If it seems like just last week that I was checking out one of Koto’s Bishoujo statues, that’s because it was just last week. But every time I get a new one of these, it puts me on the hunt for more and shortly after opening Kitty Pryde, I was quick to hunt down one that’s been on my want list for a long while. Yes, Storm! I’m not quite the X-Men fan that I was a decade and a half ago, but this piece has had my attention for a while now, and the time was right to add her to my collection.

The packaging offers Bishoujo collectors no surprises. It’s the typical white window box adorned with some beautiful character art and some shots of the statue itself. It’s a pretty tall box for what we’ll see is a pretty tall statue. As usual, you can get a little taste of what’s inside from the windows, but thanks to some protective plastic wrap, you’ll need to open her up to get a good look.

Storm comes between two plastic trays and already attached to her base. You do, however, get some effects parts, including two swappable hands and some lightning effects. This is the first Bishoujo statue in my collection with this feature, so I’m rather excited to try it out. But first, let’s see how Ororo looks out of the box.

Wow! That’s my first reaction to getting her set up. I’ll take this moment to reinforce the fact that I am not particularly a Storm fanboy, so most of the wow factor here lies solely in Koto’s work on this piece rather than blind affinity for the character. For starters, she is really big. She’s the same 1/7 scale as her fellow sisters in the line, but thanks to the elevated base, the soles of her boots start right about at knee level with other statues in standing poses. Furthermore, the way she’s posed with her arms up and outward and her hair spread out around her, just adds to this statue’s perceived size. It’s a powerful and majestic pose, conveying action in a statue isn’t always an easy thing to do, but Storm’s pose and sculpt does it brilliantly.

The skimpy black two-piece costume and thigh high boots are painted in high gloss black and contrast nicely with her matte mocha colored skin. The sculpted bellowing effect on her cape is particularly well done with the ends attached to her bracers, spreading it out like a set of wings. Koto could have gone in a lot of directions with Storm’s outfit, as she’s had a lot of different looks, but I’m mighty glad they went with this one. It just looks fantastic and it suits the titilating theme of the line.

The portrait is pretty standard bishoujo fare. Storm’s head is angled downward with her shimmering blue eyes looking up. She has a bit more of a stern expression than many of her fellow statues, but she’s still adorable and it complements the pose rather well. The pearlescent hair flies up and around her head from the electrified atmosphere around her. Again, I’m impressed by the level of energy conveyed in this static piece.

The base is clear blue plastic with a small circular disc and a sculpted tornado rising up for Storm to stand on. I’m not usually a fan of the translucent bases, but in this case the effect works pretty well for water. As simple as it is, I think this is one of the coolest looking bases in my Bishoujo collection so far.

As mentioned, you get some effect pieces which include two swappable hands and a set of electric halos that fit on her wrists. The pieces are blue translucent plastic. Popping out the standard hands is easy enough.  I appreciate the effort here, but I don’t plan on using them. The pose exudes enough energy without the needing the extra help.

Yup, Storm is an amazing statue, and she is currently one of my favorite pieces on my Bishoujo shelves. In fact, I’d probably put her right in line with Wonder Woman and Power Girl as my current top three Bishoujos. She commands a lot of attention on the shelf, not only due to her size and majestic pose, but also a superb sculpt. I picked her up on Amazon for only $40, which is a pretty amazing price for a statue that should be appreciating on the basis of its merit alone. I love this piece so much, I may actually hunt down the white costumed variant.

It’s time for more Bishoujo goodness from Koto, and who doesn’t love that? I jumped over some of the ones missing from my collection to pick up Koto’s newest statue in the line, Kitty Pryde, and then she wound up sitting in her box unopened because I had so much other stuff coming in. I’ve got another avalanche of incoming next week, so I figured I’d better open her up while I can. Sure, I’m not the biggest Kitty Pryde fan around. My most memorable moment involving her in the comics was when Deadpool sucker punched her to start a fight with Wolverine. Priceless. Nonetheless, I am totally addicted to these statues and if there was ever a character finely suited for this line, I’d say it’s the adorable Kitty.

Hey, this box looks familiar! Yeah, Koto doesn’t change it up too much when it comes to their Bishoujo presentation. There’s some lovely concept artwork on the box and a little blurb about the character on the back. The window gives you a little tease of what’s inside, but to really appreciate her you’re going to need to get her unwrapped and out from betwixt those two plastic trays. LOL… I said betwixt! LOL… I’m drinking! Weee!

The box is totally collector friendly and I have saved all of my boxes for that dreaded day that I eventually have to move and pack all these statues away. The result is I have a six foot high tower of empty statue boxes in the corner between a display case and the wall. Soon it will reach the ceiling and I will have to find a new place to stash them. It ain’t easy, coping with these kinds of life problems.

Kitty comes attached to her base with one separate bagged piece, which we’ll get to in a bit. She’s caught turning and mugging for the invisible camera in a playful frolic with both hands up and one foot kicking back. The original artwork had her right fingers waving, but the final piece has her fingertips pressed into the palms of her hands, which I think was a good choice. Indeed, the overall pose works great for Kitty’s character and it certainly accentuates her rather appealing contours. Meee-ow!

The portrait is pretty standard Bishoujo stuff. Kitty is undeniably adorable and her amber eyes do seem to have a little extra gleam to them. I’m rather impressed with the way the ends of her hair are flying out in all directions. Otherwise, there’s nothing ground breaking here, just very nicely done. Also very nicely done is her X-Men costume. The glossy tight black parts contrast wonderfully with the matte yellow of the “V” front. There’s a little extra rumple sculpted into her high heeled boots and gloves, which looks great. The ensemble is completed with a glossy red belt and “X” belt buckle. There’s a little bit of rubbing to the paint on her right glove and a slight scrape to her right boot, making me think that the yellow paint finish may not be as reliable as on some of my other statues. It may be something to watch out for if you happen to be buying her from a comic shop or other brick-and-mortar venue.

