A couple of years back, I was thrilled when Kotobukiya made a figure of Psylocke. Psylocke is my favorite character in all of comics and I was happy to get any figure of her. Over time, my enthusiasm for that figure – and indeed, Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo line – has mellowed to a certain degree. Not that I dislike them, but it’s clear that the Bishoujo figures are meant to be fairly inexpensive products aimed at a mass-market audience. However, this statue is an entirely different proposition, with supposedly only 750 limited edition units manufactured and a price tag that would deter most collectors. How disappointing then, that once again my enthusiasm is tempered – indeed, extinguished; this time, because of a most peculiar and most irresponsible mistake made by the manufacturer.
Psylocke is a member of the Uncanny X-Men … or at least, she was when I kept up with comics. I was an avid comic collector up until a few years ago but my interest fell off for a variety of reasons. I think I began losing interest when the creative team on New X-Men: Academy X got sacked and replaced with a pair of hacks who slaughtered the cast. Not that it was a great series, and not that it didn’t need a shakeup, but the new writers’ approach was offensively artless and inept. Then the whole House of M thing happened, which seemed like a desperate attempt to establish a new status quo. Which is what it did, I suppose. Then I think the Marvel guys saw that nobody took Cyclops seriousl; to give him some leadership credibility, they had him establish a black ops team (ooh, black ops! As if that hasn’t been done before!) called X-Force, which Psylocke became part of. Along the way, some other things happened: Wolverine started appearing in just about every Marvel book (curiously including the Avengers), X-23 kept getting solo series that would inevitably get cancelled, and a hundred Deadpool books suddenly popped up. And when the Twilight films hit theatres, they added a bunch of vampires to the X-Men books. Seriously.
I think the biggest reason I don’t really care for comics anymore is the lack of consistency from issue to issue and from series to series. Marvel continually pushed inter-series crossovers, which I didn’t really appreciate since I never read the Avengers or regular Spider-Man books. Pencillers kept changing from month to month, particularly on some of the less popular books. And a lot of the series that I did like, such as New X-Men, Spider-Girl Ms. Marvel, and Ultimate Spider-Man, got cancelled. Admittedly, Ms. Marvel had a pretty good run, particularly for a female lead character (sadly, in the current market, there do not seem to be many female characters who can sustain books by themselves), and Ultimate Spider-Man later got resurrected (the series, not the hero) in some form.
Despite all that, I’d still name Psylocke one of my favorite fictional characters in pop culture. She’s gotten a few large-sized statues over the last few years – among them Sideshow’s Comiquette version and Kotobukiya’s Danger Room version – but what I really wanted was for her to get a Premium Format statue. I was very happy with the first Premium Format statue that I purchased – Star Wars’s Darth Talon – and since Sideshow had recently made Premium Format products of the other X-Men, I had hoped Psylocke would get one as well. My anticipation was tempered by the fact that Psylocke tends to be overlooked when it comes to Marvel characters – she didn’t make it into the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 video game, nor did she appear in X-Men Legends II (and in the first game, she was one of the last X-Men to join your team), and she inexplicably appeared in one of the X-Men films as a bad guy, and apparently got killed off. When Sideshow announced that Psylocke would get her own PF statue, I was quite happy and promptly put in an order.
The main reason I wanted a PF version of Psylocke is the size of the Premium Format line. They’re made in 1/4 scale – which, as anyone who has read this site for a while knows, I’m a big fan of. Psylocke stands 44 centimeters tall – she is absolutely titanic compared to 1/8 and 1/7 scale figures. Her giant-sized base – a big, heavy disc emblazoned with a red X-Men logo – considerably adds to her impressive stature.
Psylocke has gone through a few costumes during her X-Men career, and in X-Force she’s apparently now wearing a rather boring and uninspired bra-and-leggings ensemble, but she’s shown here in what I think is the best costume in all of comics, the blue thong leotard and body strap outfit that she got upon exiting the Siege Perilous way back around Uncanny X-Men #256 or so, if I remember right. It is perhaps, a somewhat abbreviated costume but it does fit well into the tradition carried on by other sexy ninja girls like Mai Shiranui and Kasumi and Ayane from Dead or Alive.
This statue is made of a rather heavy, solid material – presumably polystone. The shipping weight is listed at a hefty ten pounds, probably making her the heaviest figure in my collection. These statues are painted – presumably by hand – in China, and to be honest, I can’t say the paintwork is particularly impressive. It does the job but it’s not particularly skillful. Pretty much any Alter figure from the last few years would blow this figure away in terms of craftsmanship. What’s more, there’s this particular issue with the paint job:
Crikeys, she’s cracking! In fact, she’s cracking all over the place! Why is her paint cracking like that?
A perusal of the Psylocke thread over on Statueforum.com reveals that numerous collectors have had this issue with their Psylocke figures. One collector suggested that the cracking problem is occurring because Sideshow didn’t use any primer before painting the statues.
