DC Collectibles Shiva - Arkham Origins

Sandra Wu-San AKA Lady Shiva is a master martial artist who was first introduced in comics in 1975 as an antagonist to Richard Dragon whom she believed murdered her sister. Lady Shiva's moral compass is fairly flexible though. She goes between assassin for hire (as she did in Arkham origins) to working with the League of Shadows to sometimes aiding or even training Batman and his allies. She is the one who taught Tim Drake the art of the Bo staff and gave him his collapsible staff.

She is often seen wearing a long black coat, red shirt and tan slacks with boots. The Origins game they give her a unique look that makes it different from other iterations of the character. The dominant colour is black, short hair and her shirt/vest have some interesting Chinese clothing inspired style. 

This figure matches the game really well, her sword accessory is quite well done PLUS it fit into the sheath. Once again though, for a martial arts character she's got some pretty bad articulation when compared with Copperhead (see HERE for that review) or Deathstroke. I really don't get it DC collectibles! Did you run out of money? There's no real excuse to not give this character good articulation. Anyways, here's the rundown! 

Sculpt/Paint: 4/5 The paint and look is really well done here. There are enough small blobs and issue in transitions from black and red however that make it not quite perfect though. The lines are generally clean and the small details like the gold strings cinching the shirt/vest are well applied. One thing that boggles me a bit is that the sword handle is really well painted by nothing like what she had in the game. Oh well! 

Articulation: 2/5 (15 points): Again, really bad articulation for what is supposed to be a martial artist with a sword. She gets very limited shoulder, knee and elbow articulation. She has swivel hips, NO waist twist, no ankle or even wrist articulation. They do add a mid-bicep twist as well as a forearm swivel, but that's basically it. Dang. 

Price/Availability: 5/5 All three of the figures in the three pack get this for being very cheap and pretty easy to find online. I even still see some in stores (no wonder...can anyone say pegwarmers?)

Accessories: 2/5 She comes with one (or technically two if you count the sheath) accessories. I really like the sword but I had to do a double take and re-watch, a gameplay video...her sword hilt is supposed to be white and a lot wider. Oh well, it still looks good and for the amount of time you see her use it, it's inconsequential. She looks pretty badass with it and she doesn't really need any more accessories other than that. 

Fun Factor: 2/5 She can be posed in a few interesting poses with her sword, and definitely more than her other sword compatriot, Talia Al Ghul. She's colourful and a nice look on the shelf, but I will not likely take her off the shelf to create a variety of scenes. 

Verdict: 15/25 Okay. Like the others in this pack, she's ok! She'll do fine if you're looking to complete an Arkham Origins line or just the 8 Assassins, but otherwise could've been much improved on. 

They did a good job here, minus some leaking
lip application on the corners of the mouth. 

Cool sword! The handle's red paint isn't perfect but the ret looks good

Practicing some kata!

Just lookin' cool. She can hold
the sword sheath pretty well
without it dropping!

Dynamic dodging! Most of the mini-fight with
her is just dodging her sword and counterattacking

I'm not 100% on how skilled a fighter Talia Al Ghul is what with
being Ras' daughter, but I think Shiva would win that fight!