Author: tharglet

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 2 – Part 2

Now for some alien warriors and their main nemesis…

First up, this dude:

Why, hello there! This one, um, has a normal hair. That’s mine. Sorry. Overall, he looks OK, pretty similar to the ones in the other set. Only this one is waving. 

Top of his head:

I do like the sculpting on the top of these alien warrior’s heads. That part did come out well, though here we can see the arm joint is a bit “eh”. 

Xeno number 2:

This guy… likes to lounge around. This guy I’d say is the weakest of the three warriors in this set – his pose isn’t overly exciting, and he doesn’t stand up on his own either… 

Lastly for the xenos:

With his arms up, this feels more like a xeno pose, crossed with a M.U.S.C.L.E one. He’s also in attack mode, with his inner mouth poking out. He also isn’t super at balancing, but his tail does more to support him, so he doesn’t look like he’s lazing out. 

Now for their natural enemy… the Ripley!

The sculpting feels more detailed than series 1, and she has something that almost passes as an expression. 

Ripley with Newt:

Another iconic “pose”. However, I’m not too much of a fan of the sculpt on this one, no matter how hard I try to not see it. From the front, Newt looks like she’s melting into Ripley a bit, and the faces look odd. From the back, Newt’s leg looks like it has been flattened, which doesn’t look good. The hair sculpts look good, if a little merged. Rifle looks the part though. 

Again, a mixed bag. The sculpts seem to have more detail in this set, but there’s more balance issues with this set, or other moulding weirdnesses. 

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 2 – Part 1

Series 2! For this series, I got the “normal” edition, which is in a flesh colour. I think there was a limited run of these in different colours, but in blind bags, but those aren’t ones easily available. However, I was happy to get these in a non-translucent plastic. 

First up, the Alien Queen herself:

image
image
image
image

She has her cute li’l arms sculpted, and her large head plate. At a glance, I don’t mind the head plate, but looking close, the spider-web effect is a bit odd to me. The front part of her head I like the texture of though. Here, you can see better the odd ring bits than the translucent set – here I can tell they look odd to me as the rest of the arm lacks texture, which makes them stand out. 

Her back and spine look good – lots of sculpting and texture here, giving a detailed appearance. No detail under her head plate, though. Overall, I like this one.

Powerloader, featuring Ripley:

image

Here we can see Ripley piloting the powerloader – her clothes are nicely sculpted, and her face is fine for the size. I think they did a good job with this, given the size. One of the aerials is a bit bent on mine, but I could fix this. 

Sides:

image
image

Lots of small mechanical details here, which are nice. Claws look nice, but a little bent – I suspect if I do try to sort these, there is a good chance they’ll bend a bit over time. The join between the front cage and the powerloader itself is a bit rough, but it doesn’t really bother me. 

Back:

image

Looks good from the back – we have a decent amount of hydraulic parts modelled here. Just need to sort out that derpy aerial… 

Half a figure, Bishop:

image
image

Unfortunately mine has a hairline from when it was moulded. Ignoring that, he’s been well-sculpted, and I love this iconic choice of character and “pose”. 

Apone:

image
image

First thing that stands out to me is the flatness of the top of his hat – not sure why his hat is so flat. However, he does look ready to kick butt with that cigar and his fists. Sculpting is OK on this one, but again, another one of those hair marks. 

Bit of a mixed bag here – I think the sculpts are better thus far than the first series, but there’s more of those hairlines. Also the Alien Queen isn’t very well balanced, so she’ll need some tack to keep upright. 

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 1 – Red ver. – Part 3

Now for the last four figures in this set. 

So, let’s continue on with Kane…

Nom! Here we have Kane being facehugged. The facehugger is nicely sculpted, but his body is a bit lacking – the way they’ve done the joins on his arms doesn’t work well – instead of looking like the edges of his shirt, it very much looks like his arms are stuck on. His shorts/legs is a better bit of moulding. 

Kane, unfortunate ver.:

Due to the material used, I don’t think the chestburster shows up too well on this one. But it’s certainly an iconic thing to include, I can see why they did this one. Even though it’s a bit indistinct, I’m glad they included this.

Lambert:

I don’t find the likeness on this one too good, and her expression certainly looks odd in my photo. Her clothes are nicely sculpted, but her body feels an over-distorted shape – looks like they tried to give her boobs, but didn’t sculpt the shirt shape correctly, so her entire top is puffed out. 

Lastly, Parker:

Again, a mould hairline on the back. I think this decently looks like Parker, and the sculpting is good – his iconic headband is there, and his clothes look decent. And he also looks ready to do some punchin’ M.U.S.C.L.E-style. 

Overall, these ones were a bit of a mixed bag, but I don’t think any of them are terrible. I like the red colouring, but it does make the sculpting look less distinct, so I feel this is a bit of a trade-off. 

I’m glad I got this set, and I like the mash-up between the two franchises…. enough to buy series 2! Stay tuned for series 2 😉

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 1 – Red ver. – Part 2

Now for four more of the series 1 of the Alien M.U.S.C.L.E figures.

Ash:

image
image

What’s he holding here? Not entirely sure… is it the Inanimate Carbon Rod? Hm. His front is sculpted well, and has a reasonable level of detail, given the figure type. However, the back feels a bit bland and seems to have a couple of moulding issues – there’s a couple of hairlines on his back, which I don’t think are supposed to be there. 

