Mar 18 2015

Tekken: Asuka Kazama Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

A couple weeks back I featured Jaycee from Koto’s Tekken Bishoujo line and lamented the fact that I had to start grabbing the discontinued Tekken ladies up before they get too pricey on the secondary market. Asuka was one of the ones that I really wanted when she was released but I had so many other things vying for my dollars I had to put her off and she was rapidly beginning to climb out of the price range ($100+) that I am comfortable paying for these gals. I try not to resort to Ebay for my Bishoujos, especially if they’re not new, but this was a case where I had to take an opportunity and nab her when I could. Luckily she was still boxed and in excellent condition.

And speaking of boxes, there’s Asuka’s packaging. It’s very similar to what we saw with Jaycee and Christie Monteiro before her. The box is mostly black as opposed to the white Koto uses for the comic based characters. You get some great shots of the statue as well as the beautiful artwork that inspired it. While Asuka originally hails from Tekken 5, this particular piece is based on her appearance in TekkenTag Tournament 2 and features the game’s logo on the box. The back of the box shows a teaser for the next statue, which happens to be Jaycee, the one I looked at last time. As I said, this statue came to me second hand and despite being a little shelfworn, the box is in pretty good shape. Asuka requires no assembly, nor does she come with any extra bits or bobs. You just take her out of the box, unwrap the plastic, and she’s ready for display.

I absolutely love the simplicity of this piece and the fact that it in no way sacrifices any of the sexy flash that I’ve come to expect from my Bishoujo statues. Asuka’s brash, arrogant, and playful style is wonderfully conveyed as she throws her hip to the side, winks and offers up a salute. Even if you knew nothing about Ms. Kazama, this pose would tell you everything about her personality. I often go back and forth over whether I prefer my Bishoujo poses to be “action shots”or just shameless mugging for the camera, but this one certainly champions the later.

The previous Tekken statues that I featured here on FFZ showcased some pretty crazy and complex outfits, but Asuka’s couldn’t be further from that trend. Her one-piece (for lack of a better term) is zipped down to the belt and cast off behind her to reveal just her sporty bikini top, which ironically also has its own zipper, which is also zipped down to the bottom. This is a good news, bad news scenario, folks. If you’re an ass-man, Asuka ain’t gonna do much for you because of that damn jacket. If cleavage is your game, however, Asuka certainly came to play. Proportionally speaking, Asuka probably has more covering her arms and legs than anywhere else. She sports a set of boots with shin pads and fingerless gloves with elbow pads.

The coloring offers up some blue, gray, white, a little teal and black. I find it to be a pleasing pallet, although while there’s a nice bit of gloss to Ms. Kazama top, you don’t get that same contrast of high gloss latex and soft skin tones that characterize so many of Koto’s Bishoujo line. The skin tone’s here, on the other hand, are executed particularly well. The use of shading on her midriff, neck, and cleavage all looks fantastic.

The portrait here follows suit with being rather simple and yet so good. Koto usually likes to go crazy with long windblown hair, and Asuka’s rather short coif robbed them of the opportunity here. That’s OK, though, I dig the short haircut and they still managed to get in that tapered transparent look that they love so much. With one eye closed and the other shrouded by hair, you don’t get the same clarity of peepers on this statue as most, but I’m still in love with this portrait.

As is par for the course, Asuka comes on a clear disk stand, which can be opened and customized with different art transparencies or just left blank. As I bought this statue second hand, mine only came with one transparency, but I doubt there was anything that I would have chosen to display her with over this wonderful piece of art. It’s nice to know that if I ever get tired of looking at the boobs on the statue, I can look at the ones on the base art. Who loves ya, kids? Kotobukiya does! [I actually didn’t notice until after I shot the pictures that the previous owner of the statue put all three transparencies into the base. If you look closely, you can see the signature overlay and the title overlay under the character art overlay. 10 Points to me for getting all three included, but minus 100 points for being too stupid to notice! -FFZ]

I’m always thrilled to add a new Bishoujo statue to my collection, but this was a special case because not owning Asuka was beginning to worry me, and that brings me to the subject of cost. This is usually the part of the feature where I say what a great value the Bishoujo statues are, and in fairness, when Asuka first hit the shelves at an MSRP of around $60, she was indeed a great value. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find her selling new for under $100, although in fairness she is close to three years old now. I grabbed mine from a good home on Ebay for about $85 shipped, and I still manage to feel like I got a pretty solid deal, especially considering I spend about that same amount for DC Collectible’s cold cast porcelain Cover Girls, and I’d readily debate that Koto’s pieces are nearly always superior. Either way, I can’t put a price on peace of mind, and knowing that Asuka is finally on my shelf does indeed give me plenty of that.

Mar 4 2015

Tekken: Jaycee Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I’m not proud to admit that I’ve been neglecting Kotobukiya’s Tekken series of Bishoujo statues. It hasn’t been intentional, but Koto is releasing so many of these damned things that I have to have prioritize. When I’m presented with characters from Marvel, DC, and now Street Fighter, Tekken has fallen down toward the bottom of the list. I have been trying to remedy that recently, especially with some of these statues starting to creep up in value on the secondary market. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have picked up Christie Monteiro when she first came out as now she’s commanding upward of $180 in some reselling circles. I was crazy into Tekken 3 and 4 back in the day, but I have long since stopped following the franchise with any real gusto. Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from wanting to pick up the statues and that brings us to today’s feature, Bishoujo Jaycee. I believe Julia Chang first appeared in 2012’s Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a game that is sitting on my shelf, but hasn’t spent a lot of time in my PS3. Needless to say I’m not all that familiar with the character, but she’s a Bishoujo Tekken gal and that’s good enough for me.

The box is right in line with all of Koto’s Bishoujo offerings. You get a big window in the front and smaller windows on the top and side panel to let some light in. You can get a little peek at the statue inside, and in this case the extra pieces that come with Jaycee. Unlike the predominantly white boxes used for the Marvel and DC statues, Koto has opted to go with a black deco for the Tekken pieces. Finally, you get some gorgeous artwork by Shunya Yamashiti and the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 logo on the front and back. It’s a fairly westernized box with most of the text appearing in English.

