Apr 9 2016

Creator X Creator (One Piece): Nami “Sea Nymph” Figure by Banpresto

For a long while, One Piece was my go-to show for when I came back from The Pub at 2am drunk out of my mind. I don’t think I’ve actually seen an episode sober and I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a piece of One Piece merchandise while sober either. Actually, scratch that… there was the dreaded Bootleg Nami Statue Incident, but that was an exception to the rule and it still hurts so I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway, I recently grabbed a couple of Nami statues off of Amazon while simmering in a Jameson-induced state and I thought I’d open one of these up and take a look today…

This “Sea Nymph” inspired Nami is part of Banpresto’s Creator X Creator line and dubbed a “Deluxe” (DX) figure, which I presume is to separate it from the lower end prize figures. Although this piece is pretty low end itself, so I guess I should say to separate it from the lower-lower end prize figures. I’m honestly out of my element here, so that’s a lot of presuming on my end. What I can say for sure is that the statue comes in an entirely enclosed box, which is conspicuous because I’m used to seeing window boxes, even on the cheaper statues like this one and it made me all the more worried about what I was going to find inside. Well, inside is the most utilitarian packing for any import statue I’ve picked up. It’s just pieces of cardboard and plastic bags.

But once I got her free of the packing and all set up, this is what I’m dealing with… The intrepid navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates, Nami is posed swimming beneath the waves in a very skimpy bikini and looking not bad at all. She’s about 5 1/2-inches tall on her base, which makes her smaller than the 1/7 or 1/8 scale of most of my anime-inspired statue collection, but she’s certainly not tiny. The pose has her arching her back, showing off two of her finest assets, and with her legs kicking up behind her making the statue best viewed from slightly above level.

Nami features some smooth and even skin tones, which is nice because there certainly is a lot of skin showing here. Her blue tattoo is neatly printed on her left bicep and her bracelets are present on the same arm. The bikini, what there is of it, is a shimmery white with sculpted strings tied on either of her hips and on on her back. The portrait is pretty simple and a little upstaged by her rather striking fiery red hair, which fans out a bit behind her head.

Her base is a sculpted pedestal of aquatic coral that firmly cradles her legs so the figure can be picked up and replaced with ease.

Lastly, you get a pair of optional flippers that slide right onto her feet and really complete the look.

When it comes to the often bitter fruits of Drunk Amazon Browsing, I’d say this purchase was a success. Sure, I didn’t neeeed this statue, but considering it cost just under $13 shipped(!), it’s hard to complain. Quite frankly, I was expecting a piece of crap, and what I got is actually a quite decent figure. The quality of the plastic is good and while the paint on the bikini is rather thin and susceptible to scratching, the overall quality of the paintwork is excellent. If I had an aquarium this would be a pretty cool decoration to sink to the bottom of it. Dammit, now I want an aquarium. Anyway, as I mentioned coming in, I picked up this one with another Nami figure, which I’ll try to get around to looking at next weekend.

Apr 1 2016

DC Comics: Black Canary Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I think this is the fifth straight week of DC Fridays focusing on statues. I’ve looked at a Bishoujo, a couple of Femme Fatales, a couple of DC Cover Girls, and now I’m circling back around to Koto’s Bishoujo line for one last DC statue before moving back to some DC action figures next Friday. Black Canary is one of the newer releases in Koto’s DC Bishoujos and one I’ve been anxiously awaiting…

Canary comes in a standard window box, mostly white with some lovely artwork from Shunya Yamashita. As always the packaging is collector friendly and you can get a good peek at the statue inside to see what you’re getting. The back panel has a little blurb about Dinah and teases the Raven Bishoujo, which I already looked at quite a few weeks back. I keep all of these boxes, but thirty-some statues in, that’s getting to be difficult with space being what it is. I fear the day may be coming where I have to toss the inserts and flatten out the boxes for storage. Anyway, Black Canary comes out of the box fully assembled and ready for display…

…and looking mighty fine, I might say. I’ll concede that the composition here is a strange choice. Canary stands with legs apart, her left hip tossed to the left and she appears to be stretching while she glances off to the side. Maybe she’s limbering up for a particularly potent Canary Cry? This line has never been about action poses, so actually having her shouting might have been too off point, but at the same time, I don’t think this pose says anything relative about the character. It’s not a bad pose at all, but it kind of strikes me as the art director not quite knowing what to do with her.