Brett:

image
image

Looks reasonably like the character, Here we have some sculpting to stand in for his shirt design, and I think that works well. We also have some creasing moulded on the back of his jacket, which is a nice touch. 

Dallas:

image
image

This was also one I recognised when taking them out of the tub, so the likeness is likely reasonable. Again, on his back there’s some hairlines which I’m pretty sure are not supposed to be there. His outfit looks good from the front though, and is nicely detailed. 

Lastly, for this blog, Kane in his spacesuit:

image
image

I did have to look at the character list to see who this was… This one is pretty detailed though, and does look like the iconic spacesuits used in the movies. And with those fists, its wearer could certainly go do some punchin’

Overall, most of these were decent, but I think the Ash one didn’t look as good as the others – I didn’t find the likeness as good as the others, and there seems to be some sloppiness of the design around the back. 

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 1 – Red ver. – Part 1

Saw Ashens on Youtube review some of these, and decided to get some for myself. Found this red “trash can” of them cheap-ish on a UK site and went ahead and ordered them.

They come in a nicely designed tub, based on the old MUSCLE figure packaging:

And it has this really cool lid design:

D’aww, look at that cute chestburster, busting out of the lid. The artwork is nicely done on the packaging, and mix the two properties well.

So let’s look at some figures! Today, we’ll mostly focus on the aliens. Let’s start with a facehugger:

These things are not easy to photograph… The translucent plastic works OK, and the sculpting is good on the facehugger itself – we have joints on the legs, the sucker on the bottom, and the spine markings along its back. The egg feels less detailed, as there is no indentation in the top and it doesn’t seem to have much texturing on the outside. 

First xeno:

Again, the translucent plastic does make the details hard to see, but they are there. He definitely has the MUSCLE proportions, with the large hands and stretched pose. He does have a pretty noticeable seam on his head, though. 

Wanna hug?

Fairly similar to the first, but with a different pose. I do like this one’s pose more than the other. With these, I like the sculpting on the tail and the “pipes” and shoulder blades look good. The round parts on the front of the legs I find a little weird-looking. 

Last one for today, Ripley:

She seems OK, for what I can see of her. I recognised her, so that’s a good sign for the sculpting. There’s a decent amount of detail here – her hair has texture, we can see her boiler suit collar, and the details on her shoes. 

Overall, I’m happy with these four. 

Battle Break – Part 4

This is the fourth and final part of the Battle Break figures. Let’s see what the last few boxes bring us!

Here we have a Sphinx, Spin-X (スフィン-X):

Robo-sphinx! I love the design of this one, and he’s nicely painted. Looks like some of the green may’ve smudged a bit onto the middle of his wing by mistake. The colours work well together, and fit the Egyptian theme. 

Front:

Here his front is dominated by a large cannon. I like the ornate design on the end of it.

Back:

The bottom of his back looks a bit odd, with the way his legs are attached to it, giving to a strange, bulbous look. Back of his head looks OK. 

Ranch Lizard (牧場トカゲ):

A big one and a little one, aww. The overall design is reminiscent of a triceratops. The sculpting is decent, and the colour scheme works. 

Back:

More of the same. Paint looks OK for teh most part, but could do with a bit more dark paint on the brown part of the tail. 

Head:

Yup, don’t want to have this guy headbutt me. Thinking that’d hurt with that chitinous protrusion. 

So, if you’re a rancher, this is apparently the lizard for you!

Adams! (アダムス):

And now for something completely different… an alien beaming down! Loving the classic alien design. The colours work well together, and the sculpt is decent. This is probably one of my favourites. 

Side:

Here we can see the beam is translucent, and can just about see the alien through it. 

Back:

If you just want an alien craft beaming something down, this is the view for you. I think this figure has been well-sculpted and painted. 

And lastly, Waterline (ウォータリアン):

Here we have a water-based dude, with water protruding from his head. I like the colour scheme on this one too, and the purple parts seem to have been painted neatly on this one. The water on this one is a lot more effective than the foam stuff on the Horse Whale, and wish they went for more of this look on the Horse Whale figure. 

Side:

I like the design of his armour, and his watery hairstyle. The wave and foam have also been painted well, and it does look like a cresting wave. 

Back:

Yup, looks like a wave back here! Not too much to see, but the sculpt and paint are nice. Overall, I really like this one, but he is a bit hard to display so you can see him well due to the wave surrounding him.

With this set overall, I’m pleased with what I got. Some of the figures aren’t that great, but I think there is enough inventive designs here that they work as display pieces as well as game counters. Could also see these being re-purposed for another board game, if these characters fit the theme. 

Battle Break – Part 3

Three more figures from the Battle Break set. 

Starting with Horse Whale (ホシクジラ):

Yep. You read that right. Apparently this is a horse whale… Does look like a whale from this angle… but I’m not getting horse. There’s some foam added to the figure, but it looks more like clouds or ice formations. 

Left:

From the sides, it definitely looks more like a squid-whale than a horse-whale, with the squidlike appendages on its back. The foam has some pretty weird dark blobs on it, where it looks like the paint was incorrectly applied, which I don’t like. The creature itself has a nice design though.