Jaycee comes more or less assembled and ready to go. She is attached to her base, although she is removable if you so desire. Her pony tail has to be pegged into the back of her head and I had a wee bit of difficulty getting it to peg in, but I eventually got there. Aside from the alternate masked portrait, which we’ll get to in a little bit, she has a mask, which she can hold in her right hand or be placed on the base and it’s is a very nice accessory if you choose to go with the unmasked portrait. And with all that out of the way, let’s see how she looks…

Oh yeah, I can dig it! Jaycee has a very specific pose, which in turn is clearly intended to be viewed from a specific angle. Some may be put off by that, but there’s something to be said for having that one intended sweet spot in a statue’s composition. In this case, she’s best viewed slightly from behind with her head turned and looking over her right shoulder. If a nice tushie is your thing, you shouldn’t have a problem with the view. She has a very wide stance, standing up on her toes, left hand proudly planted on her hip, and her ponytail flowing outward in the breeze. The pose lends itself to the artwork very well, but that’s not to say it isn’t worthwhile to check her out from all the other angles, because a lot of beautiful work went into her costume.

Hailing from Arizona, Jaycee’s Southwestern flare is represented in her luchador costume. In this case, it’s more like luchador lingerie with a pinch of S&M thrown in. Her delightfully skimpy one-piece is held on by leather straps and yet it’s also laced up the back with some feathery, frilly bits around the shoulders. Her long gloves include straps around her wrists and a pair of generous elbow guards. The outfit is rounded out by a pair of thigh-high boots and holy crap it must take her forever to lace those babies up! The coloring on the costume makes for a very striking piece. You get a pearlescent silver mixed with purple and some blue piping and a little black thrown in for good measure. Most of the costume has a subtle glossy finish to it, which contrasts nicely with the soft matte tones of her skin.

You do indeed get two portraits with the statue, masked and unmasked. I’ll probably be going with the unmasked look most of the time, which was my focus for most of the pictures. Why? Mainly because this way you can see her face and also see the mask as she’s holding it. It’s kind of the best of both worlds. She has a pretty face with the usual soft features and her big, beautiful eyes are a gorgeous amber color. The only thing that throws me a bit is the darker red paint on her bottom lip. It looks to me like she’s sticking her tongue out, but I think it’s just supposed to be a little pouty. As usual, Koto works their magic with the hair by having it gradually turn transparent toward the edges, an effect that I always appreciate.

When you swap the head, you do have to swap the ponytail too, which worked a lot better for me the second time around. The exposed parts of her face are a good match for the other head and the wild design of the mask coupled with the same silver, purple, and blue does a nice job of balancing out the costume. Jaycee really does look great with her mask on and this may be a statue that I wind up actually swapping out the head every so often.

Koto has been using clear bases for their Tekken and Street Fighter statues and Jaycee is no exception. The bottom of the base can be pulled out and you can customize your statue with your choice of the included transparent inserts. You get a signature insert and two with character art, one masked and one unmasked. As long as I’m going with the unmasked head, I’ll probably go with the masked artwork just to mix things up. I’ve been warming up to using the fan art for these because I think it really dresses up the base and compliments the statue beautifully. As for the clear plastic bases, they do tend to show scratches easily, which is disappointing. When I removed my Christie Montiero to shoot with Jaycee, I noticed some scratches on the bottom of her base and that piece has done nothing but stand on my shelf and get picked up every now and again to be admired.

And so here we have another great effort by Koto. Jaycee’s design and sculpt are fantastic and the paintwork is pretty much flawless. I believe Jaycee was the fourth release in Koto’s Tekken sub-series, but as I mentioned earlier, she’s only my second. I was lucky enough to grab Jaycee at her original retail of around fifty bucks and getting her on my shelf has given me just the push I needed to start picking up the rest of the Tekken gals before they start creeping any higher in price. I’ve targeted Asuka for my next purchase, as she’s already commanding upward of $100 in a lot of circles and based solely on the promotional images and reviews I’ve seen, I’ve just got to have her!

Feb 9 2015

DC Comics: Batgirl Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I’ve only been into statues for about four years now. It’s an aspect of my collecting that still takes a back seat to action figures, but it’s been a growing percentage of my collecting budget ever since. I didn’t pick up my first Bishoujo statue until sometime in 2011 and after I got hooked on this buxom plastic crack, I suddenly realized that there were a number of statues in the line that had come and gone and were now only available at crazy high prices on the secondary market. It’s an old story for collectors, getting into a line late and regretting those pieces that you’ll likely never own. And man, the Bishoujo line has a lot of them: Emma Frost, Rogue, Psylocke, Scarlet Witch, and Phoenix, to name a few. And also Batgirl. While I don’t recall Batgirl ever reaching the crazy prices of Rogue, she still commanded a price that was beyond what I was willing to go for. And now Kotobukiya has re-issued her and she’s finally on my shelf.

Batgirl comes in a window box that should be readily familiar to any collector of this line. You get a large window in front and smaller ones on the top and side to let some light in. As always, this arrangement gives you a glimpse of what you’re getting, but she’s wrapped in plastic, so you really need to bust her out of there to get a good look. The box is mostly white and includes some great full color art from Shunya Yamashita. I particularly like the image on the side panel where Batgirl’s cape is illustrated in the foreground and obscures some of the text in the background.

What’s bugging the hell out of me is the Coming Soon: Catwoman thing on the bottom of the back panel. Of course, Koto always has a look at an upcoming release here, but in this case what we’re seeing is most likely because of a reuse of the Batgirl box. I’m pretty sure Koto has gone on record a few times that they have no plans to re-release Catwoman, but then I never thought we’d see Batgirl again, so maybe it’s still possible. Anyway, I believe Batgirl was the 6th statue released in this line, if you don’t count variants, and I think she may been the first DC Comic character to get Koto’s Bishoujo treatment. She was also available in a black costumed variant, which followed the original blue. The statue comes out of the box fully assembled and ready to go, so let’s check her out.

Dear God, I love these statues! One of my favorite things about a lot of Koto pieces is their ability to convey energy and movement in a static form and that’s certainly the case with Batgirl here. Her pose is pretty simple, she’s got one foot up on a very “Gotham-Style” gargoyle, but it’s the spectacular twirl of her cape that makes the composition here stand out. It’s fanning out all around her and it just looks absolutely stunning. Standing fully erect (ahem), Batgirl stands roughly shoulder to shoulder with most of the other statues in the line, although you could argue she looks a wee bit more demure when displayed next to the likes of Huntress or Power Girl.

Newcomers to the Bishoujo line may find this Batgirl rather tame by comparison to more recent releases. The line has always been about pretty women in tight outfits, but it’s become quite the gratuitous T&A show in recent years. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but Batgirl certainly represents a time when the line conveyed a lot more subtlety. Don’t get me wrong, this Batgirl is still dead sexy and her costume still looks like it’s painted on, but it’s not as overtly in-your-face sexualized as say a Starfire, or Spider-Girl, or Powergirl. There’s also a lot less skin than some. Indeed, the motion that Barbara is making with her cape actually obscures her chest almost completely. Although it’s a nice counterbalance that the same motion also serves to showcase her fabulous butt.

