Out of the Box: John Constantine (DC Collectibles)

I have a few of the Hellblazer-related collectibles from the late '90s in storage (you can see the DC Direct action figure in the background of the introductory photo from my first ever post on this blog), but not being a fan of the non-Vertigo/post New 52 version of the character (and I still haven't gotten around to checking out the full run of last year's TV series), I haven't picked up anything new for years.  But having recently reread Peter Milligan's run on the old series, I was weakened by nostalgia and when I saw a sale on the new John Constantine statue from DC Collectibles on Big Bay Toystore, I ended up ordering this statue.

Before I get into the review, can I just take a minute to complain about some of the box openings I watched while waiting for this statue to ship? Nearly all of them call John a Londoner (one even referred to him as a "Cockney magician") - but the character is supposed to be from Liverpool! 

*ahem* But never mind that, on with the figure!

The first thing that struck me about the box was how minimalistic the artwork is: images of the figure on a white background on two sides, another on a black background on a third, advertising for another figure on the rear (also on a while background), and "Constantine" written in black text across the top.

The front of the box.

.

The top of the box.

.

Picking up the box, I was surprised by how light it felt. Although they're both cold-cast porcelain, this figure weighs significantly less than the older version (I don't have the old one on hand at the moment, but compared to my Preacher statue of the same vintage and weight, the difference is very obvious).

The moulded foam of those older statues is gone, leaving us with standard Styrofoam - in this case three pieces. The figure itself between one and two, and the separate base between pieces two and three.

Lifting the lid.

.

Layer One: the figure.

.

Layer Two: the base

Removing the two pieces from the packaging, I was struck my the detail on them: this might be half the weight of the old releases, but it has twice the detail.  Unfortunately that seems to have also made parts of it a little fragile: the base has tiny candles (in addition to the demonic arms, eyes, and mouths) around the edges. Two of those candles showed signs of having been bent, and on a third the fame had popped off.

Disapointment over the damaged candles aside, I was still quite taken with the amount of detail on the rest of the base and on the figure itself - the demons, the trenchcoat, the face and hands all look fantastic.

Front view.

.

Side view

.

Rear view, for the full billowing coat effect.

.

The base.

It's been years since I've bought a comic statue like this and overall, I have to say I'm impressed by this one. While it's lighter than I expected, it really does have a level of detail that far exceeded my expectations.  That said, it really needed better packing.

As a representation of the character, it's a good likeness of the way he looked during Ray Fawkes' run on Constantine. That's not my favourite version of the character (and part of me thinks the flames coming from his hand are silly, and I should paint his coat and hair black and call him Pete Wisdom and stick him on my Captain Britain shelf), but I knew that when I ordered it, so I can hardly complain about that part.