The extra piece I mentioned earlier is none other than Lockheed, Kitty’s trusty dragon chum. Lockheed is a beautifully sculpted piece in hard plastic and he’s meant to clip on to Kitty’s left arm, although you could get playful and have Lockheed resting on her boot as well. Honestly, Kitty looks just fine without him, but at the same time, when attached he really completes the display nicely. I am a bit worried about what removing and replacing him might do to the rather tenuous yellow paint, so chances are, I’ll be leaving him attached. If I’m picking nits, I might have preferred him resting on the base instead, which brings me to…

The base! There’s not a lot to it. It’s square, slightly raised, and textured on the top. Koto has been leaning away from environment style bases lately and going for simpler stuff. I don’t have a problem with it and I actually prefer it to the clear bases we’ve seen used for Mystique and Tekken’s Christie Montiero. Those just seem rather cheap and flimsy to me.

Kitty Pryde is another solid entry into Koto’s Bishoujo line and a welcome addition to my shelf. If you count yourself among her fans, this statue should be a no brainer. Kitty is one of those characters that doesn’t sacrifice a lot for undergoing the “pretty girl” treatment, so I think this statue will likely appeal rather than alienate collectors who are into Kitty but not necessarily the bishoujo aesthetic. She retailed right around the usual $50-55, which I still find to be a decent value for what I’m getting. Granted, she isn’t a favorite in my collection, but that shouldn’t be taken as a slight against the statue, because I’ve yet to be disappointed by this line.

I’ve been dropping my bucket into Koto’s Bishoujo well a lot this past month and now that I have some momentum I’m really starting to aggressively fill out the missing pieces in my collection. Today we look at Koto’s sexy anime take on that blue shape-shifting femme fatale of the X-Men… It’s Mystique!

Hey, we’ve seen the Bishoujo line’s packaging here plenty of times and apart from being the smallest box in my collection, it’s business as usual. The box is mostly white with generous windows to show off the goods, although the statue is wrapped in plastic and snugly nestled between two plastic trays so you can’t get the full effect until you get Mystique out of there. She comes separate from her display base, so you just need to plug her in and you’re good to go. As usual, the artwork is gorgeous. The first thing I always enjoy doing with these statues is scrutinize the statue and the source art. It’s fun to do and it rarely disappoints. And just to show you that I always read all the copy on the back of the box, I actually learned something here. Mystique first appeared in Ms. Marvel in 1978. I like to assume I know a thing or two about the Marvel Universe, but that little nugget of knowledge was new to me.

I usually discuss the pose first, but in this case let me start by saying how happy I am that Koto went with the classic look here, as opposed to the more modern black outfit. It’s not that I dislike the newer look, but with X-23, Black Cat, and Black Widow on my Bishoujo shelf, I’m all for adding a little more color and Mystique teams up with the likes of Power Girl and Wonder Woman to brighten things up a lot. Besides, this outfit is far more iconic to me. That having been said, Mystique is posed on her knees, her back arched ever so slightly, Uzi submachine gun in one hand and her other hand running through her wild hair. It’s a fantastic pose, very seductive, and giving off a come hither look… come hither so I can murder you with my submachine gun! Also, since she’s shorter, she fits nicely in the front row of my display beside X-23 without blocking the view of statues in the back.

I really dig the portrait here, although I do find it borderlines on being a tad creepy. It’s all in the eyes. They’re appropriately yellow and marvelously unsettling. The paintwork on her lips and razor thin eyebrows is excellent and I’m impressed by the way her sculpted hair falls all around her shoulders and her left arm. There may be a little too much of the translucent effect on the hair for me here. I would have liked the hair to be a tad more vibrant, but I’m nitpicking. The adorable little skull on her widow’s peak finishes off the portrait perfectly.

The body features a gorgeous pearlescent plastic for her dress, gloves, and stiletto boots. The stitching and wrinkles are perfectly reproduced and remind me a bit of the Power Girl statue, although Kara’s outfit looked like heavier latex, whereas Mystiques looks like a lighter, shimmery material. If you look closely enough at the boots, you can see a subtle texturing that contrasts nicely with the smoother texture of her skin. It’s that little attention to detail that I love so much about this line. And speaking of skin, Koto used the perfect shade of blue. Even when displayed on a shelf of a dozen excellent statues, my eye is usually first drawn to the pearl and blue beauty of this piece. The skull belt is a separate piece and it hangs loosely on her hips, and the gun is removable from her right hand.

About the only let down to this piece is the display base. It’s a simple clear disc. At first, I thought Koto might have included an insert like they have with their Tekken Bishoujos, but alas no. Virtually all the pre-production shots featured this statue without a base at all, and I always wondered why. While there are tabs on the front and back of her dress to hold her in place on the base, you can actually display her without the base at all. I’ve recently come to appreciate the uniqueness and personality that Koto has given many of the statue basis in this line and quite frankly, I wish they had done something similar here.

Quibbles about the base aside, Mystique is another homerun for Koto and their Bishoujo line. The sculpt and pose really captures the essence of the character while still introducing the quirkiness of the anime stylings that this series is all about. She’s also still readily available at a lot of e-tailers and at pretty good prices too. I picked up mine for under fifty bucks and in a market where quality statues are usually closer to $100 and up, I find her to be a great value.