The bulk of Batgirl’s outfit is pretty simple, at least the bodysuit part of it, so most of the sculpting here went into the motion of her cape, as well as the belt, gloves, and boots. And, of course, let’s not forget the portrait. Barbara has her head slightly lowered with her red hair escaping from her hood and flowing about her. It’s a pretty simple face sculpt, although the eyes are more defined on this piece and given a bit more depth and I like it a lot.

Batgirl’s costume is predominantly painted with a charcoal paint that somehow manages to be both metallic and matte at the same time. There’s a dull sheen to it that contrasts nicely with the slightly richer gold and the brilliantly blue glossy cape and cowl. And oh god, is the blue on this statue gorgeous! I think the last time I was this impressed by a shade of paint was the red used for Bishoujo Spider-Girl’s outfit. The blue here is so rich and vibrant and manages to capture that new car finish level of brilliance. As is usually the case with Koto’s pieces, the paint on this statue is absolutely flawless. The lines are sharp and there’s no slop to be found anywhere.

The base is a simple black disc with the gargoyle for Batgirl to practice her best Captain Morgan pose on. It’s a hideous little beastie with its tongue sticking out and some really detailed sculpting, especially on the backs of its wings. It’s pretty convincing as a piece of granite done in plastic and it contrasts quite nicely with the smooth sheen of Batgirl’s attire.

This one was a long time coming and after a long time scouring Ebay and Amazon and hoping against hope I’d find a deal, all to no avail, it’s awesome to finally have Bishoujo Batgirl on my shelf. She’s absolutely gorgeous and I’d rank her among some of this line’s best work. What’s crazy about this release is that with an MSRP of around $50 she’s hitting most retailers a good ten to fifteen dollars under what most current releases in this line are starting at. It’s still kind of early to hope that his release will open the floodgates to reissues of the other expensive early Bishoujos, but it certainly does present some possibilities. And even if this is a one-shot deal, it’s still nice to have a statue in my collection that I probably would not have otherwise gotten hold of.

Dec 23 2014

DC Comics: Starfire Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

BISHOUJO! Y’all know I love it and it’s been a couple of months since I last checked in on this magnificent line of sexy statues by the great peeps at Kotobukiya. Over the last few months, we’ve seen some amazing teaser artwork and a number of finished pieces coming down the line, but today’s entry is one that I was very excited about because Koriand’r was practically born to be in this line of statues. Indeed, it’s hard to believe it took Koto this long to get around to giving her the Bishoujo makeover. I’m really anxious to get this piece out of the box, so let’s just jump right in, shall we?

If you have any experience with this line than Starfire’s packaging should be readily familiar. You get a mostly white, window box with some glorious and colorful character art by Shunya Yamashita. The Bishoujo boxes vary in size depending on the composition of the individual statues, but I’d say Starfire’s is slightly larger than most. There’s a large window on the front and smaller ones on the top and right side panels to let some light in and give you a tease of what’s inside the box.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a piece of Shunya Yamashita’s art that I didn’t love, but this one definitely has to be one of my favorites. I mean it’s just absolutely gorgeous. Can the actual statue inside possibly live up to this? We’re about to find out.

Oh, my! Starfire comes out of the box all ready for display. You don’t even have to plug her into the base because… well, she doesn’t really have one. I’ll come back to that in a bit, but let’s start off with the composition. While Koto’s Bishoujo statues have featured many different styles and poses over the years, it’s hard to forget that the foundation of this series has always been one of pure cheesecake and Starfire’s statue embraces that idea wholeheartedly. This here is a good old fashioned T&A show and Starfire looks rather proud of that fact. The young princess from Tamaran is leaning forward on a strategically placed outcropping of alien rock with one foot on the ground and the other bent up behind her. With derriere jutting out prominently behind her and chest squeezed together between her arms, she gazes off to the side with an expression that redefines the word coy. If you’ve been reading Red Hood & The Outlaws then I think you’ll agree that every aspect of this statue fits the current take on Starfire’s character perfectly.

Before I get into the particulars of the costume, or at least what little there is of it, something must be said about how exquisitely Koto tackled Starfire’s hair. These statues have almost always featured the dramatic windblown look when dealing with the subjects’ hair and in this case Starfire gave them a chance to run absolutely wild with it. And yes, the results are quite awesome. The translucent orange hair beautifully frames her face and proceeds to snake down and around the left side of her body and wrapping around to end in curls at the front of the statue’s feet. It adds a wonderful sense of energy to what is an otherwise fairly static pose and the direction of the hair is strategically designed so as not to cover up anything, um… important.

Speaking of covering things up, Starfire’s trademark outfit does very little of that. In fact the bulk of her outfit comes from her thigh high boots and arm bracers. The rest amounts to little more than a very revealing space swimsuit, which seems barely up to the task of containing Starfire’s rather expansive assets. The outfit is painted with a striking iridescent purple with red metallic stones at the tops of her boots as well as in her collar and arm bracers. The purple sheen of her costume contrasts beautifully with the soft orange tones of her alien skin. I will point out that there are a few small areas where the paint lines between the costume and skin aren’t quite as immaculate as I’m used to seeing on the statues in this line, but I’m really nitpicking here, because it’s still far better than the quality of paint I’ve seen on far more expensive statues produced by other companies. Also, these fleeting areas aren’t in prominant locations, so you really need to look to find them.

Last, but not least, I’m very happy with the way the portrait turned out. I’ve commented before that there are some characters that just aren’t suited to the Bishoujo art style and it takes a lot of effort to make it work (I’m still debating whether or not I will pick up the She-Hulk Bishoujo. I almost never skip these releases, but I’m not sold on her yet). Koriand’r, however, is just perfectly suited to the look. I’m absolutely in love with what they did with her eyes, right down to the emerald paint. And just look at her perfect little mouth with lips slightly parted to flash a glimpse of her white teeth. Wonderful stuff! Ok, thanks for humoring me. You can now go back to looking at her butt and ta-ta’s again.

As I mentioned earlier, the statue doesn’t really feature a base, only the rocky formation that she’s leaning on. The rock formation is well done and it reminds me of the deliciously retro styrofoam rocks that were used as set dressing on a lot of the Classic Star Trek episodes. When she came out of the box, Starfire’s right foot featured a clear plastic support, but oddly enough all it seems to do is throw off the statue’s balance. Take it off and Starfire stands perfectly fine on the shelf. I can’t help but wonder why that piece was even included since it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about Starfire not having any base at all, but once I got her on the shelf containing my DC Bishoujo’s I found myself totally fine with it. In fact, I kind of appreciate the economy of space it provides, especially when looking at how ridiculously large the base is on my Ghostbusters Bishoujo Lucy statue.

