Kotobukiya DC Comics Justice League ARTFX Statues

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So the Kotobukiya Justice League ARTFX statues have started coming out and I’m in agreement with all of the positive feedback I’ve heard about them. I was on the fence if I was going to start collecting another line of statues, but this one is very hard to resist.

 

I love Jim Lee’s artwork, which these are based off of, but at times his costume designs leaves a little bit to be desired. It’s taken me a little bit of time to get used to Superman not sporting his classic red underwear, but I think seeing the suit in the upcoming Man of Steel movie has me getting a lot more used to the new version.

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Green Lantern and Flash don’t look all that different to me, so there isn’t a huge difference to get used to. Aquaman is now back to his more classic orange shirt look and i think Koto’s version is only behind the DC Direct Dynamics version of the King of Atlantis. That one does have the water element to it which adds to the overall appeal, but the Kotobukiya version is still very impressive.

dcdynamicsstatue Kotobukiya ARTFX - Aquaman New52 0001

The next team member due to be released should be Wonder Woman. While it certainly would have been nice to have her in her classic outfit, so long as it’s not that black leather out that was debuted in issue #600, I’ll take the New52 version.

Besides the overall look of the characters there is a lot to look forward to with this line. First, the price point makes them very appealing. Being able to pick these up at about $35 makes it very easy on the wallet to collect the entire team. The other big selling point is that you don’t have to stop with just the Justice League. When speaking with one of Kotobukiya’s production team members at this February’s Toy Fair in New York City, he explained that Koto’s plan is to extend this line to take advantage of the huge stable of DC characters. The indication was that the line would start with a few characters belonging to the Bat-Family (which makes the most sense financially) and now we’ve seen the first become available for pre-order…Catwoman.

Kotobukiya ARTFX - Catwoman New52 0001 Kotobukiya ARTFX - Catwoman New52 0015

The removable goggles are a great touch with this piece.

While I personally would love to see a Tim Drake version of robin to be the next piece, I’m thinking that since these are all based on the New52 artwork, the Damian Wayne version of Robin would make a great choice for the next release. Put my vote in now for it to come with the removable hood option.

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If we are going to be exploring the entirety of the DC Universe, there is sheer excitement at what this line could yield. I’ve been very hopeful before, especially with the thoughts of what could have been done with the Batman Black & White line and then later with the very short-lived DC Universe Online statues. Both have some pieces I couldn’t resist, such as the DCUO Solomon Grundy and the upcoming Greg Capullo version of The Joker.

DC Online - Solomon Grundy 0001 DC BW - Greg Capullo Joker 0001

Even though there have been plenty of nice pieces produced in the Batman Black & White line, there have definitely been some missed opportunities between certain artist’s rendition of the Dark Knight and then just some characters that have been missing altogether . What starts to get me excited again is this is Kotobukiya at helm now and just looking at the variation of the Bishoujo line and then from our Toy Fair discussion, it sounds like there might be quite a selection coming.

Choosing between the Justice League:

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The Justice Society:

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The Legion of Super-Heroes:

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Not to mention the overwhelming amount of villains to choose from:

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villians 0009  rogues 0002

I can rattle off so many characters I’d snap right up just off the top of my head, but that’s not even the final reason I wanted to start collecting this line. What’s in production now is Kotobukiya’s Marvel Comics Avengers ARTFX statues. The Marvel line is due to start with renditions of the team that appeared n last summer’s Avengers movie and then expand out to the rest of the Marvel Universe the same as with the DC line. As with the Justice League line being based off of Jim Lee’s artwork, Koto has partnered with artist Adi Granov to  design the Avengers team. Below is his early sketch work for the line.

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Quality statues at a very affordable price point and just thinking ahead of being able to mix and match in scale statues from both the DC and Marvel universes has me very excited about what’s to come.

 

 

 

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