Kotobukiya finds Ms Marvel, but loses their ruler.....

Back when I reviewed the Black Cat edition of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Statue series, I had some concerns that the scale on this long-running Koto series was beginning to get a bit shaky, as Black Cat was a smidge bigger than the previous releases in the line. Now that I’ve opened and photographed tonight’s subject, the Ms Marvel Kotobukiya Bishoujo Statue, there’s no doubt that something has gone wacky in Kotobukiya land!

Putting aside the rather enormous elephant in the room for a moment, there is a great deal to like about this piece. Ms Marvel has become one of my favourite characters since her most recent solo series, and I love the way she seems to have claimed her rightful place within the Avengers at last, after having a somewhat chequered career in her past stints. The addition of Ms Marvel to the Bishoujo line was a very welcome announcement in my house!

This statue is a beautifully sculpted and painted piece. Ms Marvel’s hair is intricately sculpted, with the use of some translucent plastic at the end of the strands. Her red sash is also a very detailed sculpt, with a beautiful flow. There are also some very nicely detailed folds of fabric in her uniform which add a nice amount of depth to the piece.

I’ve never had any real complaints with the paint on the Marvel Bishoujo pieces, and the paint choices on Ms Marvel are no exception to this. There is a very nice mix of metallic and matte paints that bring life to what is already an excellent piece.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the bases on these pieces, as they often make perfect sense, or no sense at all. This piece has a nice base of rocks that doesn’t necessarily add much to the overall look, like Scarlet Witch’s sweeping cape, but also doesn’t get in the way, like Black Cat’s garish Spider-Man base - a happy medium. The base only just counters the weight of the figure leaning above it, but it does the trick.

This piece also has accessories - a nice touch. Ms Marvel comes with two energy blasts that fit around her fists with assistance of some clear bands. Hint - don’t cut them off, because you need them, and if you do remove them, observe how they are fitted, as I had a bit of trouble re-fitting mine. They do add a lot to what is already a very nice piece.

Once we put the scale lens back on our view of the piece, things begin to come apart. I really have no idea what’s happened here, but you only have to look at the Ms Marvel / Rogue comparison shot to see that Ms Marvel is nearly twice the size. A friend of mine who doesn’t collect these pieces told me that he’d seen Ms Marvel in his LCS and assumed from the size that it was a different line.

One must think that this scale difference must have been a conscious decision on Kotobukiya’s part, and while Ms Marvel does make a beautiful piece on her own, I do wonder if other collectors of the line feel as I do - I’d rather be able to display all of my Bishoujo pieces together to enjoy the group effect. As it is, I’ve had to put Ms Marvel somewhere different in my display - firstly because she doesn’t quite fit on the shelf I have my other Bishoujo pieces on, and secondly because she’d look ridiculous next to the others.

I’m not a scale-ist - heck, I still collect DC Direct figures! - but I don’t think this is case of collector pickiness. It’s just plain weird! It makes the next few Bishoujo releases quite important in terms of the future of the line - is Ms Marvel a sign of “big” things to come, or is she destined to become the freakish big sister to the rest of the Bishoujo series?

You can see more pics at Facebook, discuss this at the AFB Forum, and you can comment on this post to enter the July AFB Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!