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
_________________
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
________________
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.