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bbi Bloody Rose

Sean Teeter, the college bum, is back tonight with a review of the 12" bbi Cy Girl Bloody Rose.  Over to you, Sean!

After months of delays, speculation, a name change or two, and the quandary over which line she was coming out under, bbi’s Bloody Rose has finally landed just in time for the New Year. The figure that has been formerly listed as Soldier Girl, Lucy Liu, and Angel (depending on what country you order her in); has been shuffled back and forth between the Cy-Girl and Elite Force Terminate line, has finally come out as Bloody Rose in the XIXOX line. This juggling is still evident on Blue Box’s website, which has her listed under the Cy-Girl page, but her photo art is stamped with Elite Force Terminate. (For the sake of simplicity, Rose has the new Cy-Girl 2.0 body, so we’ll just keep her in the same category as the other girls for review purposes.) 

Let’s just go with the write-up on the package: XIXOX is some ancient evil order of dark knights, blah, blah, blah. The important thing to know is that the Cy-Girls now have at least one female baddie to take on. I like this direction Blue Box has taken –all the current Cy-Girls are supposed to be part of some shadow group that works for the forces of good. It’s definitely time for some bad girls to make the scene –especially the kind you don’t take home to momma . . .





Packaging - ***
The box is the same design as bbi’s other recent Cy-Girl packages: opening front flap with the accessories and a plastic window box holding the figure. The silver XIXOX logo on the front looks pretty cool, but the rest of the box is a tad plain. The back has the write up and some computerized photo art, similar in style to the art on the back of Electra’s box. If you’re very careful about removing the accessories from the inner flap, the packaging could still be collector friendly. However, I tried it and failed, so be prepared to leave her out of the box. She looks better that way anyway.

Sculpting - ***1/2
Every Cy-Girl figure has a somewhat generic head sculpt; there’s nothing really unique to their looks, the changes are subtle and brought to life more with the paint ops than anything else. Rose’s head sculpt is a return to some of the older Cy-Girls, especially after the turn towards Barbie-ville from Electra’s younger appearance.

Her hair is an improvement over the cuts shown on her preview shots. The locks are very stiff and hold their cut very nicely. I love the bright orange Goth bob, and it looks great with the outfit.
The hand sculpts look nice, but aren’t always compatible with her accessories. Of course the “biggest” change in Rose’s body is her chest. The girl has a bust that Dolly Parton would be envious of, but not big enough to look ridiculous.

Paint - ****
There isn’t much to paint on most Cy-Girls other than their faces, but this is one area where Bloody Rose has them all beat hands down. Rose sports one tattoo above her left breast and another on her lower back. Both are done tribal style and look really cool; in fact I would have liked to see more on her shoulders and neck, Wesley Snipes style from Blade. 

The shades of blue used for her face also look really awesome. The lipstick is smooth, polished, and stands out among her counterparts. By far Rose’s eyes are her best feature. In fact I can easily say that Rose has the best-looking eyes out of any of the Cy-Girls. The powder blue eye shadow and painted details under her left eye are excellent, and the lashes are very clean and long. She is sure to stand out among any of the other Cy-Girl figures, even Cutey Honey with her redder-than-red hair. 

Articulation - ***1/2
Just like Electra, Rose sports the 2.0 Cy-Girl body, with retooled articulation. As always, bbi does a more than serviceable job with their sixth-scale figures. She has ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, limited ball-joints at the knees and ankle, bicep cuts, double elbow joints and a limited ball-joint midsection between the waist and upper torso. It’s not perfect, but shows improvement over the older models. The design allows for great posability, and it always helps to have tight joints.

Outfit - ***1/2
This is probably the main reason to add Rose to your collection; after all, how many sixth-scale dominatrix figures are there on the market. Her pleather boots, gloves, and corset look great and don’t impede her articulation too much. I like the zipper details up the fronts of the pieces, but would have preferred real zippers. The fishnet stockings are a really nice addition and look great. Probably the best detail is Rose’s earring chain to her choker. It’s a pretty cool addition –I just wish there were more alternative details like this, maybe a small nose stud or an ocular piercing.

Of course I have to include a cautionary warning for all those little straps on her boots and gloves: they can be adjusted, but they are a tad fragile.

Accessories - ***
Confusion and reuse best define Rose’s assortment of toys.

Bloody Rose comes with two Berreta 9mm pistols with working slides and removable clips, a Glock field knife with string, a black-handled Dragon knuckle knife, two flash grenades, two gas grenades, industrial red-tinted welders’ goggles, a wireless comm. set, four projectile grenade rounds, a PEQ2 laser pointing device, and her heavily modified HK G36 modular weapons system with M203 Grenade Launcher. 