Right:

I think the foam looks better on this side, but is still kind of ropy, and I’d prefer if it was waves instead of seafoam. The slots on the upper part of his head make it look like it might’ve been crossed with a submarine, and the regular spacing of the elements give it a machinelike feel to me. 

Back:

I like the patterns on the finlike protrusions on its back. Foam still looking kind of “eh” to me. I think the solidity of it is what ruins it mostly – if they used transparent plastic here, I think they could’ve achieved a better effect that wasn’t so solid. For a cheap figure it does the job, though. 

Overall, I like this one, and do like the creature’s design, but not so fond of the added parts.

Crow Teng (クロウ・テング):

Here we have a not-so-black crow. Which made me thing “eagle” prior to translating the name. Here we have an interesting battle pose, and a wandlike weapon, which makes me think this dude is a caster. Whichever, he’s a mean looking-dude. 

Right:

I like the sculpted texture on his body, but I think they’ve been a bit miserly with the light blue paint here, and it doesn’t highlight some of the key features, which makes look a little odd overall. I think the part on his leg could’ve been directly painted, instead of giving him a wash, and it would’ve improved the overall appearance. He does have a red beady eye, which is a nice focal feature.

Back:

Looks like he’s had a run-in with a tin of paint. Here the wash is VERY sloppy, and I kind of wish they didn’t bother. Makes it look like a statue in disrepair instead of acting as highlights. 

From the front, this a nice looking piece. From the other angles… not so much. 

Killer Panda (キラー・パンダ):

Vicious and cute. The colour scheme isn’t really befitting of a panda, but I do like the paint apps. The fading has been done well on his body, and most of the painted highlights are done neatly. They’ve even given him some grass to sit in. 

Left:

Paint between his parts didn’t get blended… oops. Looks a bit derpy from the side. We also have some paint chips, which aren’t great. 

Back:

His palms have been painted to match his feet, which works well. Faiding is done well on the back, so he looks good from this angle too. Just a shame about the paint chips on the left.

Overall, he’s not a very inventive character, but he is well-executed, apart from some paint issues on the sides. 

Battle Break – Part 2

More Battle Break figures! 

First one for today is One of Nine (ワン・オブ・ナイン):

A little ninja dude! I do like the purple-green colour scheme, and he also comes with a small piece of scenery. The painting looks OK from the front, but you can see some parts where they are a bit rough. 

Top-side:

Here, I think the grey parts of his helmet are likely intentional, but there seems to be a scuff on his shoulder, and uneven application on the outstretched arm. Arm blade looks decent though. His helmet has a suitably techno-looking plume on his helmet.

Left:

I do like the way they’ve got him running and leaning forward. Does make for an interesting pose. Here’s some more uneven paint though. 

Back:

His back is dominated by this ludicrously large ninja star… Not sure what he intends to do with it, but it does look cool! The sculpting and painting is nice on this part though. 

Bazooka infantry (バズーカ歩兵):

Fairly straightforward… a dude with a bazooka! Looks almost like some kind of golem, with him painted in green. 

Sides:

The sculpting job is nice, and the paint job is decent. 

Back:

The design of his suit does also give weight to him being a golem/stone warrior – the screwlike part makes me think more golem than human. 

Imo, he’s an OK figure, but not very interesting compared to the others in this set.

Aiai (アイアイ):

I love this cute dude… and certainly lives up to his name, with all the eyes… wondering if it should be translated as eye-eye. Whatever, he certainly has an eye on you! The colours work well together, and the painting is mostly decent, though there is a bit of wandering paint on its hair, in the middle.

Back:

No sneaking up on this dude! Big bit of stray paint on his lower left ear. Colour scheme feels well-balanced from the back too, and he is nicely textured in the sculpt.

Rather like this little dude. Don’t think he’s my favourite, but definitely like him more than some of the others. 

Battle Break – Part 1

and Another thing I added to an order on a whim – it worked out as £10.63 for 15 mini-figures

(would’ve been slightly less if the retailer didn’t screw with my order…), which is pretty cheap. These figures are supposed to be for a board game called “Battle Break” but isn’t something I’m going to play. 

Looking at the sides of the box, there were 17 possible figures, and I got 13 of them, which is a good innings for random-boxed items. 

First up, Lion King (獅子王):

This is the guy on the front of the boxes, and he does indeed look spiffy, though  he does lack lower legs and feet. I love the hair and mane parts, and I think the colour scheme works well.

Side views:

Ah, silly-sized weapons… gotta love ‘em. I think the design is pretty inventive, and I like the claw theme, which fits with he character. Here we get a good look at his hair, and I like the way it is sculpted. The eye adds a nice contrast to the rest of the figure. 

Back:

I do like the texture on his cape – has a rustic feel to it. Almost like a thatched roof type-thing. 

Overall, I think this miniature is nicely sculpted and painted. 

Leviathan (リヴァイアサン):

Here we have a green semitransparent dragon-y dude. I like the water effect included with this figure. What I like less is the super-obvious seam lines that don’t fit well. Not entirely convinced with the angles of his wings and head from this view. With him having a line of spikes on his stomach as well as his back, it makes it hard to notice we’re looking at the underside of his body here, which makes him look abnormally twisted until you look closer imo. 