The prices on these statues have been fluctuating a bit between releases, with some shipping in the $50 range and others creeping up as high as $70. Starfire landed at $65, which seems to be the new average, at least for the statues that are shipping and pre-ordering now. Considering how tough it is to find a decent looking statue these days at under $100, I’m still totally comfortable with the retail on these beauties. In fact, I probably would have been just as happy with this piece if I had been forced to pay a bit more, but let’s not tell Kotobukiya that, eh? The box previews Batwoman as a forthcoming release, and I’ve already seen final pictures of the Jubilee Bishoujo. My next acquisition in the line, however, should be rolling in early next month and she is kind of a special one that raises some interesting questions about the line. It’s Batgirl and she is a reissue of a statue that has been out of circulation for a little while.

Sep 29 2014

Street Fighter: Cammy Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

In their never ending (and hugely successful) campaign to separate me from all my monies, Kotobukiya has expanded their line of Bishoujo statues to include the Street Fighter franchise. Their first release was Chun-Li and she was absolutely fantastic. I think their second choice was an obvious one. It had to be Cammy. Now as much as I love Chun-Li, Cammy and me, we got a much stronger bond. You see, I don’t only know her from Street Fighter but also from the ludicrous amount of time I’ve put into playing as her in Cannon Spike on the Dreamcast. Dear god, I love that game so much that just by mentioning it I’m required to summon all my willpower not to go play it right now. Ok, hang on… I’ll be right back.

What? No, I wasn’t playing Cannon Spike! I went to take pictures of the package. And there it is! It seems as if Koto has been reserving their white boxes for the comic book ladies and going with these black boxes for their peripheral lines like Street Fighter and Tekken. I kind of prefer the white because it makes all that gorgeous artwork stand out more and I think it accentuates the statue inside a little better, but that’s all just a matter of personal taste. Aside from the coloring of the box, everything else here should be instantly familiar to any Bishoujo collector. You get a generous window on the front and smaller ones on the top and side panels. The box is decked out all around with the gorgeous character art of Shunya Yamashita and the back shows a shot of the actual statue. The coming soon shot on the back is none other than Juri. I gotta be honest, I’m surprised that their third outing for the line isn’t Sakura, but I’m down with Juri too, especially since we’ve already had a look at the statue.

And there she is… absolutely gorgeous. Let’s kick things off with composition. Cammy assumes a wide stance and is turned at the torso to eye the opponent behind her. She’s got one hand balled in a fist and drawn close to her cheek and the other arm stretched out to zero in on her foe. For once, Koto didn’t have a free flowing mane of hair to work with, but they went all out on Cammy’s long and snaking braids, which swirl beautifully around her person, and she’s even got a couple sprigs of hair arching down off of her forehead. One of the things I love the most about this statue is the way the composition works on several display angles. In fact, I’m not even sure, what the intended “centered” position of the statue is, because I can find two positions, or “sweet spots” where she looks perfect.

The first of these“sweet spots” features a prominent view of Cammy’s caboose. That thong has always been one of her most captivating features and that fact has certainly translated to this statue. When viewed from directly behind, Cammy has one arm reaching straight out and her right eye peeking out at the beholder. The second angle that I really like turns the statue about a quarter clockwise and brings her face forward and places her derriere in profile. Here, her attention is focused to her left which makes for a great place to put Chun-Li.

With her green leotard and combat boots Cammy is a much simpler design than Chun-Li, but there’s still plenty of great detail where it’s needed. I love that the tops of her boot laces are sculpted in separate pieces of soft plastic and you can see her socks peaking up above her boots. The paintwork is immaculate, right down to the camo patterns on her legs. She’s even got little panel lines and rivets on her wrist bracers. The creases on leotard and her beret look great as does the carefully sculpted braiding in her long hair. The muscle tone in her arms, shoulders, and thighs is all beautifully defined as is the underlying bone structure in her pelvis.

As for the portrait, with only two Street Fighter statues so far, I still think that this sub-line features some of Koto’s finest head sculpts in the entire Bishoujo line. It might be just because the Street Fighter gals fit the bishoujo style without having to be compromised as much as the Marvel and DC ladies, but whatever the case their work here has been phenomenal. With all that having been said, I think Cammy here possibly has my favorite head sculpt out of all the Bishoujo’s in my collection. I know that’s saying a lot, but there’s just something about her eyes and the sly smile on her lips that does it for me.

As always, the paintwork here is superb. Most of the Bishoujo pieces in my collection showcase the contrast between the matte of the ladies’ skin and a glossy latex costume, but Cammy here is almost entirely matte. She does have a bright red metallic sheen on her arm bracers, but that’s it. The rest of the statue relies on a nice deep hunter green for her leotard as well as the camo paint on her legs, a matching red for both her beret and socks, and pleasing yellow for her hair. The paint lines are all crisp and there’s no slop anywhere to be found.

And then there’s the stand. Cammy comes on what is basically a clear oval base that looks like it’s laid onto the circular style base that Chun-Li featured. Once again, the bottom of the disc comes off and you can insert one of two printed clear overlays into the base and button it back up, or leave them out entirely if you prefer. Your choices of graphics are either a plain Street Fighter logo or a piece of character art, and as with Chun-Li, I’m going with the logo. I’m still not a big fan of this system, as the bottom and insert tends to fall out when I pick up the statues. I do, however appreciate that it allows you to position the logo to accommodate the angle you choose to display the statue. Then again, I know who Cammy is and where she came from, so I don’t really need the base to tell me.

While many statues on the market these days are creeping forever upward in price, Koto has managed to keep their Bishoujo line fairly centered. Cammy set me back a mere $55 and for the quality and workmanship on display here, I think that’s a pretty damn great price, especially when other companies are offering cold cast pieces at about the same scale with weaker paint and sculpts for almost double the price. I know I say this in just about every Koto review that I write, but I still think these pieces are some of the best values in statues on the market today and that’s a big reason as to why I keep coming back and having to expand my shelves. Naturally I’ve already got Juri pre-ordered, but it’s going to be a long wait, so maybe I’ll have to hold myself over by picking up some more of the Tekken ladies.

