As someone that does not own any XM statues, this is a really interesting topic to me. Based on pictures, some XM's look like they have great paint jobs (Wolverine, Phoenix, Mysterio) but some of their more celebrated statues appear to have (in pics) very , very bland paint applications despite excellent sculpt work? For example, the celebrated GR statue looks like it has very nice flame paint apps and the sculpt is amazing, but there seems to be no tonality to GR's black leather outfit. Maybe its really subtle and can only be noticed in person? I realize a black leather jacket and pants are simply "black", but it should have some subtle tones of grey or blues to make it stand out.
(A paint-app comparison would be the P1 AK Batman. Because he's mostly grey, some have said the paint apps are bland on it. But it actually has very good paint apps, with gradients, washes, and dry-brushing with varying grey tones.)
Another case would be the XM Darkness statue. The sculpt looks amazing and the paint apps on the creatures/base is great. And yet the paint apps on his suit and face look super bland in pictures. As if they literally just blocked-in the color on his suit without any gradients or shadowing. Am I missing something in the pictures?
The pictures (both prototype & production) for P1 DS capture the different paint apps (gloss, matt, metallics, gradients, dry-brushing and weathering, etc.) Hopefully, I'll see the XM GR and Darkness in person one day to see what the hype is about...