AQUAMAN Premium Format Exclusive - Sideshow Collectibles - The StatueForum review

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Sideshow Collectibles – Aquaman Premium Format exclusive – Statueforum Review

Sideshow Collectibles presents one of the founding members of the Justice League of America: the Aquaman premium format statue. DC Comics fans who have been pleading for something NOT Batman from Sideshow are in for a treat as this piece comes with display features sure to please both fans of the new and old interpretations of the monarch of Atlantis and King of the seven seas.

Aquaman, also known as Arthur Curry, first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 published by DC Comics in November, 1941. He was created by the legendary writer/artist team of Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger. Although he was initially introduced to comics fans as a back-up feature, he eventually rose in popularity and earned his own title. Aquaman will appear alongside the Flash, Cybrog, Batman and Wonder Woman as one of the core characters in the upcoming Justice League movie scheduled to grace the silver screens across the globe in November, 2017. Fan favorite actor Jason Momoa has already been seen taking on the role of Aquaman in the recent Batman vs Superman movie.

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Sideshow Collectibles – Aquaman Premium Format exclusive – Statueforum Review

The team behind the design and development of the Aquaman Premium Format are as follows: Jesse Lincoln and Kellam Cunningham (development), Alex Tuis, Keith Kopinski, and Kris Anka (Design), Pablo Viggiano, Alfred Peredes, Tim Niver, and Jeff Yagher (Sculpt), Adam Smith and Chadwick Anderson (mold and cast) and Mike Najera, Anthony Mestas, and Kat Sapene (paint).

With trident in-hand, the Aquaman stands a towering 27 inches tall. Wow. The statue is also approximately 14 inches wide and 14 inches deep, and weighs approximately 17 pounds. Both the exclusive (edition size of 1500) and the regular edition retail at $429.99 plus shipping. Sideshow began shipping out this statue to clients on July 28, 2016.

As I write this review, the exclusive edition is still available for purchase on the Sideshow website. It’s nice to see Sideshow occasionally stray away from producing more Batman product. Hopefully, this means Flash, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, and Shazam and others are on the horizon. This Aquaman should display beautifully with the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman PFs.

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Sideshow Collectibles – Aquaman Premium Format exclusive – Statueforum Review

Sculpture: By offering two distinct-era portraits, the Sideshow design team was able to offer fans the opportunity to choose between the two most recognized interpretations of Aquaman. The clean cut portrait illustrates Aquaman’s regal persona and lineage to Atlantis. This is the Aquaman most fans of the Super Friends and silver age era grew up watching/knowing. However, renown comics scribe Peter David shocked the world when he changed all that in issue #2 of Aquaman (Volume 5, September, 1995) by having the character lose his hand in a piranha infested pool, at which point, he replaced his missing hand with a harpoon spearhead, let his hair grow past his shoulders, and presented a no-nonsense brooding attitude to match.

There’s something unmistakably classic about this pose. At the risk of sounding biased, I think it is a definitive pose, illustrative of the silver age era. This is one of those moments, I think, where the museum pose was the ideal pose. Right now, I’m displaying it with the classic silver age portrait as I think the pose, costume, and mood best exemplifies the classic portrait. While I think the pose works well with the brooding portrait too, ultimately I think a more menacing pose would have presented a more compelling narrative for that interpretation of the character wielding the harpoon hand. That being said, as the grittier look is likely presently the more recognized of the two interpretations, I imagine more fans will opt to display that one.

The base looks remarkable. The royal pedestal with Atlantean markings is a fabulous touch. The splashing water effect looks really nice too, even if it only shows on one side. The base also has this battle damaged and weathered aspect to it, which is what you'd expect from an undersea kingdom constantly under siege. There’s lots of design to the base. You’ll likely be seeing something different every time you look at it for a long while. The scales on Aquaman’s costume look good. This was done nicely.

Okay, now for the not so great: The portraits. In my opinion, a portrait can often make or break a statue. In this case, I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed. Both portraits have just a bit of that cross-eyed look to them. The necks look overly buffed up too. I just wasn’t as wowed with the portraits as I was with most everything else with the piece. They look ok, not bad, but not great. Also, it's unfortunate that the harpoon hand isn't made of metal. The Trident could have been made by a more durable material too as it feels kind of cheap in your hand (i.e., plastic), though it does look fine on display, even if it lacks detail. Had these issues not been an issue, this could have been a 9/10.

The statue comes in 8 pieces: The Aquaman body, green gloved left forearm, left harpoon forearm, two portraits, Trident (in two pieces), and elaborate base.

Rating: 7.5/10
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Paint/Mixed media: The paint applications on the polystone body and base totally pop. While I’m not typically a fan of gloss on body paints (i.e., costumes), I think it works really well here. Also, whether it was intentional or not, the designers nailed the wet, undersea ambience of the overall look. The base paints look particularly complicated and ambitious. While the splashing-water effect may look a bit campy in that take-it-or-leave-it kind of way, it still works. It’s nice to see Sideshow take these kinds of risks in its designs at its own expense. They could have easily just put Aquaman on a rock, charged the same amount, but they didn’t.

As alluded to earlier, the main area I can see some fans having an issue with is the portraits. The paint applications on the eyes could be better, much better. It just lacks that wow appeal, especially on the brooding portrait. Incidentally, it looks the brooding portrait is wearing eye liner. While the overall of the portraits certainly aren’t bad enough to ask for a replacement, it nonetheless left me with that “could have been amazing, if only…” type feeling. The portraits are so key to a statue’s overall appeal as that’s typically how one connects or resonates with a piece. To be honest, the paints applications on the portraits appear so disproportionate in quality to the rest of the statue, I was left wondering if these were produced in a different production house. I was disappointed. I didn’t find myself marvelling over this statue as much I could have because of the mediocre portraits.

Rating 7/10
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Production and Build quality: This is a strong and solid piece, and noticeably heavier than the last few premium format releases. There’s no tilting or imbalance to it or cause to be concerned about long term leaning issues. Magnets are strong. The portrait/body seams aren’t really noticeable. Very easy to put together. It is a bit on the heavy and bulky side.

Rating 8/10
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Design: In my opinion, the classic pose typically wins over the action pose as it’s the type of pose you can display with most things in most places. The inspiration for the classic pose was a clear winner. The fabulous design of the base definite got some high marks. The design team loses some points with the brooding portrait/pose. He just looks too aloof and lacks expression. This piece just lacks that wow factor.

Rating: 7.5/10
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Overall, I think this piece adequately did what it set out to do despite the shortcomings. While I’ve certainly been more impressed by other Sideshow releases (i.e., the recent Black Spiderman PF, for example), I think there’s enough going on here to make Aquaman and Justice League fans happy. I think this is one of those pieces which may grow on fans in time.

Now, before anyone thinks this review slammed this piece, it did not. A 7.5 is a solid B-score which is a very good rating, just not excellent, as there were enough areas which left something to be desired and merited mention. In an era of collecting which now includes competition like XM Studios, Prime-1, and Iron Studios, Sideshow can't afford to produce portraits like this. In essence, the bar has been raised. What's particularly bizarre is that Sideshow has been known to produce better product. Alas, the inconsistency in quality in Sideshow products has a tendency to raise people hopes a bit too much, at least it did for me on this occasion.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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[Bmutha]

Great review and great pics! I hope other non-Batman characters will come out, too...I'd love to see a Flash!