DC Artists Alley Sho Murase Figures

I bought the Sho Murase Figures as they were made available to the public.  Hot Topic got their exclusives as well as the regular versions in November 2018.  Books A Million got their exclusives in late November or early December.  The holiday variants were limited to 500 each, so I ordered them from Big Bad Toy Store in case I couldn't find a complete set in a physical store.  Those became available in late-December/early-January.  The DC Universe exclusive Gold Batgirl was listed in mid-January.  I'm still waiting for the Foot Locker Pink Batgirl to arrive, lol.  (Edit, 2019-02-05: The Foot Locker Pink Batgirl finally got here!)

Regular Versions

Holiday Variants

Books A Million Exclusives

Hot Topic Gotham Sirens and Foot Locker Batgirl Exclusives

I noticed that some people began selling Artists Proofs on eBay.  Artists Proofs are given to artists/sculptors as compensation for their work or to reviewers who help publicize products.  Based on the reviews I've seen, DC Collectibles sent mixed batches to bloggers -- a random sampling of three of the four characters in their different configurations.  I guess some of these reviewers didn't like having non-matching sets (or didn't like the figures at all!).

Holiday Catwoman AP 20

Holiday Poison Ivy, AP 06

Books A Million Batgirl, AP 13

Hot Topic Harley Quinn, AP 36

Hot Topic Poison Ivy, AP 17

Yes, I bought some of the APs, which means that I ended up with doubles, lol.  I've seen others but decided to limit myself to AP 10s or lower.

Regular Harley Quinn, AP 06

Holiday Catwoman and Batgirl, both AP 04s

Hot Topic Catwoman, AP 01

Hot Topic Poison Ivy, AP 03

Books A Million Poison Ivy, AP 02

Jan 2019 Search for DC Artists Alley Figures

Throughout 2018, DC Collectibles released PVC figures designed by three people for the new DC Artists Alley line.  Each artist's "wave" consisted of three characters with multiple variants.  Each artist also got a fourth character, and these characters were scheduled to be released in December just in time as holiday presents.

Well...that was the idea, but holiday transportation woes prevented some of the retailer-exclusive variants from reaching stores until January.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that some of the retailer-exclusive variants are very difficult to find.  Furthermore, only a handful of online bloggers have received one of the retailer-exclusive variants.

Uminga's characters all got Zombie, Glow in the Dark, and Villains variants.  Zombie Flash showed up at Hot Topic like the others.  Glow in the Dark Flash showed up at Box Lunch like the others.  However, GameStop didn't get a Villains variant.  Instead, Reverse Flash showed up at Box Lunch (yes, they got two variants) -- and Black Flash, aka Zoom, showed up at Foot Locker.

Yes, Foot Locker.  Foot Locker wants to become the GameStop of shoe stores, selling pop culture collectibles in addition to its primary wares, shoes.  This business strategy makes sense in terms of distinguishing Foot Locker from its competitors, except there's no shortage of stores selling Funko Pops and other collectibles.  Anyway, if you look for pictures taken at large House of Hoops stores in the Northeast and Midwest, you'll see shelves with DC Collectibles statues.

Nooligan's characters all got Day of the Dead variants.  Day of the Dead Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn showed up at GameStop.  Day of the Dead Nightwing showed up at...Foot Locker.

Murase's characters all got Sparkle Glitter and Iridescent variants.  Hot Topic got the Sparkle Glitter Gotham Sirens.  Books A Million (BAM) got the Iridescent Gotham Sirens.  BAM got the Iridescent Batgirl, but she never appeared on their website.  Sparkle Glitter Batgirl was assigned to Foot Locker, but that is the one figure from 2018 that no one other than a few lucky bloggers has.  Indeed, it appears that even the folks at DC Collectibles don't know what happened to her.

Batgirl also got a gold variant that's exclusive to DC Universe members.  I got one that was missing the batarang that's supposed to be in her right hand and has a left arm that's too high, up above the cape.  The replacement that was sent to me also has a left arm that's too high.

