Kotobukiya - Spider-man Unleashed / Venom Unbound

When I started building my little geek room, I knew that space would be at a premium.  Statues and figures tend to take up a huge amount of space, so I knew that I had to be very sparing with my displays.  It was around this time that Kotobukiya had announced the Venom Unbound Statue, following the release of the Spider-man Unleashed statue.

After weeks of research, I kept clicking back to this pair of statues.  Even with the pre-order price, I was looking at quite a hefty purchase, and pined over the statues for a while.  Finally, I decided that there weren't any other statues I'd rather have displayed and took the plunge.

© Kotobukiya

Both statues come from the the Kotobukiya Fine Art line and were designed by sculptor Erick Sosa.  The level of detail on the figures is incredible, with intricate care taken on spider-man's hands and venom's mouth.  The statues are 1/6 scale, with Spider-man standing 40cm tall.  Made from cold cast porcelain, the statues are quite heavy.  The massive Venom Unbound is the heavier of the two and clocks in at 5kg.

Sufficet to say, I am quite happy with my investment.  The statues display prominently in my room and opting for a couple of big pieces cuts down on clutter of a lot of smaller figures.  I really can't see myself getting another statue of this size, even though a Carnage statue in the same line was recently released.

Kids Nation – Iron Man Ear Pluggies

It’s been a while since my Korea trip, but I have thought about posting this for quite a while.  Spending most of our time Seoul, my wife and I naturally did our fair share of shopping.  Korean fashion, as cool as it is, can be pretty out there so I knew I wasn’t going to be getting much clothing.  Because of this, I spent my time browsing the cute gift shops and hipster stores while my wife browsed rack after rack of blouses, pants and dresses.  It was in these small gift shops that I started to run into these amazing little Iron Man suits everywhere.  I would find them in small train station shops and at outdoor vendors, but assumed that they were all cheap knockoffs.  Near the end of the trip I realized that outside of the amazing food, I hadn’t actually bought much for myself, so I decided to buy one of the Iron Man suits.  But you can’t have just one right?

These suits became an obsession for me.  I would compare prices from place to place, making mental notes on what figures I wanted and how much I could get them for.  I went online with the hotel wifi and found out the line of suits was by Kids Nation, a company running out of Hong Kong.  I was told Korea was a haggling culture, so I naturally paid a bit more for the first couple of suits before I got an idea of how much they were worth.  By the end of the trip I had nine of these things.

After getting home, I found out a new release of these figures were being made for the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie that included an incredible Hulk Buster suit.  It was a huge debate in my brain for over a month before I cracked and picked up the newly released figures complete with import costs.

© Kids Nation

The figures are called ‘ear pluggies’ because they come with an attachment that lets you to hang the figures off of your phone by the earphone jack, but I can’t imagine actually doing this.  The figures are pretty detailed and are designed after the various suits seen in the Iron Man movie franchise, including the very first suit built in the cave.  What’s even cooler is that the figures have a small button that lights up the chest and eyes of the small suits.  Because the figures are pretty hard to get in North America, they are really unique here and I am happy to have them in my collection.

Also, for those interested, Kids Nation also does incredible stuff with other licensed goods and has recently gotten funded on an indiegogo campaign to create a floating DeLorean.

Sideshow Collectibles - J Scott Campbell Marvel Statues

I've already blogged about one of my absolute favourite artists out there.  Recently, I had a chance to go to Fan Expo and get some signed prints from J Scott Campbell.  I was already headed to Toronto, but getting a personalized print from him was one of the main reasons for me to fork over the entrance fee.

Mainly a cover artist nowadays, J Scott Campbell easily has my favourite take on Marvel's Mary Jane Watson.  I am clearly not the only one to think this because Sideshow Collectibles teamed up with Campbell for an entire line of Spider-man statues based on his art.  Campbell drew up a Spider-man, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane Watson which were then made into the absolutely gorgeous statues you see below.  The print I will have on my wall shortly is the image that Campbell used for the MJ statue, though I gave up all hopes on owning the actual statue when I saw the price tag on it.

Currently, the pre-order is out for the newest statue in the line based on the Black Cat.  I really like the new model, and I keep bouncing back and forth as to which statue I like better: Mary Jane or The Black Cat.  One thing that is clear, however, is that I will likely never own either.

Hot Toys - Black Widow

I want you to take a look at the above image and tell me what you think.  A great promotional poster?  A screen still from an upcoming movie?

The answer is... that's a toy.  A figure to be more exact.  That is a piece of plastic so meticulously formed, that it's near impossible to tell that it's not an actual image of the Scarlett Johansson.  I do not own this, or any other Hot Toys brand figures, but do I ever want to.  This 1/6 scale figure stands at about 28 cm tall and weighs a bit under 4 lbs.  It retailed for about $280, which may seem like either an insane amount or a steal depending on how hardcore a collector you are.

Hot Toys releases the most realistic and incredible looking figures on the market in my opinion, and though I really love a lot of them, this Black widow Avengers release stands out as the best I've ever seen from them.