So one of the benefits of driving where you're traveling to is that you generally don't care about the size of things you bring home. To that end, during my October trek to the US, I was able to bring home something that normally I'd be unable to - the Premium Quarter Scale Sideshow Collectibles Natasha Romanova statue. Sideshow has made quite a few of these during its tenure, not necessarily of her, but in general and overall its safe to say that their statues are better received than their figures. I actually bought this one of a fellow collector who was in the path of my travels, after seeing it and being intrigued during my trip to Vancouver back in the summer.
A comic based statue rather than from the live action movies, I'm not sure if this was based on a particular piece of art. I can say that artists have much more leeway when it comes to the finished product. The face isn't bad per se, but it's definitely what I'd expect from an old school interpretation of Russian features. Sculpting on the hair isn't bad either. Paint work is actually not too bad, except for strangely the weakness of the paint apps for the eyebrows. They're also, strangely, not raised either. Other paint work on the body is relatively simple in comparison, with some complexity on the belt and weapons. The largest surface, the skin, is generally well painted, or at least where it counts as I can't verify every square inch of her is actually painted.
The statue is too big for me to light up completely, and as such I have to do segment photos.
Being Premium, this is a mixed media piece, and as such her outfit is fabric, though that fabric happens to be well tailored vinyl/nylon (with some untrimmed threads on the collar). Much to my surprise, the head actually came as one piece with the body, whereas only the hands attached to the wrists via magnets.
So being the Exclusive Edition, this statue comes with an extra hand that has the dagger. These hands, or more specifically what they're holding, showcases one of the weakness of this statue. Now, I imagine that the hands are attached to the weapons being some sort of cost saving measure, which in itself isn't a problem. But, if you look at the dagger and the pistol, you'll see that these polystone pieces aren't exactly as crisply moulded as they could be, The silencer on the pistol in particular is actually bent. Luckily the sniper rifle is in good shape.
The other major area of weakness is the musculature of the body. The upper body isn't great but it's acceptable, but the lack of muscles on the legs just plain looks weird. Worlds deadliest assassin but has the body shape of a hot dog doesn't really go together. The actual base itself is quite simple, and as she's standing on a snowy hill it is sufficient. I also like how the sockets for the feet give the illusion that her feet are sinking into the snow.
I don't have many high end statues, so its always neat when I'm able to get my hands on a piece so I can do a bit of a deep dive. Polystone has advantages over ABS/PVC, usually in the crispness department, and larger statues can take advantage of that. Of course, even by Sideshow standards, this is very much entry level, and hopefully one day I can get my hands on one of the more expensive Black Widow pieces for a looksie.
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