Figma

Figma – Widowmaker

I never thought I would actually manage to get caught up on something around here but here I am, caught up on Overwatch Figmas. The last of the four released so far that I have yet to talk about is Widowmaker. I almost didn’t order Widowmaker. I hate Snipers in the game and don’t really play Widowmaker at all. I wanna say it was a slow month anyway for pre orders, so I decided to go ahead and let it ride out.

I’m kind of glad I did, because she’s a really great release for the line. She has all of the Aesthetic balance of say Reaper, with proper pose-ability like Genji, minus the weird quirks of Genji. Plus a ton of really nice and appropriate accessories. Hell the accessories are really kind fo what makes this figure for me.

The rifle is the big one. In the game, Widowmaker’s Sniper Rifle coppalses into a machine gun. It probably would have been easier to just include two guns I suppose, but instead, you get one gun with interchangeable parts. The barrel swaps on and off and there is an attachable scope piece. It all fits together great and works well for the effect.

Another one of her abilities is her arm mounted grappling hook. The figure includes a separate forearm piece with a hook attached. The nice part is this makes it really stable to allow her to hang from it for posing if desired.

She also includes her poison spider mine and an additional swap out part for her X-Ray thermal goggles ultimate ability. There aren’t a ton of parts, but they handle the gamut of her abilities superbly. She also has enough pose-ability to properly handle all of the various accessories properly.

So, regardless of my problems with Snipers in game, the figure is really nice. She also fills a nice roll along side Reaper and Sombra to filling out the Talon team.

Figma – Genji

May 22nd, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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The second release in the Figma line for Overwatch was Genji. Tracer being the poster child for Overwatch made sense for release number one, Genji kind of makes sense for release two. He is a pretty bad ass ninja, his robotic design lends itself to being highly articulated, and he looks like a sentai warrior. I don’t really know how popular Overwatch is in Japan, but Figma IS a Japanese toy line, so that audience is sort of the primary audience.

Genji actually is quite a departure from Tracer. I mentioned how his cyborg design works for the articulation, and it definitely shows, he is quite a bit more articulated than Tracer. Almost too articulated if that’s possible (side note, it is, look at any AY Revo). He neck and shoulders in particular have a sort of double ball set up going that let them extend quite a bit. It actually makes his shoulders look odd at times and his neck definitely feels too long if you are looking at it from the wrong angle.

Genji also has a lot more interesting accessories than Tracer. Tracer got a couple of guns and her pulse bomb. Genji has his Dragon Blade, his smaller dagger weapon and a neat effect part of his stars being thrown. There are also scabbards for both blades on his back, though neither actually holds a blade. Instead they each have removable handle bits, for when the blade weapons are being held.

He looks great holding his swords. His articulation allows you to do all sorts of sword wielding poses as well, both single and dual wielding. The ninja star effect part is neat, but the weight and looseness of some of the joints make it tricky to pose at times. Plus it kind of vanishes into the flatness of itself when looked at straight on.

He is quite a bit larger than Tracer as well. The added weight and larger feet allow him to stand pretty well even without his stand, something that’s kind of a problem for Tracer.

Despite his wonky joints, Genji is probably one of the better releases for the Overwatch Figmas so far (as of this post). Aesthetically Widowmaker is a bit nicer but in terms of pose-ability and fun factor, Genji is better than Widowmaker.

Figma – Reaper

May 1st, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have to admit, I am super behind in talking about these various Overwatch figures, and a lot of figures in general. There’s various factors, but mostly I just, haven’t done it. Instead of catching up on Genji and Widowmaker and various Nendoroids, I’m going to just jump ahead here with Figma Reaper.

Reaper is quite a different toy than the previous Overwatch Figmas. Tracer, Genji and Widowmaker are all considerably more mobile in their overall look and design. Reaper is quite a bit bulkier than the previously released characters. He also has a lot more greebley detail going on on his body. Genji has a fair amount of this but Widowmaker and Tracer are basically wearing body suits.

All of this detailing is nice and crisp. His spikes are pretty sharp, for example. His coat has some articulated segmented parts to it so it can be posed draping or more flowing. His design unfortunately doesn’t lend itself to much posing though. The coat does hinder his hips a bit and his belts and straps hinder things a bit more. His armored lower legs kind of get int he way of his feet articulation as well and his shoulders are kind of bulky as well. Reaper isn’t really a ninja though, so not being able to do a ton of super dynamic poses isn’t really a huge loss and he makes up for it with detail.

Probably the biggest issue with articulation involves his head. The head itself is fine, but the hood piece attaches to the body in the front and back. This limits how much you can have him look side to side a lot. With the hood attached, his face is obscured. Or, you can detach the hood, but it then will just rest on his head, and it will reveal the huge peg holes and pegs. I kind of wish the hood were simply attached to the head itself.

He also feels a little light on accessories, but I think part of this is because both Genji and Widowmaker were pretty good for accessories. I mean, count wise, it probably has just as many extra pieces, and I m not sure what else they could have given him side from maybe some wraith form legs, but that would have probably doubled the price. What he has are an assortment of hands, a transparent effect that can sort of be used for any of his abilities (Wraith form, teleport, or Death Blossom), his two shotguns and some effect parts for his shotguns.

