Did some Christmas shopping tonight and stopped by the Xmas Toyfair. Got 2 Sigma6 figures, Revoltech Hot Rod & Starscream, 2 Joker Thugs to custom (thanks to freakenstein!), an Ironman Movie Stealth Operations Armor, an Activators Grimlock (only php250! ok ok not sale price, but didn’t have to fight for it or hunt it down so win) and 2 small Stitch . Here are some of the nice stuff I saw (MOC unless stated):
Not a whole lot of Transformers product other than what you’ll see at the vendors normal stalls in Greenhills. Saw some Burning Fallens though, and the usual movie figures. As always, Rtoys has a lot of TF deals.
The December Toy Con will run from December 16-22, 2009 at the Megatrade Hall 3, SM Megamall. Entrance is php30.00.
DC Universe Classics Wave 10
Batman, Joker, Man-bat, & Imperiex
Before you read this review, you’ll need to go back and stop by my review of the first half of DCUC 10. With a full 8 figures in this wave of toys (and since I’m such a lazy bastard) I had to break them up into manageble groups. I suppose I could have just done one paragraph on each, but in addition to being a lazy bastard, I also can’t leave well enough alone.
So what do we have left? There were 7 figures in the Tenth DC Universe Classics series. I’ve already gone over Beast Boy, Forager, Power Girl, and Robotman. Today we’ll go over the Build-a-Figure (or fine, the Collect-n-Connect figure) and the 3 Batman related figures.
These 3 figures are really the reason I got this set. After hearing that the wave would be a Walmart exclusive, I was on the boards at PinoyToyKolektor checking out who had them, how much, and when they’d arrive. I was determined not to let Joker, Man-bat, and the Tim Burton Batman slip through my fingers this time. It was only after I had secured my set that news started filtering in that it wasn’t as hard to find here in the Philippines as I first thought.
Apparently, CADS Toystore brought in quite a few sets and released them during their Christmas Sale. They singles of The Joker (php1000) and Man-bat (php2500). Since I don’t really know any of the other figures in this set, and Bats will probably be the peg-warmer in this bunch, I probably could have cherry picked the 3 out of the set without getting saddled with the rest, but I’m glad I went this way, since I’m really starting to like this toy line. Still, that’s good news for collectors, since it won’t be that hard to get your own figure. I hear that stocks are surprisingly good in Walmarts in the States, too, unlike the Metallo wave, which was only available in theoretically universes.
We’ll start with Batman since he is the favored peg-warmer among the bunch. He’s been released several times already in other colors (most of which are closer to comic canon than this one), doesn’t come with any must have accessories or modifications, and comes with the most useless piece of the build a figure puzzle; the figure stand. I mean really, this figure stand will barely fit a standard DCUC figure, let alone the big guys. What’s the point? To include another figure in the assortment, that’s what. Of course it kind of backfires when you decide to stick it with a figure most collectors will pretty much ignore.
Me though, my biggest exposure to Batman has always been the movies. I fell in love with the Tim Burton/ Michael Keaton Batman and if ever I was going to own a Batman toy, it was going to be one in the black and yellow, not the boring gray.
Sculpt wise, this bats doesn’t seem to be much different from the first DCUC Batman. And the second. And the third. It’s a nice looking body, perfectly heroic as befits a Dark Knight. He’s not a hulking brute or a skinny fella. He’s just the right amount of beefcake to look like he could slap you around and hold you off the side of a building for a few hours.
The suit is very nice. Simple, but with sculpted boots and gloves. There are some great looking wrinkles of cloth sculpted in so he doesn’t look totally like a flat, smooth, spandex-wrapped sausage. The cape is also nicely done, with great looking folds designed into it, and that nice scalloped edge with the points. So kewl.
I do have to gripe though that all that attention to the cape has made it way too heavy. The numerous folds mean that there is a good amount of plastic to support each of them. DCUC Batman is stupidly back heavy and for most poses, you’ll either need to use the support of a stand, or to use the cape itself as the support. It’s actually pretty sturdy, so it will take his weight pretty well.
