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December 23, 2012

[Toy Review] Catwoman Batman: Arkham City Play Arts Kai


Hello, Batman fans, and cat lovers like me! I got a nice treat for ya... It's a Play Arts Kai figure of Selina Kyle A.K.A. Catwoman from an awesome game Batman: Arkham City. I still haven't played the game, I'll be picking up the Game of the Year version soon. All I know is that she is a burglar/heroine that has a complicated relationship with Batman (according to the short bio in the figure's box). I got this for cheap in a reputable store... sweet deal :D . And she's the first non Final Fantasy figure I got.

And because she wears an all-black suit, I will be using white background for the figure's pictorial.

PACKAGING

Front and back of the box

Opened flap showing the game and character's bio and the figure

Finally I managed to take a picture of the packaging. This is a Premium-class packaging, with all that nice details and "front flap" treatment. Up front wee see Catwoman's pic, the game and PAK logo and some minor copyright stuff from Warner Bros. and DC Comics. At the Back displays some poses of Catwoman and the picture of another figure, Batman and some warnings and texts. Open the front flap, a shot bio of Catwoman and summary of the game is located at the left, now look on the right we see the actual figure of Catwoman and her accessories.

What's in the box

Packaging includes: Catwoman figure, her whip, an extra head (goggles on) and 2 extra pairs of hands: Clawing hands and Whip gripping hands (that's 6 hands including those that are already attached to the figure) and the very direct and useful manual. No stand/base

THE FIGURE

I've watched enough gameplay videos of the game from YouTube that's why I know that this figure is very accurate to the video game counterpart. As usual, Square-Enix always have that extreme eye for detail. She looks like a real person kind enough to do a pictorial.

Front, Back, Left, Right

Goggles off

Goggles on
The sculpt and paint apps on this figure are superb. Her suit top to bottom is highly detailed with those linings and meshes and it's painted well with some smudges to give it a glossy effect I didn't see any major paint bleeds but there are some minor paint bleeds and areas lacking paint. Her face shows her flirty and playful nature. Her face paint apps and shadings are nice. Lip paint is not exaggerated and her green eyes have a glossy finish.

Look at those... details!
Chest skin area is painted shaded well too. Lining and zipper paint app doesn't have any errors like too much paint and paint bleeds.

Arm and leg details

Her collar is made of soft rubbery plastic for easy head movement and she got a choker, but its pendant is sculpted, not an attached accessory. And here you can see the choker's lack of paint.

Choker needs more paint. Meh that's fine for me :)
 ACCESSORIES

Catwoman's accessories include an extra head that has her goggles on, her signature whip, a pair of hands ready to scratch you, and gripping hands for the whip. It's not much but this will do. But I wish they just separated the goggles (rubber strap goggles) so that I can use them on other figures lol.

Only the essentials.
Her whip feels like a real whip, but it's molded to look like a curved whip (like in the pic above) for effect. Don't worry it's soft so that you can still bend the whip.

She uses her whip to scale high places and attack thugs and villains
ARTICULATIONS, POSING AND SCALING

According to the figure's packaging, the figure have over 26 points of articulation. That means that Catwoman can pose in many different ways. What's more awesome is that because she wears a tight suit, she have a huge range of body movement... but with some design limitations. She doesn't have neck articulation. Her hips is made of soft plastic for easy leg movement. There's a new PAK feature in this figure, her legs is now ratcheted so now it clicks when you move it up and down.

You can get creative with this Catwoman figure by attaching different hand gestures and other accessories included in the package and utilizing Catwoman's flexibility in posing. See the pics below.

Catwoman: *chuckle*

Whip it good!

Catwoman: Time to do some sneaking

Catwoman: *Cat crawl* Oh! a speck on the floor

[Guard: Freeze!] [Catwoman: !]

MEOWRR!

This is the first pose I made for Catwoman
When it comes to scaling she's at scale to Final Fantasy figures so far. I checked the figure scale and actual real-life height and compared Catwoman (5'7") to Lightning FFXIII-2 (5'6"). Catwoman is taller than Lightning FFXIII-2 and it's accurate when applied to their figure counterpart scaling.

QUALITY ISSUES

There are only few quality issues in this figure and the good news is that it's all minor and almost not noticeable:

Extra plastic under her right butt cheek

Strange... it looks like a crack but it isn't
- Tiny extra plastic at the back of her right leg (just sand or cut it using a scissor)
- Weird "crack"-like anomaly on her neck sculpt
- Minor paint bleeds and some lack of paint
- Left feet ball joint is not clicking but it still moves and not loose
- Goggled head accessory is a little hard to attach

CONCLUSION

This Play Arts Kai figure of Catwoman is fun to pose and she's picture friendly, because she's like a model. She is highly durable and I didn't found any major flaws and "figure crumbling" experienced in unboxing this Catwoman figure. She can stand easily without the aid of a stand/base. And yes, she's a great addition to your collection, whether you're a Batman fan or not.

And here's a little extra for you guys and gals

*Purrrrrrrr*

I applied the game's color choice: Red, White and Black

Cheers!

2 comments:

  1. OMG... she is gorgeous. You are quite lucky to stumble upon her at a cheap price. Good job... luck. haha Seriously, I had no idea there are so many other Play Arts... I must have been living in a nutshell or something. Mindblown.
    I just ordered Jeanne from Bayonetta and Snow from Final Fantasy... gonna review them when they arrive hopefully very soon... XD

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  2. I got her here in the Philippines in her original price and without shipping cost. And my favorite reputable store gives discount if you pay in cash not card. Catwoman is a newly released Play Arts Kai figure.

    Bayonetta and Jeanne are now hard to find here in the Philippines. Because of that, I can't do a dream action figure match fight between Bayonetta and Dante. I'm looking forward to read your review :D

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