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A few months ago, you may recall I did an overview of a wee little figure.. the Sentinel 4inch-Nel Rockman/Mega Man X figure. You know, the cutesy one with the freaking magnets in the boots? I had mentioned at the time that it had a brother-from-another-brand, the D-Arts version, but getting it might be problematic given the aftermarket prices, as the popular figure was released way back in 2011.
Well, as always, I keep my nose to the ground for people getting rid of stuff, and $35 CAD later here we are - the D-Arts Mega Man X figure. Used and a bit scuffed, mind you, but complete and as far as I can tell, official.
So yeah.. before the Sentinel and of course the Kotobukiya kits of today, this was THE X figure to get. It retailed for 3,300 Yen back in the day, and included a decent number of accessories. You get the figure, a total of three face plates (netural, shouting, gritted teeth), a pair of fists, a pair of open palm hands, Rockbuster/Megabuster replacement forearm, replacement buster tip for use with the blast effects, a level 1 charged shot, and a rapid fire barrage of three standard shots.
The barrage effect can be folded such that the shots display in different patterns, and as such can be used for a wide variety of actions.
X certainly looks the part, and I think I might actually like the face on the D-Arts just a smidgen more than the Sentinel release. The feet are a bit bulky IMHO compared to the official game art, but the general silhouette is well done, which is more than I can say about the D-Arts OG figure release. Each are really aiming for a different aesthetic, I find, with the D-Arts definitely going for the more angular, armoured look versus the the streamlined look of the Sentinel. The colours on the two are slightly different, with the D-Arts figure having a glossier finish.
If I had to sum it up, the D-Arts finish is more like a model kit whereas the Sentinel is more like an animated character.
The Sentinel was definitely designed better in terms of joint concealment, as evident at the hips and the neck.
One other cosmetic thing the D-Arts has over the Sentinel is that the red parts are all translucent plastic with a chrome back piece, as compared to solid red paint.
From an articulation perspective, the two figure were actually surprisingly equal when looking at the lower body (ankles, knees, hips, waist). The Sentinel does feature an additional joint around mid calf that allows for a more satisfying folded leg via the double jointed knees, but functionally they're pretty close. Both have exceptional ankle articulation, especially when considering the bulk.
Upper body though, I found the trunk to be better designed on the Sentinel as I could get more ab range of motion. Arms and head were again pretty consistent with regards to display options as the joints were again pretty much the same.
Paint wise, other than the difference in colours, there really isn't much to compare to the two. QC changes a lot in the 7 year period between the figures but it is suffice to say that the D-Arts was generally very clean, and was certainly nicer than some of the other D-Arts releases of the era. Decal work isn't bad either, and was found to be crisp.
Build quality wise, again, you'd expect the newer one to be better built. But there's nothing wrong with the D-Arts, as parts fit together and finishes are generally good, with the exception of the torso popping off for me as I keep pushing it past its modest limitations of motion. The Sentinel, however, feels like it has a higher density (so basically, a higher concentration of actual material in the figure), which of course can help with balance issues.
Overall, both are great takes on the character, and cater to slightly different crowds. Unlike most cases, the "bigger is better" crowd would actually still be getting a pretty good figure, so long as slightly wonky looking joints isn't an issue, but this is offset by the inclusion of effects.
Finding these two isn't exactly needle in a haystack, but finding them for a good price is somewhat of a challenge. As you can imagine, each person will have a different tolerance for this sort of thing.
Having said that, if the latest and greatest is your thing, you can always try to get a hold of the Kotobukiya kits, which seem to offer a D-Arts-esque figure with a more rounded body, though the time and of course, paint necessary to get it done effectively are a no go for me.
The world is your oyster, friends.
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
For this entry, I'd like to talk about a VERY popular item, the Gamerverse Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite Black Widow and Ryu set from Hasbro.. but popular for reasons you're probably not thinking about as you read this.
