A little over a year ago, Colette wrote about her predilection for Shuya Yamashita's art, stating that if you're not a toy collector, that you'd be happy with simply picking up one of his art books. I'm not entirely sure that's accurate though, seeing as his art actually brought about my necessity to collect figures in the first place. I mean that in all seriousness. To me, his art is my proverbial Pokémon--I have to catch them all.

While I first made it a point to purchase his art books, I've subsequently collected over a dozen figures based on his art to date. It averages out to roughly over $900 worth, which is something I'm not ashamed of in the least.

Recently, Kotobukiya teamed up with Marvel to produce a line of bishoujo statues based on various characters in the Marvel universe. The concept already sounded great, but the fact that Shunya Yamashita himself inked the designs that the figures were modeled after immediately caught my attention. I simply had to have them, no matter what and I decided to start with Black Widow.

Hit the jump to see why I love her so much.

I preface the rest of this article by simply stating that I've come to realize that reproducing Shunya Yamashita's art in the form of a figure is incredibly difficult, especially when dealing with mass production. While it might be easier to accomplish that when creating a garage kit from scratch, being able to do so consistently could pose a number of challenges. That's not to say that you can't come close, though.

Right off the bat, you might notice that her hair and face are quite different, and while they fail to capture the exact design that Yamashita put forth, it still captures the essence of his art, and communicates it well enough. I can't help but feel that the figures, both the original and the Comic-Con exclusive, lack the touch of warmth, no doubt due in part to the lack of blush that we usually see with his designs.

The small details aside, I find both figures to be both sexy and beautiful in their own rights. The skin-tight leather suit definitely compliments her figure, and by that I obviously mean her amazing body. The belt loosely hangs which is nice, though I wish it was removable. I suppose I shouldn't dance around the fact that her breasts are immaculate as well, and the low cut zipper leaves little to he imagination. Of course, I think that's a good thing.

The comic-con exclusive that I picked up back in July, on the other hand, features an alternate hair-cut, and a skin-tight two-piece that shows off her midriff, rather than her other well-endowed assets. To be honest, I'm partial to the original mostly because I love her flowing hair, among other things, but I admit that while I was taking these photos, I rediscovered her amazing lower back, which is also rather hot. maybe it's a little messed up that I happen to enjoy that figure a bit more from behind, but who are you to judge. You probably have worse fetishes than me. Okay--maybe not.

For those who are interested, Kotobukiya is still selling her, and if you check Ebay enough, you might come across one of those Comic-Con exclusives. She's been a welcome addition to my collection, though I should really set up her next to the rest of my girls. Right now she's sitting next to my Iron Man Movie Fine Arts statue, and it really dwarfs her in size.