WolfBoy
Super Freak
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For anyone interested, i received my Bettie Page figurine this morning and thought i'd give a write up about it in case anyone here is interested in purchasing it.
For the most part the figure is pretty great. The likeness is good, though not 100% accurate, but as a whole it's a great looking figure and anyone who is aware of pop culture over the last 50 years would have no issue reconsigning who it is based on the entire look of the figurine. For anyone that is a fan of Bettie or into collecting vintage inspired memorabilia, this is definitely a good purchase. It's also officially licensed by the Bettie Page brand, in case that is important to anyone.
I didn't have time to do an amazing HD pic spread of this, so sorry if the pics aren't good enough.
Box...
Figure...
The good stuff:
The figure is much prettier in hand, the promo pics did look a bit weird facially, but in hand it does her more justice. I tried to take pics of her at angles that worked best face wise. I do think the top of her head where her bangs are could be a little closer to her head, her heair wasn't usually that high up, but overall i'm very happy with the face/head.
I do think maybe a second face with a sultry pose would have been nice, i know Bettie is known for her smile, but she did sultry well too and it would have matched the bondage outfit nicely. I have seen pics of a none smiling Bettie sculpt Phicen did, but it wasn't all that great in my opinion so i'm not surprised they didn't use it. Though a second figure may come later who knows.
Most of the clothing is well made, although i will go into detail about the issues with the shoes and gloves later on. Stockings and corset are good, although if you are looking to buy some of the extra outfits for the figure that are being sold, good luck trying to get that corset back on once it's removed. I'm sure it can be done, but i think it would be a little tedious with the tying up process you need to do to apply/remove the corset.
There are some functionality issues with this figure though, some of which are hugely annoying for someone like me....
The bad:
The biggest problem is the interchangeable eyes. It comes with 3 sets of eyes which you can change, but to be honest i don't really care much for figures that have changing eyes, i only need one pair of them. Still......i did open up the face to have a look at the inside of the head and how the changing eyes work. Changing them is easy, however once the eyes are inside the head and the hair is placed back on, the eyes to tend to sink back into the head if you start moving the figure too much. When i was taking pics of her i had to keep opening up the head to make the eyes go back in place because they always will fall inwards and give her this creepy sunken in look. One minute you're looking at her and she's msiling normal, the next thing you know her eyes have fallen into the head sculpt and she looks possessed.
I've seen interchanging eyes on figures before and have never had this issue. Phicen really need to work on that feature because IT DOESN'T WORK on this figurine properly and it's a massive pain to put up with.
I actually ended up choosing the eyes i want and super gluing them in. They stayed in place, but then i went to re-attach head piece into the neck, and the force of the neck forced the eyes to shift AGAIN even with the super glue dried. So, i glued them again and then actually STUFFED the inside of the head with tissues so there was pressure applied to the back of the eyes once they are in the head to stop them from falling out. That worked.
Next issue, the green gum glue crap! Ok, so the head is in a few parts, first you take the hair off, that's one piece, then the face is in two pieces, the face and the back of the head. These two pieces are softly stuck together by this weird bright green chewing gum like material. I assume it's there to help keep the face in place, i've never seen that on a figure before.
The issue is the green gum sticks to EVERYTHING, i made the mistake of having some of it on my fingers when i grabbed her arm and then the green glue got stuck onto her skin VERY badly. I had to sit there and rub it off for almost 10 minutes trying to get the skin clean. It's great that the silicone skin feels so real, but honestly, when that crap gets a mark on it, it's a pain to get off.
So a word of warning, when handling her head, be VERY mindful of the green glue, it's stretchy, it's sticky and it will leave spotty marks all over the figure if you start touching her all over to pose her.
I really do think Phicen could have come up with a more user friendly head design, the glue works in theory but is a bit impractical when you are giving the buyer an opportunity to change eyes and are forcing them to pull apart the head with that sticky green crap getting everywhere.
I have now chosen my eyes, stuffed her head to keep them intact and have decided never to reopen that stupid thing again. It can be a messy process when dealing with the head so be warned.
