Category: Action figures (articulated)

Swamp Thing – DC Deluxe Action Figure

This one I picked up on a recent trip to Swindon – I missed getting him when he was originally released, so I gave up and forgot about him. Found him for sale for what I think was his original RRP, so decided to buy him this time around :D. And glad I did:

This guy is huge. Or at least his wings are – was fun getting him to fit in shot :P. The sculptwork and painting gives him a very wooden and organic appearance. 

Close-up of his face:

I love the texture on his face, those red eyes and his antlers/horns. A decent amount of sculptwork went into is face, and the paint has been well done to emphasise the correct areas. 

Left side:

He doesn’t have too much depth, if you don’t flap his wings back, but they do flap backwards and up/down if you wish to. However, they only go so far down, before they foul on each other, if they’re spread out like I have them. 

Right:

This shot has better focus.. here you can see the wooden texture is present throughout, and his head has a good shape to it, with the wooden antlers. The stand I’m using is a Play Arts Kai stand I got as part of a lot of miscellaneous items. Sadly Play Arts Kai do not sell these separately, so your only real chance of getting these is by buying them secondhand. I have NOT bought any of the China fakes, so don’t know what flavour of Chinesium they’re made out of. If they’re made of the brittle plastic that the Bandai fake ones are, I’d be worried the stand would break with this dude. Failing a PAK stand, a doll-style stand of a sufficient size may work well. 

Back:

And here he is… exceeding the size of my backdrop! Love the fact the textures run throughout the figure – there’s no “plain” sides. The mossy effect on his wings is nice, along with the other wooded textures. He also has a flower on his right calf, but this has gotten covered up by the stand in this shot ><. 

But why the stand? His wings make him back-heavy and are not removable. This means, despite his articulated feet, he is prone to overbalancing and falling over – a stand will help prevent this, and from him trying to tear a hole in your collection with his massive size. 

Though he does have some removable accessories:

Initially, he has two bits of twig in these holes (see the first photo in the blog), but you can also equip him with a “sword” and shield:

I think this choice of accessories was a neat addition to the figure, and allows you to customise him to your preference. The holes are different sizes on the two sides, so he can only equip his weapons this way around. 

Close-up of the shield, as the sword was in earlier shots:

Looks a bit like an oversized walnut shell to me, but could easily also be hewn from wood, which is what I think was intended. 

Close-up of a twig:

You can see where these plug into when you look carefully at the figure, but they’re not immediately apparent. Looks like I didn’t have it pushed in all the way in for this shot. 

Overall, I really like this figure, and glad I got him in the end :). If you like what you see, and don’t mind you can’t remove his wings, I’d recommend getting him, if you can find him for a good price. Bear in mind he is a deluxe figure, so his price is higher than that of “regular” Western action figures. Watched a review from around the time of his release, and they quoted $50 for him (I paid £40). You may also want to factor in the price of a stand, unless you’re willing to put the work into making him balance, which may limit posing. 

Vaan – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

This is the second of the two Final Fantasy figures I bought. Vaan:

I was less enthralled with him, as his joins on his arms have nothing to hide them. Not a big fan of articulated figures where the joints are visible in the fleshy parts. But his outfit makes up for this – I love the white design on his pants, and his medallion. I love the amount of details in his clothes, even though he has less of them than Ashe. And my collection could do with some more bare-chested males :P. 

Vaan’s left:

His gauntlets are nicely moulded and painted. The elbow joint isn’t so bad, but the shoulder joint does make it look a bit like he’s had a shoulderpad implanted in his flesh. His hair looks more natural than Ashe’s though.

Right side:

I love the strap detailing on his trousers, and here we can see his sword, which is equally as impractical and ornate as Ashe’s. 

Back:

Love the back of his chestpiece. His butt is nothing exciting, but he has some well-moulded wrinkles in his trousers, showing their bagginss. Hair nicely finished at the back.

Close-up of his sword:

The hilt of the sword was broken away from the upper blade part, so the break location was about as good as you’re going to get. However, I couldn’t feel a “true” position for the hilt to line up with the other part correctly, so I had to glue it the best I could. Either the break’s been repaired before, or possibly some of the plastic has rubbed away. So I got it as straight as I possibly could, and it doesn’t really show too much. Depending how I pose him, the wonk won’t be terribly obvious, but I guess if the break annoys me, I’ll have to split it again, file down the surfaces until flat, and re-glue. 

