DIMIC

I haven’t had the time to post this yet since I was home very late on Friday, had to work all day yesterday and after that, I had to go to a birthday party… So, done with the excuses, I present to you now three lovely ladies!

I wasn’t home when FedEx delivered these three boxes to our door, but Ingis was. The first thing he noticed was that we’re still missing a box. That one should arrive Monday but I ain’t telling what that one is. It’s a surprise.
I was worried about this shipment because there are a lot of people that received faulty products. That’s one of SideShow Collectibles biggest problems: their quality control isn’t that good. Our Lara Croft Premium Format is a good example for that.

Quick note: Our first one arrived with big glue dots and a huge scratch on her body. Our replacement body arrived with a broken strand of hair. That shouldn’t have been a problem if that piece of hair was in the box. But it wasn’t what clearly pointed out that she was packed broken 🙁 Good going SS. Did receive a refund though but had to smash her…

But back on topic, these three arrived without any flaws which made my day! Now, on to the statues.

please note: I’m going to take better pictures later (when our little place is done and when we’ve got a better camera). Don’t worry, I’ll notify you 😉 Oh, and I forgot to take pictures of She-Hulk’s base 🙁 She’s number 399

She-Hulk

A brief history lesson
Jennifer Walters is the daughter of Sheriff Morris Walters. Jennifer is also the cousin of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk.

Though she was five years younger then Bruce, Jennifer developed a close sister-and-brother relationship with her cousin while they were growing up together. After they reached adulthood, they eventually went their separate ways as they both pursued different careers. Jennifer studied for a career in law and eventually became a lawyer.

She attended UCLA School of Law where she became one of the top legal scholars and earned her Junior Doctor Degree there. She would eventually earn her Masters degree at Harvard Law School. One day, Bruce decided to visit Jennifer and re-establish their once close relationship. Unfortunately on that very same day, Jennifer was shot and seriously wounded by men working for Nicholas Trask, a crime boss who had once been an enemy of her father and also the enemy of one of Jennifer’s clients.

To save Jennifer’s life, Bruce gave his cousin a blood transfusion of his own blood since there were no other donors of her type available. Bruce’s gamma-radiated blood caused Jennifer to transform into the savage She-Hulk. Jennifer first transformed into the She-Hulk when Trask’s men came to finish off Jennifer by posing as doctors. However, Jennifer quickly recognized them, and in fear for her life, transformed into the She-Hulk, easily dispatching the would-be killers.source: Comic Vine

The Statue
We had been looking at the pre-order page for She-Hulk quite some time before finally cutting the knot. Obviously, she was already a Wait-List so trying our chances, we jumped on the list. And the fences were down! What started with the decision of buying She-Hulk resulted in buying, and wanting, a lot of PFs. Gotta love that 1/4 scale 😀

She-Hulk is one of the few with minor problems. Some cases of paint misses on her exclusive hand but that’s about it.

This one is our favorite of the three ladies. She’s tough but also extremely sexy. I’m glad they choose this outfit and appearance rather than her ‘original’ look. Her original look is far to masculine for my taste. She’s strong, yes, but that doesn’t mean she should look like a body builder without any femininity. She looks now, like I would like to look (minus the green skin tone… it’s cool but so hard to match your clothes or make-up with).

The exclusive version comes with an alternate display option, namely a switchable hand holding a parking meter. This was mainly the reason why we started with the exclusives. Although we prefer exclusive version above normals (we’re DIMIC after all), we also have to watch our expenses a bit. We’re still two students after all.

Because pictures tell way more than words, view the awesomeness of She-Hulk for yourself.

Item reviewed: She-Hulk PF (exclusive)
Type: mixed media (resin with real cloth)
Variations: Normal edition (without the switchable hand), for sale at most shops
Rarity: She’s still for sale on SSC. But hurry up, her price will only get higher I suspect. 550 (excl) and 1000 (reg) made worldwide

Ms Marvel

A brief history lesson
In the 1960’s, Carol Danvers made her comic book debut as a beautiful and highly capable young woman who had managed to overcome gender-typing and excel in challenging military occupations normally dominated by men. She was already an ace fighter pilot, a former officer in the U.S. Air Force, and a former CIA agent when she was hired as the head of security of NASA headquarters at Cape Canaveral. One of Carol’s co-workers at NASA was a Dr. Phillip Lawson, who was secretly the alien Kree super-agent named Mar-Vell.

When a dormant Kree Sentry robot that NASA had been studying activated and went berserk, Mar-Vell defeated the rampaging robot and saved Carol’s life in the process, with the press dubbing the mysterious new superhero ” Captain Marvel.” Carol became drawn to Mar-Vell and a romance developed between the two. A Kree enemy of Mar-Vell’s named Yon-Rogg soon learned of the relationship and kidnapped Carol as bait to lure Mar-Vell into a trap. When Mar-Vell came to the rescue, Yon-Rogg deployed forbidden Kree technology called the Psyche-Magnitron in an attempt to destroy his enemy. During the battle the Psyche-Magnitron, which had the power to turn thoughts into reality, exploded and Captain Marvel shielded Carol from its radiation with his own body, causing Carol to absorb much of his own genetic template. Carol’s wish to stand with Mar-Vell as an equal rather than a helpless victim completed the process, and her DNA became a perfect synthesis of Kree and human genes.

