As you might know, Darkstalkers is one of my favorite fighting games. I just love the characters and the fighting system feels a lot better than Street Fighter for instance. Of course, that’s a personal opinion. I do like some of the Street Fighter statues but personally, not a lot come near my Felicia. And finally, I now also have the first from that line! I’m talking about none other than Morrigan!
Like I said, this statue was the first in the Darkstalkers line by one of our favorite companies; Pop Culture Shock. The Felicia statue was the second one and unfortunately, very badly received. Which is a darn shame since she’s absolutely stunning! I still blame those lousy pictures that you find on the web from the prototype. The newest addition to this line is going to be Lord Raptor, who is already available for pre-order.
Now, let’s give you some background information, graciously provided by our dear friend Wikipedia, so we can start talking about this amazing statue;
Morrigan is a succubus and the adopted daughter of Belial Aensland. When she was born, Morrigan was extremely powerful (an “S Class” according to some Japanese source books), so much so that Belial sealed away part of her power, one-third in himself to be returned upon his death, and one-third in a pocket dimension, which eventually became a being of its own, a succubus named Lilith. Unaware of Belial’s action, Morrigan grew up and found her life in the Aensland castle dull, so she frequently visited the human world to look for entertainment. On one occasion, Morrigan was drawn to a strange power (which would turn out to be the fire demon Pyron), and ventured into the human world once again. Upon her return, she was informed of Belial’s death and that she was the next successor to the Aensland throne. Although she is now rightfully the ruler of the Makai, she shirks her responsibilities and seeks to continue her life as before. Morrigan eventually meets Lilith, and the two beings merge into one, fully restoring Morrigan’s power.
I like Morrigan Aensland a lot, both in the game and in the UDON comics I have. I think she’s quite beautiful and she’s a nice character to play in the games. So, I did want this statue. Besides, when I start collecting something, I usually collect the entire line. There have been a few exceptions but generally we collect entire lines and always the exclusive versions. That’s why it was so hard to get our hands on this Morrigan statue because, although the regular is still available on the SideShow website, we just need to have the exclusive editions. I already had the Felicia exclusive. Can’t start with regulars all of the sudden, right?
One of the problems on getting her exclusive is that she’s pretty limited; only 200 are made.
Another problem is getting her in one piece. Since this is also one of their early productions, Pop Culture Shock made some errors with packaging decisions, or rather a bad factory decision. How it actually happened doesn’t really matter now, but it resulted in a lot Morrigans… A lot more than the 200 actually made and not many with all the pieces on the positions intended, if you catch my drift.
The breakages that were reported were mostly her hand holding the bat (exclusive), broken fingers and one particular strand of hair (I believe the top one, the smallest). Also some were reported with broken legs/feet. There weren’t many that arrived flawless… Even mine didn’t… That’s why I hate buying second-hand, there’s no after sale service. Luckily, the only thing broken is the bat. Well, it isn’t broken off, just cracked and in a way that is fixable, even for me.
By the way, do you remember reading that we had to pay a lot to the customs when we bought the Evil Queen second hand? Well, we got lucky with Morrigan since we only needed to pay the processing fees of 10euro (about 14.50 USD). Heh, talk about lucky.
This is a mixed media statue which means that not all is sculpted, some things are made of cloth. In Morrigan’s case, that would be her suit and the fur on the straps on her shoulders. It’s really nice and add a lot to this already wonderful statue. The thing I find the most beautiful are definitely her wings. As you can see on one of the last pictures, the wings aren’t entirely black but only on the edges. The rest is painted in a dark purple which really add some dept to the wings. I love the effect that Mike Najer (the guy that painted her) created. Not that the rest of this statue isn’t wonderful, I just love that effect. It’s pretty.
Jerry used a lot of magnets on this statue. The two wings on her head and the big ones all have magnets, just like her left arm so you can switch it between the regular arm and the one holding the little cute bat. At first I thought that the one in her exclusive arm wasn’t put in correctly but luckily, I just needed to adjust both the angle of her arm and the left wing on her head and the arm popped right in. Thank goodness… I really dislike buying second hand. Makes me paranoid.
Luckily there are only two statues right now on our wanted list that we need to buy second hand.
Anyhow!
Even though I really like this statue, it isn’t our favorite 1/4 that we have. As with most of PCS’s early statues, you can see that it’s an older statue. The sculpt is a bit rough here and there. And Ingis doesn’t really like her breasts, finds that they looks too much like silicons ones. Personally, I still like this figure and I’m very happy to finally have here and for a reasonable price as well.
Conclusion
Only try to get this statue if you really want it since it’s an enormous hassle to find one. And if you find one, getting it safe to you is another grand obstacle course. If you just want a great representation of Morrigan and don’t care for the exclusive (even though the bat is über-cute), just get the regular from SideShow Collectibles.
But when you get her, you’ll most likely agree with me that this statue is also another wonderfully well done job by Jerry from Pop Culture Shock.
I also added the pictures from Jerry’s first reveal of her on the SSC website. You’ll find them just after my own pictures.
Item reviewed: Darkstalkers Morrigan Ex
Type: mixed media (resin with cloth and white furry stuff)
Manufacturer: Pop Culture Shock
Variations: regular edition (with blue hair and without the switchable hand)
Rarity: Very rare, mostly due to the breakage issues. The regular is still available at SideShow. 200 (ex) and 400 (reg) made worldwide
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