The Capcom Vs. series of games were the first commercially available crossover games of any sort that I had ever played, starting with Xmen Vs. Street Fighter. Being in Canada (more specifically Toronto), the games came in an age where coin operated arcades were still viable, and as such I was able to enjoy them in the wild, which apparently was not the case for everyone. In general, all the releases have enjoyed relative success except for ONE of them - the most recent incarnation Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite. I've never played it (I basically have given up on fighting games due to lack of desire to play them), but from what I've read MvC:I is actually one of the best made of the series from an actual fighting mechanics perspective, but it suffers from one major flaw... a lack of X-Men characters. Due to this flaw, interest in the game waned so much that effectively the fighting world has disowned this entry and opted to go with older games instead.
When a game isn't popular, you can probably see that it would affect sales of periphery items, which brings us to the subject of this article.
Capitalizing upon the perceived hype around this games release, Hasbro decided to retool some of their Marvel Universe 3.75 inch. figures into characters from this most recent iteration of the game, and sell them at a RIDICULOUS MSRP of approximately $28 CAD. Each set came with two figures, and as far as I know they made it to exactly one wave - Widow/Ryu, and Iron Man/Mega Man X. With the game all but forgotten and these figures cluttering up shelves, most store ended up putting them on clearance just in the time for the Holidays, which is the reason why it's not uncommon for people to actually have them now. Of the two sets, the Iron Man set was clearly more popular (probably due to the Mega Man more than Iron Man) which just made getting the set I really cared for that much easier.
Prices will vary these days, but you're now looking at anywhere between $5 and $10 USD for a set, with me unfortunately being dumb enough to pay the $10 USD price point. Still, much better than MSRP I suppose.
The set comes with a ludicrously large box for what you get. Inside this box you have the two figures, each with various accessories - Widow comes with two pistols, and Ryu comes with fists as well as his Hadoken effect.
The figures look... meh. Like.. REALLY meh, though still better than the QC absent X figure I saw a few months back. The bodies themselves look alright, but those head sculpts.. yikes. Ryu looks like he walked into some wierdness he can't unsee, yet the sculpt is still not the worst Ryu I've seen. Widow.. well Widow looks like practice mannequin at a hair styling school, complete with poofy hair, but again, strangely not the worst Widow I've seen. Widow was packed in the way that cause the left knee to be warped right out the gate, though a bit of hot water and recooling does the job to set her straight again. As mentioned above, the bodies were very clearly repurposed, though I'm not familiar enough with the line to say WHO exactly was repurposed other than Black Widow, who has a moulded Black Widow belt underneat the Hula Hoop she's wearing here making here clearly a reuse of the Black Widow body that itself has been reused several times already for several iterations of the character.
Articulation isn't actually that bad, though disappointingly even at this size the female body has less articulation than the male one, though in the case of Ryu you aren't really able to access this full potential until you pull a Goku and strip his top off. Both feature rotating and tilting ankles and double jointed knees. Widow has a thigh swivel whereas Ryu has an ankle swivel. Ryu has a more traditional hip joint whereas to get leg movement out of Widow you need to turn the thigh sideways to align the joint with what you're trying to accomplish, then rotate the thigh to get the correct leg orientation, which might be alright if it wasn't for the fact that Widow has a blue line running down her leg, causing discontinuity of the line. Both Widow and Ryu feature standard shoulders, bicep swivel, standard elbows, rotating wrists, and a ball jointed head. Ryu has in addition to all this mid torso and waist articulation. Overall, you'll get some rudimentary movement out of the figures, but I wouldn't except to do any crazy posing. Technically, Ryu doesn't even have the articulation to pull of a proper Hadoken. so I guess you could say even the fundamentals can't be met.