Oh, well, I was afraid it might be a big problem, but if that’s all that is then it’s no big deal, and …
Wait … they didn’t prime the statue before painting?
Wut?
Even someone like me who doesn’t build models knows that you need to apply a primer layer to make sure that paint sticks to the model. I’m really not sure why Sideshow screwed this up, particularly being that this is a $300 statue, not some cheap Ame-Comi thing where nobody’s going to pay much attention to the paint.
To their credit, Sideshow does have a fairly liberal replacement program, where you send in photos of damage and they send a replacement product (amusingly, they also ask that you physically smash your older statue to bits and send them photos for confirmation). I e-mailed them a month ago explaining the problem and, unsurprisingly, got placed on a waitlist for a replacement Psylocke. Hopefully the next batch of statues has a primer layer under the paint.
I purchased the Sideshow Exclusive edition, which isn’t any more expensive than the regular version but comes with a couple of extra things, including a different head. I guess this head is supposed to resemble Psylocke as she appeared earlier in the comics, when Jim Lee drew her. She has a different hairstyle and a slightly different face, which I don’t like quite as much; she kinda reminds me of Chris Bosh, or maybe Ming the Merciless, so I don’t use this face. On top of that, the head that came with my statue also has a scratch high up on her left cheek. If this were a PVC figure, I’d try to remove it with some rubbing alcohol, but I think Sideshow uses acrylic paints on their statues and I nearly screwed up Darth Talon by applying alcohol to her skin while removing a blemish.
She also comes with an alternate left arm that features her psychic knife. Both her head and arm are held to her body by fairly powerful magnets, though I’ve read that some people had some problems with the magnets falling off.
It doesn’t look that bad; normally I’m not a fan of trying to sculpt special effects out of plastic but it looks okay here. Still, I like how she looks dual-wielding katana – even though I don’t remember her fighting with two swords that often – so that’s how I’m displaying her.
Psylocke’s belt is also removable.
She can wear this belt, which attaches with Velcro.
Or you can use this sash instead, which has a wire inside to maintain its shape. I’m not sure which one I like better, but I’m going with the belt for now, since I think it shows off her bodyline a little bit better.
I do like her sculpt a lot; Psylocke looks tall, graceful, and elegant, just as she should look.
She also has a very nice-looking ass – again, just as she should look.
Some angles aren’t really that flattering to her, but with her regular head, I like the way her hair covers one eye; it’s the sort of look often used in anime to signify that a female character is tough, physically adept, or enigmatic, and Psylocke is certainly all of those things.
This statue ought to be one of the best pieces in my collection, but the flaking paint obviously makes it a tremendous disappointment. Perhaps – hopefully – my opinion will shift if and when I get a replacement, but in spite of my desire to like this statue, I can’t get over the cracking paint problem. It’s really too bad since this is one of the figures I’ve been anticipating for a long time.
Since I am expecting to get a replacement, here is Psylocke with the tentacle stand. Ordinarily I would not even entertain the thought of applying the tentacle stand to a polystone or resin figure, but Psylocke seems very sturdy and is able to handle it.
Bugggly!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry Tier, its just, well looks like a waste of moolah!
Haha, that is cold. I don’t think it looks that bad but that probably comes more from my fondness for the character and the figure’s exceptional size than for the figure itself. I mean, besides the cracking and chipping and stuff, which I certainly do not appreciate very much.
I was always more of a fan of British Psylocke, but to be honest she was never near the top of my X-Men favorites. If I had this I would use the sash as to me that is the most iconic version of her.
I think this statue looks good, but because she has fabric clothing I would be tempted to see what she looks like underneath. The biggest problem I have with this figure is probably the angry face.
Hopefully they send you a new statue to replace this one. That sucks about the chipping issues especially for something that costs that much. Make sure you update your viewers if you have to make this one rubble.
Oh and nice use of the tentacle stand. If you do get a replacement, do everything you want to this one before being destroyed.
I also have a soft spot for British Psylocke since I first began reading the Uncanny X-Men about when she started wearing her body armor-and-hood costume, which I like a lot, just not as much as her ninja suit. I’ll admit that a big reason that I like her is because of her appearance; I don’t think she’s ever really been a well-written character and writers never seem to know what to do with her.
Ahh, I forgot to mention that in the review. Yeah, she wears a fabric costume, like all the Premium Format figures (I think). However, she’s got Barbie doll anatomy underneath; some people removed her costume in order to paint her properly and posted pictures of what her sculpt looks like without her clothes. I think there’s at least one Sideshow statue that has sculpted nipples (it might be Vampirella that I’m thinking of) but Psylocke does not.
I’m going to have to hit them up again, it’s been a month since I filled out the form for a replacement and I see that they have the regular version in stock. I will take many pictures if I have to smash it to pieces. (That reminds me, I still need to affix Black Rock Shooter’s star decal to the seat of her pants, like I said I would.)
Besides Wolverine very few of the X-Men have ever been written well. Although I will agree that Psylocke is far down on the poor writing list. This is one of the reasons I got out of comics…especially Marvel.