Next issue, the arm gloves. She comes with her interchangeable black gloved hands which snap into place like any figurine, however, if you want to give her long gloves, you need to slide the long material tube gloves onto her arm, you can see them in the top left of the box pic i posted above. Problem is, they cant slide over the arm due to the friction of the skin material and gloves material. The gloves are sewn shut so you CANT open them up to wrap them around the arm, you actually have to slide them over the arm. The inside of the glove isn't smooth and neither is her skin, so it's physically impossible to actually pull the gloves all the way over the arm to use them. Both materials slide against each other and just get jammed between each other due to lack of slide-ability [if that makes sense].
This is a really stupid error on Phicens part, they would have seen this as an issue going into production with this figure, so why they even bothered with it makes no sense. It's an accessory that you CANNOT USE AT ALL. Luckily i don't mind not using them, however it is very poor costume design to not have them able to be worn at all.
Lastly, a small issue [more for the annoying factor] are the shoes. The shoes come with a buckle around the ankle, the buckle ISN'T done, you have to do those yourself. Now when you're dealing with a MICROSCOPIC buckle between MAN FINGERS like mine, it's like finding a needle in a hay stack, it's insanely tricky for me to buckle the shoes right, i tried for 20 minutes and got nowhere, that's why she has no shoes in the pics i took.
To be honest though, i would have preferred they give her the trademark Bettie heels that women still wear today, the platform black ones that she made popular. Luckily, Phicen is going to b selling a shoe range this month inspired by those style of shoes and i will be picking up a black pair for Bettie which are not only 100 times easier to put on, but actually match the figure more than the ones they gave us in the box.
The tops of the shoes are soft so they can be easily inserted onto Phicen dolls squishy feet, but the sole and heel is hard, so they are sturdy.
Here's a tiny pic of the better shoes i'll be getting...you can see bigger images on the Phicen facebook page.
Overall i'm happy with the look of the figure. It has some serious issues as far as putting the figure together, but once you actually smooth out the errors and alter things yourself and everything is in place, it looks good posed and on shelf. I look forward to seeing what Star Ace does with their Monroe figure next year, it would be cool to have both women on shelf standing side by side.
I'd rate the design of the figure, in regards to it's ease of assembly and functionality a 5/10. The eyes drove me mad, the green glue was a messy idea and the gloves not fitting isn't acceptable.
The figure itself assembled and on shelf does look nice though, once i have the right shoes and now that i've sorted out her eye issues and have her displayed, i would happily give her an 8/10 as a display piece.
For the most part the figure is pretty great. The likeness is good, though not 100% accurate, but as a whole it's a great looking figure and anyone who is aware of pop culture over the last 50 years would have no issue reconsigning who it is based on the entire look of the figurine. For anyone that is a fan of Bettie or into collecting vintage inspired memorabilia, this is definitely a good purchase. It's also officially licensed by the Bettie Page brand, in case that is important to anyone.
I didn't have time to do an amazing HD pic spread of this, so sorry if the pics aren't good enough.
Box...
Figure...
The good stuff:
The figure is much prettier in hand, the promo pics did look a bit weird facially, but in hand it does her more justice. I tried to take pics of her at angles that worked best face wise. I do think the top of her head where her bangs are could be a little closer to her head, her heair wasn't usually that high up, but overall i'm very happy with the face/head.
I do think maybe a second face with a sultry pose would have been nice, i know Bettie is known for her smile, but she did sultry well too and it would have matched the bondage outfit nicely. I have seen pics of a none smiling Bettie sculpt Phicen did, but it wasn't all that great in my opinion so i'm not surprised they didn't use it. Though a second figure may come later who knows.
Most of the clothing is well made, although i will go into detail about the issues with the shoes and gloves later on. Stockings and corset are good, although if you are looking to buy some of the extra outfits for the figure that are being sold, good luck trying to get that corset back on once it's removed. I'm sure it can be done, but i think it would be a little tedious with the tying up process you need to do to apply/remove the corset.
There are some functionality issues with this figure though, some of which are hugely annoying for someone like me....
The bad:
The biggest problem is the interchangeable eyes. It comes with 3 sets of eyes which you can change, but to be honest i don't really care much for figures that have changing eyes, i only need one pair of them. Still......i did open up the face to have a look at the inside of the head and how the changing eyes work. Changing them is easy, however once the eyes are inside the head and the hair is placed back on, the eyes to tend to sink back into the head if you start moving the figure too much. When i was taking pics of her i had to keep opening up the head to make the eyes go back in place because they always will fall inwards and give her this creepy sunken in look. One minute you're looking at her and she's msiling normal, the next thing you know her eyes have fallen into the head sculpt and she looks possessed.
