Marvel Select Thor
I never had a lot of Thor comics when I was a kid, preferring either Transformers, GI Joe, or later X-men. I do remember a few with the Thor Corp and several with Beta Ray Bill. To be honest, I always preferred Beta Ray Bill more than the original, because of the science fiction inherent in the character. Alien everyman with godlike powers trumps boring god in terms of story for me.
Still, I kept hearing about this new Thor costume by Olivier Coipel (who was one of my favorite artists before I left the comic hobby back in 2003) and the “great” Marvel Select version of it. I’d seen it once or twice in Comic Odyssey, but it wasn’t high up on my list since I’d never been a fan of the Marvel Select (MS) line. Of course, as is normally the case, I eventually broke down and bought myself one when I saw it at my local Toy Kingdom.
2 Rats is the local distributor of MS toys, and distribution of their toys is mostly limited to the major branches of Toy Kingdom like Megamall. If you have the time and are willing to go to the effort, you can often find the same toys that are found in Toy Kingdom at any 2 Rats location for Php 200 to Php 500 cheaper. I don’t have the time and I’m a lazy ass bastard. I paid the Php 1,500.00 asking price for this and considered myself lucky.
The package is nice enough, with some nice graphics and truly uninspiring product photography. They are sturdy and offer sufficient protection though, and they have a nice window to display the figure. They also have a nice, big graphic on the side which allows you to display the box on the shelf like a book (if you are an MOCer of course). If you’re careful, you can peel back only 3/4ths of the bubble so that you can replace the inner tray after opening. The cardboard flap on the side allows you to close it back up if you want, which is a plus. They only problem is that it’s BIG and it’s hard to stack without the cardback getting damaged, but again, that’s a problem for the sealed-forever-in-plastic-prisons folk.
On first blush, he does look pretty buff, and his heft really satisfies. He feels like one of those great Fin Fang Foom wave figures; like a nice chunk of plastic that would leave a nice bump if used for blunt force trauma in a CSI episode.
The sculpting is nice. He looks more beefcake than I’d like, kind of musclebound, but the level of detail is great. The plate mail is all sculpted in, the wrinkles and texture of his tunic, the folds of his cape… it’s all there. The face and hands are the only issues I have. They feel a little pulpy, soft and his face has a dead blank stare to it. A sterner expression might have felt more exciting.
He’s also got some really great paint work, worthy of the old Toy Biz days, but clean looking this time. There doesn’t seem to be a bit of cast color plastic on him, and none of the colors seem to be chipping so far. His skin tone is a little opaque, and the white on his wings seem a bit watered down, but you won’t notice unless you’re nitpicking.
He also has his hammer, Moljnr, and a display stand. This is where it starts to get hairy.
Moljnr, is a little on the short side for my tastes. In most of the images I remember, the hammer had a haft that was about the length of 3 of his fists. This one has about enough room for 2 and that would be pushing it. Plus the strap at the end seems too much like an afterthought, like the sculptor forgot to include it and they tacked it on after the fact. To add to that, it’s too small for it to be used. Thor is supposed to be able to swing the hammer using that strap and he’s too fat-fingered to get his mitts in there.
The display stand is okay, but there isn’t much you can do with it a side from stand him upright.
The scale of the turret is smaller than it should be (which is understandable given the size of him), and it doesn’t give you a lot of room to pose him in any really terrific poses. You know the Immagonnapoundyoutojelly kind of poses.
His scale is pretty great. Technically, he’s a 7″ scale figure, but he’s only a hair taller than the other 6″ scale. You can barely tell the difference in size between him and the Marvel Legends Beta Ray Bill and King Thor.
Unfortunately, you can see the difference in their articulation. I realize that I give articulation a higher standing than most of the other reviewers out there, but that’s because I don’t buy toys for display. If you want a display piece than you can probably stop reading now.
If you are concerned with joints, than know that Thor here isn’t going to win any yoga tournaments (do they even have these?). He has those combo post/swivel ball joints at shoulders, hips and knees, with swivels at wrists and ankles. I think he’s got a swivel neck, but mine seems to be paint locked. I’ve heard a few others have this same problem as well so it could be a quality control issue. Anyone who has a figure with a working neck please let me know so I can try to stick him in the freezer or something.
