Tag Archives: Anime

#2762: Ultraman Ace Suit

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ULTRAMAN ACE SUIT

ULTRAMAN (THREEZERO)

Another Ultraman review?  This soon?  But, it hasn’t even been two months since the last one!  How am I going to fit this into my “only managing one Ultraman review a year” set-up? I guess I’ll just have to adapt.  Poor, pitiful me.  My recent Ultraman focus has really been honing in on the recent(ish) Anime series, which has generally been pretty good in terms of merchandizing and the like.  Most of that merch has been courtesy of Bandai, who generally have the hold on the market for all things Ultra.  In the last year, however, ThreeZero has also been getting into the game, with a small handful of animation-based Ultras.  Today, I’m looking at my first one of those, Ultraman Ace!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultraman Ace Suit is the third release in ThreeZero’s 1/6 scale Ultraman line, following the standard Ultraman and the Version 7 suit.  It’s a pretty sensible release order, what with following their order of appearance in the manga/show and all.  He’s specifically based on the animated version of the suit, which sports a slightly different color layout than the manga, adding a fair bit more red into the mix.  The figure stands about 11 1/2 inches tall and has over 30 points of articulation.  As with the Soundwave I reviewed, getting an accurate count on the joints is a little tricky, since a lot of the joints are there to help clear the way for other joints in the process of posing.  It’s still a little more straight forward on this guy than it was on Soundwave, making him generally a little easier to pose and re-pose, which does add a little bit to his playability.  I certainly had less concern about accidentally breaking parts off of this one, though it’s definitely still a good idea to glance over the included paper work, just to be a little more familiar with how some of those joints are supposed to move.  The hips in particular have a slight learning curve.  Ace is sporting an all-new sculpt, patterned on his appearance on the show.  Ace’s suit is definitely my favorite, and it’s very nicely translated here.  It’s clean and bold in design, and just generally looks very pretty.  There’s a lot of polish here, and the articulation has been nicely worked in so as not to impede any of that.  The figure has a worked in light-up feature, in both the head and torso, which illuminates the eyes and color timer.  It’s a nice, fairly consistent light, and definitely gives the figure that extra bit of pop.  Accessing the battery compartments is pretty easy, with the top of the head and one of his back plates popping out.  Ace’s paint work just adds to the overall slick look of the figure; that candy coating red color looks really sharp, and it adds up nicely with the clean look on the silver sections.  The application is all pretty nicely handled, with no real issues with slop or bleed over.  Ace is packed with four sets of hands (in fist, relaxed, open gesture, and flat posing), a Specium Blate effect piece that swaps out for his standard wrists, an alternate right arm in cannon formation, alternate extended wrist connectors, and swappable open panels for his arm guards and the thrusters on his back.  About the only thing I really think I might like to see extra is a display stand, but that’s not exactly a requirement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve established previously, the Ace suit is my favorite of the Manga/Anime Ultramen.  When the ThreeZero stuff first showed up, I was definitely intrigued, but I was able to hold off on standard Ultra and Ultra 7.  Ace, much less so.  I was pretty much sold from the word go on this guy.  He’s a really slick figure, and honestly he’s fantastic for the price they’re asking.  ThreeZero’s not a company I had much experience with prior to this year, but the two items I’ve picked up from them have left me very pleased.  I look forward to seeing what else they get into.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2758: Evangelion Proto Type 00/00

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

EVANGELION PROTO TYPE 00/00

ROBOT SPIRITS (BANDAI)