Paint work is.. well, it's Hasbro. All things considered, the worst paint app would probably be the paint work on Widows silver belt, which is very crude and thickly laid on. Otherwise, detailing on both are not bad, with the blue lines being surprisingly crisp on Widow. There isn't much actual detailing on Ryu other than the decals on his belt and wrists, though it should be noted there are some brown paint apps here and there to simulate dust. There is quite a bit of moulded detailing on Widow that is not painted, whether that be due to adherence to source materials or cost cutting is unknown to me.
Build quality is the usual level of Hasbro. Soft knee joints that can be warped if improperly handled and soft plastics overall. Detailing on the figures isn't bad and the assembly joints and overall finish of the sections isn't bad, though the use of softer plastics does result in a sloppier looking figure overall. The Widow pistols and general detailing on the hair of the two figures did turnout half decently despite their small size, even if the holster itself is all sorts of pain due to the warped nature of the piece and general inability to sit flush to her hips. Joints do their job and holding limbs in their desired positions. Also, crude as the set may be, at least there is no issue with limbs being the wrong size.
So, if you're able to find them at discount, these aren't terrible figures and are great for some LOLs as opposed to doing anything intricate with them. At full price though, there is pretty much nothing that could justify that price point other than either a lack of understanding their market, or Hasbro just plain got greedy. As mediocre as this set is, it still look LIGHT YEARS better than the other set, especially the X figures that I've seen. In a way, it's too bad they didn't continue the line as it would have meant maybe Chun Li or Morrigan could have made their way into this size and I could have had another figure for my travels
Find of the year for me this time around! I pulled up to this sale as it wasn't advertised and it was my last sale of the day for me and it was around 8:30. I looked and recognized the lady from when my wife used to babysit her kid. I asked her is she ever was going to sell her game stuff but she never did. Fast forward to present day and she is finally selling it all. There were tons of games! But they were mostly junk and she was asking $30 for just an N64 with Mario 64 and a couple other junk games. However, I spotted this Super lot and there were 2 gems right on top... Ogre Battle and Sunset Riders! I offered $20 to start and she said she wanted $40. I offered to meet her in the middle at $30 but she was still firm at 40. Finally I caved and bought it. This is my 3rd copy of sunset riders in the past year but my first Ogre Battle! SO after all was said and done, here's what $40 got me:
SNES system (broken power jack)
1 RF adapter
3 official SNES controllers
Suzuki 8
Gradius III
Sunset Riders
Secret of Evermore
Gradius III
Donkey Kong Country 2
Might Morphin Power Rangers
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms
Super Mario Kart
Tecmo Super Bowl III
Mortal Kombat II
Virtual Bart
Street Fighter II
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Tecmo Super Bowl
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Donkey Kong Country
Mario Paint
Aladdin
Mega Man X
Super Ghouls and Ghosts
TMNT IV Turtles in Time
Super Mario World
Battle Clash
Lion King
Mortal Kombat
Tecmo Super Bowl III
Zombies Ate my Neighbors
Mario Paint
Stunt Race FX
Super Star Wars
Jungle Book
Super Mario World
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
Left: Sprite of Zero in mid-swing of his beam saber from Mega Man X3 on the SNES.
Right: Sprite of X in his full armor from Mega Man X on the SNES, doing the pose when he beats a Maverick.
Zero: $13
X: $6
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
Add another one to my Fire Emblem articulated figure collection!
The hunt for Fire Emblem stuff is challenging, in general, with aftermarket prices being generally stupid high. Of course, that only applies for the Fire Emblem merch made for games in the 3DS era, as I've seen some merch for older games (poor, poor Nendo Marth) go for dirt cheap prices.
Elise here, however, isn't one of those pieces. Apparently she goes for fairly high prices, but I was fortunate enough to find one for MSRP.
For those who are unfamiliar with the character, Elise is the bratty youngest sister from the Nohr campaign of Fire Emblem: Fates. She starts off as a Troubadour, which IIRC is a mounted support unit capable of healing.