Of course the figure itself is beautifully executed. Canary dons a black one piece with black leather half-jacket, black choker, a pair of high heeled buccaneer boots and short black gloves. And yes… fishnets! Koto has been on a real fishnet kick in this line lately with other recent releases like Zatanna and Anna Williams from the Tekken line donning these types of stockings. They look magnificent from the front or sides, and while they do have the usual seam running up the backs, but they are still relatively tidy. It’s pretty cool the way they seem to disappear into her boots. In terms of sculpting on the costume, you get your usual assortment of rumples and wrinkles and some nice stitching lines.

The portrait is standard Bishoujo fare, in other words great stuff. Canary has her head cocked downward and she’s gazing off to the side with one eye winking. She’s got a rather distinctive, wide closed-lip smile. Her long blonde hair flows off wildly to the left. I don’t think I’ve noted this for a while, but it seems like Koto is done with the transparency effect they used to use at the edges of the hair. Canary doesn’t have it and I don’t recall seeing it done in a while.

The coloring on this piece is as simple as it gets. Her entire outfit is black, save for the silver painted zipper on the jacket and the circular medal on her choker. There’s also no use of high gloss here, so you don’t get the usual impact of the soft skin tones contrasting with the pop of the outfit. That having been said, the paint is all spot on, particularly on the face, which is razor sharp. The hair is bright, but appropriately soft.

The base is a mystery to me. It looks like it’s supposed to be rippling water, blue in the center and gradually radiating out to clear at the edges. I’d argue that it might supposed to show the soundwaves radiating through water from her Canary Cry, but she isn’t doing it. It’s not an unattractive base, but it makes little sense in this context. I think I would have preferred a simple disk.

If it sounds like I’ve been pretty critical of this statue, that shouldn’t be taken as a sign that I don’t like it. Quite the contrary. I’ve yet to be disappointed by this series and that record still stands. Black Canary is a great piece, but she lacks that certain something that makes each and every release in this line so amazing. From a technical standpoint, the paint, the sculpt… everything is spot on perfect and the costume is wonderfully designed. I think the pose and the base are the only stutter steps here, and even those are perfectly serviceable. Ah, but the great thing about this line is when you aim so high, if you miss your mark, you’re still doing pretty great. It’ll be interesting to see which DC lady Koto goes to next. Personally, I’m hoping they decide to revisit Supergirl soon.

Mar 25 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

It’s DC Friday again, and for the past few weeks I’ve been working my way through some DC Statues: Bishoujos, Femme Fatales, and yes, some Cover Girls too! I’m still way behind on the DC Cover Girls line, something that is concerning me because there’s quite a few I’d like to pick up before they hit the secondary market and the prices start to escalate. Today, let’s check out Barbara Gordon in her New 52 look, before she got the Babs Tarr makeover and moved to Burnside.

As always, the statue comes in a fully enclosed box with photos of the piece all around. Inside, the collectible is nestled inside a brick of styrofoam. The only assembly required is pegging the feet into the base and the pegs fit very easy. Oddly, some of the statues in this line come attached to the base and others peg in, so I always have to be careful to support the base when I’m picking them up. Porcelain statues seldom survive drops, so better safe than sorry! At about 9-inches tall, Ms. Gordon scales perfectly with her fellow Cover Girls and continues to skew this line in favor of Bat-flavored characters.

And damn what a beauty she is! Batgirl’s (former) New 52 costume is a favorite of mine because it doesn’t stray too far from the traditional. Fans old and new should be able to get behind this design. Of course, it is New 52, so you do get the sculpted panel lines in the body suit that suggests it’s more armor than mere latex. I like the ribbing inside the thighs, under the arms, and in all the places where a lot of flexing would take place. The yellowish-gold boots and gauntlets have scalloped edges and match the belt, bat symbol, and the interior lining of the cape. All of the yellow has a slight hint of glossy sheen to it, which contrasts nicely with the more matte finish of the black suit. The paint on this piece is very clean, but I’ve come to expect that. Truth be told, even with eight of these ladies on my shelf, I haven’t had any notable paint issues with this line, so when I say the paint is especially good on Batgirl, it’s intended as high praise.

