[Toy Review] Catwoman Nomura Version Variant Play Arts Kai

Catwoman is back as a new Variant Play Arts Kai this time. What, still no Arkham Knight version or a standard Variant version with a design that fits in with the rest of DC Variants? Tetsuya Nomura designed this Catwoman instead of Hitoshi Kondo. I'm pretty excited about this one because this PAK looks like it's a limited edition toy, and you guys probably know already that I like cats, so I bought it without hesitation. This is also my first Variant Play Arts Kai figure in my collection.

PACKAGING

[left] Box front view

[right] Box back view

Catwoman got a coffin-type box. The front shows a nice promo shot of the action figure as well as the DC comics, SQEX products, PAK and Batman logos. She's number 02 in the series, so Tetsuya Nomura's Variant designs are separate from Hitoshi Kondo's Variants.

Opened front cover

Opening the magnetized front cover reveals the toy and its accessories. You can also read the backstory of Catwoman (read it, it's nice!) . Backside of the box shows more product shots/poses of the figure.

Cat's out of the bag... I mean box

Packaging includes: Catwoman figure, Tailwhip (default on the figure), Tailwhip (extended spikes), Handgun, L/R trigger hands, Right whip gripping hand, L/R nail/claw mode hands, Left open hand, Display stand (instructions/manual on its blister packaging)

THE FIGURE

She looks like a cat version of the Arkham Knight or an armored Keyblade weilder like the KH:BBS trio. Let's just say she's Cyberpunk Catwoman because Nomura's design on her is obviously a miss, but she's still Catwoman and I have to say she looks awesome and sexy!

4 viewing sides of Catwoman and I already connected her tail.
I moved to a brighter room to take some pictures on this figure while thoroughly inspecting it.

The build quality is superb. The presentation is great, her body is proportional and not very cartoonish. She looks like a real living thing when you look at her from a distance with proper lighting. This toy got some strong/tight joints and can survive some occasional fall.

Visor down.
See the number 03 on the Visor. I'm guessing this is the third Wayne Tech(?) Catsuit

The product images released online suggests that the cool helmet's translucent visor is not adjustable. Well we're in for a surprising treat, the visor is adjustable so that her (still masked) face can be seen if the visor is raised up.

Visor up.
Is it me or does she look a bit like Anne Hathaway?

She looks pretty with brown glossy eyes and pink lips. Skin paint application is nice. The face mask looks like your typical modern vigilante face mask.

Is having a long hair practical when attempting to steal stuff or occasionally fight bad guys?

Her exposed long hair reminds me of the Catwoman from the 3rd Dark Night movie. Her light purple hair is soft and its sculpt, paint and shading is pretty good, but it doesn't look good when you pose it. The hair on her head's right side is also exposed. The visor covers the hair on top of her head

The Catsuit
Oooh! she got a "Cat-navel" at least this is better than "Bat-nipples"

According to Variant Catwoman's backstory, The Variant Catsuit is on par with the tech from Wayne Industries. Its design reminds me of Raiden (MGR), Celty Sturluson (Durarara!!) and Motoko Kusanagi (GitS) because of its black/dark-purple colors and cyborg-like appearance. The suit have cool armored parts and the under-suit is so tight-looking that it almost looks like a skin. BTW, it's good that her boobs is not really huge. 

Even her back is well protected by the suit

The backside of the suit are also really detailed with armor pieces and spine guard.

[left] Viewing the right arm's undersuit

[right] Viewing the same arm's armor.

The arms looks simple yet so cool, the design is not exaggerated that's why. The glossy armor parts make the arms even cooler. The default hands looks great and it looks mechanical.

Nice legs!

Same goes for the legs, simple design but awesome looking. There's a bit more design on the armored legs but that didn't ruin the overall design of the figure. 

The gun holster is not user friendly.

The right leg have a removable gun holster. I can't properly insert the gun in the holster, it's not rested well so the gun tends to wobble and fall off when I pose Catwoman. I think the bottom hole of the holster is hard. Is this a common problem?

The pointy heeled shoes

The feet with heels got a very simple design. It's just a pair of feet with very pointy heels, that's about it. The heels is softer at the tip and it's not in the same level as the toes, that makes it difficult for the figure to stand properly especially when posing it in an action stance.

Aaaw look, the soles have cat paw marks at its tip.

When you look below the shoes you can see more details on its soles.

The Tailwhip

She's got a tail, to emphasize that she's Catwoman? The tail is made of flexible plastic. It's detailed and can be removed to be used as a whip, a "Tailwhip" if you want to call it, so that Catwoman can lash out some goons or take stuff.

The Tailwhip connector is located at the end of the spine guard.

The tail is connected at the back where the tail connector is located. The connector is awkwardly a bit high and not articulated.

The whole suit have mix of glossy and matte finish on the armored parts and pale bronze/gun metal matte finish on the under-suit which is great. The are some paint sticks in the figure, some parts are also not entirely painted.

ACCESSORIES

This Variant Catwoman came with two extra weapons and six extra alternate hands. Counting the default accessories like the default Tailwhip and the default hands, she got a total of 11 accessories.

Nice stuff we have here.

Catwoman's accessory quantity is great and I can't think about what's needed to be added here.