An unexpected, but welcome pair of figures to my collection. Really happy with the detail for the price I paid. These figures seem to be reasonably cheap online, but not quite as cheap as I got them for. I would recommend these figures if you like their looks, or into the characters, and don’t mind the articulation points. 

Ashe – Final Fantasy XII – Play Arts

I found two of these Play Arts figures for sale for a good price at a local store. I debated over just buying Ashe as I liked her appearance, or if I should buy both and sell one. 

In the end I’ve decided to keep both, as I wanted to keep Ashe, and it turns out Vaan had a broken sword (probably been broken for some time, looking at the break), and he was a good looker too. They were definitely both secondhand, as there was a good amount of dust on their stands, and the figures themselves. A quick visit with the duster fixed that though. 

This blog will be about Ashe:

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I love her outfit, and the sword designs are amazing. Let’s get a little closer and look at Ashe’s outfit:

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The hair paint & sculpt isn’t anything amazing, but I can forgive that for the rest of her. The outfit is sufficiently detailed and well-painted. The colours are striking and complimentary, which is what drew me to this figure, along with the metalwork details. I guess it took her a long time to get dressed in the morning though!” That’s a lot of clothing pieces to put on! 

Left side:

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She has a ring on, which is painted well. A small detail on the cuff of her boots too. Despite the sculpted nature of the hair, it just doesn’t look quite right somehow to me. 

Right side:

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Not much to say about this side, but we can admire the massive sword for a bit. 

Once you’re done, here’s her back:

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The attention-to-detail on the front has been carried on around the back. Her outermost top also splits at the back, allowing you to see the lower layers, which is a nice touch. Can’t let those layers go to waste! I’ve managed to cover up the gold trim pattern on the outermost layers in most of the shots (doh), but they’re nicely painted, and I like the pattern. 

A close-up of her sword:

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I’m a sucker for the blue crystals embedded in her sword, and I love the ornate, if impractical, design. I’m guessing it uses some enchantments to be useful in battle, lol. Maybe I should play/watch someone play some Final Fantasy… 

Urban Mine – Evangelion, Gundam & Misc – Part 5

Now for the final part! I think I got my money’s worth! 

So what’s left? Some Gundams of course! However, before their photoshoot, they needed a bathe:

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These were quite grimy, and I don’t think the slightly rubbery plastic helped matters. I had no idea who these three were, but one MFC post later, I’d been linked to the who, and a Discord message later, I knew what figure series these are from. They’re pretty old, so they’re not on MFC at the time of writing, and I haven’t got around to adding them (if I will!). These three are from the “Styling S” series. These figures feature extremely limited articulation, and seem to be self-assembly. They seem to have been sold in a blind box format, which ties into the fact they would’ve required assembly, and their quality. They needed some reassembly when I got them – they had been spread around the bag during transport, and sadly one part broke. One of the stands was broken, but I suspect this happened prior to transport. I may fix this with a pin, or just glue the stand part to the stand it belongs to. 

OK, enough waffle, make with the figures!

GAT-X103 Buster Gundam:

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This is the dude with the broken park – one of those beige pieces on his shoulder is now permanently glued in. I initially thought he had missing pieces, but I found some images of him on the internet, and got him assembled properly! And that’s a gun and a half he’s pointing at us! 

From the left:

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Yeah, don’t want to be on the business end of that thing! One dirt spot remains on his arm there ¬¬. Erm, do Gundams go in the car wash…? How does one wash a Gundam normally? 

Right side:

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Here you can see one of the hip mounts for the gun – this was the main mistake I made when reassembling him – I didn’t know what these bits rested on, and didn’t manage to connect the dots. 

Back:

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As these have stands up… well, erm, there, you get to see the details on their feet, which is nice. Some detailing on the back, equal to the front. 

Top:

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Nice, sturdy grip goin’ on with that gun. And it certainly needs it! Still damn big!

Close-up of his chest:

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His head is permanently in “aiming gun” direction. No head articulation, so you can’t have him grumping at things. The poses are cool for these figures, but sometimes… I just want to tweak things a little bit… But that’s not an option with these. 

Now for ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warrior. This guy is the one with the broken stand, so he’s borrowing GAT-X103′s for these photos. Some of the original stand peg is in his arse peg still, so he sits a little proud on the stand:

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Here he is, ready to go hammer and tongs on something below him. 

Left side:

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Here is his spiky shield and gun. From this angle, he could almost be going for a poop. 

Right side:

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That better be an energy axe! I like the way they have him angled, ready to strike.