Aug 8 2014

Marvel: Spider-Woman Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s Bishoujo time again! Those nefarious money vampires at Koto have been especially prolific lately and it seems like at least once a week we’re seeing artwork or prototype pics of new and upcoming statues. It was just a couple weeks ago that I looked at their new Bishoujo Wonder Woman and hot on the heels of her arrival comes Spider-Woman. Jessica Drew has been sitting in my Pile of Loot for a little while and now she’s here and waiting to be opened. Let’s do it!

The packaging here is right in line with what we’ve been seeing from all the Marvel and DC Bishoujo statues. You get a white window box with some gorgeous character artwork by Shunya Yamashita. Collectors may be surprised to find that the box is a lot smaller than those used for most of these statues, but that’s because of Spider-Woman’s pose, but fear not. She’s still crafted in the same 1/8 scale as Koto’s other Bishoujo offerings. The back of the box teases us with Jubilee, another great character choice for the line and we’ve already seen some pictures of that statue from Koto online and yes I’ve already got her pre-ordered, dammit!

As usual, the statue comes wrapped in plastic and sandwiched between two plastic trays. You can get a good peek at her through all the windows in the box, but you’ll have to get in there and unwrap her to really appreciate what you’re getting. She comes separated from her base, and while the pegs are a bit of a tight fit, I got her in without too much trouble. Giggity.

And there she is out of the box and ready for display and oh man is she gorgeous! And yes, as the box suggests, she is small. Again, it’s not because she’s scaled any smaller, but because the composition here has her in a compact and low profile squat. Still, if you own Koto’s Bishoujo Mystique you should know what to expect here. It’s interesting to note that I’ve seen some critics of the original artwork and prototype of this piece suggested this pose was too suggestive or just downright vulgar and inappropriate. It’s certainly sexual, but that’s nothing new to this line and, indeed it’s the whole damn point. Besides, Spider-Woman here is definitely one of the most clothed Bishoujo statues in the entire line. With the exception of her face, she’s literally clad from head to toe, but that doesn’t stop this statue from leaving little to the imagination. And yet, her squat, with right fingers touching the base and her left fingers reaching out, mimics the kineticism of Jessica’s spider-like acrobatics remarkably well for a static piece. I not only think the pose here is appropriate, but totally in character for her, and while it may be no surprise to everyone who knows that I’m a shameless champion of this line, I think it’s absolutely exquisite.

And speaking of exquisite… let’s talk about the paintwork. Even though I started with the composition, the truth is that it’s the colors on this piece that first caught my eye. That’s saying a lot when you consider how alluring the sculpting is. The high gloss candy apple red that Koto used for her costume has to be seen in person to be believed. It’s so sumptuous that it’s almost like all this time I thought I was seeing the color red, but it’s always just been some dingy knock-off and only now am I seeing red in its original, brilliant form. And when you combine that with an equally impressive glossy luster in yellow, you have what is easily the most breathtakingly colored statue in my Bishoujo collection. Quite often, one of my favorite things about the coloring on these pieces is the contrast between the soft matte finish of the flesh tones and the sheen of whatever latex or leather the ladies happen to be wearing. Here that contrast is barely present. You get a little of it with the face and the hair and her translucent wings, but basically that red and yellow paint is carrying the day all by itself, and it carries it quite splendidly.

Jessica actually has two portraits with the change achieved by switching out the face. The stock portrait has her masked and you get that same beautiful red and yellow high gloss on her mask, with some heavy black outlines and white eyes. The windblown hair effect is pretty much a staple in this line, but here it feels like Koto went that little extra mile. The hair just feels more chaotic and complex and that extra effort pays off because it looks smashing right down to the semitransparent edges.

The alternate unmasked head is swapped in by removing the head from the neck post, taking off the bangs, and then pulling off the face. It’s quite similar to what I’ve seen with the S.H. Figuarts Sailor Moon figures. My first instinct was to dismiss the unmasked head because the masked version is just so iconic, but I think I’ve fallen in love with Jessica’s unmasked face. She has an almost wistful expression and yet a hint of a smile on her tiny mouth. She’s also got a set of beautiful green eyes and it’s almost a shame to cover them with that mask.

Most of the time when I get a Bishoujo statue with variants, I have a clear preference on which way I want to go with it. With Black Widow I always prefer the rifle over the knife; with Storm I opt to leave the effects parts off; And Kitty Pryde is always displayed with Lockheed perched on her arm. In this case, I’m not sure which way to go and I’ll likely be swapping the heads out every couple of weeks to enjoy them both.

Of course, with the Bishoujo line, you never know what Koto’s going to do for a base. In this case you get a simple black raised disc with a white spider-web pattern sculpted and painted onto it. It works perfectly for the character and the black really helps to accentuate the beauty of the costume’s red and yellow paint. Every time I decide that I want Koto to just standardize all of these damn bases, they pull something exceptional and unique like this and I back away from my argument. Another very cool thing about the base is that there’s a hidden compartment underneath where you can store the extra face. That’s plenty cool!

And so, it should come as no great surprise that I’m in love with another of Koto’s Bishoujo statues. With 17 of these beauties now under my belt, Spider-Woman here is just another example of why I’ll follow this line until Koto decides to kill it or I happen to finally succumb to alcohol poisoning. She may not be as big or imposing as some of the other statues in my display case, but she makes up for it in every other way. And even with the diminished stature, at $55 I still think she was a bargain. Jubilee or Starfire will likely be next, and after that we can look forward to She-Hulk, Wasp, and Zatanna, not to mention what Koto has in store for the Street Fighter and Tekken sub-lines. Life is indeed good!

Jul 15 2014

DC Comics: Armored Wonder Woman Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s time for more plastic crack from Kotobukiya. They get my paychecks direct deposited to them now to save me the trouble. What do they do with what’s left over? Ha, there’s never anything left over! Anyway, a couple of years back, Koto gave Wonder Woman the Bishoujo treatment and the result has remained hands down my favorite piece in my Bishoujo collection. When I heard they were doing her again, I was certainly intrigued. Could they improve upon perfection? And why bother trying? Well, the result is their new Armored Wonder Woman Bishoujo, a completely new take on everyone’s favorite Amazon from Themyscira. I had this lady sitting in the receivings pile for a little while now and today is the day I’m finally getting to open her. Can she rival the previous Wonder Woman release? Let’s find out!

If you’ve been collecting the line, the packaging here should be readily familiar to you. The statue comes in a two-sided window box with an extra window on top to let the light in. It gives you a passing peek at the statue itself, but she’s imprisoned behind plastic wrap and a couple of trays so you’ll need to get her out to fully appreciate her. The box is mostly white, but kitted out with plenty of colorful shots of the statue and the beautiful source art to make it exciting. The back of the box features a little blurb about Wonder Woman and, oh wait… what’s this?

