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OK..here we are again. Another long week filled with many hours on the clock, but things have finally quieted down a bit - enough for me to put together my thoughts for this set, the Tamashii Nations Mix Monster Hunter Gore Magala Girl (Armored Girls Project), purchased from a seller located about hour North of Toronto for $40 CAD.
So here's what I know.
Tamashii Nations occasionally works on projects that are not Figuarts, one of which was/is the Armored Girl Project (AGP) line. From what I can tell, the gimmick around these figures is that you have a core cutesy anime girl figure, and you're able to accessorize her with a whole bunch of theme specific parts that form an armour set of sorts (the term armor is used lightly.. maybe outfit would be better). Sometimes this armor can convert into other modes, sometimes not - it depends on the character. On a similar note, some characters are naturally suited to this sort of concept, whereas others are very much out there. One of the drug induced concepts is Gore Magala, the subject of this particular set.
Gore Magala hails from a game titled Monster Hunter 4 (and by extension, I presume Ultimate). It's one of those grinding games where you beat the crap out of monsters to collect part so you can build more powerful gear which will let you beat stronger monsters and so on. I know of it, but never really got around to playing it. Gore Magala is not, however, an NPC or a something that has a cutesy girl form by default... oh no. Gore Magala is a freaking dragon.
I'll give it a moment to let that sink in...
So yeah... someone, somewhere decided that of all the possible characters, you know, actual armoured characters in a hunting game that is chock full of geared up badasses, the most logical thing to do was to take an admittedly cool looking dragon and come up with completely original artwork, turning her into an anime waifu.
This basically summarizes why if you know what this thing is, you're probably wanting to strangle me for finding this at a price of $40. The set itself was used, of course, with one of the weapon holding hands having a slightly damaged socket, so it isn't quite perfect - hopefully that will make you feel better.
So lets look at the actual figure itself.
Released in 2016, this set had a MSRP of a whopping 12,000 Yen, or roughly 120 USD back in the day. While it is a high price tag, the figure did actually come with quite a bit of parts. There's the core figure, five total facial expressions, three additional sets of hands, replacement arms and legs for her beastial mode, four additional beast mode hands, beast mode hair, a set of transforming limbs and a spine/tail that turn from formal dress to draconian claws and wings, two swords, parts to convert the sword into bow and arrow complete with arrow effect, three dynamic stand arms, and a base.
The core figure itself is shorter than your typical Figuarts release, modeled by the lovely Nat. Gore Magala isn't quite 4-inch Nel sized either.. she somewhere in between the two. The overall theme of the design, from what I can tell, is a mixture of Kawaii Style and Lolita Style, both fashion subcultures in Japan. The core figure is what I would considered Kawaii Style - emphasis on the cuter side of things. Platform thigh high boots, mini skirt, a few bows to keep things interesting. Armored mode adds effectively a long skirt, but effectively turns her outfit into a formal gown, complete with parasol.
Articulation on the figure itself isn't bad and in comparison to the Figuarts of the time, pretty consistent with the offerings. You ankles, single jointed knees, sort of a thigh swivel due the the connecting points of the legs, hips, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some chest compress, bicep swivel due to the connection points, single jointed elbows, wrists, and neck. The mini skirt is cut in a way that allows it to fold, allowing for more range of motion for the legs - you can get Gore Magala into seated position quite easily. There's also articulation in her hair to allow for greater range of head motion.
Naturally, with the dress on, all the lower body articulation isn't going to mean a thing as she isn't going to be doing much else other than standing.
From a paint perspective, there is A LOT going on here and overall the paint work is quite solid. There are a few spots here and there of weakness (just like every other figure, I suppose) usually relegated to the areas of masking and one strange dallop of paint on the armored parts. Otherwise, the figure features a nice variety of purples, greys, lavenders, and even some metallic paint apps where the purple trim is on the dress. Face decals are spot on.
Build quality on this set is phenomenal. Yes there are some hard to move panels and finicky parts that can come off easily, but in essence everything other than the core figure itself is a Transformer. Joints hold their position and all that sort of thing, but what's truly impressive is the finish on each of the individual parts is very good, with no real rough surfaces to be found. There are no issues with gaps or misaligned parts from an assembly perspective. The parts all fit together nicely, and fold in the most intricate Origami esque fashion. The quality of the plastics themselves is the standard stuff they used on Figmas and Figuarts - that is to say I don't know specifically what they are, but I do know they're a lot better than your typical North American figure. No issues with limb length or other similar items.
Conversion to dress mode (which is called Frenzy mode according to the box ) isn't that terribly hard out the box.. presuming your box is new. Effectively, you connect the two dress halves and the draconian tail piece to the bow, and plug the entire assembly into the socket on her back. Conversion to full beast mode (Raging Frenzy) is a bit more involved. As stated you need to replace both the arms and legs, then you have to swap out her hair piece, unfold the dress halves into a pair of feathered claws, and rotate the tail piece so that the purple is show. It sounds simple, but the unfolding part is a bit annoying due to how well folded it was in the first place, but for what it's worth the worst that might happen is a part pops off and you have to put it back in, as opposed to you worrying about things breaking. The Parasol converts into a mace of sorts, which you can arm the Raging Frenzy mode with.
While it's a neat concept, I have to say I'm not a fan of the Raging Frenzy mode. There's a lot of panels doing random things, and to get the thing to pose, you effectively have to use the included dynamic arms on the base. The arms themselves are kind of spindly, the wings are impressive enough, and I feel the claws are too small. Having said that, the arms are well detailed in both beast and dress mode and have a beautiful paint application on them. The built in joints do allow for some decent posing options with the claws, but in general I don't feel that the extra space needed to display the figure in this mode is warranted.
With that said, this overview of the Armored Girls Project Gore Magala comes to a close. I love the core figure and the Frenzy mode, but Raging Frenzy probably looked better on paper than actual execution - a noble effort, nonetheless. I suppose if the opportunity came up, there's a few more in the line I'd like to add, starting with that Saber with the giant Excalibur. But as always, time will tell.
Thanks again for taking the time to read!
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