Paint is pretty much what you’d expect from a figure that’s almost all black. He’s cast in a glossy black plastic so there’s barely anything that needs to be colored. Basically it’s the yellow bat sign (which was spotless in mine), his belt (some squiggly register lines and slop), and his face. The face is pretty good. Square-jawed and stoic, just like he’s supposed to be.
He’s got two accessories (not including that superfluous stand); a batarang and a bat-laptop. Neither are particularly appealing. The batarang fits pretty well in his hand if he’s just being displayed, but you’re going to want to watch it. If he drops from your shelf, that thing will fly out of his hand and you’ll probably never see it again. It’s got some funky techno baubles sculpted into it. They’re not really bad, but I’d have preferred a regular sleek batarang.
The bat-laptop. Remember the old TV series with Adam West? ’nuff said.
Articulation is good, though Batman, like Daredevil, deserves a few double hinge joints here and there. I know, I know: DCUC articulation is standard because they use standardized bodies for every character, but a guy can dream.
Really, the DCUC standard joints are a welcome counter to DC Direct’s non-poseble statues. He’s got about 16 points of articulation, and that will give you some decent poses, but don’t expect him to kneel down.
The Joker is one of the big draws of the wave, and if you don’t have one in your collection, odds are this is the best you’re going to get in this scale.
Joker’s sculpt is amazing, far better than most action figures I’ve seen. Just look at this guy’s face:
How could you not love it?
The rest of his body is a repaint of the Gentlemen Ghost body (which I have yet to find at a good price) with a few additional things. The flower is an awesome little detail I really like. He’s also got spats on his shoes, which I’m not sure were on the original. The whole thing works perfectly for the Clown Price of Crime though.
His articulation is pretty much the same as Bats’, though his torso is a bit hampered by the waistcoat. But then when was the Joker really know for doing back flips?
You will need a stand to pose him in some of the more dynamic poses, as his footpring is relatively small compared to his mass. This might be a good time to break out that heretofore useless figure stand.
As for accessories, he’s got the most of any of the wave. A cane with a joker head, a joke mallet, a few joker cards, and a fish?!
That’s right. A fish.
It probably has something to do with an obscure story reference that I don’t get. They’re all sculpted well, and they’ve got some paint applications, but the mallet has none. It’s left in the cast color of the plastic, a bright green. Depending on how you look at it, this is a good thing (looks like a toy mallet) or a bad thing (looks fake).
Last up is Man-bat, the antithesis of Batman. This guy is awesome, and that awesome can pretty much be seen by looking at him.
He is a bit different from the regular DCUC figures though in that he doesn’t have any sideways movement in the hip. He’s a repaint of an earlier figure, before DC figures evolved that particular joint. As a result, the lower portion of his body doesn’t really move much; he’s basically going to be standing on your shelf in perpetuity. But since he does such a good job of that, there won’t be many complaining.
Upper arm articulation and the neck are both excellent, allowing a wide range. Paint is pretty decent, though you may notice that the ribs of his wings were kind of given a once over with a brush. The color doesn’t really match the rib, but it’s not really THAT noticeable. The whole wing is made up of a transluscent plastic that allows light through, which means the rest of the arm is probably just painted over. It’s great that the brown on his arms then, matches the rest of him. In the past, many toys had that problm.
But wait!
We forgot the Collect And Connect figure, or CnC, Imperiex. This is actually the first CnC I own, since I had been mainly focusing on Marvel Legends and their Build-a-Figure series.
Since Imperiex isn’t a well-known character (or at least not a household name), here’s some background. He was created in 2000 by Loeb and Churchhill for the “Our Worlds At War” crossover. He is the embodiment of entropy and attacked Earth for to use it as a staging ground for the destruction of the galaxy. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Sigh. Crossovers.
Whatever his origins, this toy is pretty great. It’s big, well articulated, and mean looking. The head is all scarred and wrinkled like a prune, probably because of all that entopolicious energy that he is busy embodying. It makes him look ornery. Grrr.
The joints are mostly limited due to his size, but again the combination DCUC joints are really what give him such playability. The articulation is much better than say the Red Hulk BAF.
