Furu Anime Panikku

Revoltech, Figma, MMS, Impact Model and some other obscure brands. It seems that action figurines are quite the craze. Indeed, there is a wide array of brands to choose from. Hence, most people would probably just go for the brand which produces the characters that they like. The same goes for me. After all, as long as the action figurine looks good, and the price is right, there’s a high chance for it to be popular.

One flaw about action figurines, however, are the joints. Human action figurines with joints aren’t exactly the most pleasant looking things. For example, the Yoko on MMS and the figma Nagato Yuki. The Revoltech Revy had ugly joints too, but her weapons were rather cool.

On the other hand, joints are able to portray the realism of the mecha action figurines. After all, it’s the joints that make the figurines look like the real thing. Plus, you can fiddle around with it, unlike a scaled figurine.

I think I should get on with my opinions on the various action figure brands.

Revoltech (Kaiyodo) :

What I have bought so far : Revy, Mini EVA-00 Proto Type New Movie Edition,Mini EVA-01 Test Type New Movie Edition, Ayanami Rei (preordered 2)

• Pros
  • Good Choice of Characters for Production

  It is clear that you can see that the number of mecha Revoltechs far outnumber the number of human Revoltechs. This allows them to utilize the positive results of the joints for more of their releases. As for the humans, they have also made some good decisions on what to produce. While the first generation human Revoltechs were unimpressive, the releases for the 2nd Generation and the upcoming Fraulein Revoltech are rather good. For example, Saber and Yotsuba’s joints have improved to a decent standard. As for the Fraulein Revoltech upcoming releases next year, I’d have to say that Rei and Asuka are quite awesome looking. Rin, on the other hand, isn’t as impressive as I thought. Maybe she would look better in a plugsuit.

  

• • Decent Pricing

  Revoltech is rather cheap as compared to it’s other competitors. At a standard price of usually around 2000 yen, one cannot deny that it’s quite a steal. Not to mention that Revoltech figures are of an acceptable standard, or sometimes even higher.

• Cons
  • Repetitive Releases

  As much as I like Evangelion, I find that there are simply too many Evangelions released by Revoltech. Including the limited editions and and the mini Revoltechs, there more than 20 released so far. And I am rather sure that Kaiyodo isn’t going to stop the Eva releases anytime soon. Also, I often seem to spot one too many Patlabor Revoltechs.

Figma (Max Factory) :

What I have bought so far : None

• Pros
  • Popular Characters

  Nagato Yuki and Suzumiya Haruhi. 2 famous characters in the anime otaku world. What more do they need?

  • Decent Pricing

  Though slightly pricier than Revoltech, it is still rather affordable. Nagato Yuki is announced to be selling at 2500 yen. Haruhi comes with the PS2 Game at around 10000 yen, but if you subtract the cost of the game itself, the figurine costs about 3000+ yen. I think it’s still acceptable, since it’s a limited edition figurine.

• Cons
  • Small Selection of Products

  As figma is a newborn brand, it is no wonder why they currently have only 2 preorders and no releases. This should not exactly count as a flaw, but I suppose that figma could have done better if they had more releases when they start. After all, it a wider range of figurines, the chances of them leaving an impact as a brand in the market would be significantly higher.

  • All Humans, no Mecha?!

  It is extremely difficult to make a human figurine without the joints corrupting the beauty of the end product, simply because in reality, humans do not have joints that are visible to the eye. With figma starting out with all humans and no mecha, I would not be surprise if their releases would the joints cause their figurines to lose points on the visual scale. Then again, the popularity of the characters they have chose to release may cover this flaw. The Nagato Yuki figurine isn’t that impressive, and the same goes for the Haruhi, due to their unsightly joints.

Impact Model (Konami) :

What I have bought so far : Lagann, Gurren Lagann

• Pros
  • All Mecha

  This is a good thing as Mechas are able to benefit from the joint problem. As for Gurren Lagann and Lagann, the joints are not visible as they are strategically made to look like part of the mechas’ amour.

  • Best Looking Mecha Action Figurine I have seen so far

  The Impact Models are rather awesome, especially Lagann. It even comes with a small figurine of Simon, and the drills are rather well done. Gurren Lagann comes with a nice base, but I have no idea why it is smaller than Lagann.

• Cons
  • Crappy Pricing

  Lagann costs almost 6000 yen, while Gurren Lagann costs almost 4000 yen. The pricing is too expensive for an action figurine, but I guess it’s worth it since the quality of the 2 is rather good.

  • No Variety

  The Impact Model Series was created specially for Gurren Lagann, so it’s no surprise why there is a lack of different products. Konami should just release all the forms of Gurren Lagann, together with the other mechas in the show. I would buy them if they were slightly cheaper.

MMS (Konami) :

What I have bought so far : None

• Pros
  • None

  Sorry, I tried and tried. But I still couldn’t see anything good in this. Oh wait, maybe Yoko’s Rifle is some good.

  

• Cons
  • Crappy Pricing

  Yoko looks like the same size as the other Revoltech and figma figurines, but she costs almost 3500 yen. Where did the extra 1000 yen come from? Looks like Konami has the bad habit of overpricing.

  • Fugly joints

  This has surpassed the word “ugly”. Holes are all over Yoko’s back, and to make things worse, these holes are completely visible. Konami makes no effort to cover up for these flaws. They should learn that not all holes are supposed to be exposed. Unfortunately, I cannot remember where I last saw the picture of all the holes on her back, and thus, am unable to provide pictures for that. Anyway, the Sky Girls figurines look slightly better than Yoko.

  • No Variety

  Only skygirls and Yoko? Wow. But then again, it seems that only Revoltech has variety.

That was a rather lengthy comparison, and I have only covered a few brands that came to my mind when I did this post. For example, I left out Yujin, who has this amazingly retarded bandaged Shana-tan.

Despite the OP for Season 2 being “JOINT”, such fugly joints screw Shana up

There are still many brands which I have left out, so you might want to add on.

To conclude this, I shall say that I favour Revoltech out of all the brands so far, because of the price, quality and variety. I am not sure about how awesome or sucky figma would turn out to be, but with it being Max Factory, I have this gut feeling that they might be a good rival for Revoltech. Impact Models are cool but have to be cheaper, and MMS fails instantly. Konami should drop MMS and focus on Impact Models instead.

With Revoltech coming up with a Gurren Lagann in May, it would be interesting to see how it would match up to the Impact Model version.

Beware Konami !!!

And lastly, Yujin should burn in fiery hell for releasing such a monstrous Shana. My impression of Shana will never be the same. Thanks a hell lot, Yujin.