Yeah, I’d agree with that. Quite a few of the characters have such long histories that I have no idea who they are (like Professor X and Magneto). I couldn’t even really say what Psylocke’s personality is like, since I don’t think the writers have really spent a lot of time giving her one. I remember in X-Men #1, she called herself an action junkie, and then throughout the first thirty or so issues of X-Men, she wound up getting beat down almost every time she got into a fight.
Ouch! To spend that much money on a highly anticipated figure only for it to be defective! That’s really harsh. I’m surprised to hear about this issue. I always thought that Sideshow Collectibles released super high quality stuff. Wasn’t expecting one of their products to have such a nasty defect.
No primer? Seriously? Then again this is a fault of the factory that produced the statues, and from the sounds of it many of the Psylockes didn’t start cracking until some time had passed. SC probably did a quality check and passed ’em without realizing the primer mistake. D: Hopefully this doesn’t happen again.
I’ve never been big into American superhero comics. It’s just too overwhelming. Too many characters, too many continuities/alternate universes, too many reboots, too many crossovers, etc etc. Almost feels like you need to go to college to learn about them, their backstories and all the alternate takes on them. Another thing that bothered was what you mentioned: the switching up of artists/writers.
Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. I liked Darth Talon a lot; she wasn’t the most exceptional work of art in terms of precise painting, but she had a lot of character and looked great. Given how many PF statues have come before Psylocke, I’m amazed that they didn’t apply primer; it doesn’t cost a whole lot and they had to know what a huge public relations problem it would cause if everyone’s figures started flaking and cracking. Even more regrettable is that the chipping doesn’t start until some time has passed, and the figure could go out of warranty before the problems become visible. Some people might not notice in time.
Yeah, that’s kinda how I feel now.about comics; I went to a comic store about a year ago looking for books that Psylocke is in, and found that she’s in X-Force and Uncanny X-Men (which I guess got cancelled and relaunched) and I think she’s in adjectiveless X-Men which might’ve gotten a new name (X-Men Legacy, I think?). As much as I like the X-Men, I don’t think I can keep up with all the titles (and all the titles that get cancelled). Probably my favorite series for the last ten years or so is Runaways, and part of the reason I liked it so much was that you didn’t really need to be too familiar with Marvel continuity to enjoy it.
Speaking of warranties, wouldn’t paint cracking still warrant a replacement if it’s an inherent design flaw / manufacturer defect from lack of primer, analogous to baby seat / automotive recalls, even if the product was out of warranty period? It seems like a terrible oversight that would lead to high rates of failure for all SC figs. For that much money I’d expect tighter standards and better craftsmanship, as I was scrolling down and looking at the pictures I saw cracks, and then… yep, confirmed.
Coming from an anime fig collector / GK hobbyist, the paint is pretty bland and the sculpt is really flat for a 1/4 scale. The source material design isn’t very complex, but those thigh-rings, leggings, and neck collar just look awful. The fig has so-so masking and edging, the paint makes them look plastic – like; at least they should have tried to sculpt and paint some semblance of leather and leather bands. The difference between the leotard (excellent) and everything else (terrible) is just too great. I’m sure Alter could pump out more detail with less than half its size.
I would think so, particularly given the price of the figure. From what I can tell, Sideshow’s customer service is pretty good – people have had issues with other figures (though nothing as negligent as this problem) and Sideshow has been amenable to replacing items if their customers are dissatisfied with something.
Yeah, I’d think they could get some better workers to do their painting for them, given the expense. There are at least a few companies that sell pre-painted resin and polystone statues that do a much better job, despite using Chinese labor (though I should state that while I assume said labor is not particularly skilled or well-compensated, for all i know they’re actually technically adept and competitively paid). Then again, I’ve seen Volks do both an excellent job and a miserable job on the prepainted versions of their models.
I’d take it for granted that Alter could do a far better job. Sometimes I’ll see collectors of western comics/pop culture statues say that PVC figures aren’t as detailed or attractive as the polystone stuff and I have to scratch my head at that.
To be honest, ugly figure but you did an awesome job as photographer, like always.Even if the figures are bad, your Photos makin the figure beatiful….
Ive been painting and building garage kits for a while now, and I think this cracks in the paint, may be the result of a wrong base coat – color choice. Sometimes acrylic paint appears cracking like this, when you took the wrong base coat or forgot to remove the residue of the casting. There are always leftovers from form release agents, I clean them up with scouring milk and a toothbrush, otherwise accidents like this one happen.
Greetings from Germany..
Thanks! Man, people don’t like this one. I think it’d be interesting if someone took, say, the Ms. Marvel Premium Format figure and ran a poll asking anime fans what they thought of the figure, and then took the Goddess Madoka figure from GSC and ran a poll asking US comic book/sci fi fans what they thought of the figure. I have the feeling that both collectors would be very far apart as to what they like.
