I’ve reviewed a few of the maquettes in this line, the Supergirl and the Harley Quinn. The DC Direct Zatanna maquette seems to go for the highest prices in the line, I’m not sure whether that’s due to wider appeal or a lower edition size. Let’s see if this little lady fares better than the others!

Quick Buying Options : Sold out years ago, your only options are forums and Ebay.

Straight up, I’m not a fan of the design. While the idea of popping out of a box and getting handcuffs off in a cute pose is a good concept, it suffers in the execution. Her face isn’t nearly as cute as it looks in the Batman animated series, and since that’s a central focus, it’s somewhat offputting. The pose should be better. It’s not bad, but it looks awkward from a fair few angles and isn’t that great looking even from the front. Considering that’s the angle it’s supposed to be viewed at, it was a little disappointing. The treasure chest is nice. On the other hand, something about her actual chest looks a little strange, at least in picture form.

The paint on this is fine. It’s not excellent, but it does a good job of showing off the animated style and it looks nice on the treasure chest. Could it have been improved on the face and fixed some of my issues with it? I’m sure it could have.

3/5. Good idea, lackluster execution. The high price doesn’t help any.

Buying Options : Sold out years ago, your only options are forums and Ebay.

Quick Buying Options : Long sold out, check Ebay.

The pose and expression totally rule. They’ve captured Bizarro perfectly. He had a limping lumpy muscular look and was always hunched over. His expression is a mix between angry and confused, which sums animated Bizarro up pretty well. The rest of the sculpting is spot on, as you’d expect from a maquette. The base is the same standard one DC used to use.

The paint is somewhat sloppy, especially around the S symbol and the belt, but those layabout painters got away with it because that fits Bizarro. You can see plenty of minor problems in my pictures but this is one of the few statues where it doesn’t bother me. Another lucky break for the painters is that maquettes often have flat paint schemes and little in the way of detail. If this were a more complex piece, the paint problems would’ve stood out more.

If you’ve read this far and you’re thinking, “Meh, he’s ok but I just don’t care much for this version of him”, well you need to shoot over to Amazon and immediately buy the Superman animated series. It’s cheap as hell and some of the best Superman (and especially Bizarro!) entertainment to date.

4/5. I dropped a full point because man, those painters were so damn lazy! It’s not even a tough paint job! But to me, Bizarro here is a fantastic representation of the animated character in a simple maquette form. Some maquettes, like the Justice League ones, were just too damn boring. This one on the other hand, it shows character.

Buying Options : Long sold out, check Ebay.

Perhaps the least successful maquette in a maquette line that wasn’t super successful to begin with, the Justice League animated one. Let’s take a look at the guy that you can still pick up for $5, Aquaman!

Quick Buying Options : Stick with Ebay or find it at basically ANY comic convention.

Aquaman was an alright character in the Justice League show, but he didn’t stand out that much. Sure, he’s awesome in Brave and the Bold, but in Justice League…kinda average. When you take that and make a maquette out of it, you can’t expect much, since maquettes aren’t supposed to be exciting. He’s certainly well sculpted enough and his base matches the other tacky bases of the Justice League line.

The paint is fine as well. It’s a standard flat paintjob with a little bit of a metallic feel on the armbands. Unfortunately Aquaman suffers from the dreaded yellow paint issue DC Direct used to run into on their Batman products. You can quite clearly see all the hairline cracks on the last image and somehow it cracked the skin texture as well! That’s really annoying but since you probably picked this guy up for $5, you can’t ask for much.

I don’t want to rag on Aquaman too much but he was perhaps the most boring of an already boring line of maquettes. DC Direct really botched this opportunities. They could’ve been selling dynamic statues of an awesome Timm-styled Justice League for a good long time. Can you imagine how many statues they would’ve sold once Unlimited came out? Ah, what could’ve been.

2/5. Boring, suffers from paint issues, I’d say only worth it for someone trying to complete the collection.

Quick Buying Options : Stick with Ebay or find it at basically ANY comic convention.

This comes in at nearly 11 inches and was limited to 500, a decent run for what I believe is an original character. She’s smaller than you would think, since that 11 inches includes her pitchfork. I should mention that mine has significant damage to the arm but since I was fully aware of this damage prior to buying it, I’ve photoshopped the damage out. I do plan to fix it though.