Though he is limited, I don’t think I’ll be selling him anytime soon. He is a great looking design, and I’ve only got so many figures that can hang out with my Conan.
Now if only they would make a Dargo Ktor figure, I’d have a Thor Corp set.
Transformers Crossovers: Hulk 2.0
I’ve seen these Transformers Crossovers in the toy ailses for several years now and they always always always hang around for months after their released. I’m sure Hasbro had the right idea with them (Marvel Superheroes and Star Wars characters that transform into vehicles) and kids would have loved to get these for Christmas, but there were two factors that I think killed them.
First off, they aren’t all that nicely designed. Sure they’ve got that gimmick of hero robot to car or jet or whatever, but neither vehicle or bot mode looks that appealing. The necessity of the hero costume throws off both the design and the color scheme as well. Case in point: Thor. Who wants an A-10 Warthog colored in blocks of red, blue, and yellow? I’m guessing in store, kids gravitated to the clearly recognizable figures rather than these, and collectors didn’t need them.
Second, and here’s the kicker, the price. When they were released, these things cost Php 1,200.00 (about $23-25). That’s insane for a toy slightly bigger than a Deluxe Class Transformer (Php 700) or a Marvel Legend figure (Php 800). If by chance their child did come across this toy and choose it over a Spider-Man or Bumblebee, any parent would have balked at that price tag.
Even a Hulk fan like me was waffling over picking up the two tanks for the longest time, only giving in about a week before they went to clearance with a new price of Php 700. One week. FML.
After opening them, I was very dissappointed at how cheap they felt, with very little heft considering the fact that they’re Hulk toys. The vehicle mode looks nothing like anyone’s idea of a tank, and the robot mode doesn’t seem to be very playable. Despite a ton of racheted joints, he’s very fiddly and a spring in the waist keeps him from achieving anything really dynamic.
Sucker that I am however, I couldn’t resist getting the Wave 5 Hulk when I saw it at Toys R’ Us in Robinson’s Galleria. The wave was still priced at Php 700, and it was a Hulk toy, and a robot toy. The deck was stacked against me. According to the back of the card, Mr. Fantastic changed his mind, thought that Hulk shouldn’t have a transforming tank at his disposal, so he gave him a bulldozer. I fail to see how that’s a better choice, or how it’s supposed to help a being who is for all intents is invunerable and able to smash tanks to itty bitty pieces.
The packaging is a pretty straightforward carded bubble. Though the bubble looks huge and has tons of room to spare in there, it’s mostly empty air. The animeish illustration of the Hulk covers completely vacant space which, given the nature of the character, should have been filled with a bigger figure, or given it’s price, some kind of accesssories.
The back shows the rest of the wave, including the Black Wolverine and the new Spiderman Car. Apparently, only those three have hit shelves. The Punisher, Human Torch, and The Thing (which is a Bulldozer as well, so a repaint of the Hulk I guess) will be out later. Most of the other toys seem to be repaints, with the exception of Spidey. I’m keeping an eye out for the Punisher though, since his black and white costume lends itself better to a hummer than Captain America’s red, white, and blue.
Back to the toy I actually bought. It’s a bulldozer. Sort of. Like the first attempt, it’s really just some dude’s dream of a bulldozer. The parts are all there, but it doesn’t really look like something you’d see in real life. The sculpting of the thing doesn’t help. It’s simplistic, with a few stress fractures here and there, and some panelling etched in on the roof.
For the most part, it’s cast in color, with almost no paint applications. The green holds up fairly well, being relatively dark, but the gray parts look woefully ignored. The treads at the very least should have been given a once over with black. A wash to give the whole thing some aging would have been welcome as well. The only good thing is that there’s an application at the edge of the dozer’s blade to show that it’s been digging into earth. It’s too little and really only serves to emphasize the figures lack of other embelishment.
The toy feels even cheaper than the first version, because it’s even lighter and the plastic is more brittle. Mine had a small part of the window/leg snapped off even before it was packaged (I didn’t see the piece inside the bubble so I’ll assume it happened in the factory). You’ll see the white area where the figure is missing that piece below:
The angle of the product photo on the back kind of fools the eye, making you think it’s robot form is pretty impressive, but once you get him out of the package and transformed, it’s not. Not at all.