Back:

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Looks OK form this angle, with flaps protecting his backside. These flaps are attached on with hooks (along with the two on the front), and can be reasonably easily knocked off, but they stay happily, so long as you don’t bump them. 

Close-up of the axe:

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Yep, that looks like some kind of futuristic energy axe. Better not get too close to him! The gradient effect is nice on the “blade”. 

The shield has some details on the back:

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Guess he’s ready for some discus? 

Midriff:

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Here’s a close-up of the flaps, and some grenades he has on his belt. Those crown jewels are safe… so long as those ‘nades don’t go off prematurely. I do like the detail in this area. 

And lastly we have ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam. Yep, just rolls off the tongue! 

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This is my favourite of the three, and certainly is the most striking. I love the “wings” on the back, and the general colour scheme. He’s also dual-wielding guns, so that’s also a win. 

Right side:

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Not too much to see here, looks like he’s got holsters for those guns. 

Left side:

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More of the same. Bit of some red smudging on his arm though. Loving the colour scheme still.

Back:

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His wings look really impressive from the back. 

This one actually features a small amount of customisation:

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The upper wings have two positions they can slot into! This option looks nice, but I prefer having him with his wings out. Here’s what this configuration looks like from the front:

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Not as visible, but I can see some people preferring him looking like this, so it’s nice that they included this option. I don’t particularly like the way his head is fixed so he’s looking down and left – it fits with the flying left pose but I’d like to see his face from more front-on. 

All in all, these figures are OK. They’re nothing special, but they’re competent. The moulds don’t feel particularly complex, and the colours are mostly block coloured plastic, with some paint detailing, so they do feel somewhat plain, compared to a fully painted model. If you wanted something cheap and Gundam, these would fit the bill. They’re also far easier to assemble than a model kit – it’s all pegs, so there’d be no sprue-clipping, stickers, and swearing at small parts. I wouldn’t buy these, but as I have them, I will display them. Until I, erm, run out of space again… probably. 

And that’s the last of this Urban Mine! Hope you enjoyed this 4-part series. I certainly enjoyed this loot box, and I felt I got my money’s worth. 

P-Body – Portal 2 – Figma

Today’s figure is P-Body Figma by Max Factory. This is the second of the two Portal 2 Figmas:

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This guy has all the mechanical details of Atlas, but he doesn’t have the face articulation that Atlas does – instead he has two alternative face plates – one of his eye half-closed, and one with his eye fully closed. I guess the latter’s useful for stop-motion or something…

Left side:

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Much more sleek than Atlas. 

Right side:

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His portal gun is like Atlas’s… only orange. Love the little details at the top of his arm.

Back:

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Much more of his inner-workings are visible from this side, unlike Atlas, where some stuff is pretty much visible on all sides. His stature is very much as it is in the game, so it’s all good. He’s a little more awkward to pose due to lankiness, but the joints largely twist nicely. 

Oh, what have you got there P-Body?

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Erm, er, I don’t think that’s part of the testing initiative. I think you may want to put that down…

Atlas – Portal 2 – Figma

It was my birthday recently, and my husband bought me the Portal 2 Figmas… well… erm, I ordered them, he paid for them XD. So thanks!

First up, Atlas:

Aaand this is all the accessories he comes with, other than some extra hands. Not even a companion cube… though I do have one of those. He his very nicely done though, and the mechanical parts have come out very nicely, and give him a very complex look. 

For posing though, he has some features that make up for it. He can look at you with suspicion: 

Or after a night of heavy drinking:

The top panel goes up and down, and can be twisted, as shown above. His eye can fully open and close, plus the eyelids are independent, which partly make up for a lack of accessories. 

Here he is having a nap:

Left side:

I like his fingers-spread hand. The electronics lool good from this side too.

Right side:

The portal gun looks good, and is kinda shiny on the beam part, which shows in the front shots.

Back:

The logo on his butt is crisp and clean, and they didn’t skimp out on the details on the back of his ball. 

Overall, he’s a very nice looking Figma, and decently well-articulated. With the Japanese price, he’s kind of on the pricey side, but worth it if you’re a Portal 2 fan. UK price… yeah, um about that. Juuust a little crazy! The retailers here are selling him at the “maybe if it was DX GLaDoS”  price. If you want this guy, I’d suggest importing him, as even paying the import charges would be cheaper!

Figure Spotlight – Durotan Big Fig

Bought this from an Amazon lightning deal in 2016. He was about the same price as the small versions at the time XD. 

