DSC_3512
Welcome to September, folks. Gateway to Fall and the end of this painful, painful year.
With that imagery of trials and tribulations in your head, I present to you the S.H. Figuarts Avengers Endgame: Rescue figure, which I received.. gonna say about the middle of August 2020.
For those of you in the know, Rescue is the armoured version of Pepper Potts, showing up in the final battle of Endgame.
This figure was one of those Bandai Exclusive figures in that you could only buy it from Bandai directly or dealers that were able to access the exclusive figures. Now, if you know, you're probably thinking to yoruself.. "Holy crap.. this came out May 30. Who did you piss of to only have recently received it?".
First off, no, I didn't use SAL - I actually upgraded to EMS. The short version of the story is this is the result of annoying Nippon Yassan for two full months after the release date, finally having them ship the figure out in the middle of August.
Not bad for a guy who preordered in December of 2019, huh?
Well, she arrived in one piece and, yes, I'm clearly going to have to be very careful in the future if I opt to order from these guys again.
The actual contents of the box are decent. You get the figure, and there are two headscupts - unhelmeted Pepper, and of course, helmet on. The rest of the kit consists of backpacks for deployed/closed wing pack, her deployed drones in one of two formations, a single large energy blast, two smaller energy blast, and eight additional posing hands.
First off, unlike Captain Marvel, the effects pieces were not soft, flimsy pieces of plastic. They're sufficiently rigid and will stay upright. While the twin blast arrangement of the drones comes with a bracket that allows for the pieces to clip on Rescue's back when she's wearing the open wing backpack, the single blast arrangement requires a separate stand.
Earlier... like 2019 earlier.... I had actually purchased the Marvel Legends version of the character. To the surprise of nobody, the Figuarts version comes with more stuff and looks much cleaner with sharper applications and parts finishing. What is interesting to me is that with the focus on reducing gaps on the upper torso (as seen in Endgame Captain Marvel and Black Widow movie edition), the upper body articulation isn't as good as the Legends figure.
The Gwyneth Paltrow sculpt is... alright. It's recognizable as her, and while it's no where as good as the ones on Widow or Thor, it's still much more recognizable compared to Captain Marvel herself.
As I expressed above, the range of motion is limited with regards to the torso. Overall, you get the point of articulation you're expecting in a Figuarts - toes, full ankles, double jointed knees, hips with pull down function, waist, mid torso, shoulders with chest collapes, bice swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, and head) the slim, gapless torso does impede the ability to turn the upper body, and tighter joints in general just interfere with movement all over.
Another limiting factor is, and maybe because I'm spoiled from Hot Toys figures, but I feel Rescue really should have come with a bent wrist armour piece so you can pose Rescue with her wrist Repulsors forward.
Paint wise, overall very sharp even when taking account all the silver and gold accents all over the body. Masking is not overtly messy, and decals used are sharply made and applied. The weakest link from a paint perspective is the Pepper Potts head sculpt - the face itself is alright, but the yellow paint on the hair looks very heavy handed to my eyes.
Finally from a build quality perspective, this is a pretty typical Figuarts build. Joints are strong, finishes and tolerances on parts is good, with seams being hidden from view. Mechanical detailing on the body is etched deep enough such that it still shows through even after being painted on. Again, much like paint, the only area where the result isn't exactly stellar is the Pepper head, where to me it seems like there could have been a better job done, particularly on her hair.
Overall, the Figuarts Rescue figure is better than the Legends version, but it feels to me that the gap isn't really as large as with typical figures. The greatest area of improvement is in looks, as the articulation of the final product isn't that much more amazing than the Legends. I guess I was expecting something closer to what Revoltech offers.
The three month wait to finally get it in hand also didn't help with my enthusiasm level either.
At this point, I think I'm done with the Figuarts Endgame line because the prices on the Final Battle figures in general are nuts and, well, Final Battle Black Widow is gonna be one hell of a boring figure.
I suppose there are always sales on figures, but in general its...
"Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Night"
DSC_3512
Welcome to September, folks. Gateway to Fall and the end of this painful, painful year.
With that imagery of trials and tribulations in your head, I present to you the S.H. Figuarts Avengers Endgame: Rescue figure, which I received.. gonna say about the middle of August 2020.
For those of you in the know, Rescue is the armoured version of Pepper Potts, showing up in the final battle of Endgame.
This figure was one of those Bandai Exclusive figures in that you could only buy it from Bandai directly or dealers that were able to access the exclusive figures. Now, if you know, you're probably thinking to yoruself.. "Holy crap.. this came out May 30. Who did you piss of to only have recently received it?".
First off, no, I didn't use SAL - I actually upgraded to EMS. The short version of the story is this is the result of annoying Nippon Yassan for two full months after the release date, finally having them ship the figure out in the middle of August.
Not bad for a guy who preordered in December of 2019, huh?
Well, she arrived in one piece and, yes, I'm clearly going to have to be very careful in the future if I opt to order from these guys again.
The actual contents of the box are decent. You get the figure, and there are two headscupts - unhelmeted Pepper, and of course, helmet on. The rest of the kit consists of backpacks for deployed/closed wing pack, her deployed drones in one of two formations, a single large energy blast, two smaller energy blast, and eight additional posing hands.
First off, unlike Captain Marvel, the effects pieces were not soft, flimsy pieces of plastic. They're sufficiently rigid and will stay upright. While the twin blast arrangement of the drones comes with a bracket that allows for the pieces to clip on Rescue's back when she's wearing the open wing backpack, the single blast arrangement requires a separate stand.
Earlier... like 2019 earlier.... I had actually purchased the Marvel Legends version of the character. To the surprise of nobody, the Figuarts version comes with more stuff and looks much cleaner with sharper applications and parts finishing. What is interesting to me is that with the focus on reducing gaps on the upper torso (as seen in Endgame Captain Marvel and Black Widow movie edition), the upper body articulation isn't as good as the Legends figure.
The Gwyneth Paltrow sculpt is... alright. It's recognizable as her, and while it's no where as good as the ones on Widow or Thor, it's still much more recognizable compared to Captain Marvel herself.
As I expressed above, the range of motion is limited with regards to the torso. Overall, you get the point of articulation you're expecting in a Figuarts - toes, full ankles, double jointed knees, hips with pull down function, waist, mid torso, shoulders with chest collapes, bice swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, and head) the slim, gapless torso does impede the ability to turn the upper body, and tighter joints in general just interfere with movement all over.
Another limiting factor is, and maybe because I'm spoiled from Hot Toys figures, but I feel Rescue really should have come with a bent wrist armour piece so you can pose Rescue with her wrist Repulsors forward.
Paint wise, overall very sharp even when taking account all the silver and gold accents all over the body. Masking is not overtly messy, and decals used are sharply made and applied. The weakest link from a paint perspective is the Pepper Potts head sculpt - the face itself is alright, but the yellow paint on the hair looks very heavy handed to my eyes.
Finally from a build quality perspective, this is a pretty typical Figuarts build. Joints are strong, finishes and tolerances on parts is good, with seams being hidden from view. Mechanical detailing on the body is etched deep enough such that it still shows through even after being painted on. Again, much like paint, the only area where the result isn't exactly stellar is the Pepper head, where to me it seems like there could have been a better job done, particularly on her hair.
Overall, the Figuarts Rescue figure is better than the Legends version, but it feels to me that the gap isn't really as large as with typical figures. The greatest area of improvement is in looks, as the articulation of the final product isn't that much more amazing than the Legends. I guess I was expecting something closer to what Revoltech offers.
The three month wait to finally get it in hand also didn't help with my enthusiasm level either.
At this point, I think I'm done with the Figuarts Endgame line because the prices on the Final Battle figures in general are nuts and, well, Final Battle Black Widow is gonna be one hell of a boring figure.
I suppose there are always sales on figures, but in general its...
"Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Night"