The transformation process is pretty simple, and doesn’t really feel well thought out. His treads are his arms, the fists hidden behind the blade, which get’s halved in too and becomes what is essentially kibble on the backs of his hands. The “engine” portion basically is basically just a block that remains the same. You just pop his head out of it. His legs and feet unfold from under the roof of the cab.
The first thing I thought of when I got him out and had him in robot mode was “GOBOT”.
If you remember back in the day, Tonka had it’s own line of imported transformable robots called Gobots. These were simple toys that were a lot like the minibots in Hasbro’s Transformer line. Most of them basically just stood up to transform. It was very dull.
This Hulk is a tad bit more complicated, but once you get him into bot mode, he’s about as much fun as Cy-kill or Cop-tur. Though he has excellent range of motion below the waist, his arms are basically just big bars that swing around their pivot. It makes for extremely boring play.
You’ll also notice how low his shoulders sit on his torso. Everytime I look at it I can’t get over how ridiculous it looks and suffer from another bout of buyer’s remorse.
Next to this new figure, the first release looks downright amazing. Not only are the proportions better, the figure heavier, but the articulation is much better. Seeing how this is the SECOND figure, that seems counter to all logic. What it feels like is a failed toy design that was put into production because it was already too far along not to push through, which is probably the case.
With the amount of space the figure takes up, and the kibble that litters the robot mode, they probably could have tweaked the design to integrate some of the parts better. Hell, if they had just thrown in an elbow joint, and some paint, it probably would have changed my perception of the thing entirely.
As it is, the old design may have it’s faults, but I will admit that the robot mode looked GOOD and a lot like a Hulk. This things reminds me of a green gorilla.
He does do a pretty good Rumble/Frenzy impression though.
Deluxe Class Dirge
Brawn, & Lockdown
Since the Bayverse Transformers first reared their ugly heads back in 2007, we’ve seen a deluge of product coming out of Hasbro house. With a few exceptions, I’ve been indifferent to the toys that they’ve released in the movie line, preferring figures from the Transformers Animated or Transformers Universe line. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the ones that didn’t make it into the movie like Stockade, Landmine, and the excellent, excellent Bludgeon (I realize I haven’t reviewed him, but trust me if ever you bought a Transformer, this Bludgeon is the one).
When Wave 8 rolled around, I picked up the one new mold that hadn’t made it to the film, Dirge (I also have Gears, but that’s just something I got as a sort of freebie). When Wave 9 showed up on shelves, I didn’t hesitate to get both Lockdown and Brawn. These three were all new molds that hadn’t seen production yet. I’d seen the previews of them both months back and I got to say, they all lived up to my expectations.
Let’s go alphabetically this time and start with Brawn.
Back in the Generation 1 days, Brawn was supposed to be one of the strongest Autobots, second only to the big bot himself, Optimus Prime. This of course was hard to believe as he was one of the original Mini Vehicles released back in 1994 and was this little thing that looked kind of like a robot chicken.
In the cartoon continuity he was much cooler, sort of the tough guy that depended on, well, brawn to get things done. There was even an episode where he went and borrowed Megatron’s Fusion Cannon. The bot’s got some huge balls. Of course, he was one of those that got wasted in the movie (the animated one, not that Bay crap) with that very same gun, so maybe not so smart.
We recently had a new Brawn figure from wave 4 of the Transformers Universe Legends Class figures, and it was pretty great. Of course it was a minibot, but damn it looked good. It was a G1 homage and looked so much better than the original figure. Sadly, the articulation was little better than the first one, and it was a Legends Class figure. Fun, but no where near scale. Thankfully, Hasbro brought us the RotF Brawn.
Though the back of the package may say different, this one isn’t really any kind of homage to the old toy. It’s more of an evolution of the character; instead of physical strength, this Brawn makes up for his short stature with sheer firepower. He’s got 2 pistols and a gun emplacement that goes over his back. He’s a walking army all by himself really.
