Kotobukiya ArtFX+ New 52 Justice League Aquaman statue

I remember watching the Aquaman cartoon back when I was a kid in the 80s, but that was pretty much the last exposure I had with the character. But opening this awesome Kotobukiya ArtFX+ New 52 Justice League statue just makes me want to get back up to speed on all these characters.

Again the head sculpt has the anime influence, which is a little strange coupled with the flowing sideburns down his face!! But the look actually works and the hair sculpting really brings out the visage on this one too.

But it's the paint app on his body that is the shining feature here (pun intended)! The scales on his upper body are really brought to life by an amazing gold/orange/yellow collage of colour that almost changes before you eyes as your rotate the light around it!

Couple that with the awesome dark metallic green similar to the Green Lantern, and the figure absolutely pops on the display shelf! In fact, this rivals the Flash as the stand out paint app in this line of statues so far for me. The sculpting for the fins is nicely done too and give the statue some really nice accents around the arms and legs.

It comes with the usual magnetic base and magnets in the feet, which hold him firmly in place even with the trident stretched out. The pose is purposeful and not overly dynamic, perfectly in line with the others in the series.

As you can see, the statue also comes with his iconic trident, packaged in two pieces that you connect up and then slide into his hand. The trident is plastic (I was hoping for it to be metal!) but still looks OK with a decent paint job.

So again, Kotobukiya has knocked it out of the park with this statue. The paint app on this is just as amazing as the one of the Flash, giving the statue a very lovely shine under all lighting conditions. It really looks amazing on the shelf.

I definitely recommend these statues. Sure they're not articulated figures, but with awesome sculpting and amazing paint application, these more than make up for that!

Check out the Kool Kollectibles youtube channel video review below!

Kotobukiya ArtFX+ New 52 Justice League statues!!

Well, I'd been on the fence about the Kotobukiya ArtFX+ statues for a while now, since I was trying to stick to action figures only. I do like to change up the poses in the display every now and then, so the poseability of action figures is something I prefer.

And for the New 52 Justice League, I was actually very close to ordering the DC Collectibles "We Can Be Heroes" 7-pack of action figures. But online reviews pretty much showed that they had limited articulation and were pretty much statues anyway.

So when Kotobukiya started releasing the New 52 Justice League team in their ArtFX+ range, with what looked to be some amazing paint apps, I was very interested! And then recently they announced the ArtFX+ Avengers series of statues for 2014, so with that I couldn't resist any longer. I went to a local collectibles store and saw the statues in person, and was pretty much convinced on the spot :)

The statues are packaged very nicely in clear transparent boxes that showcase the characters very well. So you could actually display them in the boxes without taking them out if you wanted, and they would still look awesome. The front view has a clear full body view of the statue with their classic named logos. Nice!

The side view also has their iconic insignia logos, which is a very nice touch I think. The box for Batman is the largest to cater for his flowing cape.

The other side of the box has some awesome artwork for each character, than when placed together combine for a larger mural of them all. You can see on the right the shoulder of the upcoming Cyborg statue, which should be reaching retail in either late August or early September. Can't wait to get that and complete the core New 52 Justice League team :)

I'm not exactly sure what material is used to manufacture the statues, but they are all fairly light weight and feel sturdy. Each statue comes with a magnetic base and magnets inside the statue's feet which gives some awesome flexibility in placing them on display, especially when grouped together. I much prefer these to the usual bases that come with action figures that have pegs.

But the best part of course is the metallic, reflective paint app on the statues themselves. The quality of the paint work is very high overall, with minimal slop and bleeding. The face sculpts all have an anime influence, which is understandable given Kotobukiya is a Japanese company and this is their master sculptor's Goutaro Takeuchi's interpretation of the New 52 characters.

How do they look out of the box you ask? Absolutely SENSATIONAL is how!! :) These look great in pretty much any direction, and in all kinds of lighting, although if you have lights that are better for reflecting or spotlighting (eg. downlights, LEDs), then these will really pop!

Stay tuned for a more detailed review, pics, and video on each individual statue! :)