He does have that skirt, and normally, this would limit his hip movement, and it does. But the limitation is much less than expected since the designers were able to provide a little room in his shorts. They basically made his pants two sizes bigger, providing that extra space for little Imperiex and friends to wiggle around. Really great work there.
Despite the bulk the extra large armor provides, he still seems a bit small. In the wiki articles, he’s supposed to be massive. Art shows him towering above Superman. If you’ve seen the Infinite Crisis Mongul, or the Legendary Comic Book Heroes… well it’s a nice pipe dream, but I think we’re far past BAFs that could properly “tower”. Now they kind of stand on their tip-toes and “second floor”.
Paintwise, you might encounter some slop when it comes to the fine register lines required on the gold on black piping. But then, considering you can’t really see the parts in the package and cherry pick which part you get, it’s pretty much luck of the draw.
Also read the following reviews:
DC Universe Classics Wave 10 - Part 1
DCUC 6 Hawkman Review
DCUC Wave 4 Wonder Woman
DCUC Wave 8 Hawkgirl
DC Direct Nightwing & Flamebird
DC Universe Classics Wave 10
Forager, Power Girl
Beast Boy, and Robotman
Exclusives suck.
Sad to say, DC Universe Classics Wave 10 (DCUC 10) or the “Imperiex Wave” is a Walmart exclusive. Since the closest Walmart to me is about 8,113 miles away (I checked), this poses certain problems. Since I neither have the gift of flight, nor access to a Federation Starship, I was pretty much shit outta luck. Good thing Pinoy collectors seem to have a nice sense of community. Like my DCUC 9 Green Arrow & Black Canary One of the guys on PinoyToyKolektors was good enough to sell me a DCUC 10 set. What’s more, it was his own personal set. Since he had other figures coming in, he offered to go ahead and sell me the ones he had on had. I can’t thank him enough.
The reason I wanted this particular wave so bad was that there are really only 2 groups I wanted to collect from DC; characters I liked from the JLA and JLU cartoon series, and Batman characters. Since this set includes a Batman, Joker, and Manbat, that set it right up there with that 4-pack with Catwoman and Two Face.
Before I actually got the toys in hand, I was going to sell off the other figures in the wave; Forager, Robotman, Beast Boy, and Power Girl, along with the Build-A-Figure (BAF) (I refuse to call it a Collect-And-Connect figure because that’s a whole extra word and a silly sounding acronym). But then I opened them up and I got to tell you, I’m sold on Mattel. With the Marvel Legends scale dying out, DCUC are the superhero toys to buy. 4″ figures are kind of neat, but there’s just something about that extra 2″ that makes a toy more fun to handle and play with.
Dead Shot isn’t part of the set, but I got him the same time I picked up DCUC 10 so he was drafted into the photos. As you can see, nothing has really changed from the first wave of DCUC figures to this set. 10 waves strong and the packaging still feels good to me.
It’s not as functional as say GI Joe Sigma 6, or as space saving as NECA clamshells, but they are easily identifiable, sturdy, and can be opened with a minimum of fuss. Thankfully, each figure has only about 3 or 4 twisties and maybe 2 of those clear rubber bands. Have your penknives and nail clippers handy. Each of the figures is boxed in a nice action pose that shows off the points of articulation, which is a nice change from earlier waves.
I decided to start with the non Batman figures first, saving the best for last. The weird thing was, the more I played with these unknowns (to me), the more I found myself enjoying them.
Robotman was the first I opened, since he’s well, a robot. I love robots. As a Transformers geek, robots were the first toy I owned and the first on my priority list now.
From what I can tell, he’s just a standard DCUC body with some re-tooling on the upper torso, head, and hands. There isn’t much detail needed seeing as how he’s mostly smooth all over, but he’s got some interesting doodads attached to him.
Articulation is the same as all DCUC males, with hinge and swivel joints all around. The only functional ball joints he’s got are the ones on his shoulders. Technically, his head is on a balljoint, but the much talked about 3-balled post that connects the head to the neck has killed any upward and downward movement. It’s basically just side to side now.