Sides:

I really like the head of this figure – the shape and colours both look nice. There is a seam line on his head, but it is a lot less obnoxious than the one on his body and the wings. The translucent effect works well when viewing his right-hand side. 

Back:

Here I think his pose makes more sense. The coloration looks better on the back of his wings, but we do seem to have some of the sea colour creeping through on his right one.

Overall, and OK figure. Not my favourite. 

Lizard Magician (トカゲ呪術師):

Not a big fan of this brushed shading effect, but his sculpt is OK. The colours work, but aren’t anything special to me. The green ball came out well imo, and I like the design of his head.

Back:

Here we have a decent amount of sculptwork, though there seems to be some missing lines on his tail – we have indentations on the right, but not the left which looks odd. The back of his frills is nicely rendered though, and so is his spines. The other details are a bit “eh”. 

Overall an OK figure, but I don’t feel it’s anything special. Fine for Poundland fodder, lol. 

Groot – Guardians of the Galaxy – Metacolle

This figure was gifted to me by a friend. He posted it to me, but didn’t put a note with the figure, so I was confused for awhile, wondering when I ordered a mini-Groot figure until I worked out this was the gift he sent me :).

So let’s have a look at the li’l guy.

MetaColle figures certainly live up to their name – for his small size he’s pretty weighty because of it. This figure is nicely painted, for its size. The fade on his head is nicely done, with some green detailing on his body. 

The gaps on his body are because he has articulation in these areas. So you can pose him a bit too!

To give an idea of size, here’s a promo shot:

So he’s not too far off the size of the Nano metalfigs, for things to compare him to. 

Left:

I like the sculpting on him – the wood effect works well. The blended paint on his head works well from this side too. 

Right:

From this side we can see he has got good detailing on the top of his head, as well as the sides. 

Back:

Here’s the only drawback as far as I’m concerned – he has a visible screw in his back. Would’ve been nice to have a plug or something to cover this up, but I don’t think it’s a big thing for what you get. 

Overall, I really like this little figure, and think he’s a decent quality figure. These figures have an RRP of ¥1,000, though if buying direct from Japan they’re usually around ¥800, which I think is a fair price point for these figures. 

Akiba Blue – Unofficial Sentai Akibaranger – Season 2 version

This is yet another figure I bought because I thought it looked good… It was on sale dammit. 

So, here she is:

Loving the blue shade and her outfit, and the interesting range of accessories she comes with, that I have little idea about… Reading about her, she’s from a parody series, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they produced more of these than tokusatsu parody fans. In terms of a figure, her outfit isn’t very detailed, but this does give her a stark and clean appearance. I do like the shiny breastplate and the cool-looking helmet she’s wearing. However, her paintwork is flat and without shading, which puts her out of premium figure territory. 

Left:

She looks fine form the side, and has a couple of details on hte side of her helmet. She also has a ponytail thing going on, but it’s not hinged. Don’t try to do so, lest you want to break this part – the gold dot is just for show. The paint lines seem clean throughout – especially on the ball accessory… which I like to think of as a multicoloured bomb… 

Right:

More of the same on this side. A double-jointed elbow is visible, without much to hide it, so it does look lumpy. We can also see the ribbon thing she wears on her shoulder – I like the way they’ve sculpted this so it is flowing in the breeze. 

Back:

The sculpting’s nice on the back ribbon, but there isn’t too much detail here to speak of. There’s a couple of holes in her back – you could probably attach an accessory in here, or a stand. There wasn’t one in the box, but 3mm peg stands aren’t hard to come by. Was disappointed with the lack of stand, but she does have articulated toes, so she’s not too bad to balance. You can also use the accessories to weight her, if needed.

In terms of accessories, she does have a decent range of stuff. One that I managed to not photograph is another ribbon – it’s very similar to the one shown, only it’s more like one half of the ribbon shown, if you want less ribbon for posing. 

She comes with these guns:

I love the overly large “armed” mode this gun has. I guess this is for when the battle gets super serious. Both guns are nicely sculpted and painted, and would make great accessories for any figure they fit with. 

She also comes with many, many hands:

So if you need a certain hand pose, it’s probably in this lot! Always nice to see a range of hands, as it gives more posing opportunities, and especially useful for her, and the several things she can hold. 

Overall, I think she’s a decent figure, but probably not a popular character, hence her cheap price. If you need a random blue ranger for your collection, this one could possibly fit the bill. With the number of parts she comes with, she could be good for custom fodder too, if you’re basing something around a Bandai figure(s). 

Desura II Core Ship – Battleship Yamato 2199

Now for a model kit! This is the Desura II Core Ship, with a couple of support fighters. 

Let’s first look at the core ship itself:

‘tis a long bugger. And spiky! If you hit it, don’t be surprised if you go “ow” and a part flies off. However, I do think it looks cool and worth the pain :P. 

Building it wasn’t too difficult – the instructions were reasonably easy to follow, and the build process, from what I recall, was pretty smooth. 

Left:

Here’s a side shot to admire it in all its glory. I love the profile of this ship, which is why I bought it… despite having not yet seen Battleship Yamato. It is on my “to watch” list, though. 

Now to deviate from my standard walk-around, and look at this thing from bow to stern. 