Despite being a pretty big fan of the whole big mechas versus big monsters sub-genre, I somehow managed to avoid any major exposure to anything Evangelion until the last two years.  I know, shame on me.  Last winter I marathoned my way through Neon Genesis Evangelion and it’s follow-up movies, and then after a few months, my brain started working again, and now we’re kind of here?  I did enjoy the show, despite it’s brain breaking properties, and I certainly was down for some toys.  Fortunately for me, there’s a lot of options on that front!  I’m decidedly going with something generally more on the recent side, and I’m kicking off my collection with Eva Unit-00, who I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Evangelion Proto Type 00/00, or Unit-00 for short, was released as part of Bandai’s Robot Spirits toyline.  She’s figure 270 in the line, and marks the second of the Evas for the line.  This particular version of Unit-00 is based on her appearance in the Rebuild of Evangelion movies.  While Units 01 and 02 remain rather similar to their original designs, Rebuild does mix things up a little bit more for Unit-00, who in the original begins as an orange mecha, and then switches to blue for her more armored appearance.  In Rebuild, she instead keeps a more consistent orange and grey color scheme between both appearances.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and has 54 points of articulation.  This sucker’s pretty darn mobile, with a very impressive range of motion.  My prior exposure to Robot Spirits was through the Pacific Rim figures, and they  were solid for what they were, but the posability definitely wasn’t like this.  The figure’s designed for a lot of deep poses, as the Evas are prone to get into within the series, and that definitely works out very nicely.  I was also quite impressed by the engineering of the articulation, and how it works within the sculpt.  By far the coolest part is on the neck, which has a segmented construction that actually simulates stretching and compressing.  It’s really cool.  In general, the sculpt, which is quite an impressive piece of work, does a really good job of working in the articulation in an aesthetically pleasing way, while still maintaining a nice bit of accuracy to the source material.  Speaking of accuracy to the source, Unit 00 has two different looks in Rebuild, and this figure is actually designed to replicate both of them.  Right out of the box, she’s in her later, more armored up appearance, complete with the shoulder pylon things.  The shoulders are even on separate joints, so that you can keep them properly oriented, and out of the way of the arms when posing, which is pretty cool.  The shoulders, chest plate, and part of the thighs swap out for secondary parts, allowing for a conversion to the more streamlined appearance from earlier on, which looks pretty good too.  I’m more a fan of the out of the box set-up, but extra display options are always fine by me.  Unit 00’s color work is bold and clean, which is what you want to see on such figures.  A lot of it’s done through molded plastic, but the actual paint application that’s there is cleanly applied as well.  I certainly had no issues with it on my figure.  Unit 00 is quite nicely accessorized.  There are, of course, the previously mentioned alternate armor pieces, but on top of that she gets six sets of hands (fists, gripping, flat, relaxed, and two different styles of open gesture), an umbilical power cord, knife, smaller rifle, larger gun (complete with a spinning drum), handcuffs, an alternate open port for the plug, and some sort of crucifix antenna thing that I assume is somehow plot relevant to Rebuild.  It’s a really impressive selection of extras, and pretty much covers anything I could possibly think of wanting for the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I hadn’t seen anything Evangelion-related until the last two years, I also hadn’t gotten any of the toys, since I (typically) steer clear of toys for things I haven’t really experienced.  After watching the show, I definitely found Unit 00 to be my personal favorite of the main Evas, and I was definitely down for some version of it in toy form.  I’ve been looking at my options, and then this one wound up being the first of the Robot Spirits Evas to come into All Time, which certainly made my choice quite simple.  It’s a really fun figure, and probably the most fun I’ve had with a Robot Spirits release.  There’s so much cool stuff going on, and so many different options for display, but at the core of it, there’s a figure that’s just really, really fun to play around with.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2716: Ultraman – The Animation