Awwww…. Yeah! While Spider-Woman will be the next Bishoujo Statue I look at here at FFZ, Starfire is still due to ship this month. With the exception of maybe Zatanna, Starfire has been tops on my list of characters I wanted to see in this line. Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to her release. Ah, but let’s not steal any of Diana’s spotlight… back to Wonder Woman. The statue requires very little assembly. You need only plug her into the stand and she’s ready for display.

Ooooh… my! The photos I’ve seen of this beauty just don’t do her justice. The first thing you may find yourself asking, “this is Armored Wonder Woman? Really???” Well, her boots look like they feature a little extra reinforcement so her feet will be OK, but I’m not sure a pleated skirt, bodice, and dainty cape constitutes armor. Not that I’m complaining mind you. Diana’s got her bullet-deflecting bracelets so why does she need armor? The composition here is a spectacular blend of action and glorious cheesecake muggery. Diana has one foot on the base with the other leg bent back, her left hip tossed to the side and her bracelets crossed, no doubt to deflect the onslaught of fanboy overtures. The piece displays great from a number of angles, but if you rotate her off to the side just a little bit, you can get her gaze looking straight at you and it makes for what I think is the statue’s sweet spot. As far as height is concerned, this statue is slightly taller than the previous Wonder Woman, but right in line pieces like Power Girl and Huntress. The only Bishoujo on my shelf that stands above her is Storm and that’s mostly because of the base.

So, let’s swing back and talk about her costume. The sexy high heeled boots feature intricately detailed buckles running up the outer sides and the somewhat chunky raised white bands do indeed give them a sense of extra fortification. The paintwork on the boots is truly exceptional. That deep, metallic red is absolutely gorgeous and contrasts beautifully with the matte white and metallic gold.

The skirt is fabricated from a light, slightly transparent blue plastic, which looks fantastic and naturally it’s kicking up in the back to showcase her star spangled panties. In this case, Wonder Woman could take a lesson from Mara Jade and lose the cape because it’s blocking the view. Of course, the cape does add a lot to the kineticism of the piece. It’s flowing out to the side and perfectly counterbalances the composition of her left foot reaching down to the base. The bodice follows the same outrageous coloring of the boots with that sumptuous metallic red paint and beautiful gold paint on her belt and eagle emblem. The right side of the belt features Diana’s coiled lasso and a finely detailed little snap to hold it in place.

The portrait here is everything I’ve come to love about this line. Her face is a little more angular than some and her eyes are a little better proportioned, making this piece a maybe a tad more accessible to the non-anime fans out there. Most of the Bishoujo’s feature a down-turned head, but Diana’s is more cocked to the side so her face isn’t really obscured and I like that a lot. The windblown hair effect is particularly good here and compliments the cape for a nice sense of energy. Naturally the paintwork on the face is immaculate and we get more of that lush metallic red and gold paint on her tiara.

The statue does actually feature a swappable left hand that’s holding a dagger. The dagger is a great looking piece and I’ll concede that it does work very well with the composition by throwing a little more balance to oppose the cape. As a matter of preference, however, I think I’ll stick to the dagger-less look for my display.

I’ve never been all that big on Wonder Woman using swords and such and I think the pose works better without it. Nonetheless, it’s always nice when you get some display options on pieces like this one. Somebody out there is going to prefer the look of the dagger.

Last up is the base. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but you never quite know which way Koto’s going to go with their bases. They’re either going to be the elaborate diorama-type (like we saw with the first Wonder Woman) or just simple and utilitarian and in this case they went with the latter. You get a very simple transparent blue circle that sweeps up at the back. I like the fact that the base is small, because my Bishoujo shelves are getting a little congested these days. However, I do kind of wish they had just gone for regular clear plastic because I’m not sure the blue tint makes much sense here. Maybe it was just to add a little more blue to the overall pallet.

I really tried hard not to come at this review as a comparison to the original Wonder Woman Bishoujo. In style and composition, the two statues are about as different as they can get and still be in the same line. The original strikes me as something that could still appeal to a Wonder Woman collector who doesn’t happen to enjoy the anime influences of this line. It also has a serene sense of nobility and beauty that’s quite remarkable. Now, that’s not to take away from this new version, which is an absolutely fantastic piece that goes for more energy but still manages to capture everything there is to say about the character. I think this one fits in with recent Bishoujo releases a little better than the previous one. Is the original release my favorite of the two? Had you asked me that based solely on the pictures of this new one, I’d say there was never any doubt. Now that I have them side by side, it’s a much harder decision. I think the original still holds its own as my favorite statue in my collection, but I never thought it would be this close and that’s a huge credit to this new version.

Armored Wonder Woman is readily available now at around $55-60 and that’s a hell of a deal for such a gorgeous piece of work. Of course, Koto has yet another Wonder Woman coming out soon in their ArtFX Sixth-Scale line and that one is looking mighty damn fine as well!

Jun 24 2014

Star Wars: Mara Jade Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s time for another installment of, “Kotobukiya is taking all my f’cking monies!” So far, they’ve raided my wallet for statues based on the DC, Marvel, Street Fighter, and even Ghostbusters licenses. Today I start down the Dark Path and forever will it dominate my bank account. It’s Star Wars Kotobukiya. Now, Koto is no stranger to the Star Wars license. They’ve been making ArtFX+ and Fine Art statues from the property for years, but they’ve just started introducing Star Wars to the Bishoujo line and that’s where I got on board. I’m starting with their second Star Wars Bishoujo, and it’s that red headed minx, Mara Jade.

The statue comes in a pretty simple black box with the Star Wars logo on the front and a rather limited window that shows off the statue’s portrait, as well as an arm socket. Yes, there is assembly required! The side panels show a shot of the statue as well as some of the line art. It’s not as flashy as the regular Bishoujo packages, but it works well enough for a Star Wars product. I will note that the packaging does its best to irritate my OCD. The front is clearly labeled as an ArtFX statue with no indication that it’s part of the Bishoujo line until you read the copy on the back of the box. Does it matter? Not really. What does matter is Koto equipped this gal with more than a few display options to embrace both her service to the Empire and her redemption. For the purposes of this feature I’m going to start out with my preferred method of display and then we’ll look at the other option.

Dayuum… check her out! Here’s living proof that Koto doesn’t have to show a lot of skin in a statue to make it sexy. Of course, a skin tight outfit and a killer bod does go a long way. Mara is wrapped in a two-tone blue bodysuit, which features all the usual little piping and wrinkles that they love to pack into these statue sculpts. I particularly like the um… ribbed padding on her inner thighs, the knee pads, and her high heeled combat boots. Yum! The use of both matte and gloss for the two materials also makes for a very dynamic contrast on this piece. Also, I’ll just go ahead and say it… that ass makes me want to cry.