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And big he is! Far taller than the board I usually use for photographing figures… Admire my “quality” background! For this kind of figure, I was surprised about the amount of detail in it – most of these large figures look very “meh”. He does suffer from looking like a lump o’ plastic – mostly because of the chest area. 

Though the back suffers more… it looks like he’s had a hunter have good ol’ go at him:

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The large screw holes are a bit of a shame, as the sculpting here is nice too, especially his hair. He does live in a corner currently, so I don’t see the back of him often. 

And the sides of him:

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Not much to say about these angles. He does have some seam marks on his arms that you can see in the pics, but again, not bad for this kind of figure. 

Happy with my purchase, and he does a fine job of guarding the vivarium. 

The Atom – Darkest Night

This is a figure I’ve thought about buying on and off, and found him for a decent price at a local action figure store. I bought the Indigo Lantern figure some time ago, and have since thought about buying The Atom to go with her.

So here he is:

Looking all strong and muscly… and indigo. He does have a nice colour scheme about him, and is mostly nicely painted. 

Close-up of his upper half:

The body paint has been done nicely, can see some stray paint around his belt, but it isn’t anything too noticeable. I like his blue tattoos, which have been nicely rendered in shiny blue paint, though I’d prefer for his nipples to not be trying to escape the shot. Could do with being nearer the middle imo. And a bit of paint to make them into nipples, rather than growths. 

Staff closeup:

Ooh, look, you can see me in it! I do like these shiny jewels in the staves the Indigo Tribe have, along with their rough-hewn look.

Right side:

Some nice woodlike texture going on with the staff. Shoulder armour a bit high, but that’s so the arm can articulate. If this was a more modern figure, this would likely either be made out of a softer material so it could flex, or have a joint to move. 

Left side:

Some concession to creases in his clothing. His boots look mildly unnatural in terms of texture, but that’s not a biggie for me. 

Back:

Here we have his butt. Nicely painted, but it would be good if that upper gold chain connected in with his butt flap. What’s that for anyway? I guess if you see it flapping, not in the wind, you know it’s time to move. 

Overall, I like this figure, especially considering it’s an older figure – from what I can find, he was released in 2011. I love the bases for these series – simple, yet eye-catching and thematic. I wish more modern action figures could come with bases like these, though you’re mostly lucky to get a base at all. Ah well, still got a pile of NECA discs in my drawer. 

Groot Evolution – Marvel Legends

Visited a nearby Toys R Us, and found they were having a closing down sale, so decided to pick up a couple of items – first being Groot:

His face sculpt is really nice, and the body is… mostly nice. It does give a wooden feel, but… it’s also plasticky too. 

Here’s the close-up of his face:

His eyes look really nice, and his face feels woody and detailed. 

Back of his head:

The head is nicely sculpted , and here you can also see the twiggy parts on his arms, which help hide the shoulder joints. They’re not super-effective though. 

Let’s “zoom out” to his back:

Not much hiding that back joint, but the wooded texture is nicely spread throughout. You can see the extra bits in his arm joints, which help to hide the joint when flexed. 

Side shot:

Head looks good from all the angles. This angle does rather show the sculpting off – it’s nicely detailed so it doesn’t feel entirely “action figure”. I could imagine if Mattel made this, it would look much flatter. 

He is also decently poseable:

He’s reaching out for you! Groot! Maybe if I watched the film I could come up with a decent tagline here… Or maybe just more “groot”. 

Upper shot of the above pose:

Being the evolution set, it also came with kid Groot:

I used a macro lens here – you can see the print dots in a couple of places, but these aren’t really visible when you’re looking at him.

And baby Groot:

D’aww. Ditto for the print dots. 

The pot Groot stands up nicely, and is a good display piece. The kid Groot is somewhat harder to stand up, and is annoying, which is a bit of a shame. It would’ve been nice if they provided a clip base for him to stand in. When I decide where to display him, I’ll likely stick him down with a glue dot. 

Overall, I am happy with this figure. Due to the fact his legs come as separate pieces, he can lose his lower legs when you’re trying to pose him, but it’s not a massive issue. I don’t think I would’ve paid full price for him, but he’s definitely good if you pick him up for a discount. He certainly has the height compared to other similar figures, due to the aforementioned separated legs – it allowed Marvel to make him tower above figures in the same line, yet keep the same box format. 

Mari Makinami Illustrious – Figma

With Rei on order, I decided to buy Mari too, as she’s the cheapest of the three, poor Mari. 

I deceided to go with her screaming face, and left her with the red cuffs/light. There are green pieces for her wrists and chest light, if you want her in ‘berzerker’ mode. 