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ULTRAMAN — THE ANIMATION

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

You know what be nice?  Not going over a year between Ultraman-related reviews.  Wouldn’t that be a novel concept?  I think it would!  I’m going to do my part, and so should you!  Now, my part is very clearly purchasing the Ultraman items and then reviewing them.  Your part is…reading the reviews?  I guess.  Seems like one of these jobs is gonna be way easier.  Not gonna say which.  But I’ll imply.  Because of the implications.  When last I spoke of Ultraman, I was focussed in on the Netflix animated adaptation of the manga, and I’m staying in that general area for today’s review.  But, while that review was of the Ultraseven stand-in, this time I’m looking at the series’ main central Ultra, Shinjiro Hayata.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultraman (The Animation) was released as part of the greater S.H. Figuarts line back closer to Netflix’s launch of the animation, as a tie-in.  I know, it’s a radical concept, right?  This is the second version of Shinjiro, following the manga-based version of the character that launched the Ultras into Figuarts back in 2015.  In adapting into animation, the suit uses the B Suit version’s colors, which were tweaked a bit to more closely read as the classic Hayata suit. The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 40 points of articulation.  Ultra’s movement is rather similar to the Ace suit, as opposed to Version 7, where the hips and legs have good range, but the shoulders are a little more restricted.  It’s slightly different, since it’s not sculpt getting in the way so much on the shoulders, but more the joints just being tighter.  So, it’s possible to get more movement out of them, but it just takes a bit more doing.  I suppose that’s a little better for long-term posing, but it does at times make me worry I might break the joints.  The figure’s sculpt is up to the usual standards for Figuarts, so it’s sharp and pretty precise.  Compared to the pointy-ness of 7 and the boxy nature of Ace, this one’s a fairly good middle ground.  He’s fairly compact and streamlined. It has a lot of similarities to the 2015 figure, obviously, but it looks like parts sharing between the two is minimal.  This one adjusts things to slightly more streamline the silhouette.  It makes him look quite sleek, and I really like how clean he looks, especially when you get him into the right poses.  It also better captures the slightly adjusted design of the later suit, better emulating the classic Ultraman design.  The paint work on this guy is, like the sculpt, clean and sharp.  The color scheme is the later design’s colors, which, while perhaps not as unique, I find to be a bit more eye-catching.  The larger sections of the same color just seem to read better for the character.  In terms of accessories, Shinjiro includes three pairs of hands (fists, relaxed, and open gesture), two Specium Slash pieces, a Specium Ray effect, standard arm guards, arm guards with the Specium Blades deployed, and one arm guard with a spot to plug in the Specium Ray.  It pretty much covers all of the basics for the character, and they’re all pretty solid pieces.  I did have a little trouble with the arm guards popping out on my figure, but it’s not terrible.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting the Version 7 figure from Super Awesome Wife for Christmas, I found myself with both Ace and 7, but no standard Ultraman, which seemed slightly incomplete.  She and I wound up with several Barnes & Noble gift cards after the holidays, and this guy was one of the figures they had in stock, so I figured it was as good a time as any to snag him.  He’s a fun figure to be sure, and I’m glad I finally rounded out the set.

#2709: Piccolo – The Proud Namekian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

