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Old 02-17-2015, 02:46 PM   #1
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XM Studios - BLACK WIDOW statue - The StatueForum review

XM Studios - The Black Widow statue - The StatueForum review

XM Studios proudly presents the Black Widow statue, a stunning addition to its stellar line of spectacular museum quality statues which already includes The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, The Invincible Iron Man, and the formidable leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Magneto. This stunning 1/4 scale piece was sculpted by incomparable Mufizal Mokhtar and was based on the fabulous original illustrations and designs by one of the best artists working in the comics industry today, Stanley "Artgerm" Lau. This remarkably ambitious project was led by the magnificent XM Studios Design and Development Team.

The Black Widow, also known to comic fans as Femme Fatale Natalia Alianova "Natasha" Romanova, first appeared in Iron Man's Tales of Suspense issue #54 (April, 1964). Those unfamiliar with the marvelous silver age era of Marvel Comics may not be aware that the Black Widow was first introduced as a deadly and villainous Russian spy during the cold war era. Her objective was to undermine American military interests for mother Russia. However, upon learning that she was temporarily brainwashed by a Russian super-spy agency to sabotage American interests, Natasha defected to the United States where she eventually became a high ranking special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., a respected member and eventual leader of The Mighty Avengers, and leader of the short lived superhero team, The Champions.

The Black Widow first appeared in her definitive skin tight black costume in Amazing Spider-Man #86 (July, 1970). The costume was expertly designed by legendary comic book artist John Romita Sr.


Click on the bar on top of the pictures to expand the images to get an even sharper view.















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Old 02-17-2015, 02:46 PM   #2
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The alternate display gun options:

Long hair - two machine guns





Long hair - machine gun and knife






Long hair - open hand and sniper rifle, with background





Long hair - open hand and pistol, with background





Long hair - pistol and knife, with background






Long hair - Two machine guns and background




Short hair - open hand and pistol







Short hair - two machine guns






Short hair - open hand and sniper rifle

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Old 02-17-2015, 02:46 PM   #3
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My preferred pose: pistol and knife. However, sniper rifle and knife is a very close second.




























XM Studios makes is very difficult to choose between display options.
This photo features one of my favorite display choices as well.







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Old 02-17-2015, 02:46 PM   #4
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The definitive femme fatale...














Perfection!





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Old 02-17-2015, 02:47 PM   #5
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Old 02-17-2015, 02:47 PM   #6
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With the streetlight on



















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Old 02-17-2015, 02:47 PM   #7
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The bust display option:






















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Old 02-17-2015, 02:47 PM   #8
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The coin, the print, and the packing box:
























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Old 02-17-2015, 03:33 PM   #9
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XM Studios - The Black Widow statue - The StatueForum review

The cold cast porcelain Black Widow statue is approximately 18.5 inches in height and is limited to only 500 pieces worldwide. The suggested retail price is $800 SGD ($640 US).


Sculpture: Mufizal Mokhtar did a remarkable job capturing an Eastern European type setting where the Black Widow stands poised to take on a contract to eliminate a marked threat to SHIELD. The brick wall and gated background creates this wonderful ambiance of clandestineness and international espionage. Put succinctly, it looks amazing.

The outstanding XM Studios Design and Development Team truly outdid themselves by providing the fanbase with virtually countless display options.
The statue comes equipped with:

• Two gorgeous head portraits; one with sultry red long hair and the other sporting a stylized short hair crop
• Three interchangeable left hands; Sniper rifle , machine gun, and pistol
• Four interchangeable right hands ; machine gun, pistol, dagger, and open hand
• Two interchangeable brick wall display backgrounds; one shorter brick wall display which allows for a panoramic view of the figure, and one taller display which invites the stealthy and undercover dynamic
• A light-up streetlamp piece
• A magnetized gate

As if knowing in advance how challenging it would be for the fanbase to decide between the two delightful portraits, as a special bonus, XM Studios also provided a bust statue which would allow collectors to display the alternate head sculpt.

As an incentive to pre-ordering this wonderful piece early, XM offered an impressive limited silver plated coin which features the Black Widow. The coin comes with a protective plastic case and display stand.

At the risk of sounding unprofessional, my first thought upon discovering what awaited me was quite simply - “wow”. As a collector of limited edition statues for literally 20 years, I couldn’t think of any prior release which shipped with as many incredible options. What we’ve been hearing about XM appears to be no myth. This truly is an exceptional piece of work. I suspect we are about to enter a dawn of a new age in statue collecting.

Rating: 10/10
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Paint/Mixed media: The paint applications on this sculpture are top notch. XM Studios set out to produce a sculpture that was going to look like the promo pics and thoroughly succeeded in reaching this objective. It’s refreshing to see a company take such remarkable pride in their work. Bravo.

Rating: 10/10
_________________

Production and Build quality: This is a remarkably easy piece to put together. Every piece fit perfectly. The streetlamp is run by a watch-sized battery (no adaptor wires – yay!) and is turned on by lightly pressing the top of it. The gate attaches itself to the brick wall via these magnets. This is a solid piece. There’s no tilting or imbalance to it. The scale is completely in line with ΒΌ scale pieces produced by other companies.


Rating 10/10
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Design: This gets the Spinal Tap 11/10. This piece can center stage any display shelf. The numerous alternate display options provide unique differentiating perspectives and poses, each of which appear equally stunning and impressive. Black Widow fans are in for a major treat as this truly is the best Black Widow statue ever produced by any company.

Rating: 11/10
_________________



Overall Rating: 10/10


Pictures were taken on Feb 13 (evening shots) and Feb 15 (daytime shots) with the Nikon D5100.













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Old 02-17-2015, 04:01 PM   #10
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Hi Risingstar,
congratulations with this absolutely stunning statue and thank you for posting this great review with all of these amazing pictures.

Thumbs up!

Rainer

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Nothing can stop The Juggernaut... NOTHING!
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