Review of Black Canary - DC Bombshells statue

Introduction

One of my favorite Golden Age female superheroes is Black Canary. As a fan of the CW's show Arrow, it's been great to see her on the small screen and handled so well. And with the way the season ended, we might actually see Laurel Lance wearing the costume! The leather jacket fit pretty well...

It seems like a no brainer to include her with the other DC Bombshells statues. These statues were created with a simple theme - re-imagine the well known ladies in the DC universe in a 40's pin-up style, as they might have looked painted on the side of a B-52.

Canary has just started shipping, and will run you the usual $100 or so depending on the retailer. She's a limited edition of 5200, although you know how I feel about calling something like that 'limited'.

Packaging - ***
The box does the main job great - protecting the statue. This one comes in once piece, so the inner trays have to ensure that it doesn't shift around and put pressure on the legs. The trays are solid, and the design keeps everything cozy in its place.

The exterior of the box claims this is a 'numbered limited edition', but they do not provide a Certificate of Authenticity, nor do they put the number or edition size on the box itself. Weird.  Open it up and you'll find the number and size (5200) printed on the bottom of the statue.

Sculpting - **1/2
The theme of this line is a combination of a superhero and the 1940's pin up art style often seen on bomber planes - hence 'bombshells'. It is important, at least to me, that each design remain true to both concepts, and also that statue is first and foremost the superhero...then a pin up.

The line started out strong, with a nice combination of the 40's pin-up style and the character attributes with Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Poison Ivy. Things went terribly askew with Harley, and while it's definitely the character, they lost the 40's styling. She ended up looking like a modern Goth chick who likes to shop at the local hipster vintage clothing store.

Things got a bit back on track with Batgirl, with a design that captured both aspects of the theme once again.

And now we have Black Canary. And the train is off the rails again, but this time in a way that is completely opposite of Harley. Here they've captured that 40's pin-up style perfectly...but almost completely lost any reference back to the DC character. If there wasn't a name plate, you'd have no idea who this was supposed to be.

Obviously they got the blond hair, and they threw in a little black in the costume with the skirt, gloves and bra, and added a hint of blue as well. I like the tattoo with the name 'Oliver' and the arrow through the heart - more on that in the next section. The gloves and fishnets are homages to her costume of course, but they are such subtle details that they don't really convey the character. The most obvious connection is the fact that she is depicted here as a singer - her Canary Cry turned from weapon into smokey serenade.

The sculpt is actually quite nice, and she's a lovely lady. But when you put her with the others, all of which have a very clear superhero theme, she seems very out of place.

One other area of note that some folks will dislike more than I - the stockings are actually stockings, not paint or sculpt. That means that in this scale, they will have a much thicker line in back than you'd expect.

She stands about 10 1/2", including the airplane exterior style base.

Paint - **
Considering the price point, the paint work is just too sloppy.

This isn't a tiny figure, but a decent size statue that will run you $100. The sort of messy work that you see around the bra, the hair, the small bird on her neck, the edges of the belt and shirt...this isn't acceptable at this price point.

There's also some trouble with consistency in several of the colors, most notably the skin tone and the gold buckle.

I will say that they eyes are excellent, and the blue is some of the most striking I've seen. Her gaze really pops out at you, and there's very little bleed or slop around the eyebrows or makeup.

As I mentioned, there's also a tampo tattoo on her left forearm. Ignoring that it's a bit of a weird place for a 40's era woman to have something like this (seems like they need some place to put it and that was the only area left with enough exposed skin), it is the most Canary-like quality of the overall design.

Value - *1/2
I'm not feeling $100 this time around. This is a pretty steep price to begin with, if you consider that the Batman Black and White statues can be had for less than $70, as well the ArtFX Bishoujo statues. The Bombshells are slightly taller, but not enough to justify a price jump of more than 40%.

If the paint quality were on target, I'd be inclined to add another half star to a star here, and be more willing to concede at least a close to average value. But until they can get the paint in line, they'll be getting dinged.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing.

Overall - **
It's weird - Black Canary is a Golden Age character, and already has a 40's costume. Instead of starting there and moving toward a more pin-up style, they started with a pin-up look and added very little 'superhero' to it. Without the name plate, she looks like a War era lounge singer as imagined by Vargas, and doesn't really fit in with the rest of the series.

This is a bit unusual, because the main reason she's getting a low overall score is not because the quality is awful (yea, the paint is weak but those eyes...) but because the design and style so poorly fit with the rest of the series.

Thankfully, it looks like the designs for the upcoming Zatanna and Stargirl are back on track. And I will kill to get my hands on a statue of the Hawkgirl design that they've shown!

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - **1/2
Paint - **
Value - *1/2
Overall - **

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has her for $100 plus free shipping right now.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other Bombshell statues include Batgirl, Harley, Poison Ivy, Supergirl and Wonder Woman.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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