Playarts Kai: Wonder Woman (Dawn of Justice)

Well, 2016 is a good year for imports for me! A second Playarts Kai and this time in the form of Wonder Woman in her cinematic appearance in Dawn of Justice! I had some doubt when Gal Gadot took the lasso and bracelet for the role, but I started really warming up when I saw images of her in the costume; then seeing her in action was definitely the seller. Dawn of Justice is not your Civil War caliber (DC is about 52% dislikes and 48% likes; I made that number up but it makes sense, right? 52? New 52. Get it?), but it still had some good things. Wonder Woman was definitely the 'good thing' for me. So how does her PAK version fare?

The box is a standard PAK box, though mine came in damaged, which was a bit of a bummer but nothing to gripe over.

The number "4", which we got Batman, Armored Batman, and Superman before her. I do hope there isn't a number 5 since the only other choices are "Doomsday(ABOMINATION)" and Lex Luthor. God no!

PAK's famous open book/window box case. At first, I thought it was missing it(thus the missing figure), which struck me odd. It wasn't until Wonder Woman was out of the box that this certain feature carried over to their Dawn of Justice figures. There is, of course, a bio, which you can't necessarily read with the shot I took. Buy the figure if you want to read it so bad! (advertisement, much?)

I mentioned how I really like the Cinematic take on Wonder Woman's outfit. If there is one thing I have to say is that they tried to really get the sexy, exposed, and very flaunting side of Wonder Woman's outfit but still managed to make it make sense. It has a very 'warrior-greek-roman' like look to it--something that pays homage to 'where' Wonder Woman came from mythos wise. The colors are darker than her original outfit, but it is still recognizable. The paint job did well to duplicate that. Flesh tones are done well of course. Playarts Kai is usually really good with the finer details of color.

Now as for the mold, Diana's playarts kai version has a few glaring mishaps. First and foremost, you can probably see it now from her profile; the armpit area doesn't do a good job hiding joints... and while Playarts Kai isn't known to hide joints well(knee joints), they're not usually horrendous; though the work on Diana over here kind of shows a different work of art. It's not bad, but you can't do a whole lot of 'overly' dynamic poses with her arms up. It just looks odd. I'm not sure how the Variant Wonder Woman was able to hide her joints, but I get the feeling it's not as bad as this. Also, I'm going to pick on this since it is based on an actress visage of an iconic comic book heroine: she looks nothing like Gal Gadot. It's almost like PAK TRIED their best NOT to make her look like the beautiful Gal. She's not ugly, but still, to make her look like Gal would have been nice since I am fond of that actress. Overall, her body isn't overly sexy but it isn't brute-like. Wonder Woman has always been your typical sexy and appealing type, but I do think she has to have some 'masculine' features; masculine, but still retain some sort of feminine sexiness. The figure does a good job of doing that despite the mold flaws.

Accessory wise, I think she comes with a passable amount. The sword and shield is highly appreciated, the variations on her hands is okay--could have more, but can't complain too much. Then of course we have her insipid lasso. For a weapon that she is well known for (both as a receiver and the giver), this one lacks in fun factor. Also, I do wish they have her some face variations. Definiltey not one of PAK's finest moments with Wonder Woman. Oh, we can't forget about the standard PAK stand, which I'm starting to slightly warm up to. If I get more PAKs, I might get used to this thing.

And as I said, The Golden Lasso of Truth is honestly a boring addition to Wonder Woman's Playarts Kai version. It doesn't do anything but just 'sit' there. With the bendy wire that can be applied to some of the figures these days (like Playarts Kai Supergirl's cape), one could definitely make an adequate Lasso for Wonder Woman and make her fun factor hike up. Unfortuantely, no. Still, glad she has it even if it's not exactly something that can be used. Also, while it's not an accessory of the figure, the bracelets are included with great details! Anoter Wonder Woman signature item (both the lasso and the bracelet used to be a major bondage icon for Diana as well!).

The shield is amazing. It has a metallic look to it, which makes it look like actual metal. It has 'battle wear and tears' on it, which makes it look even more realistic. It is obviously greek-roman like; reminds me of Perseus' shield from Clash of the Titans for some reason. Oh, it's a pretty decent size and she holds it decently enough. It's not exactly a tight fit, but it suffices.

The sword is pretty awesome; nothing too special, but it does its job well. It's not exactly a blade with the most grandeur design and it's not PAK's doing. The blade was pretty ordinary looking based on what I saw in Dawn of Justice. I think they might have a story to it; maybe.

Now going right into her articulation, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman retains most of what Playarts Kai is known for. You can get her into some decent dynamic scenes that are going to be sufficient for someone who spends a lot of time fighting with her blade and martial arts. Though as I mentioned before, some angles make her look too much like a 'toy', and while she is that, imports try their best to hide the joints to give a more realistic look; unfortunately PAK didn't do a good job, or didn't do the job at all when it comes to Wonder Woman's upper body. Her hair does not have the much desired hair articulation that we have seen before, but they did go with a shorter haired Wonder Woman; again, they were trying not to make her look like Gal Gadot for some reason.

