Category: Figure manufacturer origin

Mantis Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

Next up, the mantis alien:

This was the one I was most excited about… so let’s see how he fares. From the front he looks good – we have a couple of shades of green going on, and some silver. I’m glad they’ve used a couple of shades of green to paint him, as it does add a lot to the figure. I like the pose of the figure too. 

Left:

I like the pose of the arms and the body. The circular parts are nicely highlighted in the lighter green, and the sculpt o the head is lovely. What I like less is the webbing on his arm. The paint looks very sloppy on it, and it looks more like metal sheeting than skin. 

Close-up of the side of his head:

Couple of sloppy paint bits – the green on his shoulder and a little on the ribbing on the lower part of his head, but I do love this head design. The silver highlights on it work well too. 

Right:

And the webbing on this side… ergh. Awful. Looks like he’s got some metal in the crook of his arm. It’s like the sculptor didn’t even try to get the webbed effect the original had. If they did something similar to the shoulder sculpt, that may’ve worked. Anything but this… weird attempt. Nothing would’ve been better, but could’ve made the figure dangerously fragile. I’ll just stare at his lower arm instead… yes, that looks better. 

Back:

Weirdly, he has no tail. With the webbing and the lack of tail, I do wonder if the sculptor was trying to do this from memory instead of with source material… The back is OK, but not a strong point of the figure. 

Top of the head:

Pattern looks good on the top of his head :). 

Overall, he looks decent enough from the front, but the “webbing” on his arms really brings this figure down. I still like him, but there’s definitely some weird design decisions going on here, which I don’t fully understand. Yes, the arms probably needed more support material, but why no extra raised bits to look like webbing? Is this actually some kind of statue of the mantis alien, instead of a specimen? Yeah. Gonna go with that. 

Gorilla Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

With the bull alien came the gorilla alien:

This is one burly dude of an alien! I do love the “growling” pose, and we also get to see his inner mouth due to it. The blue dry brushing effect does help to accentuate parts of the figure, and I think this mostly works. 

Left:

That’s some big claws he has there on his legs! Love the colour scheme. What I love less is some of the line painting at the top of his head is a bit messy. The sculpting is nice, with plenty of details to look at. 

Right:

Here the lines are neater, but one pesky bit at the front of his head there. We have a lot fo the same details as the left side, and I do like how he’s posed. He also seems he’s got his hands curled, ready to pound the floor. 

Back:

Big butt! I think his body looks a bit awkward from this angle, and maybe needed a little more shape to it to make it less square. However, it is detailed nicely, and I do like the design of his tail, which has an interestingly sculpted end part that I like. 

Top:

He has a nice, shiny head, a little bit marred by stray paint. I like the way they’ve gone for a different finish here, and the effect it gives it. 

Overall, I’m a fan of this one. The colours are nice, and the posing is good. Feel they’ve done a good job of capturing the gorilla alien’s appearance.

Bull Alien – Aliens Retro Collection

This is the first of six blogs for the three Aliens Retro twin-packs. Bought all three packs when they were on sale on the Eaglemoss shop. Partly glad I got them there, as I was able to get replacements, as two arrived broken. However, they could’ve done a better packing job… 

These alien designs are based on the never-aired Alien cartoon designs. 

Anyways, enough ramble, let’s have a look at the Bull alien:

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Starting off with a side pic, as front-on doesn’t have as much to see. The head design is really nice, but I’m not too fond of the body – the stripes feel too flat, making the body feel too flat in general. The front arm and feet look good, but his back leg feels a little awkwardly shaped. Not a fan of the tail – feel as if this should be beefed up, and look more like the original Kenner version. Another advantage of doing this would be to make it less fragile – my first one the tail was snapped off in the box, and getting him out, I can see why. I don’t think they had to go this thin to achieve a bull tail effect. 

Head:

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The purple stripe is nicely painted, and faithful to the original design. The horns look good too, and I think they did a really good job here.

