Kotobukiya "Marvel Comics Amazing Spiderman" Venom Unbound Fine Art Statue (japan import)

This statue should get a 5-star review, but unfortunately it falls short. I had a really hard time deciding how many stars to give it. If you get a good statue then you will certainly be happy with this piece. However, this Venom statue suffers because Kotobukiya's quality control is terrible. This Venom statue is plagued by inconsistent casting, painting, and breakage.

Let me start with the good things. The sculpting job done by Erick Sosa is incredible. The detail and muscle tone on Venom is second to none. The hands and claws are fantastic. The teeth and tongue have a dirty feel in the way they are painted. Sosa really picked a great way to portray Venom. The base is also very finely detailed. The base is rather large and very sturdy. It will never tip over. Venom fits snugly into the base, and that is a good thing because Venom is large and heavy. When assembled this statue is much heavier than you will expect. On top of how great Venom is as a stand-alone statue, he really shines as the companion piece to Kotobukiya's Spider-Man. If you bought Kotobukiya's Spider-Man earlier this year you really should buy this statue.

So why 3 stars? The answer is because I felt bad giving it just 2 stars. Why would I want to give it 2 stars? Here was my experience.

I pre-ordered this Venom statue way back after buying Kotobukiya's Spider-Man early this year. The release date was pushed back several times on Venom. In software, it is always a red flag when a release date keeps getting pushed back. Perhaps the constantly adjusted release date for Venom should have been an indication that Kotobukiya was having problems. Finally, Venom was released and Amazon shipped me my statue.

Statue #1 - I opened the box, which was packaged very well by Amazon, and there was no damage to Venom's box. After opening the package I inspected Venom. His mouth had two broken teeth. One on the bottom and one on the top. And I don't mean chipped, these teeth were completely broken off. Then there was a third tooth that was chipped, and someone at Kotobukiya tried to fix it. However, they touched it up with a flesh tone that was not even close to matching in color. Venom also had a broken claw on his right hand. This obviously broke early in the process, because it was completely painted this way. One of the steel I-beams on the base also had two pieces broken out of it. Those pieces were outside the plastic bag for the base but inside the packaging. So it obviously happened during packaging. There was so much damage to this statue it never should have left the factory.

I asked Amazon for an exchange and sent back the damaged Venom. Amazon, to their credit, had my replacement statue here in two days. (The first statue took 5, so they rushed delivery.)

Statue #2 - Again, this box was packaged very well by Amazon and there was no damage to Venom's packaging. When I inspected this Venom he had a whole set of different problems. This Venom had two large paint chips missing from the tongue. Obvious impact damage. He had a paint defect on the lower jaw where the red from his mouth dripped onto the black. He had a black chip missing from his chin that left a bright white fleck. More impact damage. Also, on the bottom of the base where the statue is numbered there were 4 scratches. The largest scratch was over 4 inches long. This was not minor damage. I don't know how this statue was ever allowed to leave the factory either.

I asked Amazon for an exchange and sent the second statue back. Amazon had my replacement here the next day. Amazon really went above-and-beyond to correct this problem.

Statue #3 - Unfortunately, this Venom was not packaged as well as the first 2. The retail packaging was not put in a plastic bag like the first 2, so the box got scratches and marks. There was not as much stuffing so the box could move around a lot more and the corners got damaged. There was even a puncture mark that went all the way through the retail packaging. When I inspected Venom, this one had his problems as well. The base and tongue were in great shape. However, Venom was only half in his protective plastic bag and the styrofoam was covered in blue. (The paint they use to highlight Venom.) This turned out be be a blessing in disguise though, because they had used a LOT of highlight. So all the blue rubbing off actually returned him to the color he should be. (Otherwise I would have had a bright blue Venom.) The only problem was that they over-sprayed him so much that the white eyes were all blue, but I can fix that easily. Again, this was a lack of care on Kotobukiya's part. I really should not have to fix a $200 statue.

So that is why Kotobukiya's lack of quality control is ruining a wonderful statue. No one wants to pay $200 and then get a product that has such little effort and care put into it. I don't expect perfection, but I expect a lot better than what Kotobukiya is providing with this release. It may take a lot of effort and time to get a statue you are happy with. If you decide to buy this statue MAKE SURE YOU BUY FROM A PLACE THAT WILL ALLOW A RETURN! I got the chance to inspect several statues, so I also noticed that there is a great variety in the casting quality from statue to statue. One of the Venom statues had an eye that had a large extra blob of polystone. Another had a rib cage that had most of the detail leveled out flat. One also had a large hole from, presumably, an air bubble in the back shoulder. These were all things you might not notice unless you had seen another statue to compare.

The last thing I can say is that if you get a Venom be sure to look for the high numbers. Most collectors want to get as low a number as possible. However, all three of the statues I got from Amazon were under 1000. One was in the 700's and two were in the 900's. I also bought one from eBay and that statue was in the 2500's. I can tell you that the higher number had a much better casting and painting job than any of the others.

Statue was larger than I expected but that was not a bad thing. It is very well made and painted very throughly. I will be buying more from this company in the future.

The box that the statue came in was dirty (mind you its a white box) and banged up on all sides. The statue itself however was great aside from the 2 inch scratch to its left eye. I'd rather paint the damaged eye myself as opposed to returning it and getting something worse in return. Great piece aside from the damage.

Great collector's piece for any Venom fan out there! :)

This is theeeee Venom statue to own, The amazing detail that Eric Sosa put into this statue is amazing. The size is perfect its no too big but, its not small either. The pictures on the website do it no justice you need to see it in person. Buy now!