Figuarts

S.H. Figuarts – The Rock

I’m going to be straight up honest. I don’t have any interest in Wresting, at all. But I think Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the actor, is pretty cool. Plus this figure has a lot of hilarious faces and possibilities for photos. I also ended up getting a good deal on him from the closing of Toys R Us, so there’s also that nice bonus.

As far as Figuarts go, he kind of feels like a mixed bag. The face sculpts are great. They look like the rock and convey a lot of nice goofyness and character. Even without relating it directly to The Rock the wrestler, they still show off several of his “signature looks”. He is also very poseable, even for a Figuarts toy. He even has a jointed set of hands.

The poseability is also his major downside. The joins on this figure are ugly as hell. There isn’t really any way around that. He also isn’t going to fit in with any other wrestling figures aside from the other Figuarts Wrestlers. Most of the wrestling figures on the US market seem to be closer to 7″ in height. The Rock is closer to 6″, and he’s a little on the overall small side of 6″. So he’ll definitely look really puny next to any mainstream Wrestling toy.

He does work pretty well with a lot of other figures though, especially other Figuarts figures. He’s not a bad figure by any stretch, but he does have his ups and downs compared to other figures out there. He’s still a lot of fun to goof around with, ugly joints and all.

S.H. Figuarts – Mace Windu

May 3rd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have a sort of general philosophy I like to follow when writing reviews. I like to give good points and bad points and let the reader sort of make the final conclusion on if something seems good or not. There are really too many subjective factors to give a definite yay or nay on most things.

Unfortunately, I don’t really have much to say about Figuarts Mace Window that is negative. I really just don’t, the figure is damn near perfect and it’s definitely the best toy Mace Windu us ever going to get. I suppose that, as a Star Wars Figuarts, he’s a little pricey than some people might want to pay. Also the cuts for his joints are a little ugly looking in some poses. But these are kind of nitpicky level complaints.

Mace Windu includes 6 sets of hands, and 2 heads, one angry and one more smug/neutral. He also includes 2 light sabers, one with a peg to hang off of his belt and the other to be held, with or without the blade.

The sculpt on everything is amazing, which is helped by the fantastic paint job. The heads do a spot on job of capturing Samuel L. Jackson down to little wrinkles in his forehead.

He pose ability and stability are also great for a lot of really exceptional dynamic posing. His open hands are great for “force action”. He can perfectly wield his light saber in one or two hands. The details on the head and expression work great for attacks and neutral poses.

Basically what I’m saying is, if this figure interests you, he’s great and well worth picking up. It’s every bit as awesome as it looks, probably more so.

S.H. Figuarts – Yoshi

Mar 1st, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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While he wasn’t part of the original Super Mario Brothers, in fact, he didn’t come around until much later in the series during the 4th full game, Super Mario World, Yoshi is as iconic to the Mario series as any of the main cast. The popular Dino has even gotten several of his own spin off games. He certainly makes sense as an addition to the Mario Figuarts lineup.

Yoshi is quite a different little figure than Mario and Luigi, for the obvious reasons that, he’s a Dinosaur and not a plumber. He’s actually a quite a bit more dynamic in some ways as a result. His skinnier arms give him a lot more flexibility for outward motion than the Mario Brothers. While his hips can rotate outward as well, he doesn’t have any knees. I’m not sure where they would put the knees considering how short his legs are, not to mention the addition of knees would probably hurt his major gimmick.

That major gimmick? Mario can ride Yoshi.

Included among Yoshi’s accessories are two alternate shell pieces each with a clear saddle attached to hold Figuarts Mario or Luigi. It’s a bit tricky to get Mario’s weight to balance on Yoshi without the use of a stand however. Mario is a pretty heavy figure and sticking all that weight on the back of poor little Yoshi really sets things off balance. It’s still a really nice touch to have it as an option given 90% of Yoshi’s function is carrying Mario around on his back.

Yoshi’s other accessories are all based on alternate configurations for Yoshi. He doesn’t have any power ups or blocks, likely because Yoshi is a bit larger than either of the Mario Brothers and he has parts like the saddle shell pieces, all of which already drive the price up. One of the driving forces of these Mario Figuarts seems to be keeping them fairly affordable ($20-$40 vs the $50-$100 price of some Figuarts).

Yoshi includes an extra set of eyes so he can look off to the side, an alternate mouth insert with an extended tongue, and an alternate set of hands. He also includes a stand. He doesn’t need the stand at all to hold himself up under normal power, and the hole for the stand is directly on the bottom of Yoshi anyway, the stand is meant to allow Yoshi to jump or hover like he does in the games.

The hands are slightly disappointing. Yoshi has two fists and two open hands, but one of the open hands has an egg permanently attached to it. It doesn’t come off, you’ll only break it trying. Considering the Mario Brothers already gave us a method to attach objects to open palm hands with the turtle shells, it’s kind of disappointing that the egg can’t be removed in this same manner. The egg would have made a great accessory for use with the other figures and having two bare open hands for Yoshi would have been a great plus.