So let’s start with the front end:

Here we have the stabby forward parts. The sculpting is nice on this model, adding details into what’s a largely plain-coloured vessel. 

Moving further back:

We have some clear parts here, which look nice. There are some transfers that you can add to these bits, to add a bit more detail, but I haven’t done so as of yet. I do like this bit of colour – looking at pictures of the ship from the anime, these parts glow. I could see someone modding this kit, so they could put an LED in this section, though I do believe these parts do back onto blue plastic, so it’d be a relatively hefty mod. 

Cockpit area:

One thing that mildly disappointed me is this purple plastic bit doesn’t push up into a blue plastic “cutout” part, so if you want it to look like the pictures, you need to paint this part. Kind of a shame, as I don’t think it’d be too hard to render a part this could push up into. But if you’re not going for anime-accuracy, you could leave it like this. 

Part below the cockpit:

And these are the spiky bits that tend to spike you and fall apart. The vertical “M” part slots into the one that attaches to the ship, so it’s pretty easy to accidentally knock out. Have had issues with these when positioning the ship on the stand. I do like the red detail parts though. 

Engine fins:

I do rather like this detail, and it has been rendered well. 

Back:

The thrusters look cool, and and I love all the little details back here. What’s less cool is two of the four fins you see here didn’t fit snugly into their slots and kept falling out. Ended up shoving a bit of White Tack onto the part that goes inside the fin, and that fixed that issue. So I’d recommend doing something similar, or glue these parts. I think the inner ring is supposed to help hold these parts in but… it doesn’t. 

Base:

This is the logo for the “owners” (Great Garmillas Empire) of the Desura II… only apparently this isn’t the right way up for it. Ah well, I tried. Stand does a decent job of holding the vessel, but one of the prongs can foul on the base, so you can’t freely tilt it, but you do have a reasonable choice of angles for the ship. 

And that concludes the main ship – I think it’s a cool model, and glad I bought it. Could do with some spots of paint, if I ever get around to painting anything. 

Now for the support fighters:

You get two of these, both identical. There aren’t too many pieces making these up, so they should be a quick build.

Quick tour of one of the fighters, as this blog is long enough already:

The mould has a decent number of details, so looks pretty decent unpainted. There are some decals that I haven’t put on yet, with the logo fro the Great Garmillas Empire. I think these are a nice inclusion to the kit, and look nice displayed flanking the core ship. One less-good part of the model is the spikes on the fins are easily bent, and this can happen when snipping them away from the sprue. Note one of them is a bit bent in the top pic. 

Some of the bottom of the ship is in the dark green – this would be something ideally fixed with some light green paint, so it looks less odd. Depends if you display these with the bottoms showing or not.

Overall, I’m happy with this model kit, and I should really do some painting, so I can paint the odd bit on this one, as I think it kind of needs it. However, the moulding is nice on this kit, so you could get away with not painting it imo. 

Vampire – Wetworks – Alt Colour version

This figure was a random pickup at an action figure store I visited. Thought he looked cool, so decided to buy him. When I did my research on this figure, I found he was the alt colouring. 

So here he is, in his alternative colour scheme glory:

Personally, I prefer this colouring to the main version – here he has black pants and loincloth, which I think fits the theme of the figure better. He’s also a dark green instead of a greyish colour, which I don’t think helps him look vampiric, but the sculpt doesn’t say “Vampire” to me anyway, despite that being his name. 

The sculpt on him is nice and detailed for the most part, but… that waist… what’s going on there?! 

Let’s take a closer look:

Totally tubular! Now I’ve seen it, I’m not sure I can unsee it… not a big fan of this design. I do like the logo thing going on, on the loincloth. The loincloth is made out of a fairly thick plastic, which coupled with the odd waist design, does make it look comedy-sized. As a standalone piece it looks OK, but with it sitting strangely on his hips, it isn’t a good look imo. I am loving the detail on his skin though, which can be seen in the upper parts of this photo. 

Face:

He has this headgear thing that slides on his head. Kind of in two minds about this piece – he looks better with it, but in of itself, it just feels odd. If you don’t like it, then it is an optional part though, so isn’t a biggie. Jury’s out for me though. 

Left:

Here he is, leaning back apparently. He cuts a decent profile from the side imo – looks a lot less strangely shaped from the side. His head sticks out nicely, and I love his hands, with their elongated claw-style. The tendons show up from the top too. 

Aand the obligatory fat leg parts – this is a McFarlane creation after all – these are painted well, and have enough details to not be plain. This fat leg design is useful for keeping the figures upright though! I do like the lesser need for stands. 

He holds his weapon decently well – you could probably get a more convincing grip out of it than I have, but it slots OK over his hand. 

Right:

Loving the veinwork on his arm, and the horns on his shoulders. The silver bracers around his wrists add a nice detail to the figure, and hide the joint. ABout joints – there aren’t a huge amount, but there are a few posing possibilities. McFarlane figures don’t tend to be super-articulated, especially of this age, but they make up for it in looks imo. 

Back:

The texture details are continued around to the back, and he has some blood marks on his upper right arm. His hair is quite scraggly, but does the job – I doubt a creature like this would have neat hair, after all. Loincloth looks OK back here, but has the same issues as the front (as well as seemingly making a break for it! If you don’t like it, there’s the option of removing it). We also have some mechanical details on the back of his legs, which is nice to see. 