Yeah, there could be more than one problem with this statue; I know they use acrylic paint to paint it, and it looks like really cheap acrylic paint to me. I wonder if they had a new crew of workers in their factory that just messed up from the start.
Some people have different taste in regards of figure collecting, but its the mutual respect of each other in terms of collecting characters they love must be the responsibility of each collector. That way, the hobby will grow. The problem on mass production types is if they have already a mistake on the start, the end will be a failure as well. The choice of materials can be the culprit of this. Even though I don’t like this figure to be honest due to a different preferences, I still don’t have the right to troll those collectors.
Indeed! Those are wise words. People may like different things – even when they’re basically the same hobby – but I think there’s enough common ground that each side can understand and respect the other. Wait, wait … no, what am I saying … this is the internet! If you don’t agree with me, then you are wrong! And those things that you like … they suck! You will like what I tell you to like, and if you don’t, I will write an excruciatingly long rebuttal (with the help of thesaurus.com) telling you exactly why you are wrong, wrong, wrong!
Gee, I wrote that just before reading the last line of your comment and now I feel bad XD
the problem as of today is…..that’s the mentality of some collectors. Some guys are affected by this so-called “self righteous” mentality since this is the internet, and no one will know specifically who you are. At least the incoming comments on this site still shows respect for each other I commend. On most gunpla blogs or sites, there’s always some massive rebuttal against each other, even doing some stupid novel length rants about it, damn….are these guys have nothing to do in their lives besides ranting around? Ok this wil go out of topic anyway, I’m out.
Indeed! In fact, I’d change “some collectors” to “everyone on the internet.” It’s astonishing to see how many people cast judgment on other people. Me, the only people I routinely cast judgment on are idiots who drive too slowly in the left lane. Well, them and people who cast judgment on other people.
Respect is good XD I’d definitely start nuking comments if people started being disrespectful, though. I don’t have to do that very often, fortunately; I don’t think I’ve had to delete more than a half dozen or so comments since starting this site.
… cute?… :p
I was a bit surprised as I checked you blog yesterday. Even for an adaption of an western comic character, this female character has a very manly appearance in her face, reminds me a bit of the villain from the Mortal Combat movie. On second look she appears more like a women.
The pose and body sculpting are good points of her. The paintjob of the blue straps could be a bit cleaner. I’m sorry to hear about the paint flaws on such an expensive figure, but it’s good that the company offers a replacement solution for you. It’s funny that you have to smash the figure, before you will receive another one. It sounds quite cruel when you already got attached to the figure XD
OMG you’re saying that she looks like Goro :O That is cold, man. Uhh, unless you mean Shang Tsung … uhh, or Shao Khan, which might be even worse :O I’ve never actually seen any of the MK films.
Man, I wonder what all of you would say if I had gotten the Kotobukiya Psylocke XD I don’t think the Sideshow one looks too manly, but the Kotobukiya one kinda does to me.
Yeah, it’s a unique replacement solution XD I am guessing it’s because these items are nominally limited edition products (they go to some lengths to publicize exactly how many units they make, and they mark the edition number on each box). Hopefully they let me inspect the replacement before needing to smash the original, since I don’t want to get a replacement that has even worse problems.
Oh no, not Goro of course XD
I guess it was Shang Tsung or better said the actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Mortal Combat was kind of cool movie from the 90’s, a little trashy but as teenager I liked it. Reptile and Sub zero were so cool ;D
Oh god what did Kotobukiya there !? Thats really not pretty 🙁
The Sideshow one is 5 times better, but I would probably prefer the
Psylocke Comiquette Statue which was also made by Sideshow.
Aww. Well, she kinda could look like Goro if you squint really hard, maybe.
Ha! Kotobukiya has some interesting stuff; they’re one of the few companies that fully caters to both comic and anime fans, though I guess people who read this site are going to be more familiar with the latter. Like they’ve got this Wolverine statue coming out; he looks kinda like he might’ve eaten too many pretzels, maybe.
Good review and beautiful pictures, but sorry to hear about the paint cracking. I still don’t understand why the statue wasn’t primed during production, unless the factory tried to use paints that didn’t need primer. Maybe cheap paints? But still.. It’s sad to see something like this happen to a gorgeous statue.
I also have the Psylocke PF, but it’s the regular edition. The exclusive 90’s portrait is nice, however, I prefer the modern portrait with her hair rustling in the wind. Despite the paint problems, I think Sideshow did a great job with Psylocke. Very nice sculpt and her pose is elegant, but it also gives the feeling she’s ready to strike at her opponent.
I’m expecting a replacement base within the next two weeks, because the original base was damaged when I first got it. Psylocke herself is fine for now. I hope your replacement body turns out well. 🙂
Haha.. Nice idea with the tentacle stand. That’s a first! I’m not into American comics that much as well, because of the different alternate stories. Some artists will draw the characters very nicely while others don’t. I’m more into anime/manga, because of the continuous storyline and artwork. Since it’s either one person or a team of artists illustrating, you see their art evolving as the story progresses.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. 🙂
Yeah, I can’t understand it either; they make tons and tons of statues, so I do not know why Psylocke is the one with this problem. My Darth Talon statue seems to be in good shape, and I haven’t heard of anyone else complaining of chipping and cracking paint on any of the other PFs; it’s just Psylocke who seems to have this problem.
