Statue Spotlight: XM Studios' All-New Wolverine

Vega
Sep 14, 2021
7 min read

As XM's 1:4 scale X-Men line continues to expand with new characters, each release brings with it a strong sense of anticipation. Now, with Sideshow seemingly putting the brakes on expanding their most recent line of mutants, all eyes are on XM to deliver high quality, desirable statues. It seemed for a while that XM could do no wrong, but as they have grown in both production and popularity, the company has shown its mortality. Almost two years ago, a newly revealed All-New Wolverine (Laura Kinney) statue fell victim to that mortality and that was the last time it would be seen until now. Let's trace the timeline of my favorite comic character brought to statue form by XM Studios and see whether this is a piece worthy of adding to your collection.

November 2019: Initial Teaser Reveal

There had long been talk of XM doing an X-23 statue and the desire for that grew exponentially for those who disliked Sideshow's rendition of the character revealed in 2018. I was not one of those collectors, but I was still curious to see what XM could do with my favorite character. Since XM was taking traditional comic costumes and giving them a modern spin, I was highly excited to see how different XM would capture X-23. Needless to say, my disappointment in their decision to adapt Laura Kinney as Wolverine and not as X-23 proper was overshadowed by those celebrating this rendition of character. It guess it makes sense to make her Wolverine since it was the 2015 "All-New Wolverine" run in the comics that put her on the map for a lot of the general audience. But if that is the case, don't call her X-23 and steer expectations towards the pre-Wolverine Laura. With that out of the way, I think this teaser prompted mostly excitement and anticipation, as well as clarity on the general concept of the statue. It did seem a bit unspectacular but we were willing to give it a chance.

December 2019: Full Reveal

Merely weeks later, that teaser picture would come to fruition at SGCC 2019 in a showcase of many new X-Men statues from the company. In what became, perhaps, the least impressive of the X-Men collection on display, was Wolverine running across a crushed jeep with all of her claws on display.

Let's start with the overall impressions of the statue, which seemed to be echoed by most, and were heavily favored in the negative. The statue shines in the areas XM shines: detail. The various texturing and transitions from rough to smooth, the leather look of the belt, and the paint application were all plusses. This was was very unfortunate as the problems pointed out by collectors were greater in numbers and magnitude.

The biggest eyesore was the base, with a crushed jeep that not only looked uninspired, but also had zero connection to the character. Not only was it a randomly selected object for her to stand on, but it also did not align the statue with anything else that XM had released thus far. That made this not just a stand-alone statue, but one that had no relevant story to tell at all. Laura Kinney is a relatively new character that does not have much of a pool of story to pull from and, thus, it may be difficult to pick something to incorporate as a base. That's fine, then just have her fit in witht he other mutant characters by supplying a Danger Room- or Sentinel-themed base. If you want her to stand alone, then do something similar to Emma Frost where her base is relevant to the character's story, such as a laboratory, a hospital, somewhere in the X-Mansion, a random building, hell, even a street corner would have more relevance than the jeep. Then you have the fact that the jeep is scaled to look like a children's play car. Yes, I have seen pictures of the type of jeep this is supposed to represent, but please look at her foot and leg size compared to the pedals and the steering wheel. She is a giant compared to that thing.

Moving on to the character's sculpt, some had issue with the position of her legs, as the lifted one twisted in towards the other leg. Also, the foot claws were either sculpted or inserted upside down, I assumed the latter. The claws coming out of her hands appeared to be spread out way to far did not align well to where they would retract into her forearms. I appreciate the attention to realism in adding the zipper in the back of her suit, but that is one of the world's beefiest zippers and is very distracting to the rest of the back of the sculpt. Some collectors were not appreciative of the black piping that separated the blue/yellow sections of her costume, but I really did not mind that at all.