‘Face’:

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Nice set of grinning, silver teeth here. Got a seam line going on, which isn’t too much of a big deal, as you don’t usually see this angle – here I’m holding the figure to get this shot. The bottom of his body doesn’t look particularly well-sculpted from here, however, again, it’s not particularly visible on display. The ‘arm’ poses do work well at this angle though, and does make him look menacing. 

Left:

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Man… if only they gave the exoskeleton parts a bit more shape… The limbs look a lot nicer on this side imo, and the back leg doesn’t look oddly stretched. 

Back:

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I feel his back pipes are a bit short and stumpy. I think it’d be more aesthetically pleasing if they were bigger/more dominating on his back. I like the way the exoskeleton ribs end with spine parts, but still feel they could do with more shape in general. 

Back:

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His back looks OK, nothing special. I know bull tails are thin, but I feel as if they could add more weight to the tail, possibly remove the spine parts (maybe do ridges like the body?) to make the figure more robust. If you’re moving this figure around, be careful not to clip the tail on anything, as it will easily snap. 

Top:

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The plates at the top of his limb joints work well, and the body shape is nice and bulky. 

Overall, I think he’s a decent figure, but does have a fragility problem in the tail. Thankfully Eaglemoss is happy to provide replacements if they have them, though resin is fairly easy to fix with superglue if you break it yourself or can’t get a replacement. If I were to change anything, it’d either be the tail or to add a more rounded shape to the flat surface of the back parts. though I feel these complaints are relatively minor. 

Chestburster Victim & Facehugger Keyring – Aliens

Now for a bit of an interesting figure… one that’s part of the scenery…

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This wasn’t a figure I was planning on getting, but saw it for a reasonable price, and decided to go for it. Thinking of posing this with one the xenomorphs in the same Eaglemoss series. 

The sculpt is surprisingly detailed, and the paint is mostly good, which is a surprise for an Eaglemoss figure. There are some parts where the clothing paint does go onto the fines, but most strands are OK. The clothes are well done, and are shaded well, and the blood isn’t half-bad. My biggest complaint with the figure is the skin colour feels a little too ashen, and could’ve possibly done with a splash of skin-coloured paint. 

Chestburster close-up:

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A chestburster’s head… in full, gruesome detail. I think this has been done well, and we have the t-shirt pushing back from the wound. I feel there’s some inaccuracy in how this would look irl, but I think the artistic liberty does help the chestburster stand out. I feel a little more detail in texture could’ve gone into the hair, but I don’t think this is a big thing, and the paint is nice on the hair, with the strands on the victim’s forehead. 

Sides:

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The sides of the figure look nice, with the alien wall texture continuing around the figure. 

Back:

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Was quite impressed with this – they’ve actually textured the back, so if you have this at an angle where the back shows, it will still look “the part”. The paint here is also nicely and subtly shaded. 

Due to the subject, I don’t think this figure will be especially popular, but it is nicely done, and would look nice in a diorama. 

As a small added bonus, here’s a keyring by Tsudaka Hobby that I picked up in a Suruga-ya order:

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It did come with the key loop, but I removed this to more easily place it in an ita bag (featuring all my favourite things). The legs and tail are very flexible, so they’ll bend if caught on anything. The black wash is OK, but I wish they left a little more on to soften the effect. The bottom of the facehugger is also sculpted decently well. I like this keyring, and glad I got it. 

Captain Alexi – Virus

This figure I was going to write a blog for about a week ago… but then I decided to watch the film before writing about this figure. This blog will include spoilers for the movie (beyond the figure itself…), so skip this if you want to watch Virus first. 

So, uh, here we are and here’s Captain Alexi:

The turncoat himself :P. Part of me wonders if this figure should’ve come in obscured packaging, because it’s kind of spoilery in of itself. Though, to be fair, it’s fairly obvious this is gonna happen to him, one way or another. 

This is based on his final appearance, so loses some of the iconic features of the original Captain Alexi. Would’ve been nice to keep some evidence of his tattoo or something. 