Yeah, I like this statue a lot as well, aside from the technical issues, which I can’t really disregard since I know they’re going to get much worse. I do wish that they were more adept at painting, since the paint is a bit flat and her skin tone is sorta a strange brown/gray/flesh tone color, which looks odd compared to the more pinkish/peach skin tones of almost all my other figures.
The tentacle stand is always tons of fun to bring out XD There’s a scene in the X-Cutioner’s Song crossover way back in the early 90s where Stryfe shows off his room of mechanical tentacles. I hadn’t even heard of tentacle hentai at the time – being that almost no households had internet access back then – but that scene always stuck with me.
I’m not sure of other PF’s that have this problem either. Sideshow’s Sabertooth and Ironman busts had paint cracking/flaking.
I agree the paint should’ve been better on Psylocke, especially on her legs where she has the leg straps. They look a bit sloppy instead of having a clean look.
Omega Red comes to mind when you mentioned mechanical tentacles. I remember seeing him with those in both the X-Men comics and 90’s cartoon. How big is that tentacle stand by the way?
From reading other’s comments here, it’s a not surprising seeing the different opinions. It’s cool. Different collectors have their own tastes and opinions. 🙂
So, Kotobukiya’s bishoujo, danger room statue, Bowen’s museum statue and Sideshow’s comiquette. I’m surprised no one mentioned Sideshow’s Psylocke vs Spiral diorama. That’s a nice one too. 😉 I think the only things that Sideshow hasn’t yet done of Psylocke are a bust and maybe a legendary scale statue? 1/2 scale is really big XD;;
Ouch; I guess I’m glad I skipped the Lady Death PF then, even though I kinda wanted it. I’ll wait and make sure they’ve got their procedures sorted out first.
Omega Red was a pretty cool villain XD I wonder if they’ve done anything with him recently; I remember he popped up with some frequency during the early issues of adjectiveless X-Men. I always liked him and Sabertooth as far as villains went.
The tentacles of the tentacle stand are about 22 inches in length, so they’re fairly long. I have a (somewhat immature) writeup of it with some more pictures, mostly of the naughty and juvenile variety.
Yeah, I liked how the Spiral vs. Psylocke piece looked; I was really thinking of getting it but then I found that it was fairly small, and I didn’t want to spend so much money on a piece that was something like 1/8 scale. Admittedly, given that it comprises two figures, the price wasn’t too unreasonable. I was also kinda wondering how well it’d hold up over time, since Psylocke was flying through the air. (I’ve also got the old NECA Psylocke statue, but I don’t think it looks that great. It was really cheap, though.)
1/2 scale Psylocke would be great XD I’d be interested for sure; interested in admiring it at least.
The Lady Death PF is really cool. I think waiting to see how these statues turn out in the final product is a good thing.
Normally, I collect 1/6 scale and smaller figures, but transitioning to 1/4 scale was a big step. I don’t regret moving to the larger statues, because they have so much presence while on display. However, I’m very selective, because they’re expensive.
About Omega Red, he’s in the current issues of Uncanny X-Force with Mystique and Sabertooth. I mainly follow X-Force, because of Psylocke and her character development is very well done here. She does have her awesome moments in X-Men, but she shines more in X-Force.
I read your writeup on the tentacle stand and it’s pretty cool. Haha I like the pictures too XD. The only thing I didn’t like was they’re oily to touch.
I’ve seen the NECA and Kotobukiya Psylocke statues at a local comic convention last spring. The NECA statue looked ok and Kotobukiya’s was nice, but the face wasn’t that good on Koto’s.
San Diego Comic Con rolls in next week. It’ll be pretty interesting to see what the new releases are. 😉
Didn’t know you were moving onto Drag Queen figures Tier.
How very broad minded of you, you are clearly an equal opportunities buyer.
Did you order and have you received Native’s bath Sonico yet?
I had to use SMJ as she had sold out on TH when I went to order her. Curious to get your opinion on her
British eyesight is as defective as their dentistry, apparently.
Yeah, I ordered Sonico, and got it today, actually. I was getting antsy about it since I’d seen everyone else get theirs and hadn’t heard from TH, but it turned out that Tokyo Hunter was holding onto it to ship it together with … uhh … that girl with her shorts pulled down, what’s her name … Hotori Yoshi, I think? Something like that. Anyway, that was nice of them to do, since I wasn’t in a huge hurry to get either figure (I got that bike Saber today, too, and I dunno what I’m gonna do with it). I just took a glance at her while opening up the box and she looks pretty great; she’s quite a bit larger than I was expecting, which is a big plus (I think I thought she was 1/7 scale like Hotori). There’s a pretty good overview of her over on Wieselhead. I’ll probably do Hotori next, if I don’t get lazy and do a pillowcase review or preorder post instead.
