Rogue from the Uncanny X-Men


Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Once when I was a kid living in Seoul, my uncle took my brother and I to a comic book shop near downtown, just a bit west of Gate 1 to Yongsan base. I doubt it’s still there, and I have no idea how my uncle even knew about this shop in that pre-Google Maps era. I was bewildered that such a shop even existed; I didn’t think that Koreans had much interest in American comics (despite being ethnically half-Korean myself, I’ve always identified with being American and I had no interest in Korean culture at that time). I remember the store had a barter system, and my brother traded off some of his books for new ones. I had no comic books of my own so I asked my uncle to buy the comics I wanted for me. One of the books I got was Uncanny X-Men #218, which had some of the female X-Men battling the Juggernaut. I didn’t know much about the X-Men, but one character in particular caught my eye – she wore a tight black bodysuit and a loose green tank top and had an awesome 80s haircut with a white skunk stripe through it. In the issue, she threw a punch at the Juggernaut, took one in return that launched her into orbit, and then she came back for more. It was a great book, and Rogue became one of my first childhood cartoon character crushes.

What? Stop looking at me like that. I know you had cartoon character crushes when you were a kid, too.

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

This figure was the first of Kotobukiya’s Marvel Bishoujo figures to be announced but the second to be released, after the Black Widow. She’s in 1/8 scale, although that’s being very generous; it seems that all of the figures in this line are going to run on the small side. Like the Black Widow, her design comes from famous artist Shunya Yamashita.

Shunya Yamashita's Rogue art

Deviations from the source art are readily apparent; for one, she’s looking to her left in the original picture whereas the figure is glancing towards the right. Also, the artwork depicts Rogue with a small, confident smile on her face, whereas the figure’s face is rather more shy and uncertain. Finally, the picture gives Rogue a fuller head of hair, particularly on the right side of her head.

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Otherwise, the figure is fairly faithful to the artwork; she even has basically the same base, although it’s made from plain white plastic. Painting is decent; her boots are glossy while her costume is rather more flat. Similarly, the sculpt is good. I’m not sure that one could tell that this figure is derived from a Shunya Yamashita source if one didn’t already know that, though.

X-Men #24 cover Uncanny X-Men #269 cover

Rogue has had a bunch of costumes over the years. Two of my favorites comes from the late 80s and early 90s, when she wore a black bodysuit with a green leotard over it and then received a green and yellow bodysuit. This figure is obviously based on the latter, which is probably her most well-known outfit, as she also wore it in the Fox channel cartoon as well as in the Capcom fighting games.

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Her hair has also changed. If I remember correctly, she had short hair when she first joined the X-Men, and then grew a rather large, spiky hairdo before getting her iconic huge, waist-length hairstyle. I think this figure shows her with a more contemporary hairstyle, when artists dumped the skunk stripe in favor of bleached white forelocks and gave her straight hair rather than permed. I love the skunk stripe but I don’t like the white bangs at all.

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Rogue’s current costume seems to be a silly green and white ensemble, complete with hood. I remember she had some sort of cloak when she was with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants but I’m not a big fan of capes, cloaks, and hoods.

X-Men Legacy #224 page 8 preview

There was an issue of X-Men Legacy which showed her in a costume which was reminiscent of her famous Jim Lee-era outfit. I liked the chaps, even though they’re not quite in keeping with her Mississippi roots. I don’t think that they kept this costume, though. (I could be wrong, since I don’t read X-Men Legacy.)

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

I’ve spent a lot of time writing about the character, and that’s because I really picked up this figure because I like Rogue rather than the figure itself. That’s something of a reversal from my usual motivation, as I usually do not know much about the characters represented by the figures I own. As a fan of the X-Men, I like this figure a lot, although I’ll admit that it’s a bit nondescript.

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the Uncanny X-Men Figure Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

Kotobukiya Marvel Bishoujo Rogue from the X-Men Review

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17 Responses to Rogue from the Uncanny X-Men

  1. Lylibellule says:

    I appreciate your work, your photographs are original and very beautiful.
    “Inspiration of Shunya” on this figure likes to me. A good success of Kotobukiya.

  2. Leonia says:

    Héhé, as always yours picture are great ^^ This figure is really nice (hop.. wihslist ^^). Congratulation for this reviews ^^

  3. SasaharaX says:

    Loved the review and the pictures. Also i have this figure and it is very good, more than i expected it to be since this was my 1st figure from kotobukiya that wasn’t an anime or video game figure. I’m thinking of buying the Scarlet Witch and Black Widow now.

  4. Guy says:

    I agree, overall.

    I’ve always loved Rogue, as a character, as a person, and the figure is a bit nondescript.

    BTW, I don’t see her smiling in the original artwork, it’s a full lips pout, that’s just her mouth 😉

    And good photos, better than the figure 🙂

  5. meh, Psyloche was always my fave female X-men Character. Not even the absurdly hot (and Ironically named) emma frost can compare!!

    Someone tell me when they anime-fy her!

  6. marcucho says:

    HI!!! wooow i like this figure very much!!! wooow!! no words… jajajajaja

    saludos!!

  7. Tier says:

    >> Lylibellule & Leonia
    Thanks!

    >> SasaharaX
    I’m probably passing on the Scarlet Witch (I didn’t really get the whole House of M crossover) but I’m looking forward to the next two figures in the line, which are apparently Psylocke and Phoenix.

    >> Guy
    Haha, thanks. When I was writing this review, I was sitting here looking at the figure and I couldn’t really think about much to say. I figure the pictures probably speak for themselves and that a discussion of the character is probably more interesting, since this is one of the few figures I own that I know anything about.