PICCOLO — THE PROUD NAMEKIAN

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

Last year, as I delved a bit into some lock-down-induced madness and lost my steady stream of new toys for a little bit, I expanded my ever so modest selection of Dragon Ball-related reviews with a pair of Figuarts I’d grabbed second hand.  Well, it’s been, like, a year, and I’m really hoping this one’s not going to be followed by more lock-down-madness, but I’m looking at another Dragon Ball Figuart.  This time around, I’m looking at one of the franchise’s most prominent characters, Piccolo, the Proud Namekian!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Piccolo the Proud Namekian (which is, by the way, this figure’s full and proper title) is an early 2021 release for S.H. Figuarts.  This is the third time we’ve gotten Piccolo in the line following the prior Anime and Manga colored variants of the last mold.  Both versions have shot up in price, and Figuarts have evolved somewhat since their release, so it was high time for a new version.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Piccolo marks some pretty great strides for Figuarts articulation, at least from my interactions.  The range on these guys has always been great, but all of the joints and various separate pieces needed to give the best range generally makes the figures feel a little bit less sturdy.  As I touched on a bit in my Great Saiyaman review from last year, Piccolo is less broken up to facilitate the articulation, and just generally feels like a more solid figure, while still getting a really good range of motion.  This is especially evident on the legs, which don’t feel as floppy as some of the other figures from the line tend to be.  Notably, they lack the usual drop-hips, but are constructed in such a way that they don’t miss out on too much movement.  I definitely dig this new set-up.  Piccolo’s sculpt is an all-new offering, totally unique from the last version of the character.  This one seems to go a bit more for a slightly later-show incarnation of Piccolo, after they were consistently drawing him as a bit more bulked up, looking a bit more like his appearance post-merging with Kami.  It’s quite a nice sculpt, with sharp detailing, and a rather nice, dynamic layout to his outfit.  Right out of the box, Piccolo is in his fully kitted out set-up, with his cape and turban.  The cape is, as with most Figuarts capes, a little tricky to work with, due to its hard plastic construction.  It’s a little better handled than it was on Saiyaman, and I had less issues with it falling off on this release.  It’s using a multi-piece construction, with the shoulders and actual cape being separate parts, and the cape proper being made up of three separate sections in order to allow for more dynamic posing.  The standard head has the turban in place and a calm, more neutral expression, which is a good fit for the character.  Piccolo’s paint work is generally pretty basic, without a ton going on.  It’s cleanly applied, and bright and eye catching.  There are some very cool touches mixed in, specifically the small bit of exposed skin at his ankles; it’s an easily overlooked detail, but a cool one.  Piccolo’s accessory selection is quite impressively large.  He gets an alternate screaming expression for the turban-wearing head (the turban piece can be swapped between the two), plus three different heads without the turban, one calm, one screaming, and one with a really exaggerated expression.  He’s also got seven hands, in fist (R/L), clawing (R/L), wide gesture (R/L), and special beam cannon (R), plus an alternate set of crossed arms (rather recurrent with DBZ figures) and an extra torn off left arm stump.  Lastly, he’s got three pieces for his back; one to plug up the hole left by the cape, one for use of a stand with the cape down, and one for a stand with the cape up.  *Not* included is any sort of actual stand, as is pretty standard for Figuarts; I provided my own for the photo at the top of this review.  All in all, this selection of extras covers all the major Piccolo looks, and ives the figure quite a bit of range, which I certainly appreciate.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was first getting into these guys, Piccolo’s original Anime color release was already kind of pricey, so I held off on him, but still kind of wanted one.  Last year, when All Time started carrying Dragon Stars, I thought about snagging that line’s version of Piccolo, but ultimately decided to wait for a chance at another Figuart.  So, when this guy came in, it was kind of hard to say no.  So…uhh…I didn’t?  He’s a really impressive figure, and probably the best I’ve picked up from this sub-line.   Definitely glad I snagged him.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2370: Great Saiyaman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