Who are you kidding? I’m pretty sure you are already vainly searching for this even as I type.
Must admit I was a little underwhelmed by Sonico initially – apart from the face she isn’t very detailed and the way her left arm slots in isn’t fantastic… she has grown on me though – she is certainly better looking than Orchid Seed’s secret conehead version
I was expecting you to link that Mayo Chiki figure but you bring that old-ass figure out again. You never fail to disappoint.
Yeah, I was a bit underwhelmed at first as well, though mostly because she’s not that explciit compared to most of their other products. She’s naked and all, but this could’ve easily also been a Yamato or Orchid Seed figure. Besides that, though, I think she looks great. I’m gonna have to think up some way to take her picture since I’ve got nothing right now.
I don’t expect seeing western sculpt figures to looks pretty or cute as they looks bad-ass in comic books, i still see her cool in first image, but the defect so horrible and I know how much this thing cost, did you ever tried to e-mail sideshow to claim replacement maybe ?
LOL didn’t pay attention on your text till the end before hope they really replace yours soon or later 🙁
OMG not reading the words XD Yeah, I sorta figure people are more interested in the photos. Yeah, I e-mailed them last month; I’ll probably ask them again next week, since there’s a US holiday in the middle of this week. They also have the option of getting a full refund (which I assume would be delivered after smashing the statue to pieces), so I could also go that route if I can’t get a replacement.
I have to say, I don’t like it. I’ve never been in to comic stuff at all and don’t particularly dig superheroes in general (the big box-office films are as far as I go, and I don’t even like many of those) but I know Marvel has some hotties.
She does not appear to be one. She looks like a man (sans chest). The face is way too butch, which I know Western fans seem to like (big butch characters in their games and media) but as an anime fan and connoisseur of the bishoujo and petite, I really can’t dig chunky women.
Some of the angles you’ve shot her at make her look kind of okay, but even the best of them aren’t redeeming; especially for that pricetag. But you are correct, compare wester/comic fans to eastern/anime fans and you will get vastly different opinions. Madoka vs. something like this isn’t even a contest in my eyes, or anybody I know; but I only associate with likeminded people these days, and most of us watch anime and enjoy similar kind of stuff.
But man, I can’t get over that face. It’s more masculine than the vast majority of male anime characters (which is not necessarily not saying much, I know). Scary stuff.
Oh, and what is the backdrop you’ve used? I’ve been looking for a large marbled backdrop but can’t find anything beyond A4 paper, which is too small for most figure shooting.
Haha, you guys are ruthless XD I’d love to take two polls as to whether Psylocke looks like a man, once focused on readers of US comics, and one focused on anime viewers. In my life, I’ve been a far more passionate collector of comics than anime viewer, even though this site (somewhat) pertains to anime culture.
Yeah, I’m sure you are correct that opinions on something like this and something like a Madoka or Miku figure would be starkly stratified by the type of popular culture that one enjoys. I’m a fan of both (though now much less a fan of comics, as I wrote) so I appreciate both.
Man, reading the sort of reception that Psylocke is getting here, I ought to post more pictures of American statues. I ought to review Dorothy; she’d actually fit in extremely well with the themes and tenor of this site. And man, now I really want to review gangsta lean Saber, just to see what people will say about her.
The background is a big sheet of foamboard; the same exact sheet that I used for the swimsuit Fate Testarossa figure late last year. I painted over it with some cheapo acrylic paints with a couple of shades of gray and then black. I kinda like how it looks, and it gives me a decent option to use with big figures like this. Previously, my only option for shooting a jumbo-sized figure was to use my big piece of black velvet, since anything else would be too small.
I fell out of comics in the late 90’s. I enjoyed the 80’s though. The figure looks awesome, but I would be pissed about the paint too. 1/4 scale though…….I wish all figures came ion that scale. 1/4 scale figures are cool because they do not look like toys, you can proudly display them on a desk, while a 1/8 Miku figure would get you stares.
I stopped reading comics in 1994, when I moved to the States, and then picked them up again around 2000, when Udon and Devil’s Due starting publishing Street Fighter. I’ve been on-and-off in terms of collecting comic books, just like I’ve been with listening to rap music and watching anime.
Yeah, 1/4 scale is fantastic. I ought to just go ahead and review the other three 1/4 scale figures that I really want to get to already; one of them is not going to get an enthusiastic reception, I expect, but the other two look good.
Paint cracks can be caused by a variety of reasons. Poor priming, poor base material and other issues. Polystone is a not so paint friendly material and a very expensive and fragile one to boot. The clothes as I can see, are made of cloth, am I right? The figure is made as if it came out of the comic book it seems. Best of luck for your replacement figure. Maybe you could do some repairs for the later, hehe
Her leotard is cloth, but the boots and leg/arm bands are painted on. Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are several factors involved, like low-quality paint.
