DSC_3836
Well it's mid September 2020. The Age of Wonders has yet to arrive, with a new, later theatrical debut every time I look at the website. But, the merchandise seems to be on schedule, namely the S.H. Figuarts WW84 Wonder Woman figure.
WW84 takes place in 1984, and takes place before Justice League. While I know continuity has been an issue with the DCEU movies, there's a few things I hope this movie will explain... of course it could just be me that cares about these things. Gal Gadot returns as the lead character, with an interesting supporting cast including Chris Pine, who needs to regale audiences with the story as to why he's not dead.
Contents of the WW84 package are... kind of slim for the price point of 6,600 Yen. You get the figure, two face plates (eyes forwards, eyes to the right), an empty Lasso of Truth holster, six additional posing hands, and an uncoiled mid motion Lasso of Truth. This time around, she apparently has no sword or shield (which I believe were smashed to bits in the previous movie). On a related note, she also has no leather bandolier this time around either. The coiled Lasso of Truth is now a single piece along with actual holster. which helps displaying the figure with no Lasso in hand.
Lets get the obvious out of the way. In the event it wasn't obvious, Tamashii Nations effectively recycled the previous body and slapped on a new head. The colours were tweaked (most likely due to movie costume changes) and the side by side photos should give good indication of that. Skin tone was darkened because, well, Gal Gadot has a complexion.. or the guy in charge of that sort thing wasn't blind this time around.
With regards to the head, it should be readily apparent that Tamashii Nations tried much, much, much harder to this time to actually get that Gal Gadot accuracy. It's not perfect, most notable being the eyes front sculpt seems to have issues with regards to paint location for the pupils, but its definitely recognizable as Gadot, and a hell of an improvement over the first one.
How anyone could possibly mistake that one for Gal Gadot is something that probably needs an entire Netflix series to explain.
The aforementioned issues with eyes front sculpt seem to be a widespread QC issue, so overall the eyes right sculpt is definitely the better of the two, and works better with her hair anyway.
In addition to getting the right image for the digital painting, Tamashii Nations updated the actual shape of the face, and her hair/wig, replicating her half front/half back look from many of the promotional photos, and also allows Gadot/Wonder Woman to showcase her strong jawline. Detailing on the hair itself is finer as well.
So now that her face and hair are more accurate, there's one more improvement to discuss before leaving this section. One of my pet peeves about the first release was that there was no thought given as to how the head would turn, as that section of hair that goes over the right should had no give. It also got in the way of the shoulder movement.
Tamashii Nations fixed this by adding in the hair, which allows the hair to move out of the way for turning, and will yield in the event the shoulder is moved. It's a bit clunky, but it does work. Maybe they'll do something to fix the back hair the next time.
Moving on to our usual overview criteria, articulation points are plentiful. You get goes, ankles with tilt and pivot, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel and displaced joints to allow for greater range of motion, waist, mid-torso, shoulders with chest collapse, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck and head.
Due to lack of bulk in the arms, the single jointed elbows appear to sufficient for posing purposes. The back of her head unfortunately does get in the way of tilting her head back, so no flying poses or tilting the head up. You can do a nice variety of action poses, including her trademark Bracers pose, but's she's no Revoltech. Furthermore, you really just have the Lasso as a weapon (and it's not even the spinning one like the Hot Toys has) so generally speaking rope tricks is about as exotic as you're going to get on the figure.
Paint work is excellent, with no observable bleeds between colours or overspray. Details on the face itself are great, and honestly just keep me excited for improvements we'll see next time around (in a good way). The only messy paint apps are basically invisible - they're on the edges of armour that expose flesh bits. I also mentioned the issues with the location of pupils on the eyes front sculpt.
All in all, pupil location aside, only the most anal retentive will find something to complain about paint wise on this figure.
Finally, with regards to build quality, everything is in order for a figure of this price point. Limbs are the same length and joints operate as designed. Finishes on the parts themselves are very good, with the usual Figuarts level of seam polishing. The only beef I have is that the front hair section likes to come off on mine a bit to easily. Other than that, everything holds together as expected.
It's amazing what a "simple" head change can do for a figure - it's almost like a brand new thing when in reality, it's effectively the same. This new head. even with its somewhat wonky articulation, this is undoubtedly the best Gal Gadot Wonder Woman figure at this size.
She looks the part, and now, can actually utilize the full posing capabilities of the body. I just wish she had more gear to pose with.
There has been no news about a Golden Armour version of her being released... on the other hand, this wouldn't be the first time a winged figure was released, so there's hope it can and will happen.
I guess we'll have to wait till December to (hopefully) find out.
