DSC_1649
Good morning all, and welcome to something completely out of left field, an overview of the S.H. Figuarts release of Harry Potter from the Sorcerer's Stone film, which introduced the world to Daniel Radcliffe as the titular boy wizard. To this day I don't think I ever watched any of the movies past Goblet of Fire, which in my opinion was destroyed due to adaptation to the big screen, though looking back, I guess it was a pretty big book they had to work with. Who knows.. maybe I'll revisit one day.
In the unlikely event you've never heard of Harry Potter, the series is about the chronicles of Harry, an orphan boy who is raised by the Dursleys, his Uncle and Aunt, and his rise from unknown poor kid living under a staircase to a war hero/rock star of the Wizarding world, which is exists with our world but is hidden from plain sight. There are 7 books IIRC, which were adapted into movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, with the last film broken up in two parts because everyone was doing that at the time.. stupid Goblet of Fire.
Anyway, bitterness aside, carrying on. Despite the movie coming out in 2001, Figuarts released a line of figures from this first film in 2018, consisting of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and fan favourite Alan Rickman... err, I mean Snape. Dammit.. now all I want is an Alan Rickman figure so I can do Die Hard scenarios from. The figures feature that fancy face printing technology that is prevalent on all their modern "real life" based characters, and aren't horribly priced for Figuarts releases, though as always, your mileage will vary. I got mine from random dude in Orangeville, ON for $35 CAD.
As mentioned above, the set comes with a decent number of accessories, though stupidly again, no stand. You get Harry, three total expressions, best described as the three stages of insanity or neutral, smiling, and FULL ON NIC CAGE, his Gryffindor robe both still and wind swept states, Hedwig with both open and closed wings, his trusty Nimbus 2000 (these were dark, dark days before the kick ass Firebolt), his wand, some textbooks, and of course a variety of hands for posing purposes.
From an overall perspective, this figure is easily recognizable as the Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter, no questions asked there. The features of the on screen figure are well captured, which generally involve adherence to the on screen outfits and general aesthetics, down to the goofy bowl cut that they gave the character. To my admitted aged eye (I haven't seen this character in years), the torso just seems too long to me, nevermind the fact it seems that Harry and Ron share the same workout regimen. Upon closer examination, it seems that his torso is about the same size as that of dear old Nat, so either she's a 10 year old boy, or he's a 30 year old woman.
Take you pick.. I'm good with either or.
Now, the fact that Harry has his school robes is pretty much expected, and the fact there are two versions is great as one is perfectly suited for use on the Nimbus 2000 (though naturally, I've re-purposed it for various other uses), but the addition of the cloak makes Harry so top heavy that either I really suck, or I basically could not get the figure to stand up on it's own doing anything remotely fancy, and generally only works if you tuck the shoes right into the bottom of the pants. It doesn't matter which version of the robes I used. A more asymmetric look for the neutral robe would have been nice, like with the Yuki Revoltech that I have.
With regards to the faces, well you see the dithering so there's no surprises there and as with all face sculpts, the generally looks great from angles and terrible from others. Head on it looks like a dead ringer for Radcliffe, which is more than I can say for many, many, many other figures, whether they be face printed or painted. While it's not visible, Tamashi Nations did include the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. That Nic Cage expression though.. it just looks awful.. and clearly that's why it's my favourite of the three. Sculpting on other parts of the figure are what you'd expect from Figuarts - it's not going to be super high detail, but like with Figma you get a good sense of the materials the various parts are supposed to be. The hair is well detailed, and this is going to sound really stupid, but the shoes are well detailed, especially the tread. I just wish they were glossier.. like "I'm in the Army" glossy.
Articulation is honestly a mixed bag. Now, up until this point I've been doing pretty good, mainly focusing on Street Fighter and Dragon Ball releases, which tend to have figures that can.. well.. move. Even the one off figures I get from Fgiuarts (Chibiusa, Alisa) are able to pull off some decent poses. Harry.. well Harry is for lack of better words, stiff. Lets the obvious out of the way. The robes do not help at all. Much like with Yuki, using the standard robe just kind limits Harry to just standing there, with the dynamic robes allowing for more robust lower body movement. The other issue with the robe isn't so much robe, but rather the allowances for the robe. I guess to minimize the gaps, the shoulder sockets are built into black extensions that fit into the shoulder holes for the robes. Yes, it's looks really dumb when undressed, but that's not exactly an official mode. The issue is that the shoulder pieces do not move, and as such you cannot do any significant chest collapse of the shoulders. Another unfortunate design choice is that unlike most of the other Figuarts, Harry has an actual fixed groin piece, not the floating diaper types that the other figures have. While it's not as pretty, the floating diaper allows for more range of motion. I guess it can be argued that Harry Potter isn't going to be Kung Fu fighting, but it feels to me that because the payload was so impressive, they cut costs wherever else they could.