I think that if I could not get a replacement, I’d ask for a refund, and if I can’t get a refund, she’d at least make for an interesting repaint project – though I’m not actually certain how to get her leotard off.
First of all, sorry for my bad English ^^”
I’m not so into PVCs but I’m also building garage kits like Aya and I also guess the cracks are a problem with the paint/no primer. In fact I experienced this on one of my oldest garage kits, too. I really hope you will get a replacement that doesn’t have the same problem.
Besides, I really don’t wanna spoil your fun with this Psylocke, but are you sure this isn’t a bootleg or something like that? I found pictures of the same Psylocke on this site
http://www.fistco.com/Statuen–Buesten/Comic-263/X-Men/MARVEL—Psylocke-Premium-Format-Statue–Sideshow-.html
and she looks somehow very different. Especially her eyes and eyebrows. On your Psylocke they look VERY Asian and the belt on your photos didn’t seem to fit quite as good as on the on at Fistco. A bootleg could also be a plausible reason for the cracking paint.
Have you purchased the figure at a reliable shop?
Your English is good! Yeah, I’m sure it’s not a bootleg; I ordered it directly from Sideshow Toys. You can see the shipping box on the left, where I cannibalized it to construct a set. Presumably their promo pictures were of a specially-painted sample; they uploaded the promo photos months before the figure was released so I’m not surprised that they look so different. Kinda disappointing how that happens.
Gotta go with the majority here–I don’t like ‘er. The expression seems really harsh (either way). I’m also just not a fan of “real” clothing on figures. It looks out of place to me. Nice sword, though, and, as they say, DAT ASS. Sideshow’s stuff is generally awesome, if too expensive, so I’m surprised they screwed up the paint job. They just announced a teaser for a Poison Ivy statue to be revealed at Comi-Con. I’m interested in that, as Ivy is one of the more voluptuous pin-up girls in the DCU. However, the production problems with Psylocke have me a little edgy. The important thing about Psylocke is that YOU like it, which you seem to, so excellent!
The wife is going off to grad school in August so we’ll have to keep spending low. I just found out that the local comic shop straight-up does not import figures, so my collecting habits are about to get trounced for awhile, which sucks. Especially having already committed to a 3DS XL on August 19th. Still, I’m seriously considering Amazon or eBay for Orchid Seed’s new Kurumu Kurono–so adorable!
Also, some self-promotion: my medical adventures are (for the most part) over, so I’m back to posting at Dirty Little Figures. 😉
I’m going to have to make a mental note to put some of my 1/6 scale doll clothing on Sasara whenever I get around to shooting her. Hmm; I wonder if she can fit into my spare Obama doll’s business suit.
Yeah, I’m hesitant to place another order, at least until I get the replacement situation resolved, though it’d be hard to imagine that they’ll screw up again; a couple more occurrences like this and they’re going to lose all their customers.
Congrats to your wife! And congrats to you for getting your brains fixed up. Hehe. Not to be too flip but it’s good to hear that you’ve got that behind you; I know that if I had a physical problem with my brain, I’d be freaking out.
On a semi-related note, I agree that Power Girl’s new costume is all kinds of WTF.
That really sucks about the cracking paint! There’s really no excuse for such a crappy quality control for a premium collectible. I’m glad Sideshow will be getting you a replacement, you definitely need to include that tentacle pic when they ask you to send in the smashy smashy pics! LOL Hell, you need a follow-up post for this and include the smashing photos. XD
@ Tier
Sorry for the harsh words. The paint chipping simply is unforgivable for such a high end figure.
Not that I’m prejudiced against American designed figs but, well can’t they ever make a Chinese/Japanese looking model beautiful without looking like this? The link of the Koto version you provided almost affirms my suspicions. The Japanese designers makes a more comic book accurate version than their American counterparts. (Though you might have a point with Betsy having a buffed up butch looking appearance……she was sexy and not buffed in Jim Lee’s version waaaaaaay back in 1991, the year I stopped collecting comics)
Agan, that d@mn chipping……..can’t you like return it to the shop or something? It’s like a waste of your hard earned cash…..
Yeah, that’s true and I’d definitely agree that whenever Americans (or non-Asians) try to make a character look Asian, they often try too hard and the characters winds up with badly exaggerated features. Or the character looks all wrong; like the Comiquette Psylocke that Sideshow made, I think she looks more southeast Asian than Japanese. Personally, I’d rather that they not even try; you don’t see anime makers having any problem making a Japanese character with blonde hair and blue eyes. They just say that the character is Japanese and people have no trouble believing it.
I dunno about Psylocke not being muscular back in 1991; as I remember it, Jim Lee was one of the guys who started off the trend of female comic characters with giant thighs, big breasts and defined biceps. A lot of that carried to the way all the original Image Comics artists drew their characters (except maybe the guy who did Savage Dragon; I have never read that book).
