Review of Wonder Woman - New 52 Cover Girls of the DCU statue

Introduction

Of all the female superheroes and villains, none have had as many incarnations as Wonder Woman. Like Batman and Superman, she is a classic Golden Age character who is recognizable even through decades of variation.

She's gotten the collectibles treatment almost as often, and even within the Cover Girls of the DCU series of statues from DC Direct there's been two past releases. I'm checking out the third tonight, based on the New 52 artwork.

Like the Batman Black and White statues, these are no longer a limited edition. There's no edition size, and there's no mention of it anywhere on the box.

These are just shipping, and will run around $90 at most retailers, either online or at the local comic shop.

Packaging - ***
As I mentioned, there's no longer any edition size, so there's no Certificate of Authenticity, but the interior foam trays do an excellent job holding the one piece statue safely in place.

I've mentioned numerous times now how much I dislike the bland white packaging, and my opinion hasn't changed.

Sculpting - **1/2
What has happened to my Cover Girls of the DCU statues? It appears as though DC Direct decided they wanted to do a new series of statues, but were too lazy to come up with a name for them, so they co-opted the already successful Cover Girls.

If you want fans to buy a set of anything, the full set, then you need to make the individual items actually be part of a SET. There has to be some sort of visual or thematic consistency, so that when they are displayed together on the shelf, they actually look like they belong together.

While I'm not a huge fan of the New 52 look for Wonder Woman - she's a tad on the stringy side - that's not this statues biggest issue. They could have used that design and still remained true to the overall Cover Girls style. Look at the past releases and you'll see what I'm talking about - all of them are about the same size and proportion, all have a 1940's Vargas pin-up look, and all of them are situated on a round, black base.

Same size? Sort of. I included a photo of Wonder Woman with Starfire for comparison. While they are about the same height overall (Wonder Woman is 10" with the base), in person she seems less substantial than the others, as though the body and base are taking up less volume. Further evidence of this is the head to body ratio, which seems off. The head, similar in size to the other statues in the series, seems slightly too big for her body.

Same pin-up design overall? Nope, not even close. Same base? Nope, they've dropped the black circular base entirely. In fact, this could simply be a whole new series of statues, with nothing to relate them to the earlier series other than the fact they all have breasts.

But wait, you say - the Batman Black and White statues are all completely different designs! Ah, yes they are, but the genius of that series is the gray scale color scheme, which allows the statues to be very unique in sculpt and yet still remain a very clear 'set'.

There are other sculpt issues that bug me - I'm not loving the rather awkward lean to the body, or the open right hand 'holding' the lasso. But it's really DC Direct's extreme departure from the style of the series that has me disappointed.

Paint - **1/2
Keep in mind that this statue will run you almost a hundred bucks - that's not a cheap toy, but a high end collectible.

The paint work certainly does not support that sort of price point, with sloppy cut lines, some inconsistent coverage, and a general cheap feel to the application.

The silver is the worst offender, with bad edges just about everywhere. It doesn't take a macro lens to see the gloppy edges on the cuffs, or the unevenness along the red costume.

The white isn't a lot better, with the boot tops looking particularly weak. Even the eyes, perhaps the most critical element, have one pupil a bit bigger than the other.

Value - *1/2
I'm accustomed to ranting about prices, but lately I've been raving about statue and busts costs instead. With some recent busts under $50 and some statues also in that $50 - $60 range, there's been some great values recently.

Unfortunately, this statue breaks the streak. Ninety bucks is the going rate for this one, and that's almost double the cost of the recent Kotobukiya Harley. It's true that Harley is plastic and Wonder Woman is poly resin, but  Wonder Woman is also smaller. The difference in material does not make up for that sort of price difference, and even the Cover Girl Starfire statue from earlier this year was around $5 cheaper AND had a limited edition size.

It's even more important to note that dropping the 'limited edition' designation on the Batman Black and White statues translated to a price drop, down to around $75. That hasn't happened here, and it needs to.

Things to Watch Out For -
Zippo!

Overall - **
If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm deeply disappointed in DC Direct for scuttling the best aspects of this series. If this statue was all on her own, she'd manage to pull another half star Overall (that paint job is too weak for a $90 statue, no matter what the intended design choices), but she's not - she's part of an on going set of statues, and at this point needs to maintain the elements of that series.

I get that one of the marketing genius' at DCD rammed home the idea that to make the New 52 successful, they needed to cross promote the Hell out of it. We've seen that happen in the Batman Black and White statues, and I have no issue there, other than my general distaste for Jim Lee's designs. But rather than adapt the New 52 style to the Cover Girls, they've adapted the Cover Girls to the New 52, losing the appeal of the series in the process.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've reviewed a number of the ladies:

- most recent was the Starfire statue.

- others include Raven, Hawkgirl, Armored Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and just prior was Poison Ivy, Batgirl, Harley, Power Girl, Catwoman/Wonder Woman, , and Black Canary.

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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