I'm guessing they (Good Smile Company) decided to make Elise into a Nendoroid because she one of what, at least a dozen characters in the toy line that rides a horse of some sort? Considering how easy it is to repurpose designs for the line, this shouldn't be that shocking of a revelation. Kind of like how now that they've made a Robobattle suit for Kirby (coming soon!), they're now gone ahead and offered the Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X on preorder.
Of course, Good Smile added some good spit polish to make Elise her own release rather than a clone of Character X.
Like other DX sets (though she's not labelled as such) Elise comes with the character figure and her mount. Her legs are articulated to allow for posing and mounting of the horse, but the arms are the standard rotating joints that piss me off to no end because I have man hands.
Elise comes with a multitude of hands, a scepter with two different toppers, a total of three expression including a "holding my breath till I die" look, which should be standard in all Nendoroid sets, and of course a fancy pants base/stand contraption to hold it all together.
The horse has some points of articulation - nothing fancy but enough to give it some sense of life. Same can be said for all the other mounts in the Nendoroid lineup.
As mentioned, Nendoroid tend to fall apart easily on my watch, so I don't get too creative when displaying/photographing. I do think the Nendoroid style works for Elise, being a young'in and a brat at that. Quality of the sculpting, finish, and painting are of a good quality and do not fail to meet the high expectations I have of a GSC product.
That's pretty much it for this figure. It's pretty much a "love it or hate it" scenario, especially if you actually decide to buy it for aftermarket prices because you are a hardcore FE collector. My thoughts remain the same - if the price is right, it makes a nice accent piece to your collection (or in this case, is the only figure you'll get of this character), but overall, hardcore Nendoroid collecting is not for me.
I like balls.
Specifically, pink ones named Kirby. There's just something refreshing about playing a game that is aimed at younger children with an ultra simplistic design, with a main character that is probably the most overpowered being in the entire Nintendo universe and is capable of devouring the souls of the damned as an energy source.
One of releases on the 3DS was the excellent Robobot game where the main gimmick was that Kirby would jump into a mech suit from time to time and wreck havoc on his enemies. The suit could take on different forms dependent on situation, with my favourite being the jet form.
Well, Good Smile Company announced they were going to release a Robobot suit to go along with the Kirby already out. it was no jet, but it certainly looked neat in the previews, so I figured why the hell not. And, as every good hoarder knows, I went for the deluxe set because it was marginally more expensive but came with a full size Nendoroid Kirby for display with the suit along with the exclusive flight cap piece - I don't think the expression is exclusive to this set.
While the Kirby is fully functional with magnetic arms and legs, it obviously doesn't have all the bells and whistles the full release does.
After about 9 months or so of waiting, my order finally arrived, personally couriered by the vendor no less, and I was able to sit down and crack it open.
I gotta say, she is a beaut.
First off, lets talk the box. Unlike the typical Nendoroid releases, this is under the Nendoroid More series. Secondly, you'll notice there is no window on this box. I don't think this was a cost thing, but rather they opted for a full box so you could get that kick ass artwork to tempt you on the shelf.
You don't really get a sense of how gigantic this figure is until you open the box. I mean, yes, you know because of how big the box is, but what's impressive is how much of the box is filled by this thing. There really isn't a whole lot of empty space. The suit is also made to scale with the Nendoroid and dwarfs Kirby.
Robobattle Armour, I dub thee the Broly of all Nendoroid releases.
While I generally like my figures detailed, when the design is simple I like the figure to reflect that as well. Clearly the armour isn't Gundam levels of details. It's a rotund cheery pink suit with few mechanical details and I think GSC did a fantastic job at bringing the suit into the real world. All the paint apps are very well done, being crisp and clean. Use of metallic colours on the exhaust and drill bits on the shoulders was nice. We even get to take a peek at the inside of the cockpit, which I don't think was ever shown in game (maybe there was some Nintendo concept art?).
Being what it is, the suit isn't exactly what I would call capable of my articulation - it really has pretty much basic articulation, and can't actually stand without the base supporting it. It should be noted that the wrist do move (not the fingers) as do the bronze exhaust pipes on the back. Joints are all friction type which I can see becoming weakened overtime if you overexert them, particularly the ones for the shoulders.