I like the finish on him. His whole body is basically just one color. Except for the control box on his chest and his biking pants, he’s a nice orange bronzey color. I’m not entirely sure that it’s paint (he’s still a very lightweight figure), but it has a nice dull shine to it. With the amount of real estate that the color covers, it’s probably just the plastic they used. One really great thing is that he has painted eyes. Very nice.
The biggest surprise I had was that you could open up his skullpan and touch his brain. It’s something totally unexpected for me (I’m sure those who read Doom Patrol would have realized it, but I don’t) and a nice touch from Mattel. Probably not entirely necessary, but considering who expensive these are getting, the effort is appreciated.
Next is Beast Boy.
That name never fails to get a lol out of me. Beast Boy. It’s ridiculous. Sure Marvel’s got Spider-Man and Doctor Strange and Captain America, but they all just have a more respectable ring to it. Beast Boy sounds like some kind of superhero fetish actor.
The figure however is pretty solid. Like all of the others, articulation is decent, if not the best. I’d love to see double knees and elbows, or the current Play Arts joints on these guys, but what they have is serviceable. Paint is nice, again with very little areas to comment on. Purple is purple, green is green, and black is where it’s supposed to be. It’s a very nice combination; pleasant on my eyes. He almost looks like a character from The Incredible Hulk universe.
The main difference with Beast Boy is his height. He’s a short fella, at least a head shorter than the rest of the line. A total squirt. Compared to the rest of this line, he’s the one that seems to be the least value since he masses less than any of the other figures, except maybe Power Girl.
Mattel tries to make up for this with the inclusion of an accessory; a green falcon. It’s got some articulation points. Two. If you’re persistant, you can perch it on someone’s wrist, but the claws aren’t really made to be useful. It’s ok, but considering he doesn’t come with a big piece of the BAF, they probably should have given us a wolf or something.
Of the entire DCUC10 set, Power Girl is probably the one I’m most dissappointed in. Although I love the Four Horsemen male sculpts, I haven’t seen any nice female figures. Wonder Woman is the closest I’ve seen, but there are still problems. Their foreheads are huge for one. Then there’s their faces, which are all flat. What’s wrong with noses? Wonder Woman should have a nose. She’s Greek. The worst thing is that they are all far too skinny.
That last problem is really apparent here. Power Girl (at least in the artwork I’ve seen of her) is always portrayed with a body builder’s physique, or at least a female professional wrestler. While I don’t really go for that in real life, the artwork always made it seem like a good fit. The standard DCUC body just doesn’t work for the superheroines that are supposed to have super strength.
Articulation is pretty poor compared to the males. This might have been understandable. Sacrifices were made (especially in the hip area) to give way to sculpt and allow for a smooth feminine silhouette. Unfortunately, since this is by no means a pretty toy, the effort is rendered wasted.
I also hate that she has short hair, but still can’t look up when she’s flying. Superstrength and flight. Those are her powers and neither is allowed to show through in this figure.
Sad to say, you can’t even switch heads with the nicer looking DC Direct figures. The old heads are too big and the neck on the new DCUC is too small.
I do like her sculpted cape though.
The last non-Batman figure is Forager.
From what I gather from the back of the card, he’s a bug that evolved into a kick-ass superhero. o-kay.
Not a fan of the New Gods stuff I’ve got to say. Their costumes are about as lame as Beast Boy’s name, and they have a generally wacky look to them. Forager’s perpetually surprised expression pretty much cinches my argument.
That said, I really had fun with Forager. That slack-jawed look is very good for silly pictures and the nice additions they made to the standard body makes it very unique. He’s got a weapon and sheild for one. The sheild is suprisingly secure, but comes off easily. The rubber skirt and collar don’t resrict movement as they do on other figures and are sufficiently thin to bend. If you’re willing to boil and pop his head, you can even take off his shoulder gear, bandolier, and shield and pose him on his day off.
