KUSANAGI MOTOKO: The New Movie ver. Figma Ghost in the Shell The New Movie action figure

Figma's latest "Ghost in the Shell" action figure is an excellent representation of The New Movie's main character, Major Motoko Kusanagi. based on her look in the final chapter of the Arise series, The Major comes decked out in a matte black stealth bodysuit, and comes with three interchangeable faces, three looks for her hair (visor, actually), her assault rifle, pistol, rack of eight additional hands and standard figma stand. As you would expect from Max Factory and figma, the sculpt is excellent, the paint is impeccable, and the accessories are plentiful. The eyes, for example, are perfect, as are the lighter purple discs all over the suit. Two tiny red lines highlight the tops of her heels, and even the butt plate of her pistol magazine has a coat of perfect brown paint (and, yes, the four ports on the back of her neck are present).

Figma's Motoko Kusanagi is a fun figure. She poses easily, for the most part, and looks pretty natural in a wide variety of poses. The construction and materials are solid - I never felt like anything was being pushed to the breaking point and I had absolutely no issues with stuck joints or parts falling off. The design and engineering is a little more of a mixed bag, and is actually where I encountered the only issues I had. Firstly, her neck is sculpted at a forward angle. This means that any pose where her upper torso is crunched forwards gives her a downward stare. In fact, I found that I had to pull her chest back constantly to get a straight-ahead look. The spot where the head attaches to the neck leaves a significant amount of gapping, as well. It only shows itself from certain angles, but it's there. The lower torso joint has a nice range of motion, but posing in combination with the upper torso joint took a little bit of patience on my part. The joints are very smooth and moveable without being loose, but getting the parts lined up just the way I wanted was tricky.

I'm not thrilled with the hair pieces. The regular "no visor" version looks as it does in the movie, I think, but I don't like the amount of forehead it leaves. The "visor down" look is ok, but hides the face too much for me to use on a regular basis. The "visor up" look is my personal favorite, combined with the regular "stern face." The fit of the pieces is not great, with a noticeable gap at my figure's right ear for a couple of the hair pieces, and one of the faces is very tight to plug in. I needed to take a blade to shave off a tiny bit of another hair piece to get it to sit better, which it now does. 

The face sculpts are nice, but there's something about them that's just a tiny bit "off" to me. In hand, her cheeks seem a little puffy and her mouth is tiny. There's absolutely no paint applied to the lips or cheeks, and as a result the expressions lose some of their strength.

The shoulders feature an ingenious ability to pop in and out, giving some added forward range of motion. Enough, in fact, to allow the figure a two-handed grip (of sorts) of her weapons. It works very well, and gives this version an ability that the original Stand Alone Complex version didn't have.

Overall, this is an excellent figure. With figma, you get what you see: a well-made figure that's fun to play with. She's worth the asking price, even with the few issues I encountered, and I'm hoping that figma gives us more versions of the Major in the future...

SPINOSAURUS - Papo Dinosaur

Here are some shots of Papo's exceedingly well-done Jurassic Park III version Spinosaurus. The figure is fairly large and is incredibly detailed. The scales vary in size depending on the location, and the entire figure is full of wonderful textures. The pose is dynamic, looking particularly impressive with the movable jaw opened wide. The paint work is what really makes this figure pop. It looks like the dinosaur was cast in a yellowish plastic, which provides a terrific base for the varying shades of greys and browns and such applied atop it. Some additional dark washes, particularly on the spines, help to bring out the fine details. It's an amazing looking addition to any dinosaur collection.

MUTANT LEADER - Mezco One:12 Collective Dark Knight Returns figure review

Mezco's Mutant Leader was the third character I picked up from the One:12 Collective line. It's not a character I have any particular affinity towards, but I do love a well-made action figure. From the eye-catching package to the high quality of materials used, the figure shows a level of attention to detail that I really appreciate. 

The figure looks amazing - that's clearly evident from the pictures. It's amazingly accurate, thoughtfully articulated and appropriately outfitted. What's harder to get from the pictures is the true tactile impressiveness of the figure. First off, he's relatively heavy. And that comes from the plastic used his construction. It's almost got a fine texture to it, and it feels slightly rubbery (but not Marvel Legends joints rubbery). It's hard to explain, but this guy is solid. The paint is very nearly perfect, and that's beyond basic paint applications in a broad stroke. His finger nails and toe nails have two different colors on each nail (there's a dark brownish base layer with a lighter gray topcoat, designed to allow a rim to show at the base). The skin all over the torso and feet have a faint airbrushing to highlight the sculpt and add depth. The faces of the three included heads are amazing: eyes can be seen underneath the visor, the teeth are individually painted (immaculately, I might add), with more highlights at the eye ridges and creases. The metal of the torch and crowbar are textured and painted so well, you'd swear they were genuine metal, and the torch fire itself has at least three different shades of color to it.

The pants look and feel great, but there's much more to a One:12 Collective figure than the clothing. Cloth clothing could be used as a gimmick - put some cloth on the same quality of figure I'm used to getting for $20 at retail, for instance, and call it something special. This, however, is significantly different. What I'm getting here is a high-quality figure that would be excellent even with sculpted clothing - something to compete with high-end Figma and Figuarts figures, for instance - that also happens to have fabric outfitting. It's a great accomplishment that's worthy of praise. I feel like there are companies out there making "collector" figures, banking on the idea that (as a collector) I will buy based on the character, rather than the product. Speaking from personal experience, I've learned that buying a poorly-made figure of a character I love only brings disappointment. Conversely, buying a well-made figure of a character I was previously indifferent towards, can be super-rewarding. Mezco's One:12 Collective has brought me back to the reason I began collecting action figures in the first place: they make me feel like a kid again. I won't buy every figure from the line, but I'm confident that the ones I do buy, will be worth it...