Batgirl stands with feet apart and her right arm drawn up and ready to fling a batarang at an unseen adversary. There’s some lovely subtle bits about her pose, like the way she’s arching her back and twisting in the middle. This is a piece that shows off the art of the female body in all its splendor. As often the case with this line, the composition here is a nice blending of action and a bit of museum-style mugging for the beholder. The invisible wind that bellows out her cape and tosses her hair adds a little more kineticism to the piece. It’s a statue that has a couple of “sweet spots” depending on how you want to position it on the shelf. If I had to come up with something critical to say, I’m not particularly fond of how slender the middle of the cape looks from behind, but when it comes to complaints, that’s really reaching.

The portrait is absolutely fantastic and certainly a high point for this series. The emerald colored eyes are beautiful as is the subtle pink used for her lips. The nose is softly defined and the edges of the mask are clean. Even going back to the 70’s, one of the most fetching things about Batgirl for me has always been the way her red hair spills out from behind her cowl and this statue conveys that quite well.

Batgirl features the now standard oval base. In this case, the coloring doesn’t actually match anything on Ms. Gordon’s costume, instead it’s a bright purple. While unusual for the line, I do dig the color as it calls back to the days when the lovely Yvonne Craig wore donned a different Batgirl suit. As with the Batwoman statue, you get bat emblems on the front, back, and sides. The limitation here is, as usual, 5200 with the individual number of the piece written on the bottom of the base.

Batgirl is another great addition to my Cover Girls shelf, and she displays beautifully with Huntress and Batwoman. I’ve yet to be disappointed with the quality and composition of this line. The 9-inch scale is perfect for a statue collector tight on space and while the MSRP’s on these are usually right at the $100 mark, they can often be had for twenty or so dollars less, which makes them a great value for the money. Now, I just have to pick up Mera, Vixen, Wonder Woman v2, Catwoman v2, Katana, Starfire, Black Canary, and Bleez before Power Girl and Raven are released and I’ll be all current! Yeeeesh!

Mar 18 2016

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Talia Al Ghul by Diamond Select

DST continues to work overtime churning out the statues from their new Femme Fatales and DC Animated Series partnership. I’ve been enjoying this line a lot, but I’ll confess it’s getting a bit exhausting to keep up with it since the line launched late last year. The modest little nook I set aside for the initial releases has now grown to a full shelf. Not only are they up to a half dozen regular releases, but there have already been a pair of Exclusives. The first was the 2015 SDCC Supergirl variant and now we have the first completely original Exclusive via e-tailer, Entertainment Earth… Talia Al Ghul!

The box features the lovely deco based off Batman: The Animated Series and with windows positioned front, top and both sides, you can really get a great look at the statue before even removing it from the box. The front window has an EE Exclusive sticker and the top flap is sealed with a strip of Exclusive foil tape denoting that this is #1369 of 2000. There is no statement of limitation on the statue itself. Looks like I’m going in through the bottom! Talia first appeared B:TAS in the S2 episode “Off Balance” and later in the S3, two-parter “The Demon’s Quest” and this statue is an amalgam of both appearances. These were solid episodes with the unexpected Helen Slater voicing Talia and the great David Warner (always a favorite of mine) voicing Ras. Ah, Ras. “Have sex with my daughter or I’ll kill you!” Those are the kinds of arch villains I want if I ever get to be a superhero.

Talia dons her “all business” black catsuit from “Off Balance” as opposed to her “all pleasure” temptress harem garb from “The Demon’s Quest.” While there was certainly something to be said for the later, I’m glad DST went with this look. Talia’s character started out strong only to get neutered somewhere between the two episodes and I think this version is a much better fit for the line. But, hey… if they want to do the other version somewhere down the road, I’d be on board. Since this is an animated style statue, the amount of sculpted detail is limited. I really like the way the edges of the gloves and boots are sculpted so as to look real and not only achieved with a shallow cut and paint lines. The portrait is well done, particularly the way her hair covers half of her face. The belt, holster, and thigh strap are all also part of the sculpt and look good. At about 9-inches tall, she scales perfectly with most of her fellow Femme Fatales.

With these simpler animated style statues, the paint is all the more important in order to carry the day and Talia here sports some of the best quality paint I’ve seen in this series so far. There is virtually no slop to speak of here and the gray and purple on her outfit are very clean. The paintwork on her face looks especially crisp, which is a nice change after having a little flub on the right eye of my Wonder Woman statue. If I had one complaint here it would be the paint on her pistol isn’t as sharp as it could be, but I can live with that.