– to be continued…
Also read the following reviews:
DCUC 6 Hawkman Review
DCUC Wave 4 Wonder Woman
DCUC Wave 8 Hawkgirl
DC Direct Nightwing & Flamebird
Ashe & Gabranth
As you can tell from my FF AC series 1 review, my FF XII preview, and my Daytona Hardy vs. Fenrir review, I’m a big fan of the Play Arts Final Fantasy (PA FF) line. They boast the best female action figure sculpts of any toy line, have fabulously detailed costumes and accessories, functional articulation, and include the best figure stands I’ve come across in my 4 years of collecting. Their only drawback is their relatively high price tags, but since they are such high quality figures, this is acceptable. Considering that 4″ to 6″ Figma and Revoltech figures cost the same, an 8″ figure for php1,500 - php2,000 isn’t ridiculous.
Back when the FF XII toys came out, they were readily available, warming shelves of Toys R Us and Toy Kingdom alike. Their php2,500 price tag was one of the reasons (which was odd, considering 2Rats, the distributor, sold them at less), but I think it was mostly due to the fact that people went out and bought the Judge Gabranth figure and left the rest of set. I’m one of those collectors, that while not a “completist”, still wants ALL of a set or NONE AT ALL. Without a Gabranth I wasn’t going to pick up the rest of them.
Then I was lucky enough to find a Gabranth for sale online. SCORE! It was too bad that by this time, the other figures had been discounted and people were again buying. Argh. I spent some time tracking down an Ashe figure which was the second one to disappear from the shelves, but eventually found it in Eastwood. Word to the wise. Look around the shops before you buy. I picked mine up for php2,000 at Toy Town, and then found another not a block over at 2Rats for php1,500. Massive headpalmage.
Both of the figures come in the box that has become the standard for PA figures, as well as the new Square Enix lines. It’s pretty sturdy, shows off the figure well, and is thankfully lacking in twist ties. You can just cut the seal, pop it open and pull out the tray. Then you just need to open it up and the figure falls out. I tell you, after you’ve opened a bunch of Marvel Legends or Transformer toys, this is a huge relief.
The box is awfully plain though. On the back it’s got some Japanese text and a photo of the toy in about the most unimaginative pose ever, with insets of the other 3 toys in the line. No great thing; the box is functional, so It doesn’t bother me. You’ll need to watch out when buying PA FF toys though. There are a lot of reports of bootleg copies of some of them on the market, and it’s hard to tell. I haven’t heard much about this particular sub-line, but you’ll want to check to make sure that the box is sealed with round clear tape pieces rather than plain scotch tape, has clean paint applications on the face, and that the photos on the back are clear and don’t have funny color hues.
After the relatively dreary Advent Children, Ashe is a a sight for sore eyes. Don’t get me wrong, I love the dark tone of AC, but if you’re displaying all that black plastic together, people get the wrong idea. It’s nice that the character design of FF XII is so much brighter, and more detailed. Granted, it’s a matter of opinion though. Another way of looking at it is that Ashe looks like a Jeepney driver went and dolled up her wardrobe.
She comes with a few things. First is the PA figure stand. I love these things and always always always have a few of them on my shelf somewhere, supporting either these figures, my Marvel Legends/Universe figures, or DCUC figures. The classic black is just much much better looking than the silly clear stands that we were stuck with from the Legends line and the wire claws don’t require holes in the back of the figure to use like Figma stands. They’re also not as annoyingly fragile as my Fraulien Revoltech stands.
And they allow poses like this:
Her sword is the second accesory and boy, is it nice. It is highly detailed, with sculptural details all over. There’s a nice blue “crystal” near the point that adds a nice accent to it. It’s a very good example of the things that I’d like to see included with other toys lines. No more Stupidly Big Guns please.
One of the problems with the FF VII AC line was that their weapons were hard to get in and out of their hands. If you wanted to pose Cloud without the Buster Sword, you were in for some grunting and could expect some paint transfer from the hilt to his fingers because it was such a snug fit. Thankfully, they’ve gone another way here, making the hand loose, and just adding a small post on the palm that fits into a hole on the hilt. It’s unobtrusive and holds the weapon in place fairly well.
The last accessory is her hands. She’s got two that are sculpted into fists instead of open hands. Not so great, but a nice include. I really don’t use them at all and they went into my bits box straight away.
The best thing about Ashe is the new articulation that PA worked out. It’s more of a refinement actually, allowing the elbow and knee joints to move past the 45 degree mark. It’s beautifully done and you don’t even notice it at all until you’re playing with it and it’s brought to your attention.
