What? A statue review? On the Fwoosh? I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve always been fascinated with statues and busts. I love action figures, don’t get me wrong. And having as many action figures as I do I’ve always felt that I didn’t have the ability to adequately display statues. Too “fancy”, more high end of the collecting spectrum. But things change, I grew a little older and wiser, and I find myself in the position to expand outside the Toy Room. So on to the next phase in my collecting history. New beginnings. All I needed was a little push. Cue Kotobukiya and Poison Ivy…
When Veebs hit me up, asking if I’d like to review Kotobukiya product, I jumped at it. I’ve always admired their work from afar. They make product for just about every property that tickles my interest. Star Wars, Marvel, DC. So hell yeah, let me at ’em!
First off, the packaging works well. It shows off the product and features beautiful artwork along with pictures of the figure. Also, a pretty detailed history and bio for Poison Ivy herself.
The inner tray doesn’t allow for any movement of the statue, so there shouldn’t be much fear of it arriving broken. Along with the tray the statue’s extremities and various parts are wrapped in plastic to avoid scuffing inside the tray. Pretty nifty. We’ve all seen paint missing from noses or the back of action figures due to rubbing. Not going to happen here.
The sculpt is executed beautifully. It’s sharp where it needs to be sharp, soft where it needs to be soft. The hair and vines add a sense of motion and complexity to what could have been just Ivy standing. The flowing, the wrapping, the curves. She’s almost demure while being surrounded by chaos in the form of wild hair and violent vegetation. Ivy is sexy!
And the best thing about it, which I didn’t know, is the statue is made of ABS and PVC plastic! I was scared while opening it, what with all the hair protrusions and jutting vines, it looked so fragile. Nope, they all have flex to them and just bend under force, snapping back into position. So that along with the packaging pretty much guarantees that what you see is what you get, without the worry of broken product.
So, paint. Those who know me already know that I love a good paint job. And this statue is clean. Just like the sculpt, it’s hard and it’s soft in all the right places. While it doesn’t have a ton of shading the colors are perfect. The skin is rich and soft. Like lime sherbert. I fight the urge to lick it. Same with the hair, the tone just adds to the flowing quality. Meanwhile, the vines and foliage are almost rough. Mean. Not quite gritty, but when contrasted against Ivy’s skin just punches up the polar opposites. Each are fighting to draw your eye to it. Sure, it’s not a lot of different colors, but the colors that are here are used really well.
I keep finding different aspects to like. The glossy, twinkling eyes. The flowers that stand out and blend in at the same time. The silvery fingernails. All in all, I am ecstatic to have this on the shelf. Hell, the wife has ooo’d and ahhh’d over this as much as I have. And that’s the biggest win in this book. When your significant other shows the same amount of enthusiasm you do. I think we’ve finally found a line good enough to inspire the installation of glass display cases in the living room.
Poison Ivy will run you about $50 to $65 and boasts a 7 inch scale. Not too bad at all. She’ll be available late January/early February. You can even order it straight from the source…
http://store.kotous.com/pre-order-dc-comics-bishoujo-collection-poison-ivy-bishoujo-statue.html
Can not wait to see Harley!!
Special thanks to Dan Lujan and Kotobukiya for sending this for review, and for starting me down the dangerous road of statues!