Speaking of the pistol, it’s one of the two “accessories” that Talia is holding, the other being the Mask of Anubis. This is one of the points in which this statue straddles Talia’s first two appearances in the series, as the mask appeared in “The Demon’s Quest” and was worn as a disguise by her father.

The other nod to “The Demon’s Quest” is the base, which depicts Talia standing on rocky ground at the end of a Lazarus Pit. It’s a great choice for a base and it looks pretty good. The bubbles added to the life-restoring soup are a nice touch. This contextual liberty that draws aspects from both episodes doesn’t bother me at all, but it might irk some purists out there looking for a statue from a definitive episode.

Talia is another solid release in this line, and quite possibly one of my favorites so far. It’s great to be able to get all the animated styles of DC’s ladies together in one place and scale, especially for someone like me who hasn’t bought into DC Collectibles Animated figures… yet. Of course, the other big draw here is the price. With MSRP’s in the forty dollar range, these pieces really are some of the most affordable statues on the market and perfect for collectors who want to add some statues to their shelves, but not break the bank on higher end pieces. Talia is still available from EE at $45 plus shipping, but even as a limited store exclusive, this one can currently be had at a better deal elsewhere. I picked up mine from Amazon at $35 shipped, which is a solid deal for a regular edition, but even better for a limited piece like this one.

Mar 11 2016

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batwoman by DC Collectibles

While, it may seem like I don’t get back to it too often, I’ve been wholly impressed with DCC’s current run of Cover Girls statues. I surprised even myself when I realized that I only picked up and featured two of these lovely ladies in all of 2015. Needless to say I’ve got catching up to do, so let’s start by checking out Batwoman!

If you’ve seen one of DCC’s Cover Girls statue box you’ve seen them all. The art and size may change to suit the contents, but you’re still getting a fully enclosed box with a brick of styrofoam inside it. There’s a colored swipe down the front to match the character and some nice shots of the statue on the front and side panels. Everything is collector friendly and the only assembly required is pegging the statue into the base. I can’t say as I’m a huge Batwoman fan. I’ve barely read anything that she appears in. But I fell in love with Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo version of the character and the same happened here as well.

The composition of the pose here is pretty conservative. Batwoman stands with her feet apart, her grapple gun held in her right hand and across her chest and her left arm off to the side. I love the way the cape adds some energy to the pose in the way it flips up in the back and partially wraps around her right leg in the front. Overall, this is a nice mix of museum style with a hint of action and it certainly suits the character perfectly. Every facet of the costume is part of the sculpt, from the bat symbol on her chest and the panel lines on her boots right down to the subtle wrinkles and the definition of her underlying ab muscles. Her relatively straight posture puts the statue at just over 9 1/2-inches tall and right in scale with her fellow Cover Girls.

The coloring on this piece is positively striking. The black body suit features a hint of sheen and the crimson boots, gloves, belt, bat symbol and lining in the cape has a slight metallic finish to make it pop. The paint on this series has been overall serviceable, at least as far as the pieces in my collection are concerned, but Batwoman here stands out as very nearly perfect. I can’t find a single flub or stray brush stroke. The paint is simply immaculate.

The portrait features her half-mask with pupil-less eyes. The hair flows a little wild, probably caught by the same invisible wind that blows her cape. I particularly enjoy the way part of the hair falls in front of her mask’s left ear. The angular nature of the mask’s brow and nose contrasts nicely with her soft jaw line and perfectly painted lips.

While the early releases in this line offered more individual and environmental bases, DCC has since standardized them to simple ovals with a tasteful character symbol on the sides and a color that matches the character, in this case black and crimson. The bottom is slightly raised on four felt pads and the limitation is numbered on the bottom of the base.

Batwoman is another fantastic addition to my DC Cover Girls shelf. It says a lot about a statue when I can fall in love with it even without having a deep bond with the character. That was the case with Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Batwoman and that’s the case again here. I’ll concede, if I had to choose between the two, I’d give the nod to Koto’s, but I’m not sure that’s a fair comparison. They’re very different styles, and Koto’s is PCV whereas the Cover Girls are cold cast porcelain. Thankfully, I don’t have to choose.

