1:6 Scale Black Canary Screams Into Town

For those of you not following international currency exchange rates at the moment, the Aussie dollar has tanked against the US Dollar - not sure how that works when we're not in recession and they are, but hey, them's the breaks.

The upshot for us collectors of Yankee-based geek goodness is that a decent geekgasm is going for alot more these days. In the case of the DC Direct 1:6 Scale Black Canary, I have seen this figure going for upwards of $200 AUD in some places. Thankfully my loyal LCS works hard to keep its costs low, so I paid significantly less than this for my figure.

I've been greatly anticipating Black Canary turning up in this line - one of my favourite DC Characters and another step towards what I hope will one day be a complete Satellite JLA in the 1:6 Scale. The result is quite exciting, but with a few niggling aspects that represent what is keeping the DCD 1:6 figures from the perfection they deserve.

The ups: The headsculpts (for the interchangable non-screaming and screaming Dinah heads) are excellent. The heads swap easily, and the paint work is excellent. The beautiful blonde hair on both answers any argument about sculpted vs. rooted hair - it's an outstanding job. She comes with an extra pair of hands which are also easy to swap, and unlike some previous figures in the line, her hands stay on snugly - my Green Arrow in particular has hand-drop off syndrome.

Black Canary's outfit is exquisitely crafted, with a great use of leather. Her boots have working zips at the back. Her fishnet stockings are well designed and look as durable as you could expect for a figure in this scale.

The downs: the bust and thighs, two aspects one would expect to be highlights of a female figure, are the two trouble spots here. All of the DCD females in the scale are on the very busty side, and the issue this creates here is that Black Canary is a tiny bit too busty for her top, so it doesn't fit as snugly as you'd like and comes adrift with any sideways movement of the torso. This is exacerbated by her jacket being on the small side, leaving little margin for error. All in all, not very practical for crimefighting, unless the aim is to distract the bad guys - if so that will work quite effectively.

I am already on record as hating on the thigh cuts on these figures, and this particular figure is a classic example of the thigh cut gone wrong. It might be useful for articulation and posing, but it creates a scrawny, chicken leg look that is hardly going to intimidate villains, or attract verdant archers for that matter. For someone like me who is just looking to display these figures in a relative BVP (if I ever get the display space), the thigh cuts are an annoying distraction. Bah.

Those two things don't take much of the shine off this figure for me, however, partly because I love the character so much, and partly because the excellent headsculpts and the craftsmanship of her outfit, however correcting the excess boobage and weird anatomy would really make Dinah and the other 1:6 scale ladies fly.

This figure looks great next to the Green Arrow figure, although I do wish Ollie didn't have such a pinhead. I can't wait to have the space to display these out of the box!

My quibble about the thigh cuts on this figure leads us to our new poll: What's your opinion on the thigh cuts on these figures? Have your say in the poll on the right.

Until next time!