Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Random (86)

Year of the monsters

With the year winding down to a close, I look back at some of the stuff that I got for the last 12 months, and realize that I managed to stuff my room with more large-sized items than ever. ^^;

Some of the giants were shown on the blog when I got them, for example "The Avengers" 1/6 Black Widow, "The Dark Knight Rises" 1/6 Selina Kyle/Catwoman, "Resident Evil 4 HD" 1/6 Ada Wong from Hot Toys, and Transformers Masterpiece MP-02 Soundwave from Hasbro, but there are others I didn't post about. After recently acquiring another item that is undoubtedly a giant - G.F.F. Metal Composite Psycho Gundam Mk-II (Neo Zeon Ver), I thought it would be good to reveal the other unnamed large-sized items that I got throughout the year. ^^


Giant robots, and huge figures. ^^


G.F.F. Metal Composite Psycho Gundam Mk-II (Neo Zeon Ver)


The reissued G.F.F. Metal Composite Psycho Gundam


Takara Tomy's Transformers Asia Premium Series ASP02 Brawl



Hasbro's Transformers Masterpiece MP-01 Acid Storm


Square Enix's Variant Play Arts Kai DC Universe Variant Batman and Wonder Woman



Original Effect's Army Attractive 1/6 Viola, and Hasuike Sunayuki .

I mentioned about Transformers Asia Premium Series ASP02 Brawl a couple of times in the past I believe. It's pretty much Takara Tomy's repaint version of the original Leader Class Brawl from "Transformers: The Movie" released in 2007, but with heightened sense of realism through more militaristic paint scheme and richer details. As a replacement for that original Brawl I didn't manage to get because of budget, I'm really glad to have this new version in my collection now. ^^ The two G.F.F. Metal Composite figures share pretty much the same story as Brawl in terms of their purchase reason. Psycho Gundam was originally released in August 2007, and Psycho Gundam Mk-II exactly a year later. With little budget to spare for large-sized completed figures, I wasn't able to get them when they first came out. When Tamashii Nations announced that these two Gundam figures were going to be reissued earlier this year, I didn't hesitate when deciding to get them. ^^ The reissued Psycho Gundam came out in May, while Mk-II in October. With its Neo Zeon deco and new packaging, The Mk-II is technically a new product. It's even being listed as a separate item on Tamashii Web, but since everything else is exactly the same as the original release that came out in August 2008, I look at it as more of a reissue than a new item. ^^

I mentioned about going for Hasbro's Transformers Masterpiece MP-01 Acid Storm after getting Soundwave in September, and I followed through on that wish. I can just imagine how outstanding a large fluorescent green F-15 is going to look when it been displayed alongside other figures on my shelves. XD

Among the few items shown above, the two Play Arts Kai figures are the smallest, but their size is still very intimidating when compared to S.H. Figuarts figures and Figmas. This is especially true for the heavily armored, extremely masculine Batman. It's obviously smaller than a 1/6 scale figure, but its size is definitely impressive. ^^ Besides their size, the sculpture, paint work, and detailing are just tremendous for these two figures. Even without removing them from their boxes, Batman's layered armor design, and gradient paint work for Wonder Woman's skin tone are already very impressive to me. They are very expensive, even in the Play Arts Kai series itself, but the quality is good enough to match the price tags I think.

The two 1/6 scale action figures from Original Effect are very interesting purchases to me. ^^ The highly sexualized image of the characters, especially Viola is very attractive to me. I've never seen large-sized action figures quite like the ones from this series before to be honest, and their accompanying comics are super-violent, sadistically and bloodily so, much to my evil delight. ^^ They are perhaps borderline permissible to be released to the mass market I suppose, as you can get them through pretty much all major hobby sites. ^^ According to many reviews right after the figures' releases, they are very poorly made, with tons of amateurish quality control issues. Looking at the actual figures that I got, I have no problem agreeing with those assessments. ^^; The characters are awesome, but the figures are very crappy, unfortunately. ^^; Given their overly sexual image, perhaps offensively so to some, I would probably have to do a Sci-fi Revoltech Jason Voorhees styled review for the two the next time I bring them out of their boxes. ^^;

More monsters are set to arrive next year, with Tamashii Nations' DX Chogokin YF-29 Durandal Valkyrie Isamu's Unit, 303 Toys' 1/6 Guan Yu, Sideshow Collectibles' 1/6 Baroness, and a couple other 1/6 scale figures on my pre-order list. ^^ I'm certainly looking forward to seeing all of them soon. ^^


"Anybody saw me in the first picture?" XD

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