SELINA KYLE/CATWOMAN

DARK KNIGHT RISES (HOT TOYS)

Wow, looks like I’ve made it to 200 reviews! It seems like just yesterday I was writing my last Hot Toys review for my 150^th review. Since this is another milestone review, I’ll be doing another “Deluxe Review.”

It’s another figure produced by Hot Toys, a Hong Kong based toy company known for their very high-end action figures. They have a tendency to pick up the licenses for the various Super Hero movies, and this time around, I’ll be taking a look at Catwoman from their subset of Dark Knight Rises figures.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Selina was released in HT’s Movie Masterpiece line, designated as figure MMS 188. She’s a little under 12 inches tall and features 28 points of articulation (At least, according to Hot Toys. I haven’t undressed the figure to check this, because that seems weird.). She’s based on Selina’s Catwoman look from the film.

THE HEAD IN QUESTION

The head is a very nice sculpt. HT’s strong suit is usually how close to the actors they look. I’m not sure if Catwoman’s head is a spot on Hatheway likeness, but it’s very close. The paint may also be a contributing factor to the somewhat off likeness. Typically, HT excels at paint, but in Selina’s case, they seem to have done something wrong with the eyes. Maybe the pupils are too small. The hair is not sculpted, but instead is rooted, in a similar fashion to a Barbie doll. Yeah, I know, it even further blurs the line between doll and action figure. However, it was the right call here, because sculpted hair would have severely limited the neck pose-ability and made the removable goggles impossible. Speaking of the goggles: yes, I’m sorry about the lack of sans-goggles pictures. I forgot to take them before putting the goggles on, and I certainly wasn’t going to try to take them back off.

THE COSTUME IN QUESTION

The costume is made up of six pieces: a jumpsuit, a belt, gloves, and boots. The jumpsuit is made of a nice textured cloth, and looks overall accurate to the one from the movie. My one complaint would be that the zipper seems a bit too bulky to be in proper scale. This is unfortunately one of the downfalls of attempting to work in this scale, but I feel it would be better served if they hadn’t actually made it a working zipper. The belt is a nice sculpted piece, and sits appropriately for the character. The gloves are simple slip-over pieces, held in place by the hands. The seam is cleverly hidden in the folds, which helps with making the figure more convincing. The boots are an impressive piece of work, being made of a leather like material, with a set of feet in the bottom, and plastic soles placed to keep the whole thing together. One issue I do have is that the costume does seem to look rather bulky around the torso. It’s not a huge issue, and it can be alleviated with a good pose, but I wish it was a little better.

THE ACCESSORIES IN QUESTION

Selina features a decent assortment of accessories, but not quite as many as some of the previous HT figures I’ve reviewed. They are:

• Goggles
• 7 interchangeable hands
• Hand gun
• Batman Cowl
• Display Stand

The goggles are the most important accessory, as they complete Selina’s costumed look. They are a bit difficult to get on the figure, and quite fragile, so take care. Once they’re on the figure, they fit pretty snuggly, and look accurate to the source material. The arms allow you to flip them up out of her face, re-creating her “cat-ear” look from the film. It’s a nice feature, but it does mean that the piece is quite prone to breaking if you aren’t careful.

There are seven hands: two fists, two open gesture, one with a trigger finger, and two gripping. The fists and open gesture allow for a nice selection of basic poses. The trigger finger holds the hand gun pretty tightly, which is nice. The gripping hands were meant to work with the Bat Pod released around the same time. I don’t have it, so they aren’t of much use to me, but they are a nice inclusion nonetheless.

The hand gun is the usual HT fair. Moving parts, removable clip, and crisp details. Not much new here.

The empty Batman cowl was the item included with the release of this figure available exclusively through Sideshow Toy’s website. It’s based on The DKR Batman figure released around the same time. It’s a nice piece, and it is surprisingly sturdy. Not really of much use to Selina, but a great add-in if you have the complimentary Batman.

Lastly, Selina includes a display stand with her name on it. It’s a pretty cool stand, designed to vaguely emulate the early teaser posters featuring the character smashing a batarang under her heel on a rainy surface.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Selina was ordered from Sideshow’s website pretty much as soon as she was up for pre-order. I knew I wanted the figure as soon as I saw the movie, and I definitely wanted the extra Batman cowl to display with my Batman figure. Overall, the figure isn’t perfect, but it’s a good figure overall, and she really looks great when displayed with Batman and Bane.