Articulation is excellent with the multiple hinge and ball joints that are by now familiar to those who’ve been following the movie toys. I’m sure that later, after several months of play, the ball joints at the hips will become loose and you’ll need to do some superglue tricks to keep the toy viable, but right now, my figure’s rocking those points of articulation; neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, waist, hips, knee, and ankle.
He does have a few drawbacks however. If you’re one of the guys who likes the clean, box-type transformers, this one isn’t for you. He’s got way to much going on upstairs. He’s sort of a shell former, with much of the vehicle form’s skin hanging off him at various places. On the one hand it looks like armor, on the other it makes him look awkward and really THICK.
On the back of the package, Brawn is transformed with the panels at his hip arranged one way:
I prefer it this way:
It feels much more like a samurai robot with that “skirt” there.
His alt mode is another military SUV. It looks pretty good for the role, better than Ironhide’s actually. Like I said, he’s a shell former, so all those bot parts are just hidden under all those panels that made up his back and shoulders. The gun that goes over his head in bot mode shows up on his roof in truck mode, which is nice. You can even angle it up (though it doesn’t swivel).
He looks perfectly in scale with all the other Deluxe Class cars/trucks in his line as well.
I was of two minds after opening Dirge, but after some quality play time, it’s become one of my favorite toys of the moment. A unique transformation, a great color scheme, and some fine articulation really makes for an impressive toy.
Of course since he is a JET, the Deluxe Class treatment means that he’s a little on the puny side. Next to say, Jetfire, Dirge is going to look ridiculous. Like the Scout Class figures however, I actually like the small size. It makes the toy a lot of playability.
Like all Deluxe Class toys (except maybe those preview ones a few years back) he starts in vehicle mode. In this case it looks like a Harrier, one of those totally cool jets that I remember from when I was a kid. Remember pre-Titanic Cameron’s True Lies? Schwartzenegger kicking terrorist butt with Elisha Dushku holding onto the cockpit? Awesome. How we never got a transformer that turned into one of these before is beyond me. Now I want one that turns into an F-4 Phantom. Those things were mean as hell!
From the top, he looks pretty perfect. But if you turn him around, you’ll see some of the bot kibble start showing through where his engines ought to be. Flip him over and you’ll see quite a bit more. It’s not too obvious really and doesn’t detract from the fun of this toy.
I said he had a unique transformation and he does. It’s a doozy really. Took me quite awhile to figure it all out. It doesn’t help that his top half is asymetric, with the cockpit becoming one arm and the other popping out of the tail.
Once in bot mode, it’s apparent how much he’s influenced by Bay’s “robots-are-really-egyptian-gods” trip. Frankly I didn’t buy any of the goobledygook in the movie and I’d thank Hasbro not to continue it. That being said, he’s doesn’t turn out that bad.
Instead of the conehead he had back in G1, his head is formed of two separate halfs. Hasbro could have chosen not to give us this nod to the old robot sicne they could have easily fitted a normal noggin in the space there. Nice of them to choose the cooler path for a change.
Again, Hasbro seems to have forgotten a step when they transformed him for the product shots. In those photos, Dirge’s lauchers are attached to his wings even in robot mode.
Actually though, there are two holes provided on his arms that allow you to place them in the proper firing positions, just like any of the old seekers.
Articulation is still very good. I wish that the designers had planned something for the wings instead of just hanging them there in back of his legs. They seem like afterthoughts really, as if there was nowher to put them so they just dumped them there. It might have been nice if they were removable like the old G1 Seeker wings so you cold place them on his arms or on his back instead.
Detail in the sclupt is pretty amazing. There are tiny little seams on the skin of the jet like plates in the sheet metal. There’s a small “cockpit” that forms part of his chest in robot mode, another nod to the G1 Seekers. He has this neat, unobtrusive action feature on his chest, gears that turn when you rotate his shoulders.
Dirge also has an excellent color scheme, my second favorite next to Skywarps’s. The blue and gold looks striking, if not inherently evil. I just wish there were more readily available figures of him. That exclusive Henkei one is just way to expensive.
And finally we have Lockdown.
Lockdown was originally created for the Transformers Animated series, so is relatively new to the universe. His occupation as a bounty hunter probably made him a perfect candidate to port into the movie continuity, especially paired up with Ratchet (who he tormented in the cartoon).