On a more positive note, I do appreciate that the hair on the back of his head is in two parts to allow the ability to raise his head into the broom riding position.
Anyway, what articulation you're left with is as follow: toes, ball jointed ankles, single jointed knees, hips, waist, mid torso ball joint, shoulders with maybe 1 or 2 mm of chest collapse, rotating and pivoting elbows, full motion wrists, ball jointed neck, and ball jointed head.
The overall paint and QC is what you'd expect with Figuarts, with some exceptions of course. The various decals on the figure (Gryffindor patch on robes, Nimbus 2000 on broom of handle) are exceptionally well printed and applied straight. The general look of the paint itself is sharp.. with the exception of the tie where there is obvious bleeding of the red paint app on the white. Mind you, given how small the thing is, there isn't much room to work with a mask so it's not terrible, but it is below the standards I'd expect from something like Figuarts. As always, paint is applied where needed, with most of the figure being appropriately coloured plastics. At least build quality is up to snuff, being a very solid figure with no joint issues, poor finishes, or assembly gaps.
I guess before I adjourn, I should talk a little bit about Hedwig. She needs a stand for flying purposes (sold separately) so not including one the set was kind of a dick move... or SOP for the line I guess. Hedwig is sculpted in a perched pose, and the wings can be replaced with ball jointed open wings for more posing fun. Other articulation on the figure would be the head, which can swivel a full 360 degrees. There isn't a whole lot of paint on there, and the detailing on the body is a bit hard to make out in poor light - Hedwig does have some good feather sculpting on the body, but when your'e one big ball of white plastic, details don't tend to make it out very well.
And there you have it - Harry Potter, the boy who is generally meant to stand there because he's not that nimble. As far as Figuarts goes, he's slightly below average, but that's mostly due to the fact the average Figuarts is pretty good. Limits to articulation and various other factors limit your official display options, but by now, I'm sure you've figured out that I generally don't play by official rules. When it comes to renditions of the boy wizard, though, this is an exceptionally well done figure, mostly due to the application of the face printing technology and sharp features that are part and parcel of the Figuarts brand.
And remember, Nic Cage face is the only acceptable face for this figure
DSC_1649
Good morning all, and welcome to something completely out of left field, an overview of the S.H. Figuarts release of Harry Potter from the Sorcerer's Stone film, which introduced the world to Daniel Radcliffe as the titular boy wizard. To this day I don't think I ever watched any of the movies past Goblet of Fire, which in my opinion was destroyed due to adaptation to the big screen, though looking back, I guess it was a pretty big book they had to work with. Who knows.. maybe I'll revisit one day.
In the unlikely event you've never heard of Harry Potter, the series is about the chronicles of Harry, an orphan boy who is raised by the Dursleys, his Uncle and Aunt, and his rise from unknown poor kid living under a staircase to a war hero/rock star of the Wizarding world, which is exists with our world but is hidden from plain sight. There are 7 books IIRC, which were adapted into movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, with the last film broken up in two parts because everyone was doing that at the time.. stupid Goblet of Fire.
Anyway, bitterness aside, carrying on. Despite the movie coming out in 2001, Figuarts released a line of figures from this first film in 2018, consisting of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and fan favourite Alan Rickman... err, I mean Snape. Dammit.. now all I want is an Alan Rickman figure so I can do Die Hard scenarios from. The figures feature that fancy face printing technology that is prevalent on all their modern "real life" based characters, and aren't horribly priced for Figuarts releases, though as always, your mileage will vary. I got mine from random dude in Orangeville, ON for $35 CAD.
As mentioned above, the set comes with a decent number of accessories, though stupidly again, no stand. You get Harry, three total expressions, best described as the three stages of insanity or neutral, smiling, and FULL ON NIC CAGE, his Gryffindor robe both still and wind swept states, Hedwig with both open and closed wings, his trusty Nimbus 2000 (these were dark, dark days before the kick ass Firebolt), his wand, some textbooks, and of course a variety of hands for posing purposes.
From an overall perspective, this figure is easily recognizable as the Daniel Radcliffe Harry Potter, no questions asked there. The features of the on screen figure are well captured, which generally involve adherence to the on screen outfits and general aesthetics, down to the goofy bowl cut that they gave the character. To my admitted aged eye (I haven't seen this character in years), the torso just seems too long to me, nevermind the fact it seems that Harry and Ron share the same workout regimen. Upon closer examination, it seems that his torso is about the same size as that of dear old Nat, so either she's a 10 year old boy, or he's a 30 year old woman.