Speaking of his shotguns. They look right, and good, but man, having a physical version of this character kind of makes it obvious how ridiculous his design is. Dual wielding these two HUGE guns is kind of silly looking.

Don’t misunderstand me here, this is a good representation overall of Reaper. It just sort of makes the design flaws of Reaper really obvious when you have a little 3D version of him on a table in front of you.

Figma – Tracer

Nov 28th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have this incredible love/hate relationship with Overwatch. I do enjoy the game and the characters, but I kind of hate a lot of aspects of the game play. There are a lot of annoying balance issues going on right now. I also feel like the lack of community servers still really hurts the game and the ability to get over a lot of it’s flaws by at least playing with fun people regularly. This isn’t really supposed to be a rant about Overwatch though, it’s about Figma Tracer.

Good Smile Company has two main lines and a bunch of other sub lines, they are producing Overwatch figures for the two primary lines, Nindoroid and Figma. Both lines offered Tracer as their initial offering, though so far the Nendoroid line is far outpacing the Figma line in terms of releases. Where Nendoroid Tracer is a stylized Chibi version of the face of Overwatch, the Figma is much closer to the likeness you’d see in game.

Unfortunately it’s not a perfect likeness. The worst offense on this toy is the face. It’s just… off… all over. It’s almost like it’s a sort of bizarre bishoujo version of Tracer. There is definitely too much “anime” in the sculpt. I mean, Overwatch is pretty heavily cartoon in it’s stylization, but it’s not manga styled. It’s kind of funny because the Nendoroid version almost looks more like Tracer in the face, despite the goofy proportions.

The Nendoroid also has some accessories that the larger version really should have included as well, even if they were straight up the same pieces. Aside from the obvious blink streak included with the Nendo, the Nendo also has the little flippy hair piece on it’s head, which was a nice little fun touch. The pegs on the stands aren’t the same size at all, so there isn’t even a way to use the blink effect piece with the Figma. Also notable, is that the guns are not the same between the two figures, though they are pretty close to being the same size. Aside from the guns, Tracer includes some alternate faces and a decent selection of hands and her pulse bomb.

I also have a bit of an issue with the poseability of the figure. It’s pretty good, except for the hips, which are extremely limited by the design and the belt straps. I’m not sure what could have been changed but the knees also don’t bend as far as they could. Basically, a little more bend all around in the legs could have really helped Tracer pull off some of her signature poses better. The “real” straps are nice, but I can’t help but think sculpted straps might have allowed a bit more range of motion.

Tracer is decent, overall, though I honestly think I like the Nendoroid more. At the moment it’s the best Tracer figure available, but Hasbro has recently announced a new line of Overwatch based figures coming, and you can bet it will include Tracer. Figma Tracer isn’t a bad figure, but it could have been better without that totally off face sculpt.

Figma – Stand Alone Complex Motoko Kusanagi

Mar 22nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Ghost in the Shell’s Motoko Kusanagi is kind of a hard one to pin down for a real “definitive look”. Unlike a lot of anime, cartoon, or even comic characters, she has had a pretty wide array of styles over her various movies and shows. There is a general theme of “tough” and “short purple hair”. Aside from that there have been a variety of tactical suits, jackets, and various spandex sort of outfits. This particular figure is based on the Stand Alone Complex Anime series. Stand Alone complex is an alternate timeline version of the story from the popular movie and manga, Ghost in the Shell.

There aren’t any particularly great figures of Motoko from the original series from what I can tell. I haven’t really seen any of Stand Alone complex though I like the original movie and have read some of the manga. Of the various versions of Motoko available, I felt this one more capture the essence of what I personally think of as the character, though this design feels “younger” and a bit more, anime, for lack of a better term, than I’d really prefer.

It’s a decent design though and the sculpt and articulations are pretty clean. There’s something a little funny going on with the articulation I can’t quite place though. It works well enough for posing, but she kind of looks a little wonkey in some poses, like things don’t quite line up naturally.

Motoko includes 5 sets of hands in various poses, a Figma stand, three faces (smiling, frowning, yelling), two hairs (one is “windswept”), a pistol, an assault rifle, and an extra set of boobs. I’m not entirely sure about the boobs, I think one is slightly larger but they look really the same. Several of the hands are pretty specialized around holding the weapons, in particular the special right hands for holding each gun.

Figma Motoko has a problem I’ve encountered with the few Figma toys that I do have. Her hair falls off way to easily. If you lean her forward at all the hair has a good chance of slipping right off her face. It’s a good sized chunk, so it’s easy to find if it falls, but it’s kind of a nuisance.

So overall verdict, it’s an alright figure, like a lot of the line, but it’s not quite the version of The Major I wish I had. I’m kind of hoping that the live action Ghost in the Shell movie will see a bit of a resurgence in merchandise and some more, better figures. I’d love to get a Batou to go with Motko. I am also kind of surprised there aren’t more SH Figuarts from Ghost in the Shell, considering Bandai makes Figuarts and owns the rights to GitS. That’s probably one of those screwy “The media company is different than the products company” deals.