Left:

Here we can see the gun that’s just been grafted to what’s left of his arm. The gun is nicely sculpted and painted. 

Right:

Here he is… face almost holding on. His arm is nicely sculpted though, and here he is holding his pistol, which also looks the part. Legs are definitely reminiscent of the Strogg figures I have, which are by the same manufacturer. 

Back:

Gruesome! Infection waiting to happen, if you ask me. However, there’s a lot of detail here, and decent paintwork. I think the fleshy parts back here do a good job of looking organic. 

*peel*:

Here we have some very regular-shaped lungs The skull’s decent, as is the electronics, but the lungs look really odd in colour and shape. Also the heart could do with being a shade or two darker to fit in more. 

Skin innard:

This is a thin, almost rubbery bit of plastic. Here we have the inverse of his organs, which helps hold this piece to him… but as you can see from the above shots, the head part doesn’t really stay on properly. I think this is a cool idea, but poorly executed. I don’t think the material it is made out of did much for his looks either. 

Wat?:

Hey! Where did his head go?!

Ah, here:

He does escape and run off as a head in the film, which they’ve replicated here. His spine is flexible, but doesn’t really hold position. Probably so it doesn’t get so deformed as to not fit into his back properly… So it’s not particularly poseable if you want him running around, but you could probably flex it to be able to cling to something. Blood effects lower down look a bit eh, but the rest is OK. 

Mini-virus:

You can use this to terrorise other figures in your collection :P. This thing looks cool, but not like anything much. It’s OK, but with no articulation, there’s not much you can really do with it. 

He also came with a torch, like the ones in the film, but I forgot to photograph it. It looks decent, and has a weathered effect, so it’s a nice accessory…. but I want him to hold his gun. 

Overall, he’s a decent enough figure for a mediocre film. It definitely wasn’t a great film, but I liked it more than the 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest. Though I do have a soft spot for this kind of film, and it did look older than its 1999 release date. So overall, the toy line is OK, and you can safely skip the film, unless you want to watch a predictable romp involving cyborgs. 

Aliens x M.U.S.C.L.E – Series 2 – Part 3

Now for the rest of the figures in this wave.

First up, Burke:

I like the texture on the guy’s shirt – how to do a plaid shirt when you don’t have colours to use. I like the sculpting on this one – detail has been put into the clothes, with the wrinkles, pattern and his shoes. Another hairline to report on the back though. He does have a watch sculpted too, which is nice to see. Overall, I think this is a decent figure.

Hicks:

Hicks, giving off a strong Duke Nukem vibe. I think they’ve gone overly Nukem with the hair, which is what does it. Still, not a bad little sculpt, but probably not going to please someone who needs their figures character-accurate. 

Hudson:

Erm… and now I’m getting Frakenstein’s Monster vibes from this one. For me, this doesn’t really feel like Hudson, and looking at pics on Google Image Search… I’m still feeling that. The hair doesn’t look right, and his face looks derp. If we ignore it’s supposed to be Hudson, he looks OK for a generic army dude… though I think his face needs changing so it doesn’t look like he’s going “uhhhhhh”. 

Lastly, Vasquez

(she better not get my blog flagged again!):

That. Face. That…. face. They went for annoyed Vasquez, but ended up with pissed off granny. The mouth is too long, and I think the facial features are too squat, leading her to look older and angrier. They did give her dog tags though…. Her gun looks OK as far as sculpt goes – can’t blame the for filling in the smaller holes, for structural integrity. Also mine is a bit bent, but I could ix this, so I don’t regard this as a negative of the figure. 

If it wasn’t for the weapon and the headband though, I think it’d be a bit confusing who this is supposed to be… Again, OK for generic army dude, but kinda fails at being Vasquez.

Again, a mixed bag as regards figures. I think they’ve tried to add more to these figures, which has mostly worked, but have ended up with some odd faces, which doesn’t help with recognising them. This set has some highlights and some lowlights, so I’d recommend just getting the set(s) with figures in that appeal to you. And maybe not look too closely at the faces. 

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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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.