Mar 4 2016

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Wonder Woman by Diamond Select

It’s DC Friday again and today I’m dipping back into the “DC Animated Series” of Diamond’s Femme Fatales statues. While still a relatively new line, DST has been cranking these out like crazy and have recently even announced that they’ll be expanding it to include Marvel characters before the end of the year. Today’s release, Wonder Woman comes from Justice League Unlimited, the follow up series to what I still consider to be the best animated treatment of a comic property ever. Yeah, it really is that good.

The boxes for this series are simple and effective and hasn’t changed much since Femme Fatales started. The statue comes nestled between two plastic trays and can be viewed clearly through the windows on the front, side, and top panels. DST has been changing the deco up a little to match the animated series the subject is based on, and in this case you get the Justice League Unlimited logo on the front. The back panel features a shot of the statue and a blurb about the character. Everything is collector friendly and the statue comes assembled and ready for display.

Diamond went fairly conservative with the composition here. Wonder Woman stands with one leg up on a broken pillar with her golden lasso in one hand and the other hanging by her side. Diana’s Captain Morgan impersonation isn’t going to win any awards for originality, but I still like it a lot. It’s heroic and noble and totally suits what Wonder Woman is all about.

In keeping with the animated theme, the statue features minimal detail. With that having been said, just about every detail here is achieved with both sculpt and paint, right down to the stars and crest on her costume. The portrait is particularly well done, complete with her star earrings and her windblown hair.

I’ve been lucky so far with the paint quality in this series. It seems to be a little inconsistent, but so far I’ve had few major complaints. In the case of Wonder Woman here, however, I do have one. Her right eye isn’t filled out all the way to the bottom. It doesn’t look googly or anything, just unfinished. It’s not enough to ruin the piece for me, but it’s definitely noticeable, particularly when viewed up close. The rest of the statue’s paint is perfectly acceptable. The details on the costume remain inside the sculpted lines and while there are some visible brush strokes on the white trim of her boots, it’s not something that I’m going to get upset about.

The base is a solid effort. It looks like she’s standing amidst ruins in Themyscira. The paint and texturing on the piece of marble pillar looks especially good. The ground itself looks more like a melted brownie to me, but it’s not bad. Considering the bases we got with the two versions of Supergirl, I’d say this is still a step up.

Wonder Woman set me back $40, which is around the low end of retail for this series. However, they are notorious for dropping in price on the secondary market. Some of my earliest Femme Fatale statues were purchased at the $25 range. I’m not sure if that’ll hold true for the DC properties because quite frankly there should be a lot more demand for these than for the series’ earlier indie comic content like Darkchylde and Dawn, let alone their original creations. Apart from the flubbed eye, I’d say this is among the best releases in the series so far, but then I haven’t had many quibbles with any of them so far. I will note that the scale does feel way off, especially when displaying Wonder Woman beside either of the Supergirl variants, but that’s not something that bugs me too much. As for future releases… Harley Quinn is available right now (I’m still on the fence over picking up that one) and Catwoman should be dropping right around the time this Feature posts, so you can be sure I’ll be revisiting this line in the not too distant future.

Mar 2 2016

Street Fighter: Sakura Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Koto continues to be the pretty girl monkey on my back, making me shell out untold monies for their never ending flood of Bishoujo releases. Does that sound like I’m complaining? Because I’m not. As long as they keep going, I’ll keep buying. Today I’m finally getting all caught up on the Street Fighter line with my fourth statue in that series, Sakura Kasugano!

The package is certainly familiar. It’s a black window box with extra windows on the top and side panel to let more light in. You get the Street Fighter logo and plenty of that great art by Shunya Yamashita. The back of the box features a teaser for the next statue, Poison. She just started shipping and I’m pretty excited to get her.

Sakura comes attached to her base and all ready for display. Koto went with a great pose here, with Sakura in the final phase of her Shoryuken attack. It’s definitely a high energy piece of composition and it tests the balance of the statue to its limits with Sakura lunging forward and up on her right leg and her left leg drawn up and over the edge of the base. Outstanding!

Sakura is clad in her iconic school uniform, which consists of a white and blue abbreviated top that exposes her midriff and a blue pleated skirt. Both garments swirl up from the motion of her attack, and yes that means you can catch a glimpse of her red undergarments. I particularly like the way the free ends of her headband and her yellow kerchief are whipping around from her momentum. This is a high energy piece that is certainly befitting of the source material. The ensemble is rounded out with a pair of red finger less gloves, red and white sneakers, and the edges of her blue socks.

