Man, its been a while! But I found a mini statue that I knew I just had to review.
Corgi, perhaps to nobody's attention, has entered the Marvel statue market. These are hand-painted metal full-size statues, but at 1:12 scale. Their first releases were Thing, Cap, Wolvie and Spiderman. But the second set included their first female mini satue, Dark Phoenix (designed by Mark Spears). Can everyone's favorite mutant red-head look great in metal? Or has Corgi pretty much thrown their licensing money away?
The Concept:
Simply put, Dark Phoenix in all her glory. It is slightly reminiscent of Mark Newman's fabulous sculpt for Bowen Designs with its flaming Phoenix base. Thankfully its different enough, as the base more envelopes her while her arms seem to be shielding her eyes from the sun. Her gold sash is waving in the wind.
The Sculpt
For 1:12 scale I was very impressed with the sculpt. Lets face it there is only so much you can do at this scale to catch the feminine body, but I feel Spears does his best to make the statue seem dangerous and sexy. As you can see from the various pics, her hair and her body are nicely sculpted for such a small scale. No, its nowhere near as a nice as many statues or busts, but for this scale, you can't complain.
Her face is also nice, but is not the best feature. Its adequate, but perhaps nothing more. Her neck, however, is my main complant. Its a bit too long and too "veiny," making her seem a bit older than she really is. However, again, the small scale is probably the main culprit at work for that. The flaming Phoenix base gets high marks for both originality and execution. Made out of resin (I believe) instead of metal, the base has a nice orange translucense that works. Its also sculpted very well, with the head and wings of the Phoenix working better than you would think. That has such great detail for such small scale.
The paint Job:
No complaints here. Its a very simple paint job, as her outfit is red and gold only and her face requires very little painting itself. As expected, her eyes are not painted in, but that is how she is supposed to be. The paint is probably as good as you could hope for with die cast metal. No major mistakes as well.
Over-All Value:
The Dark Phoenix is, to me, one of the finest pieces in this new line. But, therein lies the problem. Its a small scale (1:12) that is metal (not resin) and the new product in a very crowded market. While these suckers don't take much space up, it would require someone to get into a new line and commit to it. Also, with the increase in quality and detail in such products as SS, you'll have to ask yourself if you want to get into a line that, due to the nature of the scale and material, will be less detailed than others at the same price point ($60 each). You can get a Batman: Black and White or a large bowen bust for this price, after all.
However, the piece is nice, and for x-men fans or Phoenix fans, it would be a nice addition to the collection. With Colossus, Wolvie, and Storm upcoming, Corgi seems intent on releasing a nice team of X-men. And with a large edition size of 2,500, I'm sure you can get one for cheap off ebay. On a side note, this product also contains lead, so its definitely not for children and is one of the few statues to come with a warning label.
Rating:
This is not for everyone. While they can always make great weapons, hand painted metal is probably not everyone's favorite medium for statues. However, it is a nice piece, and maybe a start of a nice collection. I'm giving this an enthusiastic
three out of five stars due to Corgi's unique product and a great sculpt. It will have a great place in my collection and tide me over till I can own that Newman Dark Phoenix one day.
jk