The rest of her has the standard PA articulation, along with hinge ankles, rocker feet, ball-jointed hips (somewhat limited by her skirt), ball-jointed shoulders, and swivel arms, wrists, and thighs. She’s also got a ball-joint in her torso I think, as well as one for a neck. Both of the last are hampered by the sculpt though, so not as much use as you’d want.
The other figure I got was Judge Gabranth. I’ll leave it to you to wiki this guy, but he’s a monster. The figure itself is HEAVY. The first time I took it out of the box, it was the first thing that struck me. The second was the sculpt; again amazing. The armor on this guy is really finely detailed and looks more like a statue than a action figure. The paint lends itself well to the armor, with gold accents that look like they’re supposed to be filigree. It’s really impressive.
The two swords he comes with are just as detailed as Ashe’s. He has one large sword and a smaller dagger (which would be a two-handed blade on anyone else), both with the same level of detail as that of the other figure. You can even connect the two together if you want to form a sort of naginta/staff thingie. Very cool. It’s got the same post/hole system that the other figures use as well.
The big problem with Gabranth though is articulation. He doesn’t have it. Sure he has the joints, but because of his mass, a lot of that is blocked with various plastic obstructions. It’s a trade off I’ve come to expect from bigger figures. You can write it off as “knight in armor, so he’s weighed down, right?”.
Another thing is that their weapons are delicate. I found out the hard way when I snapped one of his swords in two. Not one of my favorite moments. Thank god for superglue.
These two figures are definitely worth the purchase, especially if you’re able to get them at the php1,500 price. Expect to pay more for Gabranth. I normally see him at php2,000 or so online.
Final Fantasy VII
Advent Children Series 1
I loved Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.
I didn’t UNDERSTAND it, but the whole thing just wowed me. From the amazing fight scenes, to the digital eye-candy, to the unbelievable hotness that is Tifa, Advent Children (FF VII AC) is one of the best examples of CGI animation I’ve seen.
Understand that I have never played the game. Ostensibly, it’s about one guy who is a little forgetful going up against another guy who’s a little pissed at the world. In between there’s some silliness about Gaia and earth magic and a disease and ghosts. At least that’s what I gathered after several viewings and some time on the Net. It’s all very convoluted and totally Japanese. Some of them can design awesome stuff, but I can’t stand their storytelling mores.
Thankfully, you don’t need to follow any continuity to appreciate Playarts’ 8″ scale action figures based on FF VII AC. Now before we get to far in, let me warn you that these are NOT regularly available. They were produced about 4 or 5 years ago and not in large quantities. The number that was shipped here was low as well. If you’re here in the Philippines, note that these ran about php1500 each 3 or 4 years ago. Now they’ll easily be php2500 and up, especially for Tifa. And that’s only if you can FIND them. They’re scooped up as soon as any specialty store is able to find one. If you’re in the States, I think you’ll need to import them and they don’t come cheap.
Why so expensive? Quality. Fine materials, useful articulation, great accessories that are relavant, and a fantastic sculpt. It really is a shame that they don’t make toys for other video game licenses. I love NECA and all but they don’t make a lot of female figures and their male one’s tend toward Schwarzenneger proportions rather than Bruce Lee. It can get boring.
Final Fantasy line provides some much needed variety. Unlike the other installments, FF VII has gotten more attention from Playart. Aside from this wave, VII has had another wave of figures based on the character designs from the game, plus 2 more waves of figures from the Advent Children line, and a few from the Kingdom Hearts crossover. I really only have the first set, since I keep putting off the others. I’m definitely looking forward to their FF XIII set.
The first figure I got from their XVII AC set was Tifa Lockheart. At the time, she was already getting popular, always disappearing whenever the set was shelved, leaving her wave mates on the shelf. It’s not surprising at all since she is by far my favorite Playarts figure ever. That includes the X-2 YuRiPa set.
