MOTHER OF ULTRA

ULTRA-ACT

It’s the 12^th and final day of my post-Christmas Review.  Which is kind of cool because I totally didn’t plan for it to be a 12 days of Christmas thing, but it kinda turned out that way.  Neat.

Today, I’m looking at the Ultra-Act line for a 6^th time.  This time, it’s not an actually an Ultraman, it’s Mother of Ultra.  I feel I should point out that the name is a bit misleading.  She’s only the mother of one of the Ultramen, and it’s not even the one just named Ultraman, it’s Taro.  Mother of Taro would be more accurate.  Oh well, on to the review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mother of Ultra was released as one of the 2013 online exclusives for the Ultra-Act line.  It’s not too different from a normal release, just a bit more difficult to get a hold of one.  She’s a little over 6 inches tall, and has 38 points of articulation.  From what I’ve seen, her sculpt appears to be pretty spot on to how she looked in her various appearances throughout the years.  Her look has remained pretty constant, but she’s had two different face designs in her appearances, so Bandai has included two different heads so you can pick your favorite.  One has softer angles and more flatly set eyes, while the other has harsher angles, a stronger jawline, and eyes on more of a slant, in a similar fashion to most of the Ultraman designs.  I personally prefer the softer of the two sculpts, but I appreciate being given the choice between the two.  The paint work is up to the usual standard of the line, which is very good.  Everything is applied very cleanly, and she looks to have no slop or missed lines.  The paint work is pretty much in par with the original Ultraman, whose paint was pretty much flawless.   Keeping up with the rest of the line, Mother of Ultra is quite well accessorized.  She’s got the extra head, an energy effect that plugs onto her wrist, a bucket of water with two handles, and 3 pairs of hands: karate chop, fists, and open gesture.  I’ve already touched on the extra head, so I won’t go into it again.  The blast effect is pretty cool, and swaps on with ease.  The bucket of water is actually an accessory for Taro, and it has one handle with his hand already attached and one without.  The hands are pretty standard for the line, and all swap out easily, and look nicely detailed.  Mother of Ultra’s the first Ultra-Act figure without an extra color timer (well, Seven didn’t have one, but he doesn’t have any color timer at all!) which is different.  I suppose Mother of Ultra’s never really needed one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mother of Ultra was purchased by me with an amazon gift card given to me by my wonderful Aunt Susan.  She’s a really fun figure, perhaps one of the most fun in the line.  I was looking forward to the figure, but I didn’t realize how great she’d be in person.  She’s one of the more pricy figures in the line due to her exclusive status, but if you can find one for a decent deal, it’s a superb figure!

BONUS MINI REVIEW!

While I was on vacation over the holiday, I stopped by a nice little store by the beach that sells lots of older toys.  They were selling a few of the old vinyl Ultraman figures, and they had a Mother of Ultra.  I picked her up for the heck of it and thought I might do a little comparison.

It’s kind of a testament to how far the figures have come over the years.  This version of Mother of Ultra appears to have been released in 1988.  She stands roughly the same height as the Ultra-Act version, and she has a whopping 3 points of articulation.  You can see that the paint has worn off, and having owned some of the vinyl figures before, I can say that was a common problem.  The sculpt isn’t terrible on this figure, though.  Sure, the proportions aren’t the greatest, but compared to stuff of the time it’s about average.  Overall, it’s a fun little figure, and I’m willing to give it a break, given that it cost me less than a tenth of what the Ultra-Act version did!