The tongue is a bit disappointing as well, though it may just be a problem on mine. Basically, it doesn’t stay attached very well at all. It’s not even a problem due to weight or balance, the pegs on the underside of the mouth piece simply don’t properly peg into the pegs in his mouth. The real benefit that the tongue piece provides is that it means the mouth can open and close, something that I imagine wouldn’t have been a feature if it hadn’t been a necessity to allow for the tongue piece to work.

While it’s still probably the best Yoshi Figure available, and it’s a good figure to be sure, There are a few little issue that keep it from being completely amazing. Specifically the egg hand and the finicky-ness of how some of the accessories attach. The riding feature really helps push the figure up an extra notch if you have Mario or Luigi to go with him however.

S.H. Figuarts – Ranma (Female)

Feb 22nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Getting Sailor Moon Figuarts was a surprise. But not a huge surprise when you consider there was a new redesigned series put out recently. Getting Ranma 1/2 Figuarts was the real surprise. For the most part the anime Figuarts I see tend to be based on newer anime and manga that I’ve never heard of. But here we are, with Ranma 1/2 in glorious highly articulated plastic form. Sadly it kind of seems like we’ll never actually get Panda Genma who was featured when these were announced.

The first release is the female version of Ranma. In case you are unfamiliar with the premise, Ranma is a harem comedy anime series and manga, which follows the various romantic relationships surrounding Ranma and his crazy pack of friends and enemies. The gimmick of the show, is that a lot of the characters carry some sort of curse, generally originating from the Jusenkyo Springs where they change into a different form and back when exposed to hot or cold water. In the case of the title character, Ranma transforms between a boy and girl due to Ranma falling into the Spring of Drowned Girl.

That’s a pretty gross oversimplification, but that’s the general idea. Originally shown in the announcement were both male and female Ranma as well as a giant Panda Genma, Ranma’s father. Ranma here is pretty awesome, probably my favorite Figuarts of all of the ones I own (though Tuxedo Mask is a close second).

A lot of what I like is just how well balanced she is, which is really essential given the martial arts nature of the series. Part of the plot of Ranma is that everyone has some sort of crazy martial arts fighting style. Being able to pose Ranma doing martial arts moves really helps sell the figure.

She also has a great selection of alternate faces. There’s a big smile, a small smile, a frowny serious face and the embarrassed face. That last one is a lot of fun since as one might imagine, a dude turning into a girl could result in a lot of embarrassing situations.

There is also a good assortment of accessories and alternative hands. The female version of Ranma also includes a hot kettle, which compliments the cold water bucket included with the male counterpart.

In case you can’t tell, I really like this figure. Probably the biggest downside is that she’s a little boring without some of the other Ranma Figuarts to go with her. Also, if you’re not a fan of the source material, there really isn’t a lot of incentive to pick her up. This is definitely the best Ranma figure available, since it both looks good and is loaded with articulation and parts, in traditional Figuarts style.

S.H. Figuarts – Luigi

Feb 1st, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Today’s review is on SH Figuarts Luigi. I’ve previously done a review of SH Figuarts Mario as well that you may be interested in if you’re looking into Luigi. A lot of what was said about Mario definitely applies here. The build quality is solid, the paint apps are great, the sculpt is great, the articulation works for what he is, but it’s a little limited.

Where Luigi differs the most is in his accessory count. Luigi includes alternate open hands and a stand, both things that Mario lacked in his basic form. Additionally Luigi includes a basic Block Brick and a Red Koopa shell. It’s kind of a shame that he doesn’t have a coin, that feels like it would have been the cheapest accessory to throw in and coins are definitely something you can never have too many of when it comes to Mario. Also included is a swappable back plate to allow the stand to peg into Luigi’s back and a small clear plastic bit that allows the Koopa shell to attach to either of the open palm hands to be held.

Speaking of the hands, I touched a bit on the build style on Mario being different that your standard Figuarts release. The hands are another place where this varies. The pegs are nice and bulky and built into the forearms of both Luigi and Mario. The hands stay on well but are easily swapped and it doesn’t feel like there is any chance of breaking the pegs. This is definitely a change from many Figuarts where the removable hands often come off as pretty fragile. It certainly helps that both Luigi and Mario are chunkier than most Figuarts, but it, once again, kind of feels like that Nintendo Quality push sneaking in a bit. It’s also notable that it’s very subtle, but the hands are not identical to the ones that are available in the Playset Pack for Mario, they are slightly skinnier as well, to match Luigi’s slimmer build.

Having the stand and hands definitely help flesh out Luigi’s pose options. Every since Super Mario Brothers 2, Luigi has been known for his crazy high jumping, so having the stand for jumping poses is definitely a plus. The hands are also great for both carrying and throwing the included Koopa shell.

Luigi isn’t a straight recolor of Mario either, he stands a half inch or so taller than Mario and has an overall slimmer build. I’m sure there is some parts reuse, I think the arms and shoes are the same, but the legs, center mass, and head are all slimmer and seem to be different sculpting than Mario.

All in all Luigi is a nice package. He’s definitely a nice addition to go with his brother Mario but the extra accessories make him a nice solid figure in his own right.