GREAT SAIYAMAN

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

Oh wow, another Dragon Ball review?  This soon?  Is the reviewer going crazy?  Or is it just that he’s got no means of getting new toys and so therefore just has to make his way through pretty much whatever he’s got sitting here waiting to be reviewed in order to keep up with a daily review schedule?  I think it might actually be both, but I’ll let you know when I figure it out for sure.  So, Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z‘s got a couple of time skips built into it.  The first is of course the big jump from Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z, which sees Goku and his friends go from kids to adults.  However, within Z, there’s also another sizable jump following the resolution of “Cell Games”, doing a similar time skip to what we saw with Goku, but this time with his son Gohan, who takes over as the series’ main focus, at least until his dad comes back from the dead…again.  During his time as lead, a high-school aged Gohan takes on the secret identity of the Great Saiyaman in order to protect the city without giving away his identity.  I’m looking at a figure of that identity today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Great Saiyaman was released in 2019 as part of the Dragon Ball Z-sub-set of the S.H. Figuarts line.  He’s the third Gohan figure, slotting right in the middle between the previously released kid Gohan and adult Gohan.  The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation.  Saiyaman scales pretty well with the rest of the Figuarts Dragon Ball stuff I’ve got, excepting of course the Krillin that’s out of scale with everything else.  The sculpt is probably the sturdiest and cleanest of the Dragon Ball figures I’ve looked at.  The articulation doesn’t break up the sculpt too much, and he seems to follow pretty closely to the animation designs for the character.  The only part of the figure I don’t really much care for is his cape, which has a hard plastic construction (except for the part on the shoulders, which is rubber), which makes it really awkward to handle.  It doesn’t help that it also doesn’t stay in place particularly well, meaning it falls off a lot during normal posing.  If you can get it to work with you, however, it makes for some dynamic looks.  The paint work on Saiyaman is pretty simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a solid application.  It seems to match pretty well with the show in terms of color, and I quite like the slightly different finish they’ve given the helmet.  It does well to differentiate it as a different, harder material than the other portions of the costume.  As with most Figuarts releases, Saiyaman is quite a well accessorized.  He’s got four sets of hands (in fists, open gesture, wide open gesture, and flat), two faceplates for the standard helmeted head (calm and angry), a plug for the spot on his back where the cape usually goes (should you wish to display him without it), an alternate left forearm without his watch, and not one, not two, but three separate extra heads.  He’s got his “tournament” look with the bandana and sunglasses, which is kind of the standard alt look for this costume, as well as a standard unmasked Gohan, and a Super Saiyan Gohan.   What I find most impressive about this release is how many distinct alternate appearances he’s got thanks to all those parts; you can effectively build four different figures with the parts included here.  I’m planning to stick with the helmeted look, but boy is it tricky to stick with just one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though my main focus with DBZ is the Android Saga, which is before the time-skip that leads to this guy, I did watch this particular chunk of Gohan’s story pretty regularly when it was airing on Cartoon Network.  I’m also just generally a fan of Super Heroes, so this part of the story always stuck out to me.  The story of how I got this Saiyaman figure is pretty similar to how I got Krillin, though without the “I missed out on the previous version” bit.  I recall him being announced, and I thought about picking him up a few times, but never did get around to it.  He was traded into All Time, and I still had some trade credit to burn, so he was mine.  I didn’t have much in the way of expectations for this figure, and I wasn’t sure about what to do with him on his own, but this figure’s such a nice package deal to himself, and I’m really glad I decided to grab him.

#2363: Krillin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

KRILLIN

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

It’s been three years since I’ve looked at anything Dragon Ball Z.  It’s not a huge surprise, really, because, while I was a child of the ’90s and therefore it was impossible for me to totally miss the DBZ phenomenon, I still never got *super* into it.  To date, I’ve reviewed my whole collection of stuff from it here on the site; all five pieces of it.  Well, now it’s up to six, thanks to today’s entry: Krillin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Krillin was released as part of the Dragon Ball-sub-set of S.H. Figurarts in 2018.  You’ll note I said “Dragon Ball” and not “Dragon Ball Z”.  That’s because this figure is actually from the earlier show, and is meant to represent Krillin as a kid, rather than his adult form, which got a Figuarts release much earlier in the line.  Krillin stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 40 points of articulation.  If you want to get really technical, Krillin’s a little bit on the large side to be in scale with the rest of the line, but to be fair, this was true of the prior figure as well.  At least this one is shorter than that one, so there’s a loose sense of internal scale.  The Dragon Ball animation was a little looser with the character models than later incarnations of the show, so it’s hard to really nail them down for one single representation in figure form.  The figure does its best, and I think the end result works out okay.  It’s pretty clear who he’s supposed be, and more specifically which version he’s supposed to be.  He also adhere’s pretty well to the line’s pre-existing style, so he blends in alright with other figures.  That said, he does end up a little more toned than he usually looked in the show, bringing him slightly more in line with his DBZ appearances.  I think it’s a good medium, and it works particularly well for this style of figure.  Like the DBZ stuff, Krillin gets multiple heads with differing expressions.  He comes wearing the one with the friendly grin, but there’s also a more devious grin, and a screaming expression.  The likeness on the face is pretty consistent across all three heads, but they still offer a lot of variety to the display options.  Krillin’s paintwork is fairly nice.  Overall, it’s pretty basic, of course, but that’s appropriate for the character.  The application is all nice and sharp, though, and he fits well with the rest of the line style-wise.  To make up for his smaller stature, Krillin is pretty heftily accesorized.  He’s got the three heads I mentioned previously, plus a display stand, a blast effect, 11 hands (L/R fists, L/R wide open gesture, L/R open gesture, L/R peace sign, L/R claw, and R grip), a Dragon Ball, and a…rock with a kanji on it?  I don’t know exactly what that last one is, but I’m guessing its some sort of story specific item.  Whatever the case, a cool selection of extras to be sure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on getting the DBZ Krillin at a reasonable price, which was a serious bummer, since he was really the last prominent character I wanted for my “Android Saga” collection.  When this guy was released, I looked at him a few times, but just never got around to actually buying him.  One was traded into All Time last month, though, and I had a bunch of trade credit, so he was suddenly a much easier purchase.  He’s actually a pretty nice figure, and not a terrible stand-in for an older Krillin.  I was even able to mod the extra Krillin head included with Android 18 in order to make him look even more like a proper adult Krillin!

