More Marvel Bishoujo Glory!

Another pair of statues from the same series to look at, but from last night's grayscale style post, we move on to some of the most colourful things out there, tonight we're looking at the latest two releases from Kotobukiya's Marvel Bishoujo Statue line: Psylocke and Phoenix (regular version).

Psylocke is a popular character for collectables at the moment. Kotobukiya is also producing a Danger Room Fine Art Statue of her, Bowen Designs has just released a Full Sized Statue, and Sideshow has a Comiquette coming out before the end of the year as well. It's not hard to see why: as well as being a popular character, she's pretty easy on the eye!

The Bishoujo version of Psylocke makes the most of this and places her in a rather... striking pose. The colours in this series are very bright, and the non-muted versions of Psylocke's purple hair and blue outfit work here, but only just. Betsy is sometimes shown with matching leg straps on each leg, while they are also often shown as different from the left to the right. Koto has gone with the symmetrical version here, which I think is best for a small piece like this. Psylocke comes with removable accessories -her two swords. These are interchangeable and easy to insert but need to be placed at the correct angle so as not to block too much of her face. A very nice touch to top off a very nice piece.

One niggle is that the "X" base that Psylocke is placed on actually takes up quite a bit of room. I for one collect way too much to have pieces spaced out too far in my displays, so when space is a premium, an overly broad base is a nuisance, but I realise that's just me, and it doesn't take away from my appreciation of this lovely piece.

I haven't seen Phoenix in Australia as yet and I'm not sure if she's made it to our shores at present: I actually picked up this one up on a recent visit to Singapore when I happened upon a little piece of toy heaven called China Square Central - a small centre in Chinatown that is a must if you ever make it to that wonderful country!

This is one classy piece. Phoenix goes straight to the head of the Bishoujo class for me alongside the Scarlet Witch piece I've reviewed previously. The silhouette of this statue is incredibly striking. One thing I quite like about these PVC statues is the juxtaposition of soft and hard plastic, and this is put to outstanding use here. The sculpt work on this piece really is exquisite and it's supported by an excellent paint job.

The pieces I seem to like best in this series happen to be those that have the most intuitive bases. Scarlet Witch's cape was perfection, and Phoenix's base of flames is almost an equal winner. The best part of this piece for me, however, is Phoenix's hair. It's separated into many strands with a few shades which frame her face beautifully and add a great deal to the overall flame effect of the statue. This one is definitely a keeper!

Koto is soon to launch a DC Bishoujo line, and while I like the scale of the Bishoujo statues better than DC Direct's similar Ame-Comi, the price of the Bishoujo pieces and the difficulty of accessing them here in Oz means that I'm more likely to stick with the Ame-Comi line than take on double the pain in trying to collect two Koto lines. Time will tell according to character selection and style on both sides, I suppose.

You can see more pics of all of my Marvel Bishoujo Pieces at Facebook, discuss this at the AFB Forum and comment on this post to enter the October AFB Comment of the Month Contest! Remember, there is an extra chance for an AFB Facebook fan to win a prize this month!

Until next time!