Front of Mari:

Looks almost if her eyes are closed on this photo, but they’re not. 

Close-up of her face:

Her chest piece sadly looks a little odd, if it isn’t straight. I half-wonder if they’d have been better off without this articulation, or had more of her on her upper half, so she doesn’t look… kind of robot-ish when her upper half is rotated. Those pointy chest pieces don’t help, lol. Rei is articulated in the same way, but with the consistency of colour and roundness, it looks a lot less odd. 

Sides:

Looks fine, pretty much the same as Rei. Only Mari. She was a bit easier in the leg department to pose properly in the char, but not sure there’s any actual reason behind that. 

Back:

Yep, still nowt to see here 😛 If it wasn’t for the arms poking out, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was Rei’s or Mari’s chair. 

Closeup of the controls:

Quite a large joint joins the handle to the the arm. Not sure it goes within the theme, but I’m not too bothered about it. These are identical to Rei’s. 

Overall, I’m happy with Mari, but I’m pretty sure that chest joint helped dent the figure’s popularity. If you’re not after doing a whole bunch of poses with her, she works as a display piece. This coupled with Mari’s seeming lack of priority, these one is pretty cheap to pick up, so if you like what you see, I’d recommend it. 

Rei Ayanami – Figma

Decided to go for this Figma, despite the aftermarket price, as I really, really wanted it. One thing to note about this Figma blog and the next one – I’m not going to fully review the figures – they do come with more accessories than pictured, so this is NOT a full review. Just my thoughts 🙂

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After getting her out of the box and assembling I’m glad I got her :). She was a bit of a pain to put together, but once done… wow. I love having the plug chair for her to sit in.

Close-up of her face:

Shh, I’m trying to pilot a mecha here!

From the front:

She mostly sits nicely in the chair – getting her legs in the right position was a bit difficult. The sides of the chair near her legs swing out – which makes her easy to put in, but if her joints aren’t bent in the right way, she’ll push them open slightly. The body clip keeps her nicely in place. 

Sides of Rei in her chair:

I love the fact the controls are articulated, so you can pose her controlling the mech. Looking her completely side-on, the clip does have a bit of a long base, and does show a bit, but I think the main way of enjoying this figure is from a more front-on angle. You can also choose to omit the clip, and there is a piece that covers up the hole, if you wished to pin her in the seat differently. 

The double base configuration is interesting, and allows you to pose the seat in many different angles, if you want a more “In combat” pose. It also makes the chair decently sturdy. 

Back:

Not much to see here. Some sculpting here, but not a lot, however this angle isn’t one you’re gonna want 😛

Overall, I’m pleased with the figure, and she has a decent amount of poseabilty. The thing that really makes this figure is the chair though – it’s a really nice accessory to have. The most annoying thing about this figure is clip-on joint between the chair and the controls – it was a bit annoying to get on, and it can become unclipped when posing. 

If you wanted to display the chair and Rei separately, you could do this. The chair would have one stand, and Rei would have the other with the clip. Not tried balancing the chair without Rei, though, but I assume it would work… 

With new Figma coming in at the same price as Rei is in the aftermarket, she’s probably still value-for-money compared to new releases. I think she holds up well, and am glad to have her. 

McFarlane Assassin One – Red version

Can’t stay away from the Mandarake Urban Mines. This was one of two figures I was bidding on, but the other went for more than I wanted to pay, so stuck with this one:

He is called Assassin One, and is part of the Wetworks series of figures by McFarlane. The “default” colour of this figure is blue, then this is the red variant. From looking at the pictures, I actually prefer the red variant. 

The sculpt on this dude is nice, and here’s transparent sculpting working :). The silver spray on his weapons is a nice touch. 

Here he is holding his crossbow aloft:

And me trying to make him hold his scythe thing:

Not sure why they chose to make a hole in the scythe, instead of a peg, like the crossbow. He has holes in both hands, so he can hold the crossbow. 

Here he is from the side, with his crossbow loaded:

You can pull back on the end of the projectile, and it will fire across the room. 

Here’s some of his left side, focused on his arm armour:

The black parts are nicely detailed in the moulding too. 

And his back:

Looks OK from this angle, does look like he’s got a fire in his belly! Not much to speak about in the trunk department. 

He’s a striking figure, well-moulded, and his colours (what he has of them!) work well. He’s also decently poseable, which is good for an action figure ;). Certainly think I got my money’s worth from him, seeing as I paid about as much for him as a trading figure :). 