The statue came with two headsculpts and, to my surprise, the unmasked portrait actually looked much better than masked version. As is customary with XM female headsculpts, the unmasked version was a bit plain and doll-like, but I thought the overall look and hairflow were done well. There was a problem with its flat expression. It needed more wrinkle in the brow and more of a death glare than it was given. For the masked portrait, which got just as much backlash as its opposite, it gave the look of a forced smile more than the grit and determination it appeared intending to capture. So far, this was turning out to appear much further from a win than we anyone may have anticipated.

2020: The Dead Year

The feedback to this statue appeared to be heard loud and clear, as indications were made that XM Studios would be working to make adjustment to the statue. What those adjustments might entail would remain a mystery...for over a year and a half. As the shock of disappointment in this statue began to wind down, the global COVID-19 pandemic began to amp up. While I can not say I became privy to any specifics, impacts on the workforce, factories, supplies, shipping, and other related measures appeared to slow much of the hobby to a bit of a halt. There was little infomation given about this Wolverine statue and it remained in adjustment limbo for quite a long time.

July 2021: New Teaser Reveal

Now twenty months removed from the statue's first teaser and we get another teaser, assumedly indicative of the changes implemented since the initial reveal. At first glance, I could only think about how this looked like the exact same statue, just with an adjusted facial expression. But given a closer look, the character appeared to be standing more straight up and have less of a twist in her body. There was little else that could be made from this teaser, particularly related to the base. Luckily, a full picture gallery was not far behind.

September 2021: Official Full Reveal/PO Announcement

Nearly two years later and a full reveal of official photos shows us we are virtually given the exact same statue. I will not pretend to know what happened during the time this statue was delayed and revisited, but this makes it feel like the strategy was to keep it away for as long as possible and hope people forget their criticisms enough to buy it. Of course, it could be as simple as they decided not to make any major changes and the delay was simply related to COVID-19 (though, it would not make much sense considering other new pieces had been revealed and put up for pre-order in that time). Now, collectors can look to secure the pre-order for this statue on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. The official dimensions are recorded as 20.5"H x 14.2"W x 13"D.

Looking into some of the changes from the last time the statue was shown, the foot claws are displayed the right way, so there is a plus right off the bat. To combat the most vocal criticism of the statue, its base, XM completely swapped the crushed jeep out for a...oh wait, nope, they kept the jeep. Instead, they made the color more green and added more rubble underneath. Look, XM does not EVER have to make adjustments to a statue based on feedback. In fact, I have criticized how much they sacrifice their artisitic vision to appease the fanbase. However, if you are going to make adjustments to a statue, especially an aspect as clearly redundant as this jeep base, it should be replaced, not covered with a fresh coat of paint.

It looks like the focus of any changes made were highlighted in the actual character. She has much less of a twisted lean and is nearly standing straight up now. Her lifted leg is also angled a bit differently with her foot keeping aligned with the knee rather than pointing towards the inner leg. This is a time when the communities words have created a worse statue. She had a much more threatening looking charge in the original sculpt, where she has a bit more of that lean in her body and appears thrusting forward. This new version just looks as though she is running across the hood. I can not tell with certain angles if the spacing and angle of the claws in her hands her adjusted at all, but they still appear off to me. This is something that I could absolutely live with had the concept of the statue been better than sub-par.

Moving on to the last change, which was made to the masked headsculpt. I do not understand how the fix to the original growl was to take it away completely and match the expression of the other headsculpt. Now, neither carry any facial expression whatsoever matching the idea of her running towards something/one with all claws extended. A snarl, a scream, something to emulate the rage that Wolverine encapsulates. I know I am not a fan of Laura Kinney as Wolverine and would not have purchased this piece otherwise, but I feel bad for those wanting this particular rendition of the character. A ruthless character with a murderous nature that she fights to contain, a dark past she wants to forget, and the abilities of Wolverine plus some and you get her standing straight up in a running pose across a random jeep. This is all made worse by having prototype pictures next to 1. a Wolverine statue that clearly is not made to be a companion piece and 2. is a great representation of the savage nature of a Wolverine. This picture perfectly captures everything wrong with this All-New Wolverine. Lackluster may be too good of a word for this one.

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