Naturally, there were previous versions of Lockdown in the Transformers Animated line; the original, “Burning” Lockdown, and “Stealth” Lockdown. Plus several more in the Activators Class. I’ve got all three Deluxe figures because it was such a good toy. Tall, articulated, and mean-looking.
The RotF version is all that, but more so. It’s a lot more mean looking. Spikier. Sleeker. Sicker. The car mode looks like it belongs in that movie, Deathrace, chewing up the competition. It’s more detailed than the Animated version, with more realistic proportions and more complicated paint applications.
His transformation is a little different, with his hood becoming his feet instead of his rear. Once transformed, Lockdown is a vision of badassitude. Lean and Green. The hook he sported in the Animated version is now a permanent feature and his other hand is a more appropriate claw.
Hasbro didn’t forget that EM pulse generator thing that he stole from Ratchet in the show. His engine can attach to his arm to form the weapon. Very cool.
He is a little taller than the Animated version, and sports better joint work, with more functional articulation than his predecessor. Just look at his neck. There are 2 joints for that alone. All in all, this guy can kick ass.
So the big question: Are they worth it?
Answer: YES!
Lockdown is clearly the winner because of height, articulation, design, and sheer orneriness, but the other two are very good toys as well, though consider what you like about Transformers before buying. If you like innovative designs and good articulation, then yes, get them. If you’re a stickler for canon or for smooth lines and blocky robot modes, you’ll want to pass.
All three are still available at the php 700 price point, which isn’t too crazy expensive for the Philippine market (about $13-14).
City Strike Duke & Friends
Recently, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra (ROC) toys went on sale here in the Philippines and I decided to pick up a few. The 45% discount was too good to pass up so I got the first ROC Snake Eyes, Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow (PP Storm Shadow), and City Strike Duke (CS Duke). I’d seen these three warming the pegs for quite some time and at Php 300 each, I figured it was time to get them before people started clearing them out, leaving me with only Cover Girls, Vipers, and Zartans.
City Stirke Duke is one of those unlucky figures seems to have come out at the wrong time. Seeing as how he’s part of the wave that includes City Strike Snake Eyes people kind of glided over him when they saw him on the pegs. Here’s what I imagine went on at local toy stores when wave 5 hit the shelves:
So I might be exaggerating a bit. I did however say something along similar lines to several reps on my failed searches for CS Snake Eyes, and I’m sure some of you did as well. I only took the time to look at CS Duke when the Christmas Sales were in full swing and it became apparent that if I ever wanted a CS Snake Eyes, I’d have to pay some scalper on eBay my right testicle for it.
Once I did pause, CS Duke didn’t look so sucky. He’s got a pretty good arsenal of his own and doesn’t look all that bad. He still suffers from Melonheadinitis, but it’s not as pronounced as my other Duke figure from the Rescue Mission set. The sculpt is sort of the reactive armor uniform, but with pants. Bright blue pants. It’s weird looking, but it really does grow on you.
His accessories are a rifle, a sub-machine gun, a knife, a pistol, a sword with a scabbard that plugs into the hole in his back, and a belt. The belt is pretty useless. They didn’t even think to put a sheath for the knife or a holster for the gun. You can tuck them in there, but it’s not the same thing is it? The rest of the gear you’ve seen with other figures, but like all GI Joe toys, that never really matters. It’s all good and it all looks pretty nice.
Articulation is very good. A lot of the ROC toys enjoy the double knee joints and stomach joints that allow them to do proper kneeling positions. Coupled with the great ankle ball/hinge joint and his hasbro elbows and hip ball/sockets, you’ve got near Marvel Legends poseability here.
Which makes this figure that much more fun to play with.
The first release of Snake Eyes was another I’d passed on, mostly due to those ugly molded lips. Whoever thought they should add those to the design should be given a stern talking to. Really? Lips? It’s as bad as Schumacher’s nipples on the Batsuit.