Rick Sanchez

So this is the Rick I ordered way back when…. So was the wait worth it? No. No it was not. So let’s see what I got:

After clearing off the ridiculous amount of warehouse dirt, here he is. A bit less crap than the Morty figure, but still definitely not in award-winning territory. These figures do feel a lot more like kid’s toys, but I suspect they’d be too fragile, and not priced as such. First thing: paint issues. The unibrow goes onto his face, and his lab coat didn’t know when to stop around his wrist. The paint on the belt buckle is also too thin. You can also  see a bit of a scratch on his left eyeball, oth the outer side – thought this was more warehouse dirt, but appears not. He comes with a portal gun and a flask (not shown), and these accessories aren’t actually too bad. 

¾ shot:

Mmm, dat eye scratch.

Back:

His hair is actually pretty good from the back, and I love the bald spot. The portal gun… has the basic parts. Most simplifications of the portal gun have the recessed square painted red, and that would have been nice here. Another plus side is his feet don’t fall off… Yeah, it has that over the Morty figure. 

Honestly, I won’t be surprised to see these in B&M for £3-5 some months into the future. They’re pretty bad, so unless Funko can stop farting these out at the right point, where all the die-hard fans all have them, I can see them going unwanted. Especially for £12 (I paid a bit less than this, but RRP is around that). 

Queen of Pain Nendoroid

Ordered this before Christmas, and was supposed to get it between Christmas and New Year. Got half of my order, then a dispatch notice. Waited five working days, and then asked the shop where the other item was at. Turns out the fulfilment centre messed up, and the shop owner managed to rectify the issue. 

So finally, Queen of Pain:

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I decided to go with the secondary faceplace, and equip the wings. This character seems to work well with Nendoroid proportions – not familiar with the character herself, but blue demon-y thing? Sign me up! 

One thing I’d say for the front is the cut for the articulation is a bit odd, though I’m not the only one to comment on that. 

Her left side:

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Especially with the second faceplate, she seems to be a bit gappy in the hair. I may try to heat this at some point, and see if I can get her to go together fully. Some cute horns though 🙂

Right side:

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Her ponytail articulates, which is a nice touch, and is in the lowest position here. 

Back:

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The shading in her hair is nicely done, and I do like the rings in the hair. Also, copyright of Valve :P. 

Here are the other items she comes with:

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The dagger can go into the hand shown, but won’t go smoothly without heat, which is why I didn’t equip it for these shots. You also get a spare joint (yeah, the GSC logo is on it, just not that side). 

Overall, I’m happy with her, as a figure. She came with less accessories than I’d expect for a Nendoroid, but that will matter to me less over time, as I don’t tend to play that much with my figures. One annoying feature is that her arms tend to pop out when you rotate them, and the bottom half of her arm can come off. This leads to you having to push the bits back fully home once you’re done moving stuff. She is cute and well-painted though. I paid about the going rate for her – I don’t think she’s worth any more than that, but she’s probably on the cheaper end for Nendos. 

Marvel’s Vision

This figure I picked up at Home Bargains. This is a very small figure that comes with a ‘spirit tank’, Sub-Ultron 011:

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Was attracted by the colours,. and the fact it came with the tank accessory, to make it more interesting than the 2-figure packs. 

Here is a close-up of Vision:

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For a small figure, he’s well painted, but the purple on his chest looks kind of our of place, as it appears it hasn’t been designed with the mould in mind. Looking at pictures of Vision on the internet, it’s supposed to follow some contours on his suit, which has been lost in this rendition. 

Here he is from the back:

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The moulding is nice on this cape, but it’s only really kind of a bit bendy at the top. 

Which leads to his articulation being pointless:

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He really doesn’t have much articulation, but he is very small. Would’ve been nice to do something with the cape so he can sit, or give him knees so you could potentially do some poses, despite the cape. 

Sub-Ultron 011:

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The silver effect is nice, but the tank tracks are kinda wonky to the body, and the arms can easily fall off the body halves. Can imagine that’s kinda handy as a kid, emulating battle damage… but I don’t think they’re supposed to fall off. 

Other views of Sub-Ultron 011:

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It mostly looks OK as its own thing, but researching Sub-Ultrons, I don’t think this is accurate to what it is supposed to be. Sub-Ultrons are robots, and this appears to be more of an ethereal entity, due to the large use of unpainted translucent plastic. From what I can see, they should only glow blue in places, not be mostly blue. It looks OK in its own right, but doesn’t seem very faithful for what I believe it’s supposed to be. 