Properly manufactured Gold Batgirl

1st defective Gold Batgirl

2nd defective Gold Batgirl

I live in a city that's in the Top 20 of US cities by population.  Yet, we don't have a physical BAM store, which means that I have to buy their exclusives online or place a phone order with a store in another city.  However, since the BAM Batgirl isn't on their website, stores couldn't sell it to me over the phone even though they have it in stock!  On Tuesday, Jan 15, I drove four hours both ways to a mall in another city so that I could finally buy Batgirl.  While there, I looked inside the Foot Locker store at the same mall, but they didn't have the Uminga Black Flash or Nooligan Day of the Dead Nightwing.  (None of the Foot Lockers in my city have them, and they're not searchable on Foot Locker's website, either.)

The next day, I drove 2.5 hours both ways to yet another city.  I already got the BAM Batgirl but was determined to see if the Foot Locker Batgirl would materialize.  Well, no dice, but I did see Black Flash and Day of the Dead Nightwing in person for the first time.

My best guess is that Foot Locker is saving Batgirl for February as a Valentine's Day item given her pink hues.

Happy New Year?



Edit, 2019-01-17: Well, about 20 hours after I published this post, someone listed one on eBay.  I guess these are trickling out to stores.

Edit, 2019-02-05: I decided to buy Foot Locker Exclusive on eBay.  I was very lucky and got 007 of 700, lol.

DC Sculptors: Sam Greenwell

Sam Greenwell has worked with DC Collectibles for a long time.  He sculpted some of the Cover Girls and Bombshells statues.  He favors sculpting long, narrow faces.

Long, narrow faces are potentially problematic due to how statues are made.  Statues made of "hard" materials, such as resin or polystone, are cast with "soft" silicone molds.  Statues made of "soft" materials, such as PVC (plastic), are cast with "hard" metal molds.  Silicone molds warp with repeated usage, which means that they're good for only a certain number of statues before they have to be replaced.  If you get a statue made at the tail end of a silicone mold's lifespan, you might end up with a distorted face.  The following pictures are of statues that, while not sculpted by Greenwell, illustrate what can happen with silicone molds:

Harley Quinn RWB by Artgerm Statue

Harley Quinn RWB by Babs Tarr Statue

I think this explains why I tend to like Sam Greenwell's PVC statues a lot more than his resin statues.  The "hard" molds used for PVC statues maintain better consistency throughout the entire production run, so there's less of a chance that you'll end up with a smushed/elongated portrait.

DC Core Batgirl, sculpted by Sam Greenwell

Several years ago, Sam Greenwell worked on some of the Ame-Comi statues (DC's in-house attempt to interpret its characters in a Japanese manga style).  Last year, Greenwell sculpted the DC Core Batgirl statue and DC Artists Alley Sho Murase figures, all made from PVC.  Jack Mathews, Greenwell's colleague and friend, sculpted the Sho Murase Catwoman.  Catwoman's face is obviously much rounder than the faces that Greenwell sculpted.

Catwoman, sculpted by Jack Mathews

Sam Greenwell also sculpts the Lil Bombshells for Cryptozoic.  I think they look much better than Funko's Mystery Minis, which resemble tadpoles.

Cryptozoic Lil Bombshells Wave 1

Cryptozoic Lil Bombshells Wave 2

Cryptozoic Lil Bombshells Wave 3

Funko Mystery Minis Bombshells

Sho Murase Gold Batgirl PVC Figure 0001 of 1000

The DC Universe exclusive Gold Batgirl PVC Figure, designed by Sho Murase, has an Edition Size of 1000.  I just found an eBay listing for Number 0001.

I don't chase low numbers, but Number 1s of anything are cool to have.

Technically, for most figures and statues, the true ES is not a publicly disclosed number since companies also commission extras as replacements for broken/defective ones and compensation to sculptors/artists.  The standard industry practice is to label these as Artists Proof (AP) or Sample.