 

#1454: Phoenix Ikki

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

PHOENIX IKKI

KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC (BANDAI)

And now for another installment of “Ethan reviews a figure from a source he’s completely unfamiliar with.”

Knights of the Zodiac is…this thing?  Hang on, I can do better than that.  It’s actually a manga and an anime, originally titled Saint Seyia, which showed up in Japan in the ’80s and eventually made its way to the US in the early 2000s.  It’s a story that’s rather heavily inspired by Greek myths…and that’s really it.  Not sure where the whole Zodiac thing came into it.  I’m gonna go ahead and blame the French, since they’re the ones that stuck it in the title when they imported it.  It’s always the French, isn’t it? Odd blaming of an entire nation aside, today I’ll be looking at one of the many figures to come out of the property, based on Phoenix Ikki!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

When the Knights of the Zodiac anime was imported to the US in the early ’00s, Bandai America picked up the license and put out few different styles of figures.  Phoenix Ikki comes from the deluxe line, which was larger scale a featured fancy removable armor.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and has 25 points of articulation.  All of the deluxe figures were built on the same standard body.  It’s well articulated, though perhaps a little mannequin -like in its build.  Given that it’s really just meant to be the starting point of a much more complicated design, it’s not a terrible sculpt.  He gets a unique headsculpt, which is decent, I suppose.  It’s a little bit odd, since Ikki has long hair and they still have account for the helmet and other armor, which means the shaping is a little weird.  Not awful-weird, but still no-human-could-have-that-weird.  At the very least it’s unique.  To complete his look, Ikki includes several pieces of clip-on armor.  There’s a helmet, chest piece, skirt/belt, wrist bracers, and shin guards.  They’re a little bulky, and any gold sections are rather flaky, but otherwise, it’s pretty cool.  The chrome is certainly eye-catching, and I really dig the wings, which are individually articulated.  My figure is missing the skirt and one half of each shin guard, but I find I actually like him better without those pieces.  In regards to paint, the figure’s somewhat basic and a little bit drab for my taste, but the application is at least clean, and nothing notable appears to be missing.  The armor was the main extra here, so no real other accessories were included, but he did include a small dummy to store the armor in, which was pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was much smaller, I watched this show called Mystic Knights, which had a toy line very similar to this one.  Many years later, I found a few of these figures on clearance at KB Toys, so I got them out of an odd bit of nostalgia.  I actually have several volumes of the manga, which I even read, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you what happened in any of them.  Nevertheless, this is actually a pretty fun figure, and I’m glad to have it.

#1386: Roy Fokker

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ROY FOKKER

ROBOTECH (MATCHBOX)

“Heroic commander of the famed ‘Skull Squadron’ assigned the monumental task of defending SDF-1. He is the classic definition of a hero. He is also able to transcend his heroic mold to be human and compassionate. He likes to tease his friends especially Rick Hunter, and create a feeling of general camaraderie. His raw courage and skill as a fighter pilot is matched only by Maximillian Sterling.”