Despite it being a vs set, I decided to do this:

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Well, at least he can now sit, despite the cape!

Not entirely convinced by this purchase – I wouldn’t suggest spending much on this set, and this might be one of the smaller items I may pack away at some point. Still love the colours, but I’m not super-attached to it. 

Medieval Witchblade

This was a random buy in a comic book shop I visited on the way back from Salisbury. It turned out to be located in a shopping village I had visited before, and didn’t think much of. In Wandering Shop style, the shop is scheduled to move soon to a larger premises, so maybe it’ll move every time I go to visit…

Anyway, onto the figure!

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Her shiny green armour is what attracted me to her. Moore collectibles tend to have their good points, but just don’t quite get there in terms of quality, so it’s always a bit should-I-shouldn’t-I when I buy them. This one was a should. Not entirely sure why they bothered to give her leg articulation, with her legs in the pose that they are. 

Here she is from the front, with some weapons equipped:

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Her right hand really needs something in, due to that hole. Can’t really pose it so it won’t show, and it’s just too regular of a shape to look natural. It does hold a weapon well though. 

Here’s her shiny green arm:

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I do rather like the armour on this side. Well=painted, and a good amount of detail.

Left side:

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This side is a lot more mediocre, especially with the large seam line down it. Probably wouldn’t want this side visible when displaying it. 

Her back:

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Some sculpted muscles in her back, not sure if they’re very lifelike. And some distinct copyright notices on her thighs. Not entirely sure why they gave her boots a seam line up the back… I do like her hair though. 

Here’s a side view, showing more of the spear:

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I do like the weapons – the colours work well together, they’re nicely sculpted and look the part to me. 

She does come with a third weapon option:

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So if that spear takes up too much room, you can go for the two shorter weapons. She doesn’t have anywhere to stow the third weapon, so you’ll end up with one in the figure parts drawer. 

Overall, I like the figure, but it’s not a favourite or anything. Her looks do appeal, but she has some meh-ness about her. If I was in the position where I had to downsize, she’d probably be a candidate, but I don’t think there’s much of a market for Witchblade figures out there, at least in the UK. 

And finally, I also bought this nether portal Minecraft hanger when I bought the medieval witchblade:

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This will eventually go onto a new hanging rail, once I get one added :). 

Triton & Minecraft Minis

I went into Toys R Us, and they were having a sale, so I picked up the following items, plus a bunch of DC Domez, which I probably won’t blog about, as it was sadly mostly dupes. 

First up, Triton:

I’m not familiar with this character, but I liked the colours and the fact he had a fin on his head. The articulation is pretty nice for these figures – you get all the articulation points of a larger figure, though some of the joints can be a bit stiff/bendy due to the figure’s size. 

Left side:

Yep, he has a head fin :). The paint job, what there is of it, is mostly competent. Bit of slop around his boots, but isn’t particularly noticeable unless you’re looking for it. 

Right side:

Yep, is a ditto of the other side. 

Back:

He’s been sculpted back here, but some the joints look very joint-y. Head looks somewhat on the odd side. For a small figure, it’s not much of a biggie tbh. 

As a figure, he works well. Just find the RRP for these figures to be too high for something so small, despite the quality. They also don’t come with any accessories, but at least one hand posed for one, which is mildly annoying. May have to go hunt the accessory pots for stuff.

Now onto the Minecraft Minis:

Had to pick up the pack with the slime in it 😛 The slime doesn’t disappoint, and I do rather like the mooshroom too. The on-fire zombie rounds out the set – he looks fine, but isn’t a figure I’m particularly interested in. 

The sides:

The zombie is nicely asymmetric, mooshroom has the most interesting profile imo. And the slime is nicely done with its solid cube centred in translucent gunk. 

The backs:

Not much junk in these trunks, but no horror stories either. It’s a nice little set, but not one I’d pay RRP for. These fellows will find themselves nestled somewhere in one of my display shelves. Or replacing some of the blind bag rubbish that isn’t very good. 

Devilman Lady

Had my eye on this figure for some time, but she wouldn’t fit in a SAL small packet, so it was a long time before I ordered her. Despite this, she was a bit bigger than I was expecting.

Here she is out of the box, with her accessory:

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Can see why this figure is cheap to get hold of, but I still love the colour. 

Here is a ¾ view:

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She’s not a bad figure, but she’s nothing amazing either. Definitely more on the “toy” side of things. Her hands have the annoying ability to pop out though, which is kind of annoying. 