DSC_3836
Well it's mid September 2020. The Age of Wonders has yet to arrive, with a new, later theatrical debut every time I look at the website. But, the merchandise seems to be on schedule, namely the S.H. Figuarts WW84 Wonder Woman figure.
WW84 takes place in 1984, and takes place before Justice League. While I know continuity has been an issue with the DCEU movies, there's a few things I hope this movie will explain... of course it could just be me that cares about these things. Gal Gadot returns as the lead character, with an interesting supporting cast including Chris Pine, who needs to regale audiences with the story as to why he's not dead.
Contents of the WW84 package are... kind of slim for the price point of 6,600 Yen. You get the figure, two face plates (eyes forwards, eyes to the right), an empty Lasso of Truth holster, six additional posing hands, and an uncoiled mid motion Lasso of Truth. This time around, she apparently has no sword or shield (which I believe were smashed to bits in the previous movie). On a related note, she also has no leather bandolier this time around either. The coiled Lasso of Truth is now a single piece along with actual holster. which helps displaying the figure with no Lasso in hand.
Lets get the obvious out of the way. In the event it wasn't obvious, Tamashii Nations effectively recycled the previous body and slapped on a new head. The colours were tweaked (most likely due to movie costume changes) and the side by side photos should give good indication of that. Skin tone was darkened because, well, Gal Gadot has a complexion.. or the guy in charge of that sort thing wasn't blind this time around.
With regards to the head, it should be readily apparent that Tamashii Nations tried much, much, much harder to this time to actually get that Gal Gadot accuracy. It's not perfect, most notable being the eyes front sculpt seems to have issues with regards to paint location for the pupils, but its definitely recognizable as Gadot, and a hell of an improvement over the first one.
How anyone could possibly mistake that one for Gal Gadot is something that probably needs an entire Netflix series to explain.
The aforementioned issues with eyes front sculpt seem to be a widespread QC issue, so overall the eyes right sculpt is definitely the better of the two, and works better with her hair anyway.
In addition to getting the right image for the digital painting, Tamashii Nations updated the actual shape of the face, and her hair/wig, replicating her half front/half back look from many of the promotional photos, and also allows Gadot/Wonder Woman to showcase her strong jawline. Detailing on the hair itself is finer as well.
So now that her face and hair are more accurate, there's one more improvement to discuss before leaving this section. One of my pet peeves about the first release was that there was no thought given as to how the head would turn, as that section of hair that goes over the right should had no give. It also got in the way of the shoulder movement.
Tamashii Nations fixed this by adding in the hair, which allows the hair to move out of the way for turning, and will yield in the event the shoulder is moved. It's a bit clunky, but it does work. Maybe they'll do something to fix the back hair the next time.
Moving on to our usual overview criteria, articulation points are plentiful. You get goes, ankles with tilt and pivot, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel and displaced joints to allow for greater range of motion, waist, mid-torso, shoulders with chest collapse, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck and head.
Due to lack of bulk in the arms, the single jointed elbows appear to sufficient for posing purposes. The back of her head unfortunately does get in the way of tilting her head back, so no flying poses or tilting the head up. You can do a nice variety of action poses, including her trademark Bracers pose, but's she's no Revoltech. Furthermore, you really just have the Lasso as a weapon (and it's not even the spinning one like the Hot Toys has) so generally speaking rope tricks is about as exotic as you're going to get on the figure.
Paint work is excellent, with no observable bleeds between colours or overspray. Details on the face itself are great, and honestly just keep me excited for improvements we'll see next time around (in a good way). The only messy paint apps are basically invisible - they're on the edges of armour that expose flesh bits. I also mentioned the issues with the location of pupils on the eyes front sculpt.
All in all, pupil location aside, only the most anal retentive will find something to complain about paint wise on this figure.
Finally, with regards to build quality, everything is in order for a figure of this price point. Limbs are the same length and joints operate as designed. Finishes on the parts themselves are very good, with the usual Figuarts level of seam polishing. The only beef I have is that the front hair section likes to come off on mine a bit to easily. Other than that, everything holds together as expected.
It's amazing what a "simple" head change can do for a figure - it's almost like a brand new thing when in reality, it's effectively the same. This new head. even with its somewhat wonky articulation, this is undoubtedly the best Gal Gadot Wonder Woman figure at this size.
She looks the part, and now, can actually utilize the full posing capabilities of the body. I just wish she had more gear to pose with.
There has been no news about a Golden Armour version of her being released... on the other hand, this wouldn't be the first time a winged figure was released, so there's hope it can and will happen.
I guess we'll have to wait till December to (hopefully) find out.