The coloring on this is flatter when compared to most of Koto’s Bishoujos. That’s not really a criticism, but just an observation. We usually get some high gloss somewhere to contrast with the soft skin tones, but here there’s really none of that. There’s a dull sheen on her gloves, but that’s about it. That having been said, the paintwork on her sneakers is particularly crisp and bright and the coloring is vibrant and beautiful all across the board.

The portrait here is superb. The mouth is open and I can practically hear Sakura shouting out her attack. The paint for the eyes is crisp, as always, and while there isn’t a lot of hair here for them to work with, it looks great.

The base is the usual clear disk that we’ve been seeing all along with the Street Fighter and Tekken lines. You get a choice of two inserts to decorate it with. One is the Street Fighter logo and the other is a piece of colorful character art. I’ll confess, I find these inserts to be a pain in the ass. The inserts show fingerprints rather easily and getting them in and closing up the base without having a stray cat hair trapped in there is nearly impossible for me. But in the interest of continuity, I wouldn’t want to see Koto change it up in the middle of the line.

I picked up Sakura for around $55, which is a damn good price in a market where these things are releasing in the $65 range. I’ll confess, I was a little iffy on seeing Sakura appear in the Bishoujo line. These statues are most often about sexualizing its subjects and while that may fly over in Japan, in my book, Sakura is too young for that. Thankfully, that wasn’t what they were going for in this piece and, apart from a little flash of fan service, the result is just an excellent treatment of the character. Every release in this line just leaves me wanting more, and hopefully I’ll be back with a look at Poison before the end of the month!

Feb 26 2016

DC Comics: Raven Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s another DC Friday and as anxious as I am to dig into Wave 2 of DC Icons, I’m not yet ready to get back just yet. Instead, let’s check out the latest successful attempt by Kotobukiya at hoovering more money right out of my wallet. It’s Raven’s turn to get the Bishoujo treatment!

Not much new to say about the packaging. It’s stylish, shows off the statue inside quite well, and it’s decked out with some beautiful artwork by Shunya Yamashita. The box is collector friendly and the statue comes out all ready to go, you just have to unwrap it. This is the most recent release in the DC Comics Bishoujo line, but I still need to go back and pick up Black Canary. Also, the back of the box teases the next DC release and it’s Harley Quinn v.2 in her New 52 outfit. I’m gonna be down with that.

Raven is absolutely gorgeous! She’s levitating above the display surface with her voluminous cape serving as the base. The last time I remember Koto doing this was way back with Scarlet Witch. I loved the effect then and I still really dig it now. Raven’s left leg is straight with her toe not quite touching the ground and her right leg is cocked up at the knee. Her hands are up with her fingers at the ready to start with the spell-slinging. This is an inspired piece of composition that perfectly captures the spirit of the character.

Raven’s outfit is comprised almost of the same glossy blue plastic, from her cloak to her dress to her gloves, and straight down to her thigh-high boots. The cape itself almost has a life of its own, as it cascades off her shoulders in a serpentine fashion and collects on the ground. It doesn’t offer a hell of a lot of variety in terms of colors, but it still looks lovely and the metallic gold belt and cloak clasps help to break things up a bit and add a bit of pop. The cloak itself is fairly chunky, it has to be to hold her up, but her torso is sculpted so that you can readily see the contours of her body under her costume, right down to her belly button, suggesting that the dress is pretty thin. Raven shows a little bit of skin, mostly in the thighs and under the arms, and I like that the thigh cuts in the boots are part of the sculpt. And, of course, the cloak shifts conveniently to one side to offer a decent glimpse of tushie fan service. Just don’t let Trigon catch you looking! As always the skin tones are soft and lifelike.

This piece also features one of the more concealed portraits of the Bishoujo line. In the past, even with masked characters like Spider-Woman or Batwoman, we were given alternate unmasked portraits. Granted, here, you can see the entire face, but it’s guarded by the overhanging hood and the front of the cloak between the golden clasps with a little bit of visible hair framing her cheeks. Now don’t get me wrong, this is a splendid portrait. Raven sports a particularly mischievous smirk on her perfectly painted lips and the green paint used for her eyes is positively haunting. I would have loved to see an alternate portrait with the hood pulled back and the hair flowing free, but what’s here is still plenty good. Seriously, Koto usually loves to go crazy on the hair sculpts. This one must have frustrated the hell out of them.

