NOTE: Now I know that this review is cursed. I ended up losing most of my pics. I will have to take new ones this weekend. I was able to post a few below. Stay tuned for better pics.
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Sideshow Collectibles Jean Grey (Exclusive & Regular) Premium Format
Hey fellow collectors!
Thanks for checking out my review. I swear, I have written this review four times. And I always feel like I am leaving out something. I’ve written it out on my computer, mapped it on a sheet of paper with a red colored pencil, had nightmares about it…lol.
Anyways, I feel like I have a responsibility to all of you to review this piece. Quite a few of you have had to endure years of me complaining about the lack of a Jean Grey Premium Format. Well, seriously! Why haven’t we seen Jean before now?! She should have been one of the first three characters released in the X-Men Premium Format line. It is like producing a Batman line with no Catwoman, the Trinity with no Wonder Woman, or even worse…
AN X-MEN LINE WITH NO JEAN GREY!
I grew frustrated with the absence of my favorite X-Man so much that I actually sold out of my X-Men line. I sold Rogue, Gambit, Storm, Sabretooth, Scarlet Witch, Mystique, X-23… I honestly didn’t think Jean was ever going to get produced, so why bother having a team without Jean? Of course, as soon as I finished selling them off, Sideshow decided to finally reveal their upcoming Jean Grey Premium Format.
I’ve pre-ordered this piece four times, no lie. The first pre-order I was charged the NRD, but I called Sideshow and cancelled it with their one-time NRD credit. The other three I cancelled before the NRD kicked in. I also got on the waitlist for this piece twice. The first time the waitlist converted, which I backed out of and the second I cancelled after a day. I also got on the waitlist for the regular when I thought I had eliminated my opportunity to get the exclusive.
I know what you are thinking right now…”Jamie, you are crazy.” Well, this piece kind of torments me. I have to be honest, I was not happy with the initial previews of it. Actually, I wasn’t happy with the overall design from sneak to posted production piece photos.
This write-up won’t serve as just a review, but as a compromise between my love for the Jean Grey character and my frustrations towards this piece. Initially, with my first version of this review, I was hoping it would serve as a justification for me keeping the piece. Hopefully that makes sense. I actually believe and feel that with each version of this review I become more and more appreciative towards this statue.
So, let’s get to the review:
Design:
I am going to break this down in noteworthy aspects.
The artwork: A print by illustrator, Fabian “Monk” Schlaga was the inspiration for this piece. And it is sure a beautiful composition. I am really surprised that Sideshow hasn’t released it as a “premium print” yet. You might be familiar with his work if you own the Rogue premium format exclusive. He did the beautiful Rogue and Gambit prints.
Here is some information about the art that Sideshow had posted on their site:
Illustrator Fabian “Monk” Schlaga reveals the evolution of the promotional artwork for Sideshow’s upcoming gorgeous Marvel mutant, the Jean Grey Premium Format™ Figure.
“I’ve been interested in more graphic approaches to my work for a while now, and in this case an X-themed composition seemed like an obvious choice. It’s not exactly subtle, but given the nature of the subject matter I felt like it would really complement the final sculpted piece from Sideshow.
(Was the print done after the sculpt and paint?)
In terms of the color scheme, I intentionally kept it rather limited, letting the light dominate over the colors for the most part. In some of the early versions I explored a more extreme palette, where the image was partially doused in red, as if the viewer were to actually experience being at the receiving end of Jean’s attack. It was an attempt to emphasize a visual break, but ultimately we felt it took too much attention away from her face.
(That would have been cool to see!)
In general, I wanted to strike a balance between something energetic and beautiful. Jean always struck me as a kind of sovereign character, but not unhinged (usually!) Chances are she is more powerful than you and she knows it – that’s the impression I wanted to create.”
I feel the print is a great representation of the character. It shows Jean’s strength and beauty. BUT what works in 2D doesn’t necessarily work in 3D.
The Pose: I don’t really understand why Sideshow decided to give Jean such a dramatic lean to the right and backwards. I can see where they thought she was leaning in the print. Again, it works in the print, not so much in 3D. I think they could have reduced the lean a tad. It looks too much like she tripped, or the statue is going to fall over. I can see someone looking over my collection asking why my Jean has a lean.
The Base: It works. Nothing too exciting here, usual X-base. I kind of wish she had something more similar to the base on Cyclops and Storm. Obviously people will want to display her with either one or both of these characters, so I think an environment base would have been better.
I haven’t seen anyone mention the difference in the bottom of the regular and exclusive bases. It is probably due to not many having two of this piece. The regular has a colorful yellow and blue bottom, while the exclusive is in gray tones. I really like that small difference. When I noticed this I was a tad frustrated, since I planned on selling my regular edition. It isn’t a big deal, but it does give me another reason to keep both, lol.
Belt Buckle: I don’t like how they sculpted the belt buckle. The design is inset, with the outer ring raised. I think it would have been better just flat, more of a smooth disc. I can’t remember how the x-symbols were on the other pieces, but I know they didn’t look like this.
Pupil-less eyes: It really doesn’t bug me that Sideshow decided to produce Jean Grey without pupils. They were just decals anyways. And that would give me the opportunity to pick what decals I would want to use. It is kind of an easy way to customize your piece. We have plenty of Sideshow reps on this site and they do take note about what we discuss. There have been an uncountable number of threads that consist of people complaining about googly eyes.