    >> gundamjehutykai
    Psylocke is actually my #1 favorite X-Man now (although Rogue is probably #1B). I’m pretty happy that they recently brought her back to the main title, and pretty unhappy that she’s apparently limited to the Wii and the PS2 versions of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. If they don’t release her as downloadable content, I’m contemplating picking up the PS2 version cheap down the line (a used copy, too, so that the publisher doesn’t get any of my money).

    You’re in luck! Psylocke and Phoenix are supposed to be the next two Marvel Bishoujo figures. I’m really looking forward to seeing Shunya Yamashita’s rendition of both.

    >> marcucho
    Hehe, that’s kinda like me when I was writing this review; I like the figure, but I didn’t really have a whole lot to say about it.

  8. meronpan says:

    thanks for the rogue history lesson ^^ my brother was always the one into comics when i was young… never caught on with me (probably ‘cuz i never had any money to buy any ^^;). was moderately into the fox cartoon but it was hard to follow since i don’t think the idea of ‘just downloading the episodes’ really existed back then ^^; (and i didn’t have a solid background in the comic material ^^;)

    i love seeing different renditions of characters, really neat to see shunya’s take on x-men ^^

  9. Tier says:

    Indeed! I’m mildly disappointed by the Marvel Bishoujo line because I figure the combination of X-Men, Shunya, and major PVC manufacturer should result in the best figures ever made and these fall a little bit short of that. They’re still great figures though if you like the source material.

    Not sure why your comment got caught in the spam filter >.< ... I'd sorta think that a comment from anyone with a previously-accepted post should get past Akismet.

  10. Blowfish says:

    Im usually a sucker for everything Shunya Yamashita but somehow the Marvel Boshoujo line isnt making the cut for me.I cant really tell why but maybe Im just not enough into Comics.

  11. Tier says:

    Yeah, I don’t think these figures are going to have much appeal to people who aren’t familiar with the comics (or the movies or video games, I guess). The funny thing is, the comic book statues made by Sideshow, NECA, Bowen Designs, etc. are usually at least a foot tall, so I’ve read some grumbling from comic book fans about the small size of these figures. I guess that’s another area where Japanese and American pop cultures haven’t quite crossed over.

  12. DaSaru says:

    I have to say that I am a bit disappointed with this. Not the figure itself, but how it was handled.

    When I heard Shunya was going to draw the Marvel girls, I immediately though of a “Rei drawn by Shunyama” style, that, is a redesign by Shunya.
    (And Scarlet Witch really does need a redesign)

    Okay, so Shunya did put his spin on it, but just minor, and did not translate well into figure form.
    Rogue looks more like how Psylocke.. and it’s so small.
    Where’s the “awesome 80s haircut” that we know and love? 😛

    The figure is good for what it is, but I was expecting better I guess.

    Fun fact;
    There’s two version of this figure, one with a long coat.
    Oh, and Rogue once defeated The Avengers.

  13. Tier says:

    I would love to see Shunya’s take on the X-Men, although I like the original designs enough that it doesn’t bother me too much (aside from Rogue’s hair, she really doesn’t look right to me without the front-to-back skunk stripe). I bet Shunya could come up with some awesome re-designs for characters like the Black Widow and Emma Frost and maybe even Arachne. I feel pretty much the same way about the end result, I like the idea so I like the figure, but I was hoping for much more.

    I don’t remember her battling the Avengers (I stopped reading comics for about five or six years during the 90s and I don’t read many comics now either) but I did see the alternate version with the big coat. I like Gambit but I’m not a big fan of Rogue cosplaying as Gambit. It’d be a lot cooler if they made an alternate version with her 1980s black bodysuit and that off-the-shoulder tank top.

  14. DaSaru says:

    My favourite version of Rogue would have to be the one most would be familiar with; the 90’s Fox cartoon version. So I am a bit glad that the costume on the figure is based on that one.
    Second favorite is the X-Men Evolution version and she had the white bangs hairstyle there..ahaha.

    Rogue defeated The Avengers back when she was still a villain. Not all of them, just most of them.:P

  15. Tier says:

    I like that version too … I like pretty much all the early 90s character designs, it annoys me when I see people who want Psylocke to get a re-design, I think her current costume is awesome. I wasn’t too big a fan of Rogue’s short hairstyle in the cartoon, but I dislike X-Men Evolution more because it introduced X-23 and I really don’t like Yost and Kyle (mainly because they took over New X-Men and wound up slaughtering everyone … it wasn’t a great comic book and it needed a shakeup, but blowing away a bunch of kids is a really amateur way to revamp a title).

    Ah, that was before I was reading X-Men, I think. I guess that explains why I don’t remember it.

  16. Riess says:

    Thanks for the review, im just about to buy Rogue and I’m also looking forward to Psylocke which looks amazing. I wish they were slightly larger and just a tad more faithful to the original artwork but im still glad they are being released because its a unique range.

    I was actually wondering if you have Shunya Yamashita’s Rogue Artwork in a larger size / higher res than the image in your review. I have looked everywhere on the net for big pictures of the artwork which these Marvel figures are based on and can’t find anything other than adverts and box shots :(. I would really appreciate an upload.

    Thanks

  17. Tier says:

    Unfortunately I do not; I took a look through Danbooru and moe.imouto.org and did not see any bigger versions of the picture either. The figure box does have the artwork on it, but I do not recall if it has text or other graphics overlaid on top of it.

    Psylocke is looking fantastic, although my fanboyism is probably overriding my concerns over the way her mouth is sculpted. I can live with that though. I dunno if I’ll be as enthused about Phoenix since I don’t particularly care for Jean Grey, but I hope they keep going with this product series.

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