Accessory wise, he doesn’t have a whole lot. The standard Snake Eyes uzi, a backpack, and a sword. whoopdeedoo. There’s also that stupidly huge gun, but do we really need to get into that again? What’s irritating is that he has two runners for swords on his backpack… only one sword. duh, Hasbro. Most likely the peice is a leftover from another toy, I guess. he’s also got some horrible webgear with a sculpted holster and gun. Would have been nice if we had gotten a useable pistol.
The Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow is probably one you’ve already seen reviews about. I agree with most of the points on those. It’s a nice toy, but not all that well executed. The head doesn’t look too much like the actor, but that’s a given at this scale. Also the Storm Shadow in the Paris scene looks nothing like this, but it’s a action figure so a guy in a suit would probably have been boring for the kiddies.
Oh, well.
His accessories are a lot better than Snake Eyes’. He’s got a pair of swords, a pair of sais, a pistol AND a holster, plus a ridiculously big gun and ridiculously big suction cup. Both of the latter went right into my never-seen-again-box.
What I really had fun with after I opened these three figures was mixing and matching their heads. So I don’t have a City Strike Snake Eyes. I’ll make one (but with bright blue pants). Ever wonder what Duke would look like in Snake Eyes’ armor? Or Storm Shadow’s suit?
Hell, I even took off John Connor’s head and gave it a permanent home on Duke’s body. I think it makes old melon head look loads better.
Play Arts Kai Star Ocean Figures
The Play Arts (PA) line of toys recently came under the Square Enix umbrella. With the merge came a big jump in the number of licences that PA had to utilize. Before, we were pretty much stuck with characters from the various Final Fantasy installments. And Dragon Quest, but who really wanted those? When I wrote that preview article on the upcoming FF XIII figures I said how this was a line that had only a few waves a year. I was wrong.
Since Square Enix took over, we’ve gotten wave after wave of new product, including Final Fantasy IX, Full Metal Alchemist, and Kingdom Hearts. If you do a search on the BigBadToystore site, you’ll find a whole mess of new figures slated to come out in 2010. There’s the aforementioned series 1 of the Final Fantasy XIII figures, series 2 of the same with 3 brand new characters, and 2 gestalts (Shiva and Odin) that will transform from humanoid mode to combine into vehicles for the figures. They’re HUGE and look as detailed as the Daytona Hardy and still look as articulated as the regular figures.
Awesome.
Unfortunately, this flood of plastic is a severe drain on the wallet, which is why I’ve really got to pick and choose the ones I really want. It’s hard going since PA has been so consistent with the quality of their sculpting and manufacture. I mean have you seen that Alphonse Elric figure? That thing is a work of art! Since I’m so in love with the gestalt designs, I’ll be saving my money to get those two figures to put next to my Cloud and Fenrir, I passed on the Alchemist and Kingdom Hearts figures. But when I saw these two figures at Best Toys in VMall, Greenhills I couldn’t resist.
Star Ocean is another franchise owned by Square Enix. It was originally released waaaay back in 1998. Remember when the Playstation was still the rage? I didn’t think so. Gosh I’m old. The graphics for this old school RPG weren’t anything to spank a rabbit over, but damn if it wasn’t a lot of fun. When I first got the PSP versions last year, I couldn’t stop playing, even if the unskippable cutscenes made it a chore to wade through the game a second time. Totally gave me 8-bit flashbacks to The Legend of Zelda.
The Last Hope (the installment these figures are based on) was released early in 2009 on the Xbox 360. The PS3 version should be coming out next month. It’s really more of a prequel (damn you George Lucas) and doesn’t feature anyone from the first parts. Since I haven’t played it, I can only tell you that “Edge Maveerick” (that is such a stupid name) is the impulsive captain of the SRF-003 Calnus and Reimi Saionji is one of his childhood friends that serves on the same boat.
The toys of the two characters come in the standard Play Arts box. It hasn’t changed much since Square Enix took over, with a few shots of the figure and accesories and one of the other toy in the series. The graphics are minimal and the packaging is mostly functional. It’s got a huge window up front that allows you to get a clear view of the toy itself, and all the parts.
I’ll start with Edge since he was the one I saw more of leading up to the time I purchased the set.
The character design of the video game is typical of the Japanese Sci Fi I’m familiar with; loud colors, broken lines, vaguely future-tech looking details. Sort of like a Jeepney. He’colored in white and weirdly effeminate pastels, but it’s a nice change from the unending black and gray of the FF VII Advent Children figures.