That six pack abs in the Koto version……..didn’t recall that in Jim Lee’s version ( sooooooo long ago) so in that part, the buff butch style you mentioned is applicable. But I do recall that scene in the Xmen comic where Betsy was sort of giving Scott the nose bleed during a picnic in their Mansion’s lakeside and Jean TKed him for it. Betsy was nose bleed inducing sexy.
The style you mentioned about Savage Dragon, well it sort of bled over to the Japanese style of rendering their physical active ladies (i.e. Cammy, Chunli and Sakura most particularly in their SF IV versions).
As for the damaged item, no hope for a refund no? Well that blows……
Ah, yeah, the muscularity of the Kotobukiya statue is definitely unusual. I think it’s sort of hot but two things bugged me about that statue: the face, which looks really masculine to me (far more so than this one, and certainly far more so than most figures of male anime characters), and her torso, which looked really compressed. That probably also contributes to her manly look.
Nah, I think I can get a refund; Sideshow gave me two choices: I could go on the waitlist for a replacement or get a full refund. I need to hit them up again about where I am on the waitlist, since it’s been a month since I reported the damage.
Sadly, for me it’s another quite bland Psylocke figure. I mean, it’s nice, but that’s it. Of course, I can only dream of a decent, preferably Japanese action figure of her…
As to the character, I started to like Psylocke (along with Gambit and Rogue) after seeing some of the 90’s animated series. I don’t even know why, as she was a background character. I don’t remember any X-men comics being published in my country; I started to know what was going on in the comics part of the X-men ‘verse not earlier than in my late teens. Thanks to the internet, several databases and, well, comic scans. Those were the good times. Long story short, I still like Psylocke, even though I dropped out of reading/checking news a couple of issues into Legacy. I don’t know why, as it was focused on my most favourite characters (Rogue, Gambit and Danger). Maybe the concentration of epic battles was too much.
/rant
Anyway, I would recommend you reading the Astonishing X-men series, Tier. It doesn’t contain any traces of Psylocke, I’m afraid, but it’s quite short and can be read as a stand-alone series. And it’s good. It’s one of the best things with X-men logo slapped on it lately. There’s a new interesting character in there, too.
And I’d recommend reading Exiles. It’s not even X-men-related, but it’s a nice depiction of a group of teenagers with powers – but not SUPERpowers – struggling to survive on their own.
I haven’t read Astonishing X-Men in a while, though I followed it when Joss Whedon wrote it. If I pick up comics again, it’ll probably be one of the books I read, since it was a mostly self-contained book. Or at least it was when Whedon wrote it. I followed Exiles for a little while too, though it always seemed like it was a shoveling ground for C-rate characters (unfortunately Psylocke got pushed into there at one time, too) and I always got the sense it was three months away from cancellation. I liked it a lot, though; it always seems like the books I like (like Ms. Marvel, Spider-Girl, and Heroes for Hire) are the ones that don’t sell all that well.
Eh, better late than never… I meant Runaways, not Exiles.
It’s a great series indeed, I loved it. Besides the characterization, I really appreciated how it stayed attached to the Marvel universe but didn’t require an encyclopedic knowledge of all of their series to follow along. Though I have to admit I did not know who Ultron is.
>Ultron
About that… If you cave in and read Astonishing X-men, read What If? Astonishing X-Men # 1 afterwards.
I will keep an eye out for that. I used to read Astonishing X-Men back when Joss Whedon wrote it and I enjoyed it, so I’ll check it out the next time I’m in the comic shop.
>> Jenn
If Lady Death is still in stock after people get her, I might be interested in picking her up, assuming that the statue doesn’t have the same sort of quality problems as Psylocke. I like the Lady Death comics – they’re good, trashy fun, and I was surprised that the storyline and writing is a lot better than what I expected.
It’s good to hear that Omega Red is still around. A lot of the best-known villains in the X-Men series – like Magneto, Mr. Sinister, and Apocalypse – always seem to be of the “uber boss” type, where they sit back and manipulate things from behind the scenes rather than directly fighting the X-Men. I always liked guys like Omega Red, Sabertooth and the Brood because they would throw down with the X-Men.
Man, SDCC is here already; convention season sure does come fast. I didn’t even know that Anime Expo is going on right now.
Just Curious Tier so how it’s end you get replacement or this crushed into pieces ?
I did! Well, the body, anyway; they didn’t replace the arms or head, and I’ve kinda been wondering whether I should’ve just taken the refund, instead. We shall see. I did get a picture of the smashed-up body, too; I ought to write a post about it. It was actually a helluva lot harder to break apart than I thought it would be.
I see, thank you for replying, just want to see how SS do the businesses, very nice I can see customer experience and their customer service
Ah, yeah; their customer service is pretty good, though I wonder what one would do if one didn’t actually have a digital camera. I know that might be somewhat difficult to imagine these days, but I think it could happen; my parents, for instance, do not own a digital camera that I know of, and my cell phone doesn’t have a camera, either.