Once again I’m diving back into the surreal world of the original Batman television series with this wonderful rendition of Julie Newmar as the classic Catwoman adversary. In actuality, I believe at least three different actresses took a shot at this role, but Julie is the one most remember, both for her statuesque presentation in that vinyl suit as well as her quintessential purr. Even Michelle Pfieffer didn’t come out looking this good.

Moebius Models has once again designed this kit with buildability in mind. Anything that needs to be colored differently from the basic black has been separated out, making painting a breeze. In addition, the kit offers some small variations, including two right arms, one holding her whip and another a gun. Considering the outfit, I close the whip, which seemed more appropriate, although the little cat-shaped guns are pretty cute. The base is designed to fit with Batman’s base, and together with the other six planned figures, will make a large Batman logo in terrain. I’m going to be curious to see how these all land up looking together.

Fit of the parts is somewhat better than it was with the Batman figure, but you’ll still find yourself doing a fair amount of filling and sanding, at least on the body of the figure. Julie wore a one-piece skintight outfit, so seams are absolutely out. Take your time here as the quality of your assembly will definitely affect the final product.

Getting to the painting stage, I was originally flummoxed by how to accurately represent her outfit. Although ostensibly black, I watched some old Batman episodes to confirm the details for myself. Her costume has little flecks of silver embedded in it that sometimes catch the light. The kit’s directions suggest flicking silver paint at the base coat, but this seems crude at best. I finally lit on using very fine glitter from a craft store, applied over a thin coat of white glue. Even then, it struck me as a bit stark, so I airbrushed some tones over the glitter to bring it down a bit. Not bad. Boots and gloves were both vinyl, so some semigloss black served for these.

Julie’s hair was painted with a range of colors from dark red brown to mustard. Real hair is seldom all one tone, and long hair like this typically has even more of a range. I painted her face in oils, using some enamels for the detail. I originally painted her teeth individually for realism’s sake, but it looked somehow ghoulish on her, so I ultimately opted for the single white line depicted on the box art. Although the kit provides two cat statues for display on the base, I thought that was a bit of overkill and mounted just one.

Finally, I opted for the mask to fully capture the Catwoman look, and voila! I am more than satisfied with the results. She looks like Newmar to a “T” and her pose and expression are both provocative enough that I decided to have her looking askance at Batman. After all, there was always some sort of unspoken “thing” going on between the two of them.

Altogether, this was a comparatively easy and enjoyable build of an iconic pop figure. As female figures in this scale (at least in plastic and not pornographic) are few and far between, Catwoman is a very welcome addition to my Batman collection. My hats off to Polar Lights for creating this masterpiece. My thanks to them and to IPMS/USA for a chance to build this lovely lady.