Now with all the gushy parts out of the way, I do want to go back and mention one thing that I do hate about the sculpt, her hands. To fit with the gloved look, Mattel went with standard female holding hands. I’m fine with this for one hand, because she should be able to hold an accessory. But it would have been much more appropriate to use an open spellcasting hand, similar to a handful of sorceresses that we’ve already seen. It’s more appropriate for Shokoti to be wielding dark magic rather than a sword, and that hand would have gone a long way in improving her poses.
Paint wise the figure looks pretty good. Her design isn’t very complex, so there’s not too much to get wrong. I did have a little slop of gold in a couple of places, but it’s no big deal. One thing that did annoy me is the glossy black smudges that ended up on her cape. It’s just a simple example of not waiting until the paint dries before the two surfaces were combined. A small piece of tissue paper would prevent these issues. It’s something a lot of Japanese figures do, and it works wonders.
Shokoti comes with a surprising accessory, a little Darkling tentacle beast that served her in the Filmation episode. If there’s any doubt that she was Lovecraft inspired, this little abomination is the proof. This horrible shrieking creature has one large eye on a stalk, multiple tendril arms, and three disturbingly lipped mouths around the mass of its body. He really makes a great addition to her figure. I only wish she had more of them, or maybe a stand for the one she did get.
All around I’m pretty happy with Shokoti’s figure. The lack of a spellcaster hand keeps me from calling her perfect, but she’s damned close. She may not be as fun as figures like Icer and Batros, but Shokoti’s one of the more intriguing elements to the MOTU mythos and the line wouldn’t have been complete without her.
-Vault
Great review, pics, and excellent comics, as always.
I seem to have noticed a pattern when it comes to subscription vs. day-of-sale figures. Y’see, even though I’m a subscriber, I sometimes go online to get additional figures for customising purposes or whatever. And in several of the instances (Horde Prime and Shokoti spring the most readily to mind), I get the subscription figure, and the paint is sloppy or scraped off. When the day-of-sale figure arrives, much less paint marring.
My first Shokoti — the subscription one — her hair and epaulettes “contaminated” each other with paint rubbing off. The second one — the day-of-sale one — no major paint issues.
On the downside, this shouldn’t be happening on a nearly thirty-dollar toy. On the upside, I’ve got a backup Shokoti in case my soft goods customising on her cape goes horribly wrong, as well as two Darklings.
Awesome review as always. totally agree on the hand
Nice! I still haven’t picked her up yet — doesn’t look like I will anytime soon either, what with Oct & Nov’s Grayskull mortgage payments!
She looks good, but that first pic had me going, “She’s a TRAN-Queen, Baby!”
Sorry, but she does look a bit mannish in that pic.
Are the skirt and halter top one piece or separate? It is nice to get a bit of new clothing for the ladies, but they’re so hard to get off. (…wait what? LOL) Also, is the headdress a separate piece, or molded as part of the head? I noticed a bit of blue on the inside of the tiara.
Is it wrong I see the Darkling as some sort of Nibbler type companion? You could do a whole MOTUrama mash strip with that gag.
Frydor – “If you’ve got three mouths, do you occasionally talk out of-”
Nibling – “WE DO NOT SPEAK OF SUCH THINGS!! nomnomnomnom”
(is there a female Tri-klops? or do we have to genderbend this idea, too?)
the bodice and skirt are two separate pieces, and the best news is, the bodice is fairly easy to remove/make removable. she has two tabs indented into her lower back, and the bodice slips down the middle of the back, with a tab built into each side. so if you tear the bodice open (it’s stunningly easy to do) it still stays in place, and can be removed and replaced with ease. i figured this out cuz i plan on making some mods to mine and wanted to know if the thing came off.
the skirt is a separate piece that wraps above her “hips” and, when the bodice is removed, will flop around a little… but it too could likely easily be replaced be something more…ornamental? if one should wish… you’d just have to make sure you had material of the same thickness.
Dayraven, I’m glad you only figured out how to remove her bodice for noble customizing purposes.
personally, i find the idea of her way more exciting than the execution, BUT she has inspired me to get more proactive about making the mods necessary to turn her into the sex vampire gar cthulu lover that i want her to be. while i like her having two gripping hands, there are options out there now for hand swapping that are not deal-breakingly expensive, so really, if you want a spellcasting hand, they’re not hard to come by.
AM I THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH who loves the Jack Kirby vibe this lady gives off? 🙂
Nope. I’m just loving the Naughty Hot Babe vibe a lot more.
nah, i appreciate that very much… what i dislike, highly, is the lack of textural sculptwork in her costume… and her smallish boobs. working on fixing those… and making her a new cape.