Weapon:

Clod do with a little more red paint on some of the wire/vine parts. It has an interesting, tribal design, but does kinda look… lump of plastic-y. I think if they had sharper points and maybe some paint shading, it would look better. I think it’s mostly the very rounded points that make me think more “cosplay prop” than “dangerous weapon”. I think they could’ve gone a bit pointier, without making it “ouch” pointy. 

Overall, a decent figure. Not sure I’d particularly recommend it, but if you like what you see, and can find him for a decent price, I think a solid enough figure. 

Silica – Sword Art Online – Noodle Stopper

Pre-ordered this as it was a noodle stopper and SAO. She isn’t one of my favourite characters, but I thought this was cute and cheap enough to go for it.

So here she is, being cute:

And herein demos my main issue with this figure – she’s pretty hard to display, and get the most out of her. 

Closer look:

I love the cute, playful expression, and the hair is nicely done. There are little clumpy bits, if you look close, but these are sort of to be expected with a prize figure. The front of her swimsuit has been done nicely, and the red parts are enough within the lines to not be distracting. The posing of her upper half is really well done imo, and feels expressive. 

Left:

And here’s the everything we can’t see, if we use an opaque item to rest her upon. Her outfit is cute and neatly painted – I like the fact they’ve given her a collar, though it isn’t really visible from the front. Her tail curls playfully upwards, and the shading on it is nice. Love the detail they’ve put into her hair.

Unfortunately with this pose she’s a tad back-heavy – she will sit fine like this, but if she’s not fully resting on an object or you nudge her, she’ll fall off fairly easily. Out of the “noodle stopper” figures I have, this one wouldn’t function too well as one, even if you decided to use it for that imo. 

Right:

Paint is a tad more uneven on this side, but still looks decent enough. Love all the bits they’ve sculpted in the hair, and her tail shading fits the curve of her tail. 

Back:

The tail ends somewhere out of sight, which works for me. The frills in her skirt have been sculpted nicely, along with her butt. There’s a bit of an annoying paint flaw on mine – a little excess paint on her panties. Her legs and feet are sculpted nicely, and her toes look good. 

Close-up of the back of her hair:

I like the shading on her hair, and as mentioned previously, the amount of detail they’ve put into it. Seems a fair bit more than your average prize figure. Her top also has a fabric bit painted under her frills, which is a nice attention-to-detail.

Overall, the figure looks very nice, and has been executed nicely for the most part. The major issue that prevents me from recommending it is the display potential – I think it would’ve been better to have her head turned to the side, so she could be displayed side-on. Currently I have her sat on a clear U-shaped riser, so you can see more of her, otherwise it’s a toss-up if you display her face or her body. I suspect the pose was chosen to accommodate the tail, and it works on that front, but I think she would’ve been better coming with a small clear claw stand, so you can display her unobstructed…. as let’s face it, nobody’s going to use this as noodle stoppers. 

DC Nano-Metals – Part 3

And here we have the last three in the pack. 

So let’s start with Martian Manhunter:

I think this is one of the best-looking ones in the set – the paint is fairly neat, though the blue paint is over-spilling in some areas. The red paint is within the lines though, which is the more critical colour here. We have a better choice of green here, which makes me more confused about why they went with the green they did for Killer Croc. I do wish they painted his belt red though. The disc parts should be gold, but being a simplified figure, I’m going to let them off for not painting these. The pose and sculpt are both decent, so no complaints there.

Back:

Not much to see here, other than cape. Not the most realistic ripples, but it’ll do. Also his cape paint seems to have escaped onto his head 😛

Superman:

Again, a not-too-bad figure. I think this one is let down by the paint a bit, but that isn’t helped by the relatively ambitious sculpt – with him in a flying pose, they’ve had to use the cape as support, which means the blue and red paint have bled into each other in places. Also makes it hard to paint without the over-spill showing up badly. The logo has been rendered surprisingly well, comparing the paint jobs in these figures. Again, no mouth, but this weirdly seems to only feel “apparent” when you’re looking up close. 

Back:

Cape looks good, and the paint job looks surprisingly decent and clean here.

Yep, I think this one is one of the stronger ones in this set. 

Lastly, Wonder Woman:

Interestingly, the females in these Nano Metal figures actually get mouths – and their faces look better for it. What doesn’t looks so good though, is the lasso on her hip – the lasso looks OK in of itself, but they’ve distorted her leg so the lasso has something to support it… so her leg looks rather misshapen. Personally I would’ve preferred it if they had the lasso sitting on her leg, instead of flatting out her leg to accommodate it. Paint-wise, she looks OK. 

The one thing that does bother me though is no “banner” at the top of her shirt – she needs some silver pain here, to match her headband if they were going for her more silvery look. To me, this makes it feel like she’s more “sexy Halloween costume” than Wonder Woman. 

Back:

Bit of escaping paint on her leg there, but overall, not a bad paint job. Here we can see her shoes have been turned into platforms to support her properly, which I think is a fair enough decision. 

If you ignore the lack of edging on her top, not a bad nano figure.