In addition to the body suit, Mara sports a gun belt with a blaster sculpted into the holster and a snap down pouch on her backside. The blaster and holster look so good that I actually thought the pistol might come out. She also has straps on her biceps and a shoulder harness with a silver fixture clasp on the back. There’s a cloth scarf and a set of goggles, both of which are separate pieces and are added or removed by popping off the statue’s head.

The portrait here is exactly what I’ve come to expect from the Bishoujo line. Mara walks that line between cute and sexy. The face sculpt is quite soft and the paintwork on her lips, eyes and eyebrows is all immaculate. I’m also totally in love with how they did her flowing red hair. Just about every Koto Bishoujo statue goes for the windblown hair effect and they almost always nail it, but in this case, I think Mara’s hair just looks exceptionally well done. It also balances the composition of the piece quite nicely by countering her outstretched left arm. Mara’s right arm draws slightly behind her and the hand is sculpted to hold either of her lightsabers. The hilts on these are wonderfully detailed and they make use of a colored translucent plastic for the blade.

The statue’s base is a simple clear plastic disc right in line with what we’ve seen for the recent Chun-Li Bishoujo and the Tekken Bishoujos. It doesn’t waste any space as it’s barely larger than the figure itself and both the lightsaber and outstretched arm extend past it. The bottom of the base opens up and you can insert either a Rebel or Imperial insignia inside or you can leave it clear if you so choose. I’m not usually a big fan of these clear bases, but in this case I think the ability to display the emblem adds value. I’ve opted for the Imperial insignia and purple lightsaber for my regular display of this statue.

Of course, you do have options! Mara also comes with a removable, billowing cape that can be attached or removed by popping off the head. For this feature, I’ve chosen to go with the cape for the redeemed version of Mara and display it with the Luke Skywalker lightsaber and the Rebel insignia. Of course, you can mix and match all of this any way you want.

The cape is my big dilemma with this statue. It looks outstanding and it really adds a lot to the composition of the piece. It creates a lot of kineticism to the pose by pushing back away from her outstretched hand and it complements the flow of the hair quite nicely as well. The khaki color has some nice shading and I particularly like the little tears and fraying sculpted into the end. So what’s the dilemma? It covers up that fine ass, and I simply can’t have that. The sculptors at Kotobukiya no doubt poured hours, neigh possibly days into getting that ass so perfect and I will not allow it to be obscured by an additional garment, even if you could argue that it’s essential to the statue’s fully realized composition.

While I am still hemming and hawing over whether I need the Bishoujo Jaina Solo on my shelf, Mara Jade was a must buy the moment I saw her and she’s lived up to just about all my expectations. I will mention here that my particular statue has a stray mark of red paint on her left arm, just below the shoulder. It no doubt came from the hair and while it isn’t terrible, it’s worth pointing out because even with fifteen Bishoujo Statues under my belt, this is the first time I’ve ever had anything less than flawless paint. Honestly, I’ve seen far worse paint flubs on $200+ Bowen statues, so I’m not going to get all upset over it. At $55 Mara Jade is yet another example of what great value Kotobukiya offers in their products. She’s an absolutely gorgeous piece and she has an unprecedented amount of display options for the Bishoujo line. I can’t recommend her strongly enough.

Mar 19 2014

Street Fighter: Chun-Li Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

In case you haven’t heard, Kotobukiya is out to bankrupt me this year. The fact that I’ve branched out to collecting their ArtFX+ statues has been bad enough, but they also seem to have thrown their Bishoujo line into high gear, full speed ahead, let’s take every last damn penny poor old Fig has in his meager coffers too. What’s that? The Marvel and DC stuff isn’t doing it fast enough? Let’s start with Street Fighter! Anyway, Chun-Li is the obvious first choice for this new sub-line of Bishoujo and certainly a favorite of mine. But then what red blooded male gamer hasn’t fantasized about being strangled by Chun-Li’s copious thighs. What’s that? It’s just me? Did I share too much? Ok, moving on… Hyakuretsu Kyaku!!!!

Chun-Li comes in a window box that should be readily familiar to all collectors of this line. The windows allow you to get a teaser of what’s inside and is, as always, collector friendly. But the statue is wrapped in plastic and held between two plastic trays so you’ll want to free her from her prison to get a good look at her. Long time Bishoujo collectors will note that the box is black instead of white. Koto seems to do this on most of the non-Marvel or DC related statues. Both my Ghostbusters Lucy and my Tekken Christie Montiero statues came in black boxes. I don’t have a big problem with it, although I do believe I prefer the white. Of course, the deco includes all the great artwork by Shunya Yamashita and you also get some photos of the statue on the back. Oh, look! Cammy’s coming! I’m pretty damn excited about Cammy!

Chun-Li comes out of the box already attached to the base, but she is easily removable if you want. She attaches with a solid stepped tab that snugly fits inside the right foot. The balance is impressive and it allows for the dynamic high kick pose, which suits the character so well. It looks just like she’s in the middle of her Lightning Kick attack. Indeed, the “frozen in time” element on display here is one of my favorite things about this piece. and that’s all thanks to the thoughtful sculpting. Her qipao dress swirls around her legs and the ribbons from her ox horn hairstyle float around her head. It’s always impressive to me when a statue can convey energy and movement on this level.

As for the sculpt itself, the Bishoujo style works perfectly for Chun-Li without having to deviate from the character’s own style. Naturally, the DC and Marvel statues look like the characters with an intentional Bishoujo treatment, while Chun-Li looks like Chun-Li. It’s just a comfortable fit. Her portrait portrays an effortless “pretty girl” expression that works with the pose while not quite deliberately mugging for the camera. Her iconic and chunky spiked bracelets are present and the gold scrollwork on her dress is all integrated into part of the sculpt. Of course, this is Chun-Li and one’s eyes are drawn almost immediately to her powerful legs, which look superb from the detailed musculature of her thighs right down to her laced white combat boots.

The coloring on this figure hits all the right points and the paintwork is as immaculate as I’ve come to expect in this line. Unlike a lot of these statues there isn’t any high gloss paint at work here, which suits the character art. The gold looks great against the blue of her dress and there’s just enough sheen on the costume to contrast slightly with the soft plastic of her skin tone. The brown used for her tights is perfect and there’s just a hint of lavender paint on the top laces of her boots. Chun-Li’s colors are certainly iconic (as long as your Player 1) and this statue celebrates that fact.