I want to say that Sideshow took advantage of the fact that Jean, in one or two forms, has had pupil-less eyes. It is better this way though. I would rather have eyes like this, than googly decals. The white eyes serve as a nice, and smooth canvas.
I did apply a pair of green/teal decals to my regular portrait on my regular edition and they are great. I was never a huge fan of most of the eye designs that have come through Sideshow’s production. They are usually too simple and soulless. So, I think this was a good decision on their part.
Neck gap: I am not going to hold back about this huge design blunder. I don’t know who thought this looked ok. Why is her neck wedged out in the front? It literally makes the neck gap look really weird, unnatural. I was told that I likely didn’t have my portrait pushed down enough. I DO! The bottom of the head is flush with the back of her neck. The front of the neck and portrait aren’t designed well. Even with the head all the way down, there is still a significant wedge/seam at her throat. It looks like she got too close to the Jack the Ripper Premium Format.
We have expressed our neck seam concerns since the creation of the switch-out portrait. What happened here Sideshow?!
Were the heads sculpted separately from the body? If so, wouldn’t someone have tested these out? I just don’t get it. I actually think this is the worst aspect of this piece. Was Sideshow hoping that most people would just display this piece at its main angle and not see the seam, since her left arm is positioned over it? This is a statue, you should be able to display, turn and enjoy it at all angles. Such a bummer.
Temple hand: Bummer #2. In the print, Jean has her right hand raised with her finger tips touching her temple. That isn’t the case with the statue. Her arm is raised and pulled backwards. Her fingers also don’t touch her temple. They are a considerable distance away from her head. WHY?!?!?!?!?!?
Jean and Professor X, when they do the hand-to-head pose they usually have their fingers applied to their temples. Do the pose yourself, it just feels right. Mimicking the pose of the statue, it feels stupid.
They should have made the right hand separately. So that you could have put the portrait on first, then the hand. It would have made putting the portraits on way easier and it would have been designed to where her finger tips were applied correctly to the side of her head.
Sculpt:
The sculpting on this piece is beautiful. Everything is extremely smooth. Her body is great. Her curves match how Jean was traditionally illustrated in the comics, with a lean body and typical large chest. I am glad they didn’t go overly sexualized route. I am still bitter about Poison Ivy.
Her outfit is sculpted well. The arm bands, bracelets, shoulder pads, belt are all really clean, simple and perfect. Sideshow really didn’t put their spin on this piece, which I am kind of glad they didn’t. I want my Jean traditional. You don’t get the cosplay-vibe from this piece.
Portraits: The portraits are BEAUTIFUL! I love both of them. The facial sculpt is womanly and lovely. No teenybopper, cherub face! I love how impressive and huge the hair is on both portraits. The hair on the regular portrait is bigger than my hand. If it was lying flat, it would hit her about mid-thigh. They are both dynamic and give the piece a good flow of action.
I love how voluminous the hair is, but it does cause issues when trying to display her. I had the hardest time trying to fit her into my cabinet with my Phoenix and Emma LSBs. I was hoping I would be able to position both of these in opposite corners behind my LSBs. But that isn’t going to work, sadly. I can’t fit them in the corners. They need about 4-5 inches of space behind them due to the hair. So, I am not sure what I am going to do. I don’t want to move them around too much in the cabinet, since it is easy to bump the hair up against the cabinet interior.
Production Paint & Mixed Media:
This piece is all sculpted, no mixed media.
The paint is very nice on this piece, with very little stray brush marks. The only areas that could have been better are on the X-Symbol area of the belt (due to that stupid inset) and her crotch (:~). I didn’t notice the crotch issue until I decided to put my second piece up high on my book shelf. Otherwise you won’t even see it.
Shading: I am sure due to the simple nature of this piece’s costume the factory was able to actually apply some shading. I am glad they did. Without the orange shading on the yellow areas of her costume, I think this piece would have been extremely flat. I appreciate the shading, but I do wish it would have been more focused. It has a broad spray area. And doesn’t always follow the receding areas of the sculpt. If they would have taken their time and actually focused on what should actually be shaded, this piece would have popped even more.
Hair color: Yes, it could have been redder. It should have been red. What it is, is more of an amber brown, chestnut, burnt brown color. Not sure why Sideshow decided to use this tone. Maybe they wanted it to look more natural? But why? They were comic-classic on every aspect of this character.
This might be an easy fix. I am going to trying applying some clear primer and then a red wash. If that works I will just continue to add layers of red washes until I get a desired tone.
I can see a difference in some of the paint/finishes on my two pieces. One has glossier paint on the blue part of the costume. You should be able to see this in some of my pics.
Production & Build Quality:
It seems like quite a few people are experiencing issues with their right foot floating off the base. I didn’t notice this initially, when I assembled my two pieces. BUT, when I put my regular body on my exclusive base and exclusive body on my regular base I did notice a significant gap between the foot and base. I can’t tell what is actually doing this.
Hopefully I didn’t miss anything. If anyone has any questions, let me know. If there is a certain aspect of the piece you think I missed etc.
The Grades:
Sculpt: 8
Paint & Mixed Media: 7
Design: 6.5
Production & Build Quality: 7
Overall: 7.125 – Good to Very Good