Back view:

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Not a huge lot to see here, not as plain as some figures, but a definite lessening of detail. 

She does come with a stand:

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At first, I thought this was decorative scenery, hence it not featuring in the pics above. The arm doesn’t really slot into the hole on this dead creature. Might be able to get it in with some heat, but I don’t think it’s designed for you to put it in there. Shame, as you could play-act out the scene, if it did. 

Shot of the face:

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Yeah, that’s one not-happy creature.You can also see the peg in the bottom left. She was a bit of a squish to get on, but a stand is very much needed to get her to balance. Was thinking of digging up one of my disc stands, but this one is so much cooler, now I know it’s a stand.

Back of the stand:

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Yeah, nothing to see here, move along.


This figure seems to be fairly widely available. She’ll cost you far more in postage than her initial cost, but if you like her, she’s not too expensive to pick up. This figure is definitely not for everyone, so I’d only recommend buying if you like what you see here. Arm articulation works OK, though the hands can come off easily (they’re just a straight piece of plastic linking them, no ball), but the leg articulation is kinda pointless. The top of leg articulation just ends up looking funny due to the shape of her leg and being a cut joint, and she won’t balance well in most positions. I think this figure may have had more of a market if they went into full toy mode, and made the hands stay on, lol. I like her as a display piece, but I’m unfussy and love purple. And demons. 

Welvath- Highway Star ver

Another figure from Devilman :). This time it’s Welvath:

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… if you have monstrous faces for boobs, do they count as boobs? In the show, she has the ability to split her arms a number of times and make mouths from them. She’s a vicious, yet fancy, lady. She comes with three heads, by default she has this one, with her eye popping out. Here’s a shot with her head turned to the side:

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She can definitely see you! Up close: 

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There’s some nice paint detail in this figure, which also can be seen in this close-up. Her tattoos are crisp, and the boob-faces are detailed.

Here’s her accessories:

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In the first photo, she’s wearing the boa, and these are the other two heads. I may put the one on the left on her at one point – it’s my second favourite of the heads. 

Here is a close-up of her arm:

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Bitey! I love the paint on these parts. 

Here is her left side:

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Quite a bit of definition in the side of her chest. In her current state, she has a habit of leaning forward – at the time of writing, I have her laying down as she leaned a bit more, and I will likely bend her legs a bit to try and balance her so she doesn’t lean so much. I may end up with a gripping stand around her middle to prevent leaning, if I can’t balance her after adjusting her. 

Right side:

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I like her arm band, and the feet are in better focus than most of the other photos… Her toes are well-sculpted, and the paint job is nice. 

Now for her back:

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Not as much paint detail back here, but not sure how much it really needs it. A well-defined backside though. Again, a nice job on the mould. 

Picture of her base:

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She only has one peg, like all of the other Fewture figures. Tbh, she’d be better off with two, due to her pose. 

The box shows the default coloured version:

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Personally I much prefer this alternate colour version, as purple is one of my favourite colours. I find this to be one of the more impressive figures of the set, and I’m tempted to buy some of the others… however, some of them (like this one) have large boxes, which means they’re too big for SAL small packet, so I have to go SAL postal parcel. 


I’m super-happy with this figure, and once I’ve sorted out her leanings, she’ll grace my shelves somewhere. 

Saylos

This dude is from Devliman. Saw him in the show, had to get the figure. 

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Love the colouring, the spikes and the head tentacles. 

And also this base:

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This base is a skeleton of Devilman. I didn’t know about these bases prior to buying this figure, and now I kind of want the rest of the set. I did look around, but it’ll be hard to get the set. Maybe one day. 

Here’s a close-up of his face:

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Grrowwl. Not sure if the black wash effect really worked – it look nice in the darker areas, but a bit like dirt in other places. 

Seylos’s left:

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Some nice, big well-posed clases :). Here you can see where the wash is a bit uneven, leading me to be a bit on the fence about it. 

Lastly, his back:

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He has some nice head tentacles – lots o’ short ones, and the long one with the large spike. They can be moved around a bit, but they’re not actually bendy. His arm claws also look nice and menacing from this angle. 

Close-up on the tentacles:

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I like the way the larger tentacle has a bunch more detail on it. Black wash looks nice on it. 

After the photoshoot, I played with the figure. He’s very poseable, and good fun to pose. The joints have a good range of motion – you can get him into some kind of sitting pose, and you can be quite expressive with him. I may choose to have him somewhere I can pick up and play with him, with his posing potential.