Chun-Li comes on a clear base that opens and allows you to insert one of two graphics if you like. One just has the Street Fighter logo, the other features some of Shunya Yamashita’s art. While the one with the character art is certainly striking, I find it a bit busy and distracting, so I went with the simple logo. The same system of base and insert was used for the Tekken statues and I’ll confess that I wasn’t all that keen on getting it reproduced here. I think it looks OK but whenever I pick up my Christie Montiero statue, the bottom always drops out and the graphic slides out. Thankfully the base on this statue snaps together much better and it isn’t a problem.

Chun-Li set me back $55, which is right about what I usually expect to pay for a new Bishoujo statue. Sometimes I hold off to see if I can get a deal, but seeing as how Chun-Li was the first in this sub-series, I was somewhat worried about there being a run on her, so I locked her in with a pre-order. She is still available at some retailers, but apparently Koto sold out pretty fast on their own site, so anyone still on deck over this one might want to consider jumping into the pool. Either way, I’m hoping these initial offerings do well because I’d really like to see this line continue. I think Sakura would be the most likely choice after Cammy. After that who knows, but I’m gunning for Poison, Ibuki, and Elena. They would all be instant purchases for me.

Jan 27 2014

Marvel: X-Force Psylocke Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I ended last week with Kotobukiya and we’re starting this week with the same! The difference is that this week I’m giving the Justice League ArtFX+ statues a rest and instead turning my attention back to Koto’s Bishoujo line. Koto has a veritable shit-ton of amazing Bishoujo statues on deck for 2014-15. From Marvel to DC to Star Wars and Street Fighter, this line is going to get a lot of my money in the months ahead. And if their most recent release, Psylocke, is any indication it’s going to be a damn fine couple of years. This release is Psylocke’s second outing for the Bishoujo line and that’s a rather sore point for me because I missed the first statue and now it sells for crazy prices on the secondary market. I try not to look for it a lot because I kind of want it bad enough to pay a lot more than I should, and so it’s best to try to forget it exists. This all-new Psylocke release, however, serves as a mighty nice consolation prize, even if I’m not usually keen on the X-Force costumes.

The box shares the same deco style as previous releases in this line, but it’s a little unusual as it is a landscape shaped box to fit the unusual orientation of the statue. As usual, there’s some great source artwork by Shunya Yamashita on the package and the windows give you a tease of what’s inside. The statue is wrapped in plastic and nestled between two plastic trays, so if you want to really get a good look you’ve got to take her out and unwrap her. Psylocke comes already attached to the base and the only assembly required is placing her katana in her hand.

I’m always impressed by these statues, but Psylocke here absolutely blows me away. Seriously, I don’t want to downplay previous releases in the line, they’re pretty much all great, but I don’t think I’ve been this amazed by a Bishoujo since Wonder Woman. To see what all the fuss is about, first and foremost we have to look at the composition because in terms of pose this is some of Koto’s finest work. Psylocke is poised close to the ground, with one leg bent back under her and the other stretched out all the way so that it extends well beyond the base. She has one hand on the ground and the other holding her katana aloft. This is absolutely gorgeous composition work, so much so that it feels like it belongs among one of their larger and more expensive Fine Art statues. Speaking of size, Psylocke scales perfectly with my other Marvel ladies. Her head is close to the same height as the kneeling Mystique and X-23, but with her katana stretched above her the total height of the piece comes close to statues like Black Cat and Black Widow.

Of course, composition is only half the battle, and doesn’t mean much without a solid sculpt. Again, in this department, Psylocke outshines most other releases. The contours and curves of Psylocke’s body border on pure poetry and the muscle definition in her shoulders and… um, groin, are superb. The straps on her thighs and biceps are sculpted so that they ever so slightly constrict her skin and the rumbling of the costume adds that extra touch of realism. Even the way her white belt rises up in a frozen flurry conveys the kinetic energy on display here. Her scabbard is tethered to her belt with sculpted ties and is punctuated with a little brass cap. Truth be told, there isn’t a lot of complexity to Psylocke’s costume, but it feels like Koto went above and beyond with what little they had to work with.

As for the portrait, I really like what they did here. Sure, you can argue that a lot of the Bishoujo portraits look alike, and I wouldn’t refute that. Psylocke here has slightly narrower eyes, giving her a more serious expression that better matches her action packed pose. It fits the statue better than the more frivolous portraits that Koto has used on some of the more cheesecake poses like Kitty Pryde or Sue Storm. I also dig that her face is looking straight up. The style with many of the Bishoujo statues is to have the girl looking slightly down and to the side. It’s part of the “pretty girl” motif, I get that, but it’s kind of nice to get a good look at the portrait from dead on for a change. Of course, Pyslocke’s hair is flowing outward with beautiful effect and the tips of her hair are partially transparent.

I don’t have a lot to say about the coloring here. The katana looks particularly good with a semi-steel finish on the blade, intricate paintwork on the grip and a bronze colored tsuba and ricasso. The X-Force costume is black and the high gloss contrasts beautifully with the soft matte plastic used for Psylocke’s bare skin. It looks good, but I would have so preferred this piece be her in the traditional purple costume. I suppose there’s always a chance that we could get a Comic Con recolor.

The base places Psylocke in what I think is supposed to be a Shinto Garden with a piece of sculpture off to the side. The base is textured to look and feel like stone with what looks like possibly snow covered grass. As mentioned, Psylocke’s leg stretches well beyond the base making her the least space efficient Bishoujo so far. She certainly demands a lot of real estate on the shelf, but she’s well worth it and she looks great in the front row with the taller statues behind her.

Psylocke retailed at just under $60, which is a pretty solid value. Sure, sometimes the Bishoujo’s go down in price, but they also sometimes go up. Because of the fluctuations in price, I usually gamble and don’t pre-order this line, but I was pretty smitten with this piece when I first saw it and so I dropped a pre-order straight away. She’s the 13^th Bishoujo statue in my collection and right now she’s definitely in league with Wonder Woman and Huntress in my top three favorite releases. That’s saying quite a bit since I’m not necessarily a big fan of the X-Force costume. This is just a case where Koto nailed the essence of the character perfectly in a breathtaking pose and followed through with a superb sculpt.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: bishoujo

Tekken: Asuka Kazama Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Tekken: Jaycee Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

DC Comics: Batgirl Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

DC Comics: Starfire Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Street Fighter: Cammy Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Marvel: Spider-Woman Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

DC Comics: Armored Wonder Woman Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Star Wars: Mara Jade Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Street Fighter: Chun-Li Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Marvel: X-Force Psylocke Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

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