While using the cape as a base is an inspired idea and works beautifully, it does in this case limit the range of the “sweet spots” for display. Some of my favorite statues have diverse charms depending on what angle they’re viewed from and the Bishoujo line has been really good about composing pieces that excel in that area. Here, they went with a very specific idea and the result is that Raven is best viewed offset to the left a bit and with her eyes staring straight out at the beholder. Still, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a weakness of the piece, because honestly, a statue that looks this good has very little to apologize about.

Raven is yet another beautiful addition to my Bishoshelves and she looks especially striking displayed beside fellow Teen Titan, Starfire. I’ll note here that I haven’t been pre-ordering my Bishoujos as often these days, because they haven’t been selling out that quickly and every now and again I can find them a little cheaper through Amazon or other sources. Raven, on the other hand, well I had a feeling about her, and so I did reserve one through my usual plastic crack dealer. That means she set me back the full $65, which is a price I’m still perfectly comfortable paying for Koto’s beautiful craftsmanship. What isn’t so comfortable is the growing congestion of my Bishoujo shelves. At the rate things are going, this collection is going to have to start spilling over into the neighboring display case, which will start putting the squeeze on my ArtFX+ and DC Cover Girls Statues.

Feb 9 2016

Tekken: Anna Williams Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Koto continues to challenge my finances and shelf space with their never ending flood of Bishoujo Statues. I’m now pursuing these on four fronts: Marvel, DC, Street Fighter, and Tekken, and I’m falling a few statues behind. There are actually a couple Tekken statues I’m missing, but given the high prices on the secondary market, may end up writing those off. Anyway, Today I’m pressing on with my fifth statue in the Tekken series: The younger of the two Williams sisters, Anna.

The packaging is right in line with what we’ve been seeing. Koto uses a black box to distinguish the Street Fighter and Tekken lines from the Marvel and DC ones. While Anna has appeared in just about every Tekken release to date (excluding Tekken 4), the package is branded, as usual, with the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 logo. You get windows on the front, top and right side panels allowing a pretty good look at the statue. Instead of a future release, the back of the box simply offers a look at Nina Williams, no doubt trying to capitalize on the odd rivalry between the two sisters. A rivalry that usually ends up with Nina taking a surprise polaroid of Anna coming out of the shower, Nina pulling off Anna’s bikini top in front of a bunch of dudes, or Nina stealing Anna’s shoes and then pretending she doesn’t know anything about it. What’s that? Oh yeah, we’re talking about a fighting game franchise.

Anna dons a stunning red dress with a gold liner and a rather large bow on the small of her back. She’s either caught in mid twirl or standing in a wind tunnel because there’s a convenient breeze blowing her dress up to the side and accentuating the high slit and showing off a generous amount of thigh. If that’s not enough to get your blood pumping, there’s also an ample amount of cleavage on display through a boob window that would make Power Girl jealous. The dress features a nice glossy sheen both to the red outside and the gold liner and is contrasted by the matte red of her detached sleeves. Damn, Anna, your caboose is PUNISHING that dress!

I really dig the pose here. With her right hand behind her head, she’s beckoning with the left, possibly inviting her next sparring partner to come at her. The placement of the legs, one straight out and one bent back is perfect to accenutate her long legs, heels, and stockings.

Speaking of stockings, Koto really seems to be all about the fishnet stockings lately. They first employed it with their Zatanna statue and again with the new Black Canary. Anna’s stockings are quite spectacular, fashioned from super thin stread in a honeycomb pattern and running from her thighs all the way down into her shoes. It’s actually pretty neat the way they run under the plastic ankle straps. The seams on the backs of her legs are a little thicker than one might expect, but they’re still rather tidy and don’t get in my way of enjoying the statue. The whole ensemble is “held up” by sculpted garter straps.

The portrait here is just lovely. Anna sports a perfect little smile and the wind blows her short hair up to the side. The paint on the eyes and lips is immaculate, but then again it always is on these pieces.

The base is the typical circular clear disk that we’ve been seeing all along on the Tekken statues. You get three different inserts to decorate it with. The options are colorful character art, a signature insert, or a 20th Anniversary logo, which is a new option. Lately, I’ve been going with the character art.