First off, we’ve seen some of these before: all four grenades, the projectile shells, and both knives can be found in the Elite Force Terminate line. Reuse is fine –the whole first wave of Cy-Girls came with the same weapons assortment—but I hate reused items that have been altered for the worse, or are missing something. Both knives had sheaths in their original incarnations, and the grenades had pins that could be pulled. The reused shells are fine, but there’s no belt or holster to hold them. You can slide one into the barrel of the launcher, but the other three are just kind of there. 

I don’t readily recognize the Beretta pistols, but they may also be a reused item from one of Blue Box’s other lines. Overall, they look nice but seem to be made of relatively light, flimsy plastic. The piece of plastic that keeps the pistol’s slide from going too far back broke rather easily on one of them. I’m not sure if the comm. set is a reuse or not since I can’t find pictures of Carlos’ earpiece anywhere, and I do not own that figure. The earpiece looks pretty cool though but doesn’t fit on her ear just right. Luckily her stiff hair helps hold it in place.

The PEQ2 laser-pointing device is a bit of an enigma since there doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the G36 where it fits in nicely –with or without the grenade launcher attached. 

Probably the goofiest inclusion in this set would be Rose’s industrial goggles. They absolutely have nothing to do with any other accessory, and are a pain in the ass to adjust when fitting them to her head. That being said, they do work as a fashion accessory, and don’t look half bad perched on top of her head. The girl looks like she’s just wandered out of a Marilyn Manson concert.

Of course the highlight of this set is the HK G36. The machine gun features a folding stock, numerous little removable parts, a removable double-barreled ammo drum, an attachable grenade launcher, removable barrel, moving safety switch, sliding bullet chamber bolt, and a strap.
The strap is the weirdest thing to be found on this weapon. There’s a loopy black chord hanging off the butt of the gun that attaches to a clear plastic strap with XIXOX logos on it. It kind of looks cheap. 

I really wished for some instructions with this gun. There are numerous little removable pieces, bolts, slats, and other bits. I’m still not entirely sure where the laser-pointer is supposed to go either.
For some reason, there’s a spring on the top of the removable barrel. I don’t know what it’s there for –although a spring-loaded gun sounds like a good idea. It would have been cool to launch grenades at the other Cy-Girls.

However the HK G36 is a really cool looking weapon, and for those of you interested in the real thing, check out this webpage.

Now, let’s look at what’s missing: holsters and hands. Rose comes with only one set of hands, and the sculpts don’t work that well with all her weapons, especially the Berettas. The fingers are flexible enough to allow for some leeway, but without any backup, you don’t want to force them too much for fear of damaging their grip.

Rose relies on her outfit in place of holsters for her weapons. Her boots and straps are the only spots her guns, grenades and knives can hang. Some of it looks okay, but in the end this is a little klutzy. It limits the amount of toys she can display at once.

Despite the peg holes in her boots, Rose also lacks a stand unlike other Cy-Girls. Luckily she stands pretty well on her own.  Of course with this particular outfit, it would have been great if bbi tossed in a nice whip or some handcuffs. Oh well, we can all dream . . .

Value - ***
On average you can find Cy-Girls for around $30 or under. If you can get her at $25 or lower, bump that score up a half a star. Her reuse of accessories and lack of weapon holsters hurt her a little compared to some of the other girls, but she’s a cool looking figure.

http://www.goodstufftogo.net is probably one of the best sixth-scale sellers out there. They have some of the best prices and excellent customer service. Bloody Rose goes for $26. The other Cy-Girls are $26 under.

http://www.oldjoeinfirmary.com is a pretty cool site and has her at $27.95. The best thing about this place is that you can also purchase replacement parts, hands, bodies, and outfits for your other Cy-Girl figures.

http://www.entertainmentearth.com is a tad higher at $34.99.

Overall - ***1/2
Despite the hits she might take in the accessory department, Bloody Rose’s awesome outfit and paint details really make her stand out. She looks a lot like Tank Girl’s evil twin, especially with the goggles. Do I even have to state how cool that is? 

I am a little disappointed in some of the accessory selection, and would have liked to see an array closer to Electra’s, but at least her main weapon looks decent enough. The one huge strike against her is the lack of alternative hand sculpts. Rose needs at least a set of hands that’s compatible with her guns. Her current hands are great for the knives, but just don’t mesh 100% with her firearms.

In the end Bloody Rose looks really cool alongside her other Blue Box counterparts, and for you customizers out there, she looks even better with Jet’s pleather threnchcoat. 

I’d love to see more Cy-Girl villains from bbi, especially in the same vein as Bloody Rose. I’ve got a thing for women with that Goth/alternative feel, as well as the tattoos and piercings –lord knows I’ve gone out with a few them in my day—and I think the look translates really well into the Cy-Girl line. 


Figures from the collection of Sean Teeter.

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