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Witchblade Animated


Palisades announced a new and unusual license this year - Witchblade. That's not unusual, you say, since there was a TV show, comic book, and guaranteed fan base! That's all well and good, but these weren't going to be your father's Witchblade figures. These are based on the animated style, not the traditional comic or show look. And of course, by 'animated style', I'm talking that style made famous by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm with the original Batman Animated series.

The wave includes three figures - Witchblade herself of course, along with Darkness and Magdalena. Retail on these is around ten bucks, although you might have to do some hunting around to find them. Specialty stores like Sam Goody are your best bet, or your local comic shop.





Packaging - ***
The packaging is adequate, but lacks the creative flair of other Palisades work. The large 'Witchblade' insignia looks great, but overall they aren't quite as eye catching or unique as I'd like. Of course, if you're an opener that won't make much difference.

Sculpting - ***
The sculpts are fairly decent, with as much detail as you can possible expect with this style. They characters translate into this format fairly well, and scale is pretty good amongst the figures. It's also nice to see that they fit in fairly well with other animated superhero likes, particularly the old BTAS stuff.

I did have a couple issues however. First, the soft plastic used this time around causes some ankle issues, particularly for Magdalena. I had to eventually use the boil/reform method to get her ankles straight, and in the photos you can see how tilted she was just coming out of the package. 

Another area that bothered me was the general design of Witchblade. Her head and torso are sculpted so the head tilts down. This accommodates an expression where she is looking upward, similar to the way Magdalena is peering out of her cloak. That works for Magdalena specifically because of the cloak, but looks off on Witchblade.

Both Witchblade and Darkness stand find on their own though, something I had a very tough time getting dear Maggie to do. The included stand makes that moot, but with figures of this scale it's nice when they don't shelf dive.

Paint - **
Surprisingly, the paint ops on these figures is average to poor. On all three figures, I had problems with random marks, sloppy definition between colors, inconsistencies, and generally substandard work. If this were any other company, that might not be quite so surprising, but Palisades tends to have higher quality than most. Do what you can to get the best version when you are picking yours out, but don't be surprised when it's tough to find a decent one.

Articulation - **
Similar to other animated heroes, these have five points of articulation - neck, shoulders and hips. While that's far less than the average Palisades product, it's not too unsettling since it matches up with the rest of the genre. These will fit right in with your other animated costume wearers.

My biggest issue in this category is in gaping, particularly with Witchblade herself. She has one too many butt cracks, and that hurts the overall appearance and quality of the figure.

Accessories - Witchblade, Magdalena ***; Darkness **1/2
Of the three, Witchblade has the most accessories, including a stand, gun, walkie-talkie, and handcuffs. The handcuffs look nice but won't work with the figures very well. The gun and radio sculpts are good, and the gun fits nicely in her hand.

Darkness has only two accessories, including the display stand and his funky back thingamajiggie. I'm sure it has a name, but I haven't a clue as to what it is, but you can see it in the photos. It is removable, and snaps on and off easily.

Finally, Magdalena has three accessories, including the display stand, a sword, and a spear weapon. The weapons fit nicely in her hands, and both look very good.

Value - **
At ten to twelve bucks each, these are at least two or three bucks over priced, at least in terms of getting a high value score. If you can manage to find some with great paint ops and no joint problems, you can add another half star here, but even with perfect figures they are a couple bucks over in value. Again, I'm sure it's the lower runs on these, since they are only going out through a limited number of retailers, that's driving the higher price on these.

Overall - **1/2
I have to be honest - these aren't some of Palisades better work. While the license is fairly cool, and they did a fine job capturing the animated appearance, the poor paint ops and high prices hurt the overall score quite a bit. Only time will tell if the rest of the buying public concurs.

Where to Buy - 
Your best bets are specialty shops like Media Play, Sam Goody or Gamestop. Your local comic shop may have them as well. On-line:

- Killer Toys has the special convention exclusive three pack available for $40. These were only available at the San Diego Comic Con,
and include all three figures. Just search for 'witchblade'.

-
Entertainment Earth has the regular assortment for $40 as well.  Just search for 'witchblade'.


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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