It’s superbly well sculpted. This Sinful Lady has a great sexy look to her, and the expression is quite alluring. Her big poofy hair and horns fit the look of the statue well and her outfit, as cheesy as it is to say, is downright devilish. The rest of her pose and her tail complete the look. My only issues with the sculpt are the emphasis marks around the knees and the pitchfork. The emphasis marks are carved in rather than being painted, it’s slightly odd but looks fine in pictures. The pitchfork is slightly bent, however I can’t say if this is a sculpt issue and not a problem that developed later.

The paint, while simple, is nice and consistent. Her cleavage is a little weird, it’s rough. It should be a solid curved line to go along with the simplicity of the rest.

4/5. It’s a unique and affordable statue. If the style appeals to you, it’s a great purchase.

Buying Options : I’ve only seen it available on Ebay. When I was looking, a mint and complete one went for $75~. My damage one was around $25. If you saw the damage, you’d know why, haha. Photoshop skils to the rescue.

Unfortunately, the animated style of Justice League was less interesting than the Batman/Superman shows, and this statue suffers for it. Instead of different body types, almost every single male looked the exact same. When the show changed to Justice League Unlimited and became more varied, only two maquettes were produced in that great looking line (Green Arrow/Black Canary) before it was cancelled.

The physique is too bulky for Batman. Sure, Batman’s in great shape, but he’s Superman size and that’s ridiculous. Maybe they should’ve added the Venom tubes that Bane uses to this sculpt, that would’ve made sense. The pose, boring even for a maquette, doesn’t help. The sculpting and paint are both fine, because you can tell exactly what they were going for and that they nailed it. It just happens to be a lackluster concept.

I’ve seen pictures of the whole group together and I’m not impressed. I own the Aqua Man as well and he’s a little better, but I have rarely seen a group of maquettes, especially such a well known team, that felt so lifeless.

3/5. It’s a decent statue, just boring. It’s sad to say that, since I’m a big fan of the show itself.

Buying Options : Sold out ages out, fortunately it’s available around $30 on Ebay.

Now I prefer me some blue alien ladies, but the red is vibrant as all hell. It really pops and stands out. Since she’s a Sith, she’s got crazy tattoos over her like Darth Maul does, and in the Sideshow photos of her with Maul, she makes an incredible looking companion piece. I should mention that I grabbed the exclusive but I didn’t bother taking any pics of the cape, I preferred how she looked without it. The fabric for the cape seems flimsy and somewhat cheap, the transparency doesn’t help either.

As simple as the base is on this, I feel it fits it perfectly. The rocky bits would’ve been nice enough but going to the extra effort of adding the footprint really sealed the deal. The cloth used for her shorts is a little basic. The only other cloth is used on the back of the top, and parts of her boots. It’s a rather gimmicky usage of the Premium Format label, but whatever, her being at about 1/4th scale is well worth it.

The sculpting is superb. The expression has a look that says “Don’t start up with me or you’ll regret it”. The pose is an almost casual walking, yet it retains a strength to it. She pulls off a badass look, despite having ridiculously little in the way of clothing. The tattoo lines aren’t simply painted on her, they’re sculpted. The accessories like the top, shoes, gloves, and lightsaber look fantastic, the top in particular has some top-notch weathering to it. The shoes and gloves are just as great. The face on this is one of the finest sculpted female faces I’ve ever seen.

The paint isn’t as high-end as the sculpting but it’s very nice nonetheless. I want to mention that the high-res pics in this review (click on any of the images) are SO MUCH larger than real life due to the macro lens I’m now using. MANY of the paint problems you’ll see in the high-res shots are damn near impossible to see in real life. That said, there is a bit of sloppiness around some of the smaller lines. The lips are a little tough but not too bad. As mentioned earlier, the red is incredibly vibrant and no paint issues there.

If you’re interested in owning an absolutely gorgeous female alien statue, this fits the bill. If you’re a Star Wars fan, even better. I didn’t see myself ever recommending an expanded universe Star Wars statue but this one gets majors props. The exclusive isn’t a big deal, I’d try to pick up the regular for cheaper. Then you’ll have some extra dough to buy a higher-end cape from me when I have nice customs in a few days, haha.

5/5.

Buying Options : Hop on the waitlist at Sideshow for the regular, it’ll probably convert. I’d also look around local shops, if you can’t find one, check Ebay.