Like all the XVII AC figures, she’s dressed primarily in black. Not a bad thing really since the whole movie was pretty depressing. The sculpt is excellent, with proportions that look very close to real. She does have the requisite extra large bra size, but they’re not idiotically big. Her legs are also the normal length, not too super model long. Mattel could learn a ton from studying this figure for their DCUC female bodies.
Articulation is quite frankly, amazing. Though her legs are a little limited due to Playart’s funky hip design that doens’t allow a lot of sideways motion, the rest of the joint work allows her to strike some fierce poses. The lunging ones are probably the best, and coupled with her insanely useful foot articulation (it’s as good as a ball joint, and you can tilt the sole of her shoe!), and lower center of gravity, she’s probably the most stable among all four figures.
There are some bad points. Her knees for one look awful, no matter what you do with them. Then there is the aforementioned lack of side ways motion in the hips. If they had also taken some time to make the hinge joints go back more than 45 degrees, that would have been great too.
The biggest dissappointment is that her face lacks any emotion at all. It’s a trait she shares with almost every other figure on the line. It would definitely have benefited from a smirk or something, or maybe an extra head that was screaming with hair flowing in the wind. Anything to make her seem more forceful.
Next was Sephiroth. I don’t really understand why female video game and anime fans love this guy so much. He looks like a dark prince of S&M with the long hair and all the black leather straps and buckles and whatnot. I guess it’s the bad boy thing coupled with their facination with yaoi and that bishounen aesthetic. Me it’s just, “dude looks like a lady, dude”.
That being said, Sephiroth is a great toy. For one, he towers over the rest of the figures. This guy could play basketball if he, you know, lost the hair and the leather. He stands a good head above Tifa and Cloud.
His main accessory is the Masamune sword. Named for Japan’s greatest swordsmith, it’s almost as tall as it’s owner! It’s also very thin and I keep thinking I’m going to break it. His articulation does allow him to hold the nodachi two-handed in several positions, so that’s great.
Articulation is sub-par, mainly because the his shoulder armor limits the arms and his leather coat limits his lower body. The coat is made up of a pretty durable rubber-like material that doesn’t really have any give to it. It prevents the legs from going anywhere.
In addition to that, he’s also got pretty loose feet and ankle joints and his footprint/mass ratio is all wonky. He’s a sonofapregnantdog to pose, since he’s constantly falling an his ass.
After that, I got the Cloud/Fenrir boxset. It took me awhile to track one down at a good price. At the time, people were selling it for php4,000 to php5,000. I was just starting in the hobby and my job, and there was no way I was paying that much for this thing. Of course, NOW that’s pretty much par for course. I’m considering dropping that much so I can get a transparent version of a Transformer I already have, and it’s only about 6″ big. Anyway, I finally got it for php2,500.00 and a local anime convention. Score! Nowadays, it’s back to the old price.
I’ve already reviewed this set before , so I won’t go into to much detail. Suffice to say, it’s made of awesome and is totally worth the price.
Here are pictures though:
The last one I found was Vincent. I was never sure I was going to pick him up since he’s not red. You remember that “Which-on-of-these-doesn’t-belong” song they sung on Seasame Street. Yeah.
But then I saw him for php1,500.00 (this was several years after the first one and this was the first time I had seen him in a long time). Why not complete the set?
He displays great with the team, but he’s got to be my least favorite PA figure in my collection. Remember Sephiroth’s problem with the coat? Well Vincent has it too, only this time it affects his arms. They’re basically stuck at his sides. He can raise his elbow, but it looks stupid to have that awesome Cerberus fired from the hip. He also shares the same footprint/mass ratio problem. Grrrr…
Another thing that came up about 2 years after I bought him was that his legs keep FALLING OFF! I don’t know if it was a factory defect, or faulty low quality material on the hip joint, or if I maybe have a bootleg copy and don’t know, but with the way he’s put together, it is the suck trying to glue it back together.
So, bottomline? If you have a lot of disposable income and want to have some high quality toys to display, this is your line. You can even expand it with about 4 or 5 other figures that came out a couple of years after this one. If you’re not satisfied with their included extra hands and weapons, you can even track down the extra weapons set for these figures, but that’s going to cost you almost as much as the figures themselves.
IF you can find them. Good luck.
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.