Once upon a time, Matchbox was more than just a brand of die cast cars.  They were actually their own toy company outright.  Around the mid-80s, they tried their hand at making action figures, offering up a rather eclectic selection of properties.  They never hit any major success, and were ultimately absorbed into Mattel.  Anyway, amongst their selection of properties was Robotech, a recent discovery of mine.  Last time I wrote a Robotech review, I looked at one of the cool fighter robot Veritech Fighters.  Today, I’ll be looking at that very fighter’s pilot, Commander Roy Fokker!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Roy Fokker was released in the basic series of Matchbox’s Robotech line in 1986 (a slightly tweaked version was later offered in 1992, as part of Harmony Gold’s re-release line).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Roy’s construction makes use of a rubber band assembly, similar to the style popularized by GI Joe’s A Real American Hero incarnation.  As Matchbox was not quite as established a player in the industry as Hasbro, the figure isn’t quite as strong an offering.  The articulation is more obvious and slightly more limited, and the proportions are a bit more off (slightly large head, small torso, long arms, etc.)  He’s definitely a dated looking figure.  Not a bad looking figure, of course, provided this sort of style appeals to you.  Fortunately, it’s the sort of style that’s right up my alley.  Stylization aside, he’s got a pretty respectable likeness of Roy from the show, which is really the most important element.  The paint work on this figure is fairly basic overall, but decent nonetheless.  Aside from his skin being a little on the pale side, the colors match pretty well with the source material, and the application is generally pretty clean.  There’s a bit of wear on my figure, most noticeably on the straps on his torso, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary fro a figure of this vintage.  Roy was originally packed with both his pilot’s helmet and a gun, but my figure lacks both of these pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After finding the Last Stand VF-1S, I was on the lookout for some more Robotech.  Unfortunately, like I noted in that figure’s review, they aren’t the most common items to find.  I’ve been checking out my usual toy store stops, in the the hopes of finding a few more of the Toynami Veritechs, but so far I’ve had no luck.  I did, however, find this guy at Yesterday’s Fun while I was on vacation, which was pretty sweet.  He’s a goofy figure, but I like goofy figures, so he works for me.  Now I’ve got a pilot to go with the fighter!

#1359: VF-1S Roy Fokker – Last Stand

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

VF-1S ROY FOKKER – LAST STAND

ROBOTECH: VERITECH SUPER POSABLE FIGURE (TOYNAMI)

For someone who’s so hardcore into media that has to do with giant robot fighting suits, you’d probably assume that I’d be all about Robotech.  Truth be told, I only actually started watching the show a month ago.  I’ve absolutely been loving it; I can’t really say why I put off watching it for quite so long.  Anyway, there are a ton of Robotech toys out there.  They aren’t the most common items to find, since there’s a pretty big fanbase that collects them, but every so often you do find the occasional stray figure, and I was fortunate enough to do so.  Today, I’ll be looking at the Veritech fighter of my personal favorite character from the show, Roy Fokker.  So, let’s look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

