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...

LARA CROFT - Rise of the Tomb Raider Play Arts Kai Figure Review

I got Square Enix's Play Arts Kai Rise of the Tomb Raider Lara Croft figure back in April. In my initial impressions post here I thought pretty highly of the figure while it was in-package, but those feelings fizzled fairly quickly once she was out. Now, about two and a half months later, I'm re-visiting the figure to give it a fair shake.

As noted in that earlier post, this version of Lara is noticeably larger than the Survivor version. The level of detail is exceptional - this is a hallmark of the Play Arts Kai figures - and really deserves to be acknowledged and commended. There are plenty of buckles, straps, pouches, wrinkles and textures to keep even the most particular detail-hounds happy. The colors are appropriately muted, from the olive drab of the jacket to the khaki trousers and military boots. The proportions look very good all-around, with no gangly arms or legs, or exaggerated curves.

The face is quite nice, though it really doesn't bring Lara Croft (in-game or out) to mind. I don't think it reminds me of anyone in particular. I can appreciate the sculpt and paintwork here working together to create an attractive portrait, but there's no personality to it at all. The Survivor game required a heroine with grim, steely determination, and I would assume (having not played it yet) that Rise would require more of the same. The figure's face is so neutral that it just seems..."absent," if that makes any sense.

Rise Lara comes with an assortment of goodies. Yes, a standard PAK stand is included, though I don't use these. She also comes with: her bow (this one has an elastic for a string, unlike the Survivor version's delicate plastic one), two climbing axes (which peg to her belt behind her left hip with great difficulty), a pistol (which holsters nicely on her right hip), a group (quarrel?) of arrows for the quiver, and 5 alternate hands (one of which is permanently attached to an arrow. The accessories all look very good and work well, with one exception. There's an attachment point on the bow designed to peg into a hole on Lara's back. The problem I had was that the hole is too high. As a result, when the bow is pegged into place, the string cuts right across the figure's face. There's a workable solution, though. Just unpeg the bow and drop it down, and it sits just fine.

I generally have great difficulty with PAK's articulation scheme. There are plenty of joints, but the ratchets seem to require them to click into place outside of where I need them to be. As a result, the figures are often off-balance or just look awkward in their poses. I tried to mimic the box images with Lara, to varying degrees of success. My figure does have great difficulty standing straight up, as a result of having the left leg slightly longer than the right (either that, or it's pegged in to the hip joint incorrectly, making the hips asymmetrical.  She's not what I would consider a joy to pose. I felt like I was fighting with the figure to try to get it to do what I wanted it to. I'm pretty pleased with the standing pose and the kneeling pose, but I just couldn't get the arms to look right shooting the arrow. The results are pictured.

Overall, this is a nice figure, though it doesn't really scream "Lara Croft" at me. There's a nice assortment of accessories, the detail and paint are good, and she can achieve more poses than just about any previous incarnation of the character. At the same time, I'm not blown away. In fact, I have one PAK figure on pre-order, and I'm vowing that it will be my last. With a $140 price tag, this figure costs about double what it should. And being as difficult as it is to get into poses I like, it will probably just sit on the shelf, mostly forgotten, in a short time. To me, that's just not worth it. So, like I said, I plan to pass on PAK from here on out. If you like the line, appreciate the detail, love the character/game and can work with the articulation scheme for the price, you'll probably love this figure (and again, when I actually get to play the game I may have to revisit this review, because I might have a newfound appreciation for the figure).

BANE - DC Collectibles Batman Arkham Origins action figure

DC Collectibles' Batman: Arkham Origins Bane figure features impressive size, a great sculpt, good paint applications and poor articulation. Standing about 8 & 1/4" tall, he does an appropriate job of dwarfing his Origins Batman counterpart. The figure features broad shoulders and thick thighs, further amplified by pouches and weaponry.

The sculpt is highly detailed and praise-worthy. The facial features are sharp and well-proportioned. The mask looks to be sculpted onto the face (not just painted), with faint raised lines around the eyes. The underside of the nose has been left unmasked, as has the mouth, which is set in a grim slight scowl. There are raised wrinkles and such all over the top and back of the head and around the protrusions of the ears to simulate the mask. That level of detail carries over throughout the figure's outfit: lots of buckles, snaps, pouches and such. Plenty to look at, without it becoming overwhelming at the Spawn-level. Paint is mostly pretty clean, with some spots where the green in the tubes is peeling or dripping or where the silver is slightly inconsistent. The face and head look good.

This Bane is mostly a statue. He's got points of articulation, but the range of motion is very limited by the sculpt and the additional tubing. As a result, he stands up very well, but that's about it. I can't get him to reach or look natural in any other poses. So, he'll stay doing what he does best: standing up with his arms flaring out to the sides. He's a neat addition to a shelf display of Batman Arkham game figures, but that's about it...