DIMIC

Finally, the long awaited arrival of one of my favorite kings has come to pass. And I must say, I’m deeply impressed with this royal member of the African nation called, Wakanda.
When Ingis and I started reading comics, one character really peaked my interest. This character was the Black Panther. I found him cool, tough and above all, quite sexy. When visiting the SideShow site, I noticed they were releasing a PF from him. Needless to see, after a few debates and pleas from my site, we were going to order him. One downside, he was already displayed as waitlist. So trying our chances once again, we jumped on the list. And Lady Luck smiled on us again because also this beast was converted and, after a few months, he’s finally here. Of course, one can argue that it wasn’t Lady Luck. Especially my wallet disagrees with me on this.

Ingis wasn’t that convinced about this statue but now, even he, has admitted that this is one of the best statues SideShow has delivered in 2010. And for a good reason; he’s the awesomeness incarcerated.

A brief history lesson
The Black Panther is the ruler of Wakanda. It’s a spiritually-based warrior cult. Sort of like being pope, president, and head of joint chiefs of staff all at once. The Panther is a hereditary title, but one still has to earn it. The series of test that a Panther must pass are so arduous that only candidates who’ve had special training from childhood can qualify. But just so everyone gets a chance, once a year there’s a day when any Wakandan can challenge the king for the throne.

T’Challa being the son of T’Chaka put him in line to be the next King of Wakanda and Black Panther, but even as young super genius T’Challa was not yet ready to become the leader of the nation, but felt his childhood ended the day his father die and that it was time to start act as a King would. So S’yan, T’Chaka’s young brother & T’Challa’s uncle under took the Black Panther trials. S’yan passed and became the Black Panther. During his youth, T’Challa while on his Wakandan Walkabout/Rite of passage met and fell in love with apparent orphaned teen named Ororo Munroe, and later known as a member of the X-Men, Storm. The two broke off there relationship off due to his need to avenge his father’s death & to become the type of man who could lead the nation of Wakanda, but they would see each other over the years when they could. After studying Wakanda young T’Challa traveled to other parts of Africa and Europe and to study and train. He returned home once he felt that he was ready to lead the country.

At 19 years old, T’Challa, wearing a mask, challenged the then Black Panther & King (his uncle S’yan) and and beat him in fair combat. After that T’Challa was required to take the rest of the Black Panther trials such as defeating the various champions of the 18 Wakandan tribes, being judge & found worthy by the Panther God / Bast. Next the Heart Shaped Herb/Heart of Wakanda was applied to his body and ingested by him (the process would kill any person who was unworthy or not a member of the royal line) and that process also link him to Bast. The competition of Panther trials made him a superhuman granting him has enhanced speed, agility, strength, endurance, healing, memory and senses (sight / vision, hearing, smell, etc).source from ComicVine

The Statue
First of, the box is huge! And I mean HUGE! It must be the biggest 1/4^th scale box we have. Not that we have so many, eight tops I think. Maybe more…
Anyhow, I couldn’t wait ’till I got my baby out and inspected. Not that there are many known issues with this one but still. Besides, I wanted to see him. And my, he really didn’t disappointed me.

I already knew that the only fabric on him was a positionable cape, unlike what they stated on the website, but truth to be told? I really don’t care. It’s a sublime statue, both in sculpting as in painting, and the faux leather cape really adds just that little bit that really makes this statue. His bronze spear really match well with his black and bronze suit, although I prefer the spear head from the exclusive edition. This nice obsidian head gives the spear a more rougher look. More primitive. Like I said, that spear head (+ rounded spear knob) only comes with the exclusive edition. The regular ‘only’ comes with:
– switchable hand: open hand or hand holding spear with bronze head and bronze Panther-head knob
– switchable portrait: unmasked or masked
– positionable faux leather cape

The unmasked head really looked awful on all the in-hand pictures I’ve seen so far but now that I’ve seen it, it isn’t that bad. I still prefer the masked version because Black Panther just has to have his mask on but unlike on those pictures, his head isn’t that big and ugly. I hope I got it right on my photo’s.
His base is very detailed with some sort of hieroglyphs and some moss on the back and bottom. I think both the base and the figure are hollow because they are really light. Not that that’s a bad thing, just pointing out. I’m hoping we can display him because this is one of my favorite statues so far.

Item reviewed: Black Panther PF (exclusive)
Type: mixed media (resin with real cloth)
Variations: Normal edition (without the obsidian spear accessory), for sale at most shops
Rarity: He’s isn’t sold out yet on SSC. 500 (excl) and 750 (reg) made worldwide