Take you pick.. I'm good with either or.
Now, the fact that Harry has his school robes is pretty much expected, and the fact there are two versions is great as one is perfectly suited for use on the Nimbus 2000 (though naturally, I've re-purposed it for various other uses), but the addition of the cloak makes Harry so top heavy that either I really suck, or I basically could not get the figure to stand up on it's own doing anything remotely fancy, and generally only works if you tuck the shoes right into the bottom of the pants. It doesn't matter which version of the robes I used. A more asymmetric look for the neutral robe would have been nice, like with the Yuki Revoltech that I have.
With regards to the faces, well you see the dithering so there's no surprises there and as with all face sculpts, the generally looks great from angles and terrible from others. Head on it looks like a dead ringer for Radcliffe, which is more than I can say for many, many, many other figures, whether they be face printed or painted. While it's not visible, Tamashi Nations did include the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. That Nic Cage expression though.. it just looks awful.. and clearly that's why it's my favourite of the three. Sculpting on other parts of the figure are what you'd expect from Figuarts - it's not going to be super high detail, but like with Figma you get a good sense of the materials the various parts are supposed to be. The hair is well detailed, and this is going to sound really stupid, but the shoes are well detailed, especially the tread. I just wish they were glossier.. like "I'm in the Army" glossy.
Articulation is honestly a mixed bag. Now, up until this point I've been doing pretty good, mainly focusing on Street Fighter and Dragon Ball releases, which tend to have figures that can.. well.. move. Even the one off figures I get from Fgiuarts (Chibiusa, Alisa) are able to pull off some decent poses. Harry.. well Harry is for lack of better words, stiff. Lets the obvious out of the way. The robes do not help at all. Much like with Yuki, using the standard robe just kind limits Harry to just standing there, with the dynamic robes allowing for more robust lower body movement. The other issue with the robe isn't so much robe, but rather the allowances for the robe. I guess to minimize the gaps, the shoulder sockets are built into black extensions that fit into the shoulder holes for the robes. Yes, it's looks really dumb when undressed, but that's not exactly an official mode. The issue is that the shoulder pieces do not move, and as such you cannot do any significant chest collapse of the shoulders. Another unfortunate design choice is that unlike most of the other Figuarts, Harry has an actual fixed groin piece, not the floating diaper types that the other figures have. While it's not as pretty, the floating diaper allows for more range of motion. I guess it can be argued that Harry Potter isn't going to be Kung Fu fighting, but it feels to me that because the payload was so impressive, they cut costs wherever else they could.
On a more positive note, I do appreciate that the hair on the back of his head is in two parts to allow the ability to raise his head into the broom riding position.
Anyway, what articulation you're left with is as follow: toes, ball jointed ankles, single jointed knees, hips, waist, mid torso ball joint, shoulders with maybe 1 or 2 mm of chest collapse, rotating and pivoting elbows, full motion wrists, ball jointed neck, and ball jointed head.
The overall paint and QC is what you'd expect with Figuarts, with some exceptions of course. The various decals on the figure (Gryffindor patch on robes, Nimbus 2000 on broom of handle) are exceptionally well printed and applied straight. The general look of the paint itself is sharp.. with the exception of the tie where there is obvious bleeding of the red paint app on the white. Mind you, given how small the thing is, there isn't much room to work with a mask so it's not terrible, but it is below the standards I'd expect from something like Figuarts. As always, paint is applied where needed, with most of the figure being appropriately coloured plastics. At least build quality is up to snuff, being a very solid figure with no joint issues, poor finishes, or assembly gaps.
I guess before I adjourn, I should talk a little bit about Hedwig. She needs a stand for flying purposes (sold separately) so not including one the set was kind of a dick move... or SOP for the line I guess. Hedwig is sculpted in a perched pose, and the wings can be replaced with ball jointed open wings for more posing fun. Other articulation on the figure would be the head, which can swivel a full 360 degrees. There isn't a whole lot of paint on there, and the detailing on the body is a bit hard to make out in poor light - Hedwig does have some good feather sculpting on the body, but when your'e one big ball of white plastic, details don't tend to make it out very well.
And there you have it - Harry Potter, the boy who is generally meant to stand there because he's not that nimble. As far as Figuarts goes, he's slightly below average, but that's mostly due to the fact the average Figuarts is pretty good. Limits to articulation and various other factors limit your official display options, but by now, I'm sure you've figured out that I generally don't play by official rules. When it comes to renditions of the boy wizard, though, this is an exceptionally well done figure, mostly due to the application of the face printing technology and sharp features that are part and parcel of the Figuarts brand.
And remember, Nic Cage face is the only acceptable face for this figure