In 2001, Toynami picked up the license for Robotech, and they put out a line dubbed Robotech: Veritech Super Posable Figures.  Roy Fokker’s VF-1S was from that line.  This particular version is dubbed the “Last Stand” version, presumably based on Episode 18 of the series, which contains Roy’s final stand and eventual demise (spoilers, I guess).  The figure was released as an exclusive through ToyFare magazine, as a way of promoting the line.  Sculpturally, the VF-1S is the same figure as the standard release, just with a tweaked paint job.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall (largely due to his splayed legs; he’d be closer to 8 standing straight) and he has 22 points of articulation.  It’s somewhat amusing to see this figure branded as “super-posable” in this day and age, given his lack of a number of joints that are kind of essential in this day and age.  The most egregious omission is the lack of anything beyond cut joints on the hips, which means he’s perpetually stuck in this slightly splayed-leg-pose.  It’s far from the worst thing ever, and there’s no denying that he’s highly posable in several other areas, but it’s still a little limiting.  For the time, though, it was actually pretty amazing, so credit where credit is due.  The sculpt on this guy is really solid work; he pretty closely follows the show’s design and the detail work is all really sharp and geometric, just like it should be.  The joints are also worked in very nicely, but that’s just a matter of keeping consistent with the character design (which isn’t exactly something that’s always done; looking at you, Hasbro!).  This is a non-transforming figure, so he’s always in robot mode (which is the cool mode), but the important elements that remain from the original mode are still there, and very nicely detailed.  They’ve even made his skull leader insignia a raised element, to help differentiate him from the other Veritechs.  There are a few mold lines that I wish were a little less obvious, but beyond that, I’m very happy with the sculpt.  The paint is what differentiates this from the normal release; where the basic figure was clean and shiny, this figure depicts Roy after he takes a beating.  There’s a bunch of heavy shading and burn marks, as well as some pretty amazing bullet holes and puncture wounds.  Those are all still just painted on, but are quite convincing as actual damage to the figure.  I find that all of this extra work really does a lot to bring out the strengths of the sculpt and makes for an all-around more visually interesting figure.  Roy’s VF-1S is packed with three sets of hands in fists, trigger finger, and open gesture poses, as well as his rifle, which has adjustable pieces, allowing it to be held in his hand or slung over his shoulder.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As noted in the intro, I only got into Robotech very recently, so I didn’t get this guy new (though I do recall when he was offered in ToyFare, since I was a subscriber at the time).  Instead, I found him just a few weeks ago at this awesome place around the corner from me called Lost In Time Toys.  My brother got their card at AwesomeCon and we went to check them out and just happened to catch them in the middle of a moving sale.  This guy was amongst the handful of items still yet to be moved, so I got him for half of his usual price, which was a pretty darn good deal.  I will admit, I was a little annoyed by the hips when I got him out of the box, but other than that small issue, I just can’t help but love this guy.  I foresee myself tracking down more of this line.

#1212: Dr. Gero

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

DR. GERO

DRAGON BALL Z (IRWIN TOYS)

gero1

In the four prior Dragon Ball Z-related reviews on this site, I’ve made it no secret that the Android Saga is my favorite era of the show.  That’s been fairly evident in the choices of characters I’ve collected.  Today’s figure, Dr. Gero (aka Android 20), is no different.  Of course, so far, the figures have also all been from Bandai’s SH Figuarts line.  That’s where today’s figure differs, instead hailing from Irwin Toys’ Dragon Ball Z line that ran concurrent with the US-run of the show.  Let’s have a look!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

gero2Dr. Gero was released in the fifth series of Irwin’s Dragon Ball Z line, which hit in 2001.  At that point, the show had moved onto the Cell Saga, and most of this series reflects that, with Gero being the only Android Saga figure in the set.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  Not a lot of movement there, but it was actually pretty good for the time.  Gero sported a totally unique sculpt, patterned after his appearance on the show.  It’s not quite as accurate as the Figuarts, but still a surprisingly solid recreation.  The basic look is definitely there, and there’s plenty of detail work, especially on the shirt.  I do sort of wish areas such as the pants had a little more detailing to them, and the face is a touch too wide and squat (Gero was quite gaunt), but it’s not horribly off.  I appreciate that they even sculpted in his brain under the dome, since that’s the sort of thing that can get overlooked.  Like the sculpt, the paint isn’t perfect, but is still more than serviceable.  The colors are all a pretty good match for the onscreen appearance, and most of the application is pretty clean.  He doesn’t really have any sort of accent work, which certainly would have helped the sculpt shine a bit more, but for the period, he’s not bad.  Gero was originally packed with his hat to cover his brain dome and a trio of dragon balls, however, my figure did not have them.  Still, that’s a pretty cool assortment of extras, especially for a more minor character like Gero.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never got into DBZ figures when the show was still on.  Almost bought a few of them numerous times, but just never did.  So, I got Gero second hand.  He’s another 2nd Avenue find, actually.  He was in with a bunch of fast food toys and such, for like $2.  Since I had the Figuarts Androids and the likelihood of a Figuarts Gero is rather slim, I figured he was worth it.  He didn’t come with any of the extras and he’s rather beaten up (he’s actually missing part of his right thumb; I carefully shot around that), but he cost me $2 and he scales well enough with the Figuarts stuff that I feel he was worth my time.