Now, while the suit is cute to look at, where it shines is when you combine it with the actual Kirby itself. This not only gives the poor thing a head, but also the suit is actually more reflective of what it is, not a standalone suit, but an extension of Kirby himself. It's honestly amazing how many posing options are opened up by simply adding on an articulated head, even if the body stays the same.
I think as far as a Kirby fan goes, getting this set is a no brainer. Should you get the deluxe set? In my case, it was an extra $20, and while consolidating to save space would have been a good idea, I worship at the feet of Kirby so MOAR, MOAR, MOAR!
The suit by itself is pretty good, but really isn't a particularly exciting to display on its own, not like the upcoming Rabbit Suit from Mega Man X. This thing was clearly meant for use with Kirby.
So.. what are you waiting for? BUY! BUY! BUY!
A few months ago, you may recall I did an overview of a wee little figure.. the Sentinel 4inch-Nel Rockman/Mega Man X figure. You know, the cutesy one with the freaking magnets in the boots? I had mentioned at the time that it had a brother-from-another-brand, the D-Arts version, but getting it might be problematic given the aftermarket prices, as the popular figure was released way back in 2011.
Well, as always, I keep my nose to the ground for people getting rid of stuff, and $35 CAD later here we are - the D-Arts Mega Man X figure. Used and a bit scuffed, mind you, but complete and as far as I can tell, official.
So yeah.. before the Sentinel and of course the Kotobukiya kits of today, this was THE X figure to get. It retailed for 3,300 Yen back in the day, and included a decent number of accessories. You get the figure, a total of three face plates (netural, shouting, gritted teeth), a pair of fists, a pair of open palm hands, Rockbuster/Megabuster replacement forearm, replacement buster tip for use with the blast effects, a level 1 charged shot, and a rapid fire barrage of three standard shots.
The barrage effect can be folded such that the shots display in different patterns, and as such can be used for a wide variety of actions.
X certainly looks the part, and I think I might actually like the face on the D-Arts just a smidgen more than the Sentinel release. The feet are a bit bulky IMHO compared to the official game art, but the general silhouette is well done, which is more than I can say about the D-Arts OG figure release. Each are really aiming for a different aesthetic, I find, with the D-Arts definitely going for the more angular, armoured look versus the the streamlined look of the Sentinel. The colours on the two are slightly different, with the D-Arts figure having a glossier finish.
If I had to sum it up, the D-Arts finish is more like a model kit whereas the Sentinel is more like an animated character.
The Sentinel was definitely designed better in terms of joint concealment, as evident at the hips and the neck.
One other cosmetic thing the D-Arts has over the Sentinel is that the red parts are all translucent plastic with a chrome back piece, as compared to solid red paint.
From an articulation perspective, the two figure were actually surprisingly equal when looking at the lower body (ankles, knees, hips, waist). The Sentinel does feature an additional joint around mid calf that allows for a more satisfying folded leg via the double jointed knees, but functionally they're pretty close. Both have exceptional ankle articulation, especially when considering the bulk.
Upper body though, I found the trunk to be better designed on the Sentinel as I could get more ab range of motion. Arms and head were again pretty consistent with regards to display options as the joints were again pretty much the same.
Paint wise, other than the difference in colours, there really isn't much to compare to the two. QC changes a lot in the 7 year period between the figures but it is suffice to say that the D-Arts was generally very clean, and was certainly nicer than some of the other D-Arts releases of the era. Decal work isn't bad either, and was found to be crisp.
Build quality wise, again, you'd expect the newer one to be better built. But there's nothing wrong with the D-Arts, as parts fit together and finishes are generally good, with the exception of the torso popping off for me as I keep pushing it past its modest limitations of motion. The Sentinel, however, feels like it has a higher density (so basically, a higher concentration of actual material in the figure), which of course can help with balance issues.
