“I am Catwoman. Hear me roar.”
In 1992, as a hormonal 16-year-old comic nerd, I first glimpsed my future wife. Michelle Pfieffer doesn’t know it yet (and neither does my actual wife for that matter), but true love like this can’t be denied.
NECA has just released their ¼ scale Catwoman action figure from Batman Returns, which is available at retailers for around $100. Does it have what it takes to put the purr in purr-fect? Let’s find out!
Packaging
NECA always does well with their boxed-style packaging, and it’s no different here. With beautiful graphics and background text on the character, it does its job holding everything together, while the window allows you to see everything you get. With a bunch of twist ties, it may not be the most collector friendly, but there’s very little wasted space, which is always nice if you’re a mint-in-package collector.
Sculpt
Out-freaking-standing. There’s really not much I can say that you can’t see for yourself. This figure is just gorgeous — everything from the near-perfect Michelle Pfeiffer head sculpts to the tiny details crammed into her claws. There is almost something you can nitpick on every figure you buy, but I’m honestly coming up blank on this one. While more of a personal preference than comment on the sculpt, I would have liked the undamaged head to have looked a little less sad. It’s a nice all-around blank expression perfect for vanilla poses, but I would have liked just a little more of her personality on display.
I’ll note it here, but there are a few non-scultped items on this figure — the rooted hair on the damaged portrait and a few stray stitches that have “come undone.” I’m not always the biggest fan of rooted hair, but it looks great here. It’s a little too tidy right out of the box, so you’ll have to mess it up just a bit. The threads look great, but one problem that I had was that they are all the same length. And a bit too long. I took some scissors to mine just to give it some variety as I found it a little distracting.
Paint
That shine! You can almost see your reflection in it! This is another top-notch job by NECA. Most of the costume has a shiny patent leather look to it, with the boots, gloves, and corset in a flat black. One of the big standouts of this costume design is the white stitching. They really pulled it off as there is no gloppy over-painting or missed stiches. The paint on the head sculpts are also phenomenal. It has much more of that smooth porcelain look when comparing it to Batman, but I’m good with that. One thing worth noting is that this extremely shiny paint will scuff if you drop it. I learned that the hard way.
Articulation
This must be one of the better articulated figures from NECA, although it’s not without its problems. You get a ball-jointed head, standard NECA shoulders, double-jointed elbows (that also swivel), ball/pegged wrists, ab joint, ratcheting hips, double-jointed knees, and rocker ankles. From the waist up, this thing was perfect right out of the box. You get an unbelievable amount of movement out of the arms — something I was not expecting. The ab and waist is a bit constricted due to the corset, but that’s to be expected. The legs, on the other hand, probably shaved a couple years off my life. The thighs wouldn’t budge (even with heat), but after watching a few video reviews, I knew it would be a struggle. I don’t know what’s going on inside this figure, but the snaps and crunching sounds as I tried to move her legs forwards and backward nearly gave me a heart attack.
Accessories
Included are four hands, two head sculpts, taser, whip, and stand. The only real disappointment with this release is the whip. It’s pretty bad. The handle has a nice sculpt to it, but the whip portion looks like a drawstring out of my gym shorts. It’s soft goods as there is a wire inside, but it’s also flat with a squared-off tip. And it has a giant stitch down the center. I would have much preferred an all-plastic whip — even if we did have to lose the wire.
Overall
It’s only April, so it’s too soon to start talking about figure of the year, but as of right now, NECA’s Catwoman is it. At a hundred bucks, this is no cheap toy, but it’s worth every single penny.
Thanks for reading!