The sculpt looks pretty accurate from various screenshots I’ve seen of the character, and the sculpt is fantastic. There isn’t any painted-on detail here, it’s all 3D, sculpted work. The level of work put into these toys is really something.
The plastic is also great, with some nice transluscent look. It’s soft, but sturdy, and I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t go the way of my FF X-2 YiRiPa figures and start to break over time.
He comes with a few accessories. First he has an extra head.
Unlike the FF VII AC figures that were meant to look more realistic, these tend more toward their anime roots. It’s obvious in the design of Edge’s spare head. He’s made to look as if he’s screaming/howling/shouting and looks just as cartoony as anything on Japanese TV. There is an articulation problem with the head (the hair keeps him from looking up), but it’s not a big one. It’s easy to pop on and off to exchange them, though you’ll want to be careful to do so with care, since the post could conceivably break.
He also comes with an excellent looking sword and a rather ridiculously oversized scabbard. The scabbard looked extremely silly to me at first, but it really does grow on you you. I’m sure they explained in the game why he needed this thing (there’s probably some containment field or storage battery or some such). The thing is made of ABS plastic and slots right into his belt. It’s a nice little change from huge-blade-hanging-from-the-back-man.
Reimi Saionji has the same in build/design quality, sharing the same kind of general theme and hi-tech details. She sports a more cartoonish face than any of the other PA females I own, though, which is kind of a turn off. It’s odd that she’s also a tiny bit taller than the others as well. I guess Square Enix decided that their figures should be a tiny bit better than the old ones so decided to up the scale a smidge. It’s not really that noticeable unless she’s right up against one of the others.
Instead of a sword, she comes with her bow. It’s a sci fi version of the compound bow you see hunters and sportsmen using (or if you’re old enough, Rambo). Again it’s made of ABS plastic (even the string) so it’s tough, but feels fragile. I keep thinking I’m going to break that string if I store it in anything but a metal box. I would have prefered that they use actual string and included a few arrows or something. She doesn’t even have another head like Edge.
As I’ve said in previous reviews, I think that PA is really in the lead when it comes to female figures. They’ve found this perfect balance between sculpt and articulation, and unlike the big two, they’re always improving. The Ashe figure was a huge improvement on the FVII figures, and these sport some of the same things that made that toy so excellent, plus a few new ones.
For one, they have elbow joints that allow their arms to go past the 45 degree point. It’s not a double hinge joint, but hell, it’s almost as good, not to mention a hell of a lot sturdier.
The knees as well share that same extra range, making for very satisfying articulation. Unfortunately, due to his skirt, Edge’s leg movement is severly limited. The skirt is made up of a dense, soft plastic that doesn’t really bend. This blocks his hips. I don’t think there was much they could have done here, but it does annoy.
Reimi fares better since her “skirts” are articulated and you can move the pieces out of the way of her thighs.
I can’t recommend these toys for everyone. I got my Star Ocean set for Php3,800 (about $85) at Best Toys. Make no mistake, these figures are not for the Buy One Take One crowd. The level of detail and quality of the design, not to mention relatively low runs and the fact that they are imports, make these prohibitively expensive for many collectors. Shops don’t often carry many. I’ve only seen Edge twice in Greenhills, and the Reimi I bought was the only one I’ve seen locally.
However, if you’re a fan of Japanese video games and have about Php2000 to spare, take a look at the new Play Arts line up. Several of the toy stores in Greenhills have the new Final Fantasy figures for pre-order, and you can still find the older toys at Best. It’s not advisable to be a completist of the Play Arts Kai line, but with the new products Square Enix has in store for 2010, you’re definitely going to want to cherry pick a few good ones.
If you're looking for biased, one-sided views of toys and other assorted geekery, then you're in the right place. If you want objective, you'll need a blog written by someone who isn't an obsessive geek.
These are my views on various toys, movies, places, and things, along with assorted pictures and the the occasional link to stuff I find sufficiently geeky.
Enjoy your stay and leave a comment.
Slangards
I may give you a half-way serious answer.