Overall, both are great takes on the character, and cater to slightly different crowds. Unlike most cases, the "bigger is better" crowd would actually still be getting a pretty good figure, so long as slightly wonky looking joints isn't an issue, but this is offset by the inclusion of effects.
Finding these two isn't exactly needle in a haystack, but finding them for a good price is somewhat of a challenge. As you can imagine, each person will have a different tolerance for this sort of thing.
Having said that, if the latest and greatest is your thing, you can always try to get a hold of the Kotobukiya kits, which seem to offer a D-Arts-esque figure with a more rounded body, though the time and of course, paint necessary to get it done effectively are a no go for me.
The world is your oyster, friends.
A revised sketch of one of my Mega Man X9 original boss concepts, Scorch Salamander. He was based off a fire salamander.
SCORCH SALAMANDER | スコーチ・サラマンダー
A former member of the Maverick Hunters’ covert ops team who was unintentionally left for dead by his teammates during a mission gone wrong. Resurrected by an unknown party and driven mad, Salamander now guards a Maverick base located near a volatile volcano waiting to seek revenge.
Abilities:
- Able to withstand fire and lava of any degree.
- An excellent swimmer.
- Near vulnerability when covered in lava which he regularly coats himself in order to survive.
- Can fire sticky bombs covered in molten lava that explodes into fireballs.
- Sprays globs of lava from his mouth.
Weapon Obtained:
- [X] Magma Bomb - Fires a sticky bomb that explodes into three fireballs.
- [Zero] Lava Slash - Performs a quick forward slash, followed by a wave of lava behind him.
- [Axl] Melt Spray - Sprays globs of lava.
Illustrated by Kyle R. All original characters/artwork/works are the property/properties of Kyle R. Mega Man X belongs to Capcom.
Copyright © 2020 KMR Studios. All rights reserved.
Official website: www.minds.com/KMR_Studios
Link to artwork: www.deviantart.com/kmrstudios/art/Scorch-Salamander-82881...
My original Mega Man X9 boss concepts: www.deviantart.com/kmrstudios/gallery/67738902/mega-man-x...
#art #sketch #traditional_art #traditional_artwork #KMR_Studios #KMRStudios #originalcharacter #original_character
#Mega_Man #Mega_Man_X #MegaManX #MegaMan #MegaManX9 #ロックマンX #ロックマン #ロックマンX9
#Scorch_Salamander #ScorchSalamander #スコーチ・サラマンダー
#salamander #firesalamander #amphibian #amphibians
Zero from Mega Man X (SNES). Made of Perler fuse beads. Original sprite sheet located at spriters-resource.com
“Electrifying Speed Runner”
Lightning Cheetah is a reploid equipped with an built-in overclocked acceleration device and a fast CPU, enabling him to both run very fast without losing energy and think very quickly while moving. He was originally a recon soldier gathering intel for the Maverick Hunters prior to being corrupted. Being very difficult to track due to his speed, he was last spotted in Africa trying to derail a high speed transport train.
The weapon you obtain after defeating Lightning Cheetah is Spark Runner. It fires an electric spinning energy disc that travels extremely fast along floors, walls and ceilings. The charged version fires two cheetah-shaped electric blasts in both directions that travel very fast along the ground, walls and ceilings.
Designer notes:
This boss concept has been to the drawing board back and forth several times. Originally meant to be a fire-based cheetah boss, before deciding to make him an electric-based one. I named him Lightning Cheetah as he is a cheetah and cheetahs are fast runners in real life, as well as ‘lightning’ also means ‘very quick.’
Illustrated by Kyle R. All original characters are the property of Kyle R. & KMR Studios. Mega Man X is the property of Capcom.
Copyright © 2018 KMR Studios. All rights reserved.
My blog: kmrstudios.tumblr.com
My gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/kmr_studios/
My 2nd gallery: kmrstudios.deviantart.com
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