I picked up Anna for around fifty bucks, which is a great deal for a Bishoujo these days. Even with about 30 of these statues in my collection, Koto never fails to impress and every time I open one of these is a treat. And yes, she looks fantastic on display next to her sister. Thankfully, I’m going to get a little breathing room now (at least as far as Tekken goes), as the next statue isn’t due to ship until the later half of the year. I should also note that it’s Lucky Chloe from the upcoming Tekken 7 release, and I haven’t decided yet whether she’s a pass for me. I may just take that money and invest it toward tracking down Emily de Rochefort. In the meantime, I have a couple of new DC Bishoujo’s on their way to me now and Street Fighter’s Sakura just landed on my doorstep a couple of days ago… then Poison is shipping soon… Lady Deadpool is almost out… They’re doing Tali from Mass Effect… Oh yeah, Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid… Jeepers!

Jan 15 2016

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Batgirl by Diamond Select

It’s DC Friday again, and today I’m jumping back into Diamond’s new line of statues based on the ladies of the DC Animated Universe. Since this off-shoot of DST’s Femme Fatales line debuted back in October, I’ve already picked up Poison Ivy and two versions of Supergirl and today it’s Batgirl’s turn.

While it’s basically the same style of window box DST has been using since the line debuted, the DC Animated Statues are each getting their own deco to match the theme of their respective series. I like that they’re doing this because the regular Femme Fatales packaging wasn’t all that exciting or engaging. In this case the deco is themed for Batman: The Animated Series and so the box matches the one used for Poison Ivy quite nicely. Windows on the front, top, and side panels all allow for a pretty good look at the statue and everything is collector friendly, should you ever wish to box Batgirl back up for storage. The statue comes sandwiched between two clear plastic trays and there’s no assembly required. Let’s get her out and take a look…

Sculpted from the Bruce Timm art style, this version of Batgirl features her traditional grey bodysuit with blue boots, gauntlets, cape and cowl along with her yellow belt and bat insignia. While I wouldn’t be opposed to double-dipping on her black and yellow costume, I’m glad DST went with this one. It’s just a bit more iconic to me. The costume doesn’t feature a lot of detail, that’s all part of the simple animated style, but the tight costume doesn’t leave much to the imagination when it comes to her bat curves. Her adorable little cape bellows out behind her and the head sculpt is certainly faithful to the art that inspired it. The cowl and mask is part of the sculpt and her hair spills out the back. And yes, she also has a nice little bum.

The pose here is a fun one. I’m torn on whether she’s about to break into a run, throw the batarang in her right hand, or if she’s just posing for the camera. Either way, it’s a nice mix of whimsy with a hint of action and it suits the character well.

The singular thing about doing statues based on this simple animated style is the importance of a nice clean paint job. The paintwork on Batgirl is overall fairly solid, but there’s a few areas where I would have liked to see some improvement, most notably the outline around the bat symbol, where there are some uneven lines. Otherwise, there’s a few stray marks on the grey bodysuit, most notably an off-color spot just above her belt buckle and another on her butt. Yeah, I’ve seen worse paintwork on more expensive statues, but that doesn’t completely excuse it. I will also note that I think the hair could have used a more red in it. What we got is more of a straight chocolate brown.

The base suggests Batgirl is standing on the roof of a Gotham City Police car with one foot up on the light bar. This is easily my favorite base in the line so far as it’s evocative of the simple art style and still communicates a bit of environmental context.

Three statues in and I’m still digging these DC animated ladies a lot. Yes, they’re budget statues and as such the more discerning statue collectors are likely to turn their noses up, but I think the scope of the line marries the simplistic Bruce Timm style perfectly. These aren’t going to replace Koto’s Bishoujos as my favorites any time soon, but then again these run between half to three-quarters of the price, so at $35, there’s some decent value here. Batgirl’s paint is the weakest of the three, but that could be just my specific statue and it’s still not terrible. My eye is often drawn to the spot on her tummy, but I may have some success smoothing that out. DST seems to be averaging about one release a month on these, with Harley hitting right about now and Catwoman and Hawkgirl both on deck to ship in the months ahead. There’s also an Exclusive Talia Al Ghul, which I’ve been trying to resist, but I’m thinking I may wind up getting.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: statues

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DC Comics: Black Canary Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batgirl by DC Collectibles

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Talia Al Ghul by Diamond Select

Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Batwoman by DC Collectibles

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Wonder Woman by Diamond Select

Street Fighter: Sakura Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

DC Comics: Raven Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Tekken: Anna Williams Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Femme Fatales “DC Animated Series:” Batgirl by Diamond Select

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