Review : Selina Kyle Gotham Select (Diamond Select Toys) Wave/Series : Series 1 Released : November 2015
£19.99 - £22.99
Released in November of 2015, Selina Kyle is the 3rd figure in the début series of Gotham Select figures from Diamond Select Toys.
Alongside Jim Gordon and the Penguin, Selina is a "Select" release so she comes on that oversized Select style card and is packed with a diorama base. She does look a little lost inside that huge packaging, particularly in such a dark outfit against her dark diorama base - but the packaging is lifted by that huge left hand panel with the Gotham logo and the character name and image of Camren Bicondova from the TV show.
To the side, left, is the spine art that is synonymous with Select releases, and this is a shot of Selina from the show and round the back there is an image of the figure itself alongside a bio of the character and a "also available" checklist of the other figures in series 1.
Out of the box Selina comes in an outer plastic tray, behind which is tucked the numerous pieces of her diorama - we will build this and discuss it later on. The only other accessory included is a milk carton.
Selina stands 6" high, so a good inch shorter than the adult characters of Gordon and Penguin. Diamond often struggle with human facial likenesses, and Selina's is once again slightly off. She will be recognisable to Gotham fans as Selina, but her eyes are a little too wide and they haven't quite captured the "moody" look of Kyle from the show. The paint hasn't helped either with thick black lines round half the eyes, but not all so that visually pushes them wider apart. They have also applied perhaps a touch too much blusher and not dirtied Selina up to reflect her situation as a street kid in the first series.
The hair however is well done and sticks out of her hood naturally. The hood itself is crowned by her goggle glasses and all of this is neatly painted, although in flat colours with only a dry brush of a lighter brown on the hair to add texture. The hood has also not been sculpted or designed to connect to the body, so it looks "odd" from behind, but in terms of retaining head articulation I can see why the decision was made.
Selina's outfit is predominantly black, from a black zipped leather jacket down to ripped trousers and black ankle boots. Diamond have done a good job of each of these with differing textures and finishes on each. The jacket has a number of zippers and buttons and a ruffled look along the chest and both arms. The zippers are all picked out in a crisp silver, and the whole jacket has had a very subtle dry-brush with a grey to pick out the rolls and ruffles in the cloth. The top half is finished with a pair of finger-less gloves on each hand. The right hand is sculpted as a fist, and the left in a wider gripping pose - into which slots the aforementioned Milk carton, a nice snug fit.
The trousers are a more tighter fit than the jacket so less texture, but each rip is done really well and a brown legging is then coloured underneath adding some more depth to the dark costume. Like the jacket there are details in the trousers like some bracers on the knees and a ribbed shin area and these are also dry-brushed in that grey to raise them up and make them pop. The boots are quite plain at first glance, but look closer and there are straps wrapping each boot round the ankle and a thin, but neatly painted buckle to either side.
So all pretty good so far, let's now look at articulation.
As I mentioned earlier the decision to not attach the hood to the jacket has left the head with the ability to turn a full 360 degrees and also look up and down - the down look a must for diorama posing later on. Shoulders are ball jointed, so move up down and out to the side fully. The elbows rotate and bend 90 degrees, and there is a distinct ratchet movement in the elbows that bend with a satisfying click on each turn and then hold themselves in position. The wrists also rotate and then flex up and down slightly on their peg. There is a waist joint of some description, but it doesn't allow any movement.
It was all going so well up to now, but once you hit the legs there is a real frustration. Anyone who collects DST knows that loose hips are a long term problem, and female hips seem to suffer even more. Like the Black Widow figure from Summer, Selina's ball jointed hips are really flexible in terms of movement, but will not support the figure without sliding into a splits pose - or more often than not collapsing the figure over all together. This is a real shame as everything else on this figure has worked really well, and if you go down past the hips to the double jointed knees these are also ratcheted and really slick and the ankle rockers allow the feet to be planted in a number of poses.
A figure that doesn't stand is the biggest frustration I can ever have as a collector. It means you either risk damage or shelf avalanches or stick them on a stand - which then detracts from the figure. With Selina, peg stands won't fix the issue so unless you want to superglue the hips you will probably need to use a waist stand such as a Kaiser Doll stand.
Looking at the diorama now, and there are a number of pieces to assemble - all without any instructions. The two wall sections slot together and then the balcony fits onto this supported by two more brackets. Finally the ladder hangs down the side.
On its own, this is no use to anyone as it will not stand on its own. The reason is that this was designed to combine with the alley way scene from Jim Gordon to give a double height stand.
Once connected to Jim's alleyway the piece looks quite impressive. But then when you start to use it you will start to find flaws pretty quickly. First off, the plastic is quite soft and therefore the balcony rail and ladder will be mis-formed. It also makes the balcony quite wobbly if you stand a figure up there - and I don't think it would support more than one before it either sagged or fell over.
The bigger issue though is if you try and stand a normal human figure in the alley under the balcony. I now know why every promo shot of series 1 had Jim Gordon standing slightly in front of the diorama as opposed to on it. The gap between the street/alley and the bottom of the balcony is less than 7", so there is no way any adult figure can stand on it. This is a real shame as it would have only need another inch and a half of wall piece to raise it up to a usable level.
So Selina has great points, but also some pretty big flaws. I hope Diamond can eventually fix this floppy hip syndrome - it is a bug bear on so many figures, from War Machine to Black Widow and now Selina Kyle. I would also like to see more thought into these diorama's - if you are going to combine them to make bigger pieces - make them in scale as much as possible and usable - not something that is so undersized it makes the figure look ridiculous.
I score Selina Kyle a 3 out of 5