Despite those, you'll get some good actions shots. Her stand helps out a lot to give her the flying, jumping, and all those dynamic in the air scenes. Heck, you might even be able to get her in a sitting position to imply that she is driving her invisible jet. I didn't try that, honestly.

Couldn't resist! Here is Playarts Wonder Woman in a classic pose, courtesy of Playarts Kai variant Batman.

And here she is with a personal favorite Playarts Kai Variant of mine, Supergirl. As you can tell, Kara's red is way more pronounced than Diana's.

Despite her flaws, I am pleased with this figure. Again, she could look more like Gal, could have better invisible joints, and some face variants would have done the trick. Her lack of articulated Golden Lasso took some points down too since that is one of her most prominent signature weapon. Sadly, with both Fran and Wonder Woman lacking that 'flare' that we would expect from PAK (especially for that price point), I might be a bit more hesitant with upcoming releases. There are some good characters coming out, but again, I have to be careful. Though I'd give this figure a "B", so it's more than passable. If you are a Wonder Woman fan and want a cinematic figure of her, this might be the only one we have that is in a decent price range(go for the hot toys one if you want). As a Wonder Woman fan, I chose this over her Hot Toy form but I think I might give that one a try.
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A Moment of Nerd Talk

Images from Bigbadtoystore

Well! Another line up of Marvel Legends BAF and it's going to be inspired by the Civil War movie coming out. I have to say, I'm not too excited for it because of the line up and the BAF itself. I mean... it's not eve n"Giant Man", it's Ant-Man stretched out! We had a 6 inch version of Ant-Man (I do not have) and while it looked great and it had some great sculpt from what I have seen, I don't think the figure warrants to be a BAF. Should have been a comic character like Goliath or .... someone else.

But I am interested in this Iron Man figure for a couple of reasons: one, I'm an Iron Man fan! Two, I like the 'new' armor. Three, IT HAS SPECIAL EFFECTS! Did Hasbro follow suit with some of the imports' foot steps?! This might bode well! I'm also interested in the Black Panther since my Toybiz one is in dire need of an update.

On other news, Dawn of Justice came out and I have been hearing some really REALLY bad reviews. Of course there are some good feedback, but from what I surmised: too many characters without a point to certain aspects of it. I wasn't a huge fan of Man of Steel (or the character for that matter) and to have the theme carry over to this 'much anticipated' movie.... and no, I'm not talking about a 'darker' story or what not... just the way it is filmed in general. And apparently, both Superman and Batman are idiots in this movie. Again, I'm just reading reviews and I'm not going to completely side with what they are saying even after I watch the movie, but just from the trailers, it makes sense.

But honestly, I really want to watch this film for Wonder Woman. And NO, it's not because she is the super heroine that paved bondage for the likes of Spider-Woman, Zatanna, Black Canary, Batgirl, etc; I truly do like Wonder Woman for perverted reasons and the idea of her. I have to admit, I do like how her costume looks in the movie and Gal Gadot may not look like the ultimate Wonder Woman, but from the trailers and what I have been reading/hearing, she actually did well and some are even excited to see her solo movie. If I like her performance enough (and her depiction), I'm going to have to try and get the Hot Toy. And having Wonder Woman in this movie is HUGE. It's her FIRST cinematic appearance and her first 'live action' version set on screen since Linda Carter!

But I think with Dawn of Justice getting this much reviews, I hope Suicide Squad does marvelously. I mean, it is also the FIRST cinematic appearance of Harley Quinn! Also a favorite of mine. As it is, her look is well received and also berated, so we'll see. I have a figure preordered of her and I might jump into the Hot Toy of her when it is announced.

Speaking of favorites.... everyone knows how much I love this gal, right? If not, check out these two 'favorite' section of mine:

Deviantart & Pinterest

I would die happy if they come out with a movie of her! And I would die happy TWICE if they do a homage of her old costume like they did with Cap in First Avenger! Her old suit is still the best, but I'm getting used to her new one. Imagine a hot toy of her?! MAN!

Anyways! That's all the nerd talk these days!

Suicide and Justice

Suicide Squad: DC is doing something that Marvel has yet to do and that is making a movie that is based on a group of bad guys forced to do something good. Some of these characters are unknown to me because of the fact that it's only "recently" that I started getting into DC, but everyone knows who Harley Quinn is and she is in the movie. Heck, she's the highlight of the movie. Some might abhor this adaptation of Harley, but I say it's rather cute. It's not the 'canon' looking Harley but come on, I think there is something to be said about change. But I suppose it's all about how the movie pulls her off, huh? And I'm not going to gripe on Joker since .... well, I'm not the biggest fan of the last Joker we saw in the big screen. Suffice to say, I'm excited for this movie. 

Dawn of Justice: This is DC's supposed big introduction to Justice League; DC's answer to Marvel's Avengers. Between this and Suicide Squad, I'm more excited for Suicide Squad. I wasn't the biggest fan of Man of Steel; though I think it was decent, it didn't really feel like it was going to lift DC into the momentum that they needed to be. The new Batman seems fitting. Wonder Woman (in the few seconds we saw her) seems adequate enough. But we'll see.

Keep them rolling DC. We need some DC competition in the big screen to keep Marvel on their toes.