DSC_5579
OK, so.. Insect Mecha Girl. As mentioned yesterday, I was actually kind of confused when I received this - I was expecting a Good Smile Company branded box, or something along the lines of that, but instead it seems to be direct from Big Firebird Build.... which got the Spidey Senses tingling. ... it's not exactly a secret that I hae some issues with the QC at Big Firebird Build.
I believe that once upon a time, this was meant to be a add on for the very much failed Magical Girl Henshin series that gave us the combiner with a multitude of QC issues. Guess they tweaked the design to have it be a stand alone, and to be fair it seems they did a pretty good job of doing that. But aesthetically, especially the robot mode torso and face, well, there's no mistaking it's heritage.
Decent number of accessories including hands and weapons , along with two pieces of hardware to mount the weapons to the body. Not a fan of the hands with the ball joint as a wrist peg but I guess that isn't really going anywhere. I had thought that BFB had learned its lesson about weapon grips with Nicee/Mocha, but overall it seems the weapon gripping hands are really meant for the two larger handled pieces, as the Katana and Pistol are really loose in hand. The sole exception would be the spear, which has a dedicated hand for wielding it... but it's a right hand only.
The manual... well, it's there. It's not very good, as usual.
It would seem either the workers at the factory got some upgrade training or something, but the overall Build for this figure was found to be better thant Nicee and Mocha, and without question the Henshin Girls. Joints were stiff, but not overly stiff. Use of die cast metal for the Insect Wings/Robot Shins helped to balance the figure in a variety of poses. Arms were actually strong enough to support the weight of the weapons, including the metal spear. There are concerns with paint wear though , particularly with the larger Sheath that holds the Katana.
The thing LOOKS pretty cool. Brown isn't exactly the colour I would have gone with, but it is what it is. I like the Samurai motif and they worked that into the figure quite nicely, despite the transformation into a Beetle. Clever ways of hiding the insect legs are appreciated, such as the bow on the back.
Articulation is... I'd say roughly the same as Nicee/Mocha, though in some ways not as good. In general, the lack of ball joints used in the body made for some annoying posing. There are a few ball joints, but for some reason they don't use them as much as they should. It's almost like there's some computer software that helps with the transformation design, but it's one that likes two dimension movement only. Like pretty much all their Fembot products, the emphasis is on the curves. There's no waist swivel and no butterfly shoulder joints so she can't cross or arms or arch them back. Due to the lack of the Nicee/Mocha thigh transformation joint, she can't cross her legs either.
Paint Work is, for the most part, solid. There was a hilariously bad paint app on one of the insect legs that form the bow, resulting in one looking like it didn't get enough red paint. As expected, it's paint by exception for the most part, with the base plastics being mostly Brown or White. The colour matching for the die cast metal shins with the Brown plastic is not bad, but a shade too light for a perfect match. But, at least it is clean. The face and a few other areas showed signs of poor masking, but it's mostly Macro level photography that would pick those up.
The real anger starts when you actually transform this thing. The actual transformation isn't terribly hard, though it did involve some Partsforming. The not so good instructions, coupled with the fact that like most other people, I could not for the life of me get he legs to tab into the head, made for a very frustration endeavor. It's almost like some changes were made for the Production copy, but it was never tested to make sure nothing was wrong. It's a shame because Beetle does look pretty good, and unlike many other toys, the Insect legs are actually strong enough to hold the body up.
So all in all, somewhat of a let down. I'm happy to see that some of the QC issues I've experienced in the past aren't on this product (especially after the Henshin Girls) but I'm still not convinced that the final products are properly play tested to ensure full functionality.
Ah well.. guess I'll just relax for until Nocha comes out, then I can get angry again.
DSC_5579
OK, so.. Insect Mecha Girl. As mentioned yesterday, I was actually kind of confused when I received this - I was expecting a Good Smile Company branded box, or something along the lines of that, but instead it seems to be direct from Big Firebird Build.... which got the Spidey Senses tingling. ... it's not exactly a secret that I hae some issues with the QC at Big Firebird Build.
I believe that once upon a time, this was meant to be a add on for the very much failed Magical Girl Henshin series that gave us the combiner with a multitude of QC issues. Guess they tweaked the design to have it be a stand alone, and to be fair it seems they did a pretty good job of doing that. But aesthetically, especially the robot mode torso and face, well, there's no mistaking it's heritage.
Decent number of accessories including hands and weapons , along with two pieces of hardware to mount the weapons to the body. Not a fan of the hands with the ball joint as a wrist peg but I guess that isn't really going anywhere. I had thought that BFB had learned its lesson about weapon grips with Nicee/Mocha, but overall it seems the weapon gripping hands are really meant for the two larger handled pieces, as the Katana and Pistol are really loose in hand. The sole exception would be the spear, which has a dedicated hand for wielding it... but it's a right hand only.
The manual... well, it's there. It's not very good, as usual.
It would seem either the workers at the factory got some upgrade training or something, but the overall Build for this figure was found to be better thant Nicee and Mocha, and without question the Henshin Girls. Joints were stiff, but not overly stiff. Use of die cast metal for the Insect Wings/Robot Shins helped to balance the figure in a variety of poses. Arms were actually strong enough to support the weight of the weapons, including the metal spear. There are concerns with paint wear though , particularly with the larger Sheath that holds the Katana.
The thing LOOKS pretty cool. Brown isn't exactly the colour I would have gone with, but it is what it is. I like the Samurai motif and they worked that into the figure quite nicely, despite the transformation into a Beetle. Clever ways of hiding the insect legs are appreciated, such as the bow on the back.
Articulation is... I'd say roughly the same as Nicee/Mocha, though in some ways not as good. In general, the lack of ball joints used in the body made for some annoying posing. There are a few ball joints, but for some reason they don't use them as much as they should. It's almost like there's some computer software that helps with the transformation design, but it's one that likes two dimension movement only. Like pretty much all their Fembot products, the emphasis is on the curves. There's no waist swivel and no butterfly shoulder joints so she can't cross or arms or arch them back. Due to the lack of the Nicee/Mocha thigh transformation joint, she can't cross her legs either.
Paint Work is, for the most part, solid. There was a hilariously bad paint app on one of the insect legs that form the bow, resulting in one looking like it didn't get enough red paint. As expected, it's paint by exception for the most part, with the base plastics being mostly Brown or White. The colour matching for the die cast metal shins with the Brown plastic is not bad, but a shade too light for a perfect match. But, at least it is clean. The face and a few other areas showed signs of poor masking, but it's mostly Macro level photography that would pick those up.
The real anger starts when you actually transform this thing. The actual transformation isn't terribly hard, though it did involve some Partsforming. The not so good instructions, coupled with the fact that like most other people, I could not for the life of me get he legs to tab into the head, made for a very frustration endeavor. It's almost like some changes were made for the Production copy, but it was never tested to make sure nothing was wrong. It's a shame because Beetle does look pretty good, and unlike many other toys, the Insect legs are actually strong enough to hold the body up.
So all in all, somewhat of a let down. I'm happy to see that some of the QC issues I've experienced in the past aren't on this product (especially after the Henshin Girls) but I'm still not convinced that the final products are properly play tested to ensure full functionality.
Ah well.. guess I'll just relax for until Nocha comes out, then I can get angry again.