Happy 2015 everyone! Let's start the year with everyone's favourite feline fatale:
Catwoman Premium Format Figure EX – Sideshow Collectibles
Designed by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau, Kris Anka and Dylan Forman.
Sculpted by Mark Newman, Martin Canale, Avinash Hedge, Martin Demonte and James Lareau.
Painted by Kat Sapene.
Costume Fabrication by Jennifer Johnson.
Stands at approximately 23” high.
Limited edition size: EX 2000, Regular 4000.
RRP: $399.99 USD
"Come and chase me, Batman."
Intro.
The Gotham City Sirens have always enjoyed an unsung popularity since their inception. Together or individually, Harley, Ivy and Catwoman seem to be the defining women of the Batman mythos, even overshadowing the heroics of Batgirl.
Defining women require defining statues. Ivy and Harley have both had the Sideshow treatment and now its turn for the final member of the trio to pounce her way into collector’s homes.
Catwoman walks lives in all shades of grey, walking the thin thread between hero and villain. There’s much to say about Selina Kyle, and a lot of history behind her, so Sideshow definitely had a difficult task of capturing such an iconic, beloved character into their statue.
Sculpt. 7.5
Catwoman has quite the dynamic pose here. She’s twisted her body, has her hands out and legs stretched out. The more you stare at it, the more you notice the intricacies of the human body. Luckily for us, however, Sideshow managed to perfectly capture the pose. Her body looks great from every angle, and each new angle seems to almost offer a new pose.
I should probably mention the base. Yes, it’s a really big base, so if space is an issue for you, it might be difficult displaying this one – especially if you want to display her with Batman or the other Sirens. The base itself, however, isn’t too impressive. There are a lot of little details on it, but overall it does look awfully cheap. The lions particularly look quite plain and are somewhat distracting. With a base like that, you would also expect some more texture on it, which is also mostly absent.
Paint and Mixed Media. 8.0
It’s going to be difficult to rate this one, because ‘paint’ and ‘mixed media’ seem like two completely opposing forces on this statue.
The mixed media is present in her outfit and her whip. The outfit came out beautifully. It hugs her body tightly and looks incredible in all different lights: it shines in the brightness and glistens in the dark. It’s truly magnificent. The whip is somewhat of a problem for me though. It’s bendable so that you can pose it how you like, but it’s not strong enough to do some really dynamic stuff. For now, I really just let it do a twist around her and hang on the base by her feet.
And now the paint. There isn’t much exposed paintwork on her since she is basically covered in her catsuit, but the few exposed bits are the most important. Before I get onto the portrait, I’ll quickly mention the paintwork on parts of her other than her face is adequate. It’s not bad, definitely not bad. But it’s nothing to get truly excited over. It’s just a very utilitarian job on her gloves, shoes, and exposed cleavage. The base is perhaps the weakest point, since it is so big and it draws so much attention, it really could have been better. But everything else seems to just do the job fine.
The portrait seems to require it’s own little rating. There’s a lot of discussion on this forum among collectors regarding her unmasked portrait. As soon as the first photos of this statue were released by collectors, everyone seemed to rant into a panic. I was truly surprised, in fact, to see the amount of people cancelling such a previously anticipated statue because of a single photo of a single portrait with googly-eyes. That’s not to say I think you should simply ‘accept’ a bad portrait. If you get a googly-eyed ones, by all means take it up with Sideshow and request a replacement.
I think I was quite fortunate to receive an unmasked portrait with pretty good paint job. When I first look at the portrait, I thought it was perfect. I saw no problems with the eyes and thought the paint job on her face was wonderful. It was only when I took close up photos that I noticed; okay one eye is slightly off. Even knowing this, I can’t really notice in person.
The masked face is also wonderfully done. Although the expression and positioning is different, it still manages to retain the playfulness of the unmasked portrait.
Design. 8.5
Artgerm once again provides the basic artwork for the piece. Unlike some of his work on the DC Cover Girls line, Sideshow has managed to faithfully capture the playfulness of Selina in this piece, while still adding some new elements.
Selina’s smirk in the unmasked portrait was actually the reason I ended up pre-ordering this one. Not only did Sideshow capture Artgerm’s vision, they made it even more energetic.
The change from her left hand being up in the air to being down is a little less dynamic, but for practical purposes it makes sense.
Production and Build Quality. 8.0
Catwoman comes in a nicely packed, compact box, which should keep her safe. There are quite a few pieces: base, body, left hand with the whip, two right hands, bag of gems, two portraits and the cat for the base. Luckily for me, all my pieces arrived to me in perfect condition.
She does wobble a tiny bit in her base. Whether that’s just mine or all pieces remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s so tiny that it’s hardly worth mentioning.
Overall. 8.0
Catwoman is a stunning piece. She seems to have gone under the radar a little bit, with most of this year’s attention placed on the upcoming Wonder Woman PF. However, she deserves a lot more of your consideration.
Don’t let a few badly lit photos of the wonky-eyed unmasked portrait deter you from grabbing this one. She looks gorgeous and has a very playful presence in your collection.
The dynamic pose makes it really fun to take photos of this one. Different angles offer different impressions, and I’m excited to see other shutterbugs taking interesting shots of this one.
"My world is all just shades of grey, Batman. That's why you'll never really understand me."
