunky Half-Genie Hero, Shantae, hasn’t had a lot of merch beyond some extras packed into the limited edition releases of the games. Indeed, the closest thing to a toy or collectible of her in my collection is a Pop! Vinyl, and I only buy those things if it’s my only option. There have been some garage kits, which I believe come unpainted and my skills just aren’t up to the task, so I’ve passed on those. It’s kind of a crime that she hasn’t had a Figma or Figuarts or even a Prize Figure, but maybe one day. Anyway, Developer WayForward has produced five games in the series so far, with the first landing on the Gameboy Color about 22 years ago. Since then her adventures have reached a whole host of gaming platforms, all packed with her beaming personality, addictive Metroidvania style gameplay, and a host of colorful characters and dry wit. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend these games, and they can be had digitally on most modern gaming platforms. At some point, maybe I’ll showcase all the physical editions of the games I own, including collectors editions, steelbooks, and the like, but I’ll save all that for another day. Today is all about this 20th Anniversary statue that I’ve been waiting for for what feels like forever!

Now, I’m a physical kind of guy when it comes to my games and Shantae’s games have all been released and/or re-released physically by Limited Run Games, the company which also produced the statue we’re checking out today. The statue went up for pre-order two years ago and finally arrived at my doorstep this past week. And while I am absolutely chuffed to finally have her, I really need to stress that nothing I say today is meant to be an endorsement of LRG as a company. The more I’ve learned about them, the less I’ve wanted to do business with them. Yes, I’ve swallowed my morals in order to get some games physically. I’m happy I did, but at the same time not proud of it. But with this statue in hand, I’m at the point where LRG and I can part ways, as I’m officially done doing business with them. And yes, that includes not getting a physical release of the next Shantae game from them. It’s fine. I’ll support the game digitally. But, it’s not for me to tell anyone what companies they should patronize or shouldn’t, and I’m not going to sully this happy Shantae Statue Day with a lot of negative talk. Do your research and make your own decisions!

OK, enough preamble. Shantae comes in a very nice art box with some photos of the statue and some of its features. One side of the box illustrates the ability to take the acrylic standee figures that came with each of the games’ collectors edition and plug them into the statue base and light them up! Alas, my collectors editions are all sealed with the standees inside and I have no plans on opening them any time soon. Thankfully, the option existed to get a set of game box style acrylics to take their place and we’ll check out how that looks at the end. The back of the box has a heartfelt message from Shantae’s creators, The Bozons. Inside the box, the statue comes fully assembled and enclosed in a clear plastic clamshell and measures about 12-inches, but a decent amount of that is base.

And she looks fantastic! I’ll confess that I was a little concerned over what the quality was going to be like, as even some companies that produce statues regularly can be hit and miss when it comes to delivering the goods. Shantae is cast in PVC so she’s more akin to a scaled anime figure than she is most collectible statues. Most of the colors are achieved through the plastic and that means clean lines and colors that really pop, but not much in the way of complex shading. And that’s OK, because it really accentuates the animated style of the character. The red of her top, shoes, and billowy genie pants looks great alongside the bright yellowish gold of her arm bracers, and there’s a bit of black to keep things grounded. The skin tone is nice and even and not at all waxy, which can be a problem in some of the less premium figures on the market.

And I have to give a shout out to the way they did the pants! Shantae’s puffy genie pants are actually cast in semi-translucent plastic and you can actually see her legs inside of them. That is a really cool touch and something that I can’t ever remember seeing on another PVC figure like this. Bravo!

The pose is sheer perfection, with Shantae caught posing in mid dance with her purple hair swirling around her in a long, tapered whip, and her fingers interlocked behind her. The composition captures her two signature moves: Dancing to morph herself into an animal and her ability to use her copious coif as a whip to strike down enemies. When viewed from the front, the figure really does look like a perfect 2D rendering of the character brought to life in 3D, and that’s about the highest compliment I can pay a statue.

And the portrait is just as on point as the rest of the figure. Her giant blue eyes are perfectly printed and vibrant, her mouth is agape with glee, and she has two golden earrings dangling from her pointed ears. It’s actually kind of fun to watch them jostle when you move the statue. If I had one criticism it would be that the seams where the tufts of hair sprout away are pretty obvious. It would have been nice to see those gaps a little tighter.

Included in the box is a clear plastic support rod for her hair. It’s not required to display the statue, but it might be a good idea in order to keep the hair from drooping over time. It stays in place simply by friction and definitely adds a lot of support. It can also be positioned directly behind the figure so it’s not an eyesore. Totally optional, but I’ll likely use it.

The base isn’t the most stylish thing around, as it’s just a circular black pedastal with nestled in a brown ring. The Shantae logo is sculpted onto the front and there’s a USB power cable that connects to the back for the light up feature.

And here are the acrylic pieces that came with my package, and I honestly can’t remember if these were an optional extra or if they were included with every statue. The set came bundled together in a small plastic bag with each piece having protective plastic overlays that need to be peeled off. Each square piece of acrylic has the box art from the five games printed in some rich colors with a tab to plug them into the ring around the base. Yes, I would have preferred if they didn’t print Limited Run Games on every single one of these and would have much rather had just the box art, but it is what it is. I think the statue looks great displayed without these, but they are a neat extra.

The slots are designed so that one acrylic goes directly above the Shantae plaque with two evenly spaced to the left and right sides. The tabs and slots are interchangeable, so you can place them in whatever order you want. Here I chose with the first game front and center, the next two on either side, and finally the two most recent releases toward the back.

Plug in the power source and you get an ethereal green glow to each of the acrylics. It’s bright enough to be seen in a lit room, but it looks really cool in a dim environment. There’s no On/Off button and there’s no battery to charge. Plug it in and it stays lit. Unplug it and the lights go out. I will say that I think these box art squares look better to me than the pictures I’ve seen of the standees. It just looks more uniform, but that’s just my personal taste. I will likely leave the acrylics in place, but I doubt I will have it lit very often.

After two years it’s so cool to finally have this in hand and I will confess that it was worth the wait. My little Shantae shrine has been mostly a display of the various boxed copies and collectors editions with the exception of the Pop! Vinyl and a mini arcade cab that LRG released that plays the video and music from the intro of one of the games. Needless to say this statue will make for an excellent centerpiece to tie it all together. The statue was offered for $160 and I think it was well worth it. And naturally it’s already going on Ebay for nearly twice that much in some cases. Who knows how many were actually produced, as it was an open pre-order item, but either way I’m just glad to have a great representation of the character on my shelf!