Overall, this set isn’t too bad, if you can pick it up cheaply. There’s definitely some misses in the set, but most of the figures are reasonably solid for their size. These figures are 1.65″ tall on average, so normally you wouldn’t look so closely at them as some macro photography. I’m not sure I’d pay the RRP for the set, but if you see these at a discount, I don’t think they’re too bad. 

DC Nano-Metals – Part 2

Now for four more Nano Metals figures. 

Here is some Killer Croc:

*GRIN*. Can’t say I’m a fan of the sculpt on this one, but it does amuse me so. The green doesn’t fit Killer Croc at all either. Shorts are roughly painted, and don’t look great either. The parts of his face that are painted are painted neatly but… well… it looks like that. Just look at it. 

There’s some nice sculpt details here in the spiny knobbles, it’s nice they’ve given him pockets, but that right pocket sticks out so far, like he’s got a large lump of something in there. Left pocket would look better, if it didn’t melt into his back. 

Overall, this one has amusement value only. 

Metamorpho:

I’d say this guy is the least-known out of the heroes included in this set. Paint is a bit sloppy in this guy, though he can partly get away with it, being a guy made out of several elements. Wish they would’ve done his shorts in black, rather than lazing out and just doing them in brown. The figure already features black on his face, so not sure why they didn’t. 

Back:

They’ve done a nice job of sculpting his mud leg, and the paints are a bit neater back here. 

Overall, I think he’s a decent mini-figure. 

Two-Face:

This is based on his orange-and-purple outfit form, which wouldn’t be my first pick. However, they’ve done a decentish job of rendering him at a first glance – colours look bold, suit is sculpted well, and his face has both its halves. Main issues for me is they didn’t paint his tie black, and whilst they gave him a mouth, it does look rather odd. And on that point… where are his eyes?!

And is it me, or does he look like he’s trying to take a shit? 

Back:

Back looks OK, but the paint doesn’t quite meet happily in the middle. 

Overall, probably not one I’m going to prominently display.

Lastly, Mr Freeze:

I really like the colours and pose on this one. However, his head doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny – looks like they didn’t fully decide if they were going to do his head or his helmet, and melded the two… I think it would’ve been better if they went without the helmet, and made his head less elongated. This would make the figure look better, and give the owner the option to add a clear part, if they wished. The gun is nicely sculpted though. 

Back:

Gun looks good back here, and his backpack looks decent. Helmet-head looks less silly from this angle, as there are no details on this side. 

Overall, I think he’s one of the stronger figures in the set. But dammit… that head-thing. Wish they didn’t do that. 

DC Nano-Metals – Part 1

I bought this set cheap-ish at TK Maxx. 

First up is a silverish Batman:

The paint is mostly in the right places and doesn’t look too bad. No mouth painted though… Can’t say I’m a big fan of the colour scheme, but I think it works. 

Back:

Not too much to see at the back. The cape is nicely wrinkled though. 

The Flash:

I like the colours on this one, and the paint is neatly done on this o0ne. The logo came out decently well on his chest, and his muscle definition works. 

Back;

His belt is a bit sloppy here, and the wing(?) on his boot is more of a nub. His body is sculpted well though. Pretty pleased with this one.

Green Lantern:

This guy, the paint went a bit sloppy – think the green needed to extend a bit more down his front, and one of his gloves has a bit of white mist paint. His mask is OK, but again, half a face, though the way his faces is moulded almost gives him a mouth a bit higher up. The logo on his suitl looks nice, but his chest does sort of seem to melt at the bottom, in terms of sculpt. 

Back:

Looks OK from the back, though his hair does melt into his suit. Don’t think the green and the black paint want to play nice with each other, but I don’t think it’s too bad.

Out of these three, Flash is the one I like most. I don’t think any of these look bad, but not really keen on the Batman.

Raidramon – Digimon/Appmon

I bought this guy because he looked cool, was cheap, and potentially looked like he was compatible with Lego Bionicle figures. For the first part, whilst the construction pieces are similar shapes, they are a bit smaller and thus not compatible. So if you get these, don’t expect them to be compatible with Lego pieces. 

So here he is, fully built:

He wasn’t too hard to build, but one or two things changed between the instructions being written and the boxed product – mostly with pieces being pre-attached to each other. 

Overall, he looks pretty decent for what he is – decently painted, though I do wish they had a bit that clipped onto the under-wing to cover up the support structure – this will always be visible from the front, unless you have some very specific posing going on. 

Front:

Looking kind of squarish in the face there. He seems to stand up OK to me. 

Face:

His jaw can move, as demoed here – it has a couple of click points, so you can have it closed or open. Here we see a screw, which is a deviation from the Legoesque styling (this was not part of the construction process though – all parts that are left for the buyer to do is clip parts together). 

Left:

Here we see his tail, which I’m rather “eh” about. Doesn’t look particularly attractive, and doesn’t have any articulation. Would’ve loved to have been able to move it up and down or side-to-side. Head looks cool from the side though. 

Right:

Wires are kinda cool, not too much extra to say about this side.

Back:

The cape-wings look cool, and the shapes are nice. The wings have some articulation to them, as evidenced by the less-than-subtle hinges. 

Wire close-up:

Here’s what the wires look like up close – decent sculpting on them, for a toy of this type. 