I've seen interchanging eyes on figures before and have never had this issue. Phicen really need to work on that feature because IT DOESN'T WORK on this figurine properly and it's a massive pain to put up with.
I actually ended up choosing the eyes i want and super gluing them in. They stayed in place, but then i went to re-attach head piece into the neck, and the force of the neck forced the eyes to shift AGAIN even with the super glue dried. So, i glued them again and then actually STUFFED the inside of the head with tissues so there was pressure applied to the back of the eyes once they are in the head to stop them from falling out. That worked.
Next issue, the green gum glue crap! Ok, so the head is in a few parts, first you take the hair off, that's one piece, then the face is in two pieces, the face and the back of the head. These two pieces are softly stuck together by this weird bright green chewing gum like material. I assume it's there to help keep the face in place, i've never seen that on a figure before.
The issue is the green gum sticks to EVERYTHING, i made the mistake of having some of it on my fingers when i grabbed her arm and then the green glue got stuck onto her skin VERY badly. I had to sit there and rub it off for almost 10 minutes trying to get the skin clean. It's great that the silicone skin feels so real, but honestly, when that crap gets a mark on it, it's a pain to get off.
So a word of warning, when handling her head, be VERY mindful of the green glue, it's stretchy, it's sticky and it will leave spotty marks all over the figure if you start touching her all over to pose her.
I really do think Phicen could have come up with a more user friendly head design, the glue works in theory but is a bit impractical when you are giving the buyer an opportunity to change eyes and are forcing them to pull apart the head with that sticky green crap getting everywhere.
I have now chosen my eyes, stuffed her head to keep them intact and have decided never to reopen that stupid thing again. It can be a messy process when dealing with the head so be warned.
Next issue, the arm gloves. She comes with her interchangeable black gloved hands which snap into place like any figurine, however, if you want to give her long gloves, you need to slide the long material tube gloves onto her arm, you can see them in the top left of the box pic i posted above. Problem is, they cant slide over the arm due to the friction of the skin material and gloves material. The gloves are sewn shut so you CANT open them up to wrap them around the arm, you actually have to slide them over the arm. The inside of the glove isn't smooth and neither is her skin, so it's physically impossible to actually pull the gloves all the way over the arm to use them. Both materials slide against each other and just get jammed between each other due to lack of slide-ability [if that makes sense].
This is a really stupid error on Phicens part, they would have seen this as an issue going into production with this figure, so why they even bothered with it makes no sense. It's an accessory that you CANNOT USE AT ALL. Luckily i don't mind not using them, however it is very poor costume design to not have them able to be worn at all.
Lastly, a small issue [more for the annoying factor] are the shoes. The shoes come with a buckle around the ankle, the buckle ISN'T done, you have to do those yourself. Now when you're dealing with a MICROSCOPIC buckle between MAN FINGERS like mine, it's like finding a needle in a hay stack, it's insanely tricky for me to buckle the shoes right, i tried for 20 minutes and got nowhere, that's why she has no shoes in the pics i took.
To be honest though, i would have preferred they give her the trademark Bettie heels that women still wear today, the platform black ones that she made popular. Luckily, Phicen is going to b selling a shoe range this month inspired by those style of shoes and i will be picking up a black pair for Bettie which are not only 100 times easier to put on, but actually match the figure more than the ones they gave us in the box.
The tops of the shoes are soft so they can be easily inserted onto Phicen dolls squishy feet, but the sole and heel is hard, so they are sturdy.
Here's a tiny pic of the better shoes i'll be getting...you can see bigger images on the Phicen facebook page.
Overall i'm happy with the look of the figure. It has some serious issues as far as putting the figure together, but once you actually smooth out the errors and alter things yourself and everything is in place, it looks good posed and on shelf. I look forward to seeing what Star Ace does with their Monroe figure next year, it would be cool to have both women on shelf standing side by side.
I'd rate the design of the figure, in regards to it's ease of assembly and functionality a 5/10. The eyes drove me mad, the green glue was a messy idea and the gloves not fitting isn't acceptable.
The figure itself assembled and on shelf does look nice though, once i have the right shoes and now that i've sorted out her eye issues and have her displayed, i would happily give her an 8/10 as a display piece.