Tailwhip, extended spikes mode

A closer look at the Tailwhip's spikes

The Tailwhip with extended spikes looks good and really painful if you're about to get lashed by it.

Catwoman's handgun.
Looks like a hybrid of a revolver and a modern handgun

The gun looks simple but it got a unique design. The paint applied on it is consistent to the Catsuit's color.

Did she steal those hands from Edward scissor hands?

The claw hands (my favorite) have extended nails for clawing out or scratching villainous faces. I don't know how she kept that overly long nails in that suit. Probably her suit is like an exo-suit.

The trigger hands have its pinkies extended or ready to "fwip" some webs.

The pair of trigger hands can hold the gun in case that she wants to shoot enemies as a last resort. She's ambidextrous so she can hold the gun on either left or right hand. If you want to, you can use these hands to hold the Tailwhip, it's a loose grip though.

The left hand for posing and right hand for whip holding

The right gripping hand is for holding her Tailwhip firmly. The slightly opened left hand is used for more gestures and posing options.

The hands have softer fingers especially the claw and trigger hands, this makes it easier to equip the gun.

Here are some poses of Catwoman showing her equipped accessories.

[left] Visor up (using the default hands)

[right] Using the normal Tailwhip

[left] Using the Tailwhip in extended spikes mode

[right] You don't want to get scratched by those nails

Pointing the gun

Display stand

She came with a standard PAK display stand. Very useful if you want to pose her in an aerial action pose, or if you just want to stand her up properly.

ARTICULATIONS, POSING AND SCALING

"What's that thing on the building?"

Variant PAK Catwoman is highly poseable. The design of the toy really helps hide its articulation cuts and joints, this is why I said that she looks real depending on lighting and distance. But the heels bummed me out while posing this figure. Catwoman gave me a hard time taking her pictures.

[left] "I want to scratch someone like a scratching post"

[right] Ready for some serious fighting

Her head looks around very well and can even do a full 360 rotation. The long hair doesn't hinder the head's movement, because the hair is also articulated with a ball-hinge. She also have a neck articulation.

[left] Alerted and ready to pounce!

[right] Relaxing

Torso movement is great, her chest is soft so that she can do better ab crunches and leaning. Waist movement is fine without any major limitation. Over-posing these parts reveals some hollow gaps in the toy so don't do it.

Crossing her arms.
Looks like she's getting impatient while waiting for someone.

The arms have ball-hinged shoulders. The arms can't raise all the way up even though the shoulder armor is soft. Crossing the arms to the chest is easier because of her soft chest piece. The bicep can't swivel but the ball-hinges can do the bicep swiveling for this figure. The elbow and wrist ball-hinges moves without any problems.

[left] Even her rear looks great when posed.

[right] Drawing her handgun.

Legs have nice range of movement, they can raise forward and sideways well. It can also move a bit to the back, her great butt-cheeks limits the backwards movement of the legs. BTW, Catwoman can kick and sit down.

[left] "You can't defeat my Cat-fu."

[right] Handgun pose (left handed)

Knees are ball-hinged, which I don't like sometimes because it gets weak really quick. It looks good and natural though but can't really fold much like the double-hinges does.

"I'm gonna whip you good!"

The ball-hinged ankles moves just a bit, the feet point up/down for few joint clicks. The feet have toe swivel for better footing on a flat surface.

Cat crawling!

Scale comparison time! I don't have any DC PAK Variant figures to compare her with, Catwoman is my first V-PAK.

Catwoman with the AVALANCE Trio.

Catwoman is taller than Tifa and almost the same height as the taller Cloud, that's good. She's shorter than Barret.

Catwoman with the "Colorful Crew"

Catwoman is obviously taller than Lightning (LR:FFXIII), Serah (FFXIII) and Sora (KH3D). Scale comparison is good except for Serah who looks like a kid.

Catwoman with a Cyborg Ninja and a Veteran zombie killer

Raiden (MGR) and Catwoman looks good together because of their design and scale. Leon is shorter, it's not a big deal at least for me.

Catwoman with Harley!

Catwoman is taller than her fellow DC Comics character Harley Quinn (B:AK).

Time for some crossover co-op!
They're so cool!!!

She's in a different league thanks to Nomura's design. She can fit in with Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid/Rising figures. But she doesn't fit in well with some DC characters.

QUALITY ISSUES

Nope, no joint problems or missing/broken pieces on my Catwoman VPAK, it's almost perfect. Lucky, I guess. The paint sticks, the lack of paint on some areas and the heels are my complaints on this figure.

CONCLUSION

This Variant PAK toy of Catwoman have great build quality, awesome design and sculpt/detail. She also have good amount of accessories. My favorite part on this figure is the helmet, my least favorite part is the feet/heels. The overall character design of Catwoman helps her pull more poses because of her very fit body, her Catsuit and joints. If you're a fan of DC characters and/or Tetsuya Nomura's artwork and style, this toy is for you. Let me warn you super elite DC fans though, this Catwoman doesn't look like the Catwoman you guys know, unless you consider her a Cyber-punk Catwoman or as an entirely different character. To me this Catwoman VPAK is starting to look like the "mainstream design" Catwoman, meaning the figure grows on you if you give this one a chance.

Check this one out, it's full of "distorted neon lights" :D

Scouting the city

I finished this edit quick lol!

Cheers and Happy Collecting!