After Carol recovered from the explosion, she had gained superhuman powers much like those of Captain Marvel and her alter-ego even wore a costume patterned after that of the Kree hero. She became known as Ms. Marvel, and soon established herself as a powerful superhero in her own right.source: Comic Vine

The Statue
I wasn’t that convinced about this statue, not as much as Ingis was. She didn’t really appeal to me at first but looking at her regularly, I found her more appealing every time so I gave him the green light. We were in luck because on that moment she just went back into stock on SSC so we ordered her right away using the cool FlexPay option. Now that she arrived I don’t feel regret in the slightest way. Thank goodness, as expensive as it is.

Ms Marvel is one statue with many known problems. Not many as in many different ones but many as in almost every single one with the same problem. Which is a darn shame since she’s nice. Her most common problem is her hair, mostly on the exclusive head. The small strand of hair across her chest is very fragile and arrived broken a lot. Also a damaged (scratched) base is one of the more common problems. Luckily, she arrived without any flaws.

The exclusive part of this statue is her changeable portrait. I still don’t know which one I like best… Will have to decide that when/if we’re going to display her. The base is very nice. If you look closely at the photo (n°7), you’ll see that it’s partly elevated (the arrow). Also the coloring is very nicely done. It’s not my favorite of these three but still I don’t regret buying her. She’s a pleasure to look at. See for yourself.

I’ve also included a comparison shot with She-Hulk since a lot of people were complaining that She-Hulk was too small in comparison with Ms Marvel. As you can see, this is absolutely not the case. She-Hulk is about a head taller and a lot more massive than the almost fragile Ms Marvel. It’s just not that noticeable since Ms Marvel has high heels and her base is a lot higher. But I think this picture shows the difference quite good.

Item reviewed: Ms Marvel PF (exclusive)
Type: mixed media (resin with real cloth)
Variations: Normal edition (without the switchable portrait), for sale at most shops
Rarity: She’s sold out on SSC. 750 (excl) and 1250 (reg) made worldwide

Black Cat

A brief history lesson
Felicia Hardy is an only child and was born to Lydia and Walter Hardy. They were a wealthy family living in Queens, New York. Her father was a “travel salesman” and would go away on many business trips, leaving her mother to raise Felicia mainly by herself. However, her father would constantly encourage her to be the best at what she does. However, her mother was not satisfied with “her best” and always pushed Felicia to win first place. Felicia would find interest in extracurricular activities such as cheer leading and gymnastics. When Felicia was thirteen years old, one day during cheer leading practice her mother informs her that her father had died in a plane crash over the Andes Mountains in South America. However, Felicia would eventually discover that her father was an infamous cat burglar in the newspapers, which allowed her to piece together the reason for her father’s “business trips.” One day, when Felicia was mugged, she learned of the excitement that comes in her father’s career. She decides to learn self defense and enrolls in a martial arts class. There, she is trained by Miyagi Kanryo in the art of Okinawa Goju Ryu. Felicia also takes the time to learn how to pick locks and crack open safes.

As a freshman at Empire State University, she was date raped by her boyfriend, Ryan. Horrified and angered that he had stolen her life, and even though she knew the consequences, she decided that she was going to murder him. Felicia decided to set her studies aside and underwent rigorous trainings, learning other different styles of fighting and after several months, was ready. She set out to find him, but he died in a car crash while he was drunk. She was angry that she could not fulfill her desire to kill him, so she decided to follow her father’s footsteps. Felicia then decided to make a costume and steals many valuable items. Felicia then decided to don the “Black Cat” identity because of a few reasons, cats have nine lives and land on their feet, crossing a black cat is bad luck, she is a cat burglar, she has a pet black cat named Onyx, and her father was the Black Cat.source: Comic Vine

The Statue
With this statue, our opinions were like with Ms Marvel but reversed. Ingis wasn’t that convinced about her while I wanted her. Eventually, he said yes and I jumped on the wait list. Good for me that it converted and surprisingly, Ingis likes this one a tad more than Ms Marvel.

The only flaws known to me are some problems with her hair (blobs of resin) and her base (sticker that was damaged) but none that serious. Only one that I know of had a lazy eye. Luckily, we’ve come across none of those problems. Lucky us.

One of the biggest differences between this statue and the previous ones is that this one has a lot of props. The safe is amazingly done, and the gold bars give just that little bit extra. She also has a small print of herself with her autograph that she leaves behind for her unlucky victim. Only strange thing is that they used the Legendary Scale Bust picture for that one… She looks a lot different than the LSB. Weird decision SideShow!

It’s a darn shame that the only thing exclusive of this edition is it’s art print (n°2). It would have been nice if they also included something extra, like a bag of diamonds (see n°2) or a hand holding a Fabergé egg or something like that. You know, something shiny. But no, all I got was that print. It’s nice, but still…

Item reviewed: Black Cat PF (exclusive)
Type: mixed media (resin with real cloth)
Variations: Normal edition (without the exclusive print), for sale at most shops
Rarity: She’s still for sale on SSC. 500 (excl) and 1000 (reg) made worldwide

Conclusion
Our absolute favorite is She-Hulk, with Black Cat second and Ms Marvel a close third. Even though, I wouldn’t want to sell any of them. The paint and sculpting is great. The poses really define the characters for us. Only one downside considering Black Cat, namely the lousy exclusive (only a print). But no matter how you look at them, they’re all a must buy for us! Glad we did.