Here’s me doing some posing with him:

So I wouldn’t class him as super-flexible, but you can probably get something decentish out of his arms and legs. The wing hinges are good for use as a toy, but I don’t think as useful for posing. 

So I’d recommend this one as a toy to play with, rather than a display piece. It is meant as more of a toy, but I don’t think it has the displayabilty of Bionicles, which make cool toys and display pieces. Overall, I think he was worth what I paid, but I think he’s going to be more of a toy that I put somewhere to fiddle with rather than integrate into my displays. 

Catwoman Barbie – Batman

And now for a Barbie that I can appreciate! Never did see one as a kid that I’d ever want, but at 32 I find the purrfect Barbie for me:

Hm. I really could’ve straightened out that mask a bit more, couldn’t I?

Anyways, onto the figure – I think the fusion of Catwoman and Barbie works well here – it definitely looks like an even mix of both. I love the fact the clothes have been made to look like leather, and she has just enough touches to sell itself as being Catwoman. A large part of that is the mask, but she has cat claws on her gloves, and the quintessential whip. She has a utility belt thing going on, which apparently marks this as being based on Catwoman from the 2004 movie… which I haven’t watched. Hm. I should probably get on that. Anyway, moving on…

Left:

The seams have been sewn so the stitching is inwards, so everything looks nice and neat from this side. Her claws have been tipped with silver, which has been nicely done. Her neck does look a bit odd from the side though. 

Right:

Here we can see a small zipper, which is a nice attention to detail. I do rather like the fluffy upper to her gloves, and the high heels poking out from the bottom of her trousers. 

Back:

Here we can see some things that weren’t finished off too well – several of teh back joints are uneven, which is a bit of a shame. Also a bit of excess fabric at uppermost join. Her hair is very nice though, and the backs of her trousers look good, even if the belt doesn’t quite line up… 

Overall, I’m glad I bought this Barbie, and I think it makes an excellent first choice :P. Not sure if it’d appeal to a Barbie fan, as her outfit does somewhat limit her articulation, though all the joints are there. For me, I’m using this as a display piece, so I’m not bothered by knees being hampered by her trousers. I may have to get a doll stand for her though, as she’s not standing on her own with those small feet. 

Rin Kagamine – Nuclear Fusion – Vocaloid

Here’s a Vocaloid figure with a difference… one that isn’t overly cutesy. When I found out this figure existed, I had to go and order it.

Not too long later, she arrived:

Rin Kagamine, as a rocker. As a fan of heavy music, this one strongly appealed to me, and I love the hairdo Rin is sporting. I think this figure was styled well, and the base is very much a part of the whole ensemble – no boring black disc here! 

I love the design of her guitar – I think it works well as a focal point for the centre of the figure. 

Face:

Here she is, not looking very impressed with you. I do love that hairstyle, and the white-black hair ties match up well with the rest of her outfit. From the parts of the outfit that can be seen in this photo, you can see the clean lines that the figure has, and the detailing that went into the sculpt.

What you can also see is the end of the darned headphone wire. This thing Does. Not. Stay. In. I wish there was more depth to the hole or it had some way of gripping the wire so it stays in when nudged. This is my main gripe with the figure. However, this wire is a separate part, so you can bend it however you wish, or choose not to have it. I like the curved lines you can create with it, so I prefer to have it, so long as I can get the damn thing to stay. It will probably meet up with some white tack at some point in its future. 

Left:

Here we can see they’ve put a good amount of detail into her clothing, and have her boot creasing at the ankle. The coloured rings look… OK, but I’m not 100% sold on them. I did think about displaying her without them, but decided the figure kind of needed them. I like the fact they’ve included some wires going into the speaker, and the four “legs” on the base, which make it super-stable as well as look cool. 

Speaker:

Here is a closer look at the speaker and its wires. I like the fin included in front of the speaker (not very practical, but looks cool) and the little logo thing on the top of it. The paint is also nice and shiny here. Here you can also see where the base has been given some weathered effects, and I think these work well. Also Rin’s boot has a nice neat yellow line going round the sole. 

Right:

Here the rings look cool, with the way they flow. Also got an opposite colour scheme going on with her clothing, which I really like. The light and shading on this figure work really well, which I feel is decently showcased in the white part of her dress.

Back:

I like this golden “fence” part. I like the colour, and I think it fits well with the figure… even though it’s kind of random. As a nod to Rin’s normal clothing, we have yellow lines on her arms, which are painted well.

Back of her head:

Here we can see they put detail into the back of her hair as well as the front. Also I plugged the headphones in properly for this shot (yay!), and it does look good when it is behaving. We’ve also got a small detail in the form of a stud on her shoulder. 

Ring attachment:

This is how the back ring attaches, so it appears to float. This one can be a little easy to knock out if you’re not careful, but will stay fine if you don’t nudge it. However, because of the holes in this back piece, it does show a reasonable amount that something’s missing if it isn’t in place. Also just having two of the rings really doesn’t look right imo. 

Overall, if you like some heavy metal in your figures, whilst they remain plastic, I’d recommend this one. I’m not sure how appealing this would be to a general Rin Kagamine fan, but I personally love the concept and think it is well-executed. Kinda wish the rings were more of an optional part, as they can look a little “eh” close-up, but think they work just fine at a viewing distance.