February 7, 2024

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan 3 Son Goku

By Joe
He’s one cocky son of a monkey.

I believe I have touched on it before, and it’s also probably common knowledge among fans of Dragon Ball, that the story was supposed to end with Gohan’s triumph over Perfect Cell. Goku was dead and gone having sacrificed himself to save the world, but his son would carry on his legacy in his own way. Or at least that was one possible ending. Series creator Akira Toriyama has said to have had many endings in mind, some even before the Z era began. The thing is, Dragon Ball was really popular and when something is really popular there are a lot of people that don’t want it to end for purely artistic reasons. No, they want to run that thing into the ground! Squeeze every last coin from its corpse before it gets put away to be rebooted in 10 years. Whether it was supposed to end or not with Gohan’s triumph, it did not. And if you’re going to keep the story going, well you have to bring Goku back and give him an awesome new power-up.

Goku was able to power-up while dead and it did wonders for his hair. Not so much his eyebrows.

When Gohan beat Cell he broke through the Super Saiyan barrier to reach an awesome new height. It was basically the goal of all of the Saiyan characters during that arc and it was accomplished by the youngest of them all fulfilling his own character arc which essentially began in the first episode of Dragon Ball Z. Gohan’s Super Saiyan hair was sort of the least impressive of the four Super Saiyans as it kind of just looked like Goku’s base form hair, only blond. When he breaks past that it shoots up and looks pretty cool and is more like the other characters. He’s also given an aura that crackles with blue lightning which would become the defining feature of what is now called Super Saiyan 2 because when the form was applied to Goku and Vegeta there was really little room for their hair to shoot higher. Maybe that’s why when it came time to design Super Saiyan 3 Toriyama made sure it was quite distinct. It keeps the blue lightning, but the hair goes way beyond big. For Goku, his hair is almost as long as he is tall. For Gotenks, it might be even more. The characters also lose their eyebrows, for some reason, which are replaced by a Piccolo-like ridge for their brow. They eyes also turn teal, but pick-up a black iris too.

Even Sonic is jealous of this flow.

I’ve talked to a lot of fans who state that Super Saiyan 3 is their favorite look of them all (and at this point, there are a lot of Saiyan transformations). For me, it’s never been that high on my list. I don’t dislike it or anything, but its presence in the anime was much smaller than the standard Super Saiyan look. It doesn’t even have a victory under its belt, though when Goku debuts the form against Majin Buu, it’s noted by Piccolo that he felt Goku could have won the battle and Goku more or less confirms that he could have. He opted not to as, at the time of the fight, he was technically dead and felt that a dead guy shouldn’t be the one to save the world. It’s an interesting thought, though since your family inhabits that world still you may want to just do them a solid, Goku. Goku does tackle Kid Buu in the form, but he basically runs out of gas as by then he’s alive (just go with it) and finding the form hard to maintain. That’s a feature of the form that basically sticks to it as much later in Dragon Ball Super when Goku shows the returning Future Trunks the form, Vegeta dismisses it as being too costly in energy to wield. I do think some of that stems from Vegeta being just a wee bit jealous that Goku cracked yet another barrier he failed to.

I call this his cave man face.

Because Dragon Ball Z originally ended with the battle against Kid Buu, Super Saiyan 3 didn’t get a lot of screentime. When the series returned with the film Battle of Gods, the form was essentially replaced by Super Saiyan God and the forms that followed that. I also personally only ever watched the Buu Saga once. By then, I was burned out by the slow drip on Toonami and I was just buying the VHS releases of the show as they came out. I think they were 25 bucks a pop for 3 episodes, a terrible value, but apparently I had enough cash laying around. I basically watched them all once, then never again, where as I saw the earlier sagas repeatedly on television. I don’t even have all of those tapes anymore as some of them got damaged from water in my garage so I just tossed all of them. Part of me regrets doing that as VHS nostalgia is on the rise and who knows where it will take us? What motivated me to finally pick up this figure (yes, I swear this post is an action figure review) is that I’ve been doing a rewatch of the series (well, Dragon Ball Z Kai technically as I don’t have the time for the original) with my kids and we recently got to the Super Saiyan 3 episode and my daughter pointed out to me that I don’t have a Super Saiyan 3 Goku in my collection. When a kid throws shade at your toys, you have to respond. I was considering picking up the 2021 reissue of the figure as it’s still in stock on Big Bad Toy Store, but it’s 70 bucks. That’s pretty steep for a figure I don’t know how badly I need.

He pairs pretty well with the standard Tamashii Nations yellow aura.

As luck would have it, YouTuber Toy Bro (real name Jared) recently decided to clear out some stuff he no longer wanted. I follow him on Twitter (or whatever it’s called) and happened to be scrolling through my feed when one of his for sale posts popped up containing a Super Saiyan 3 Goku for a great price. I immediately sent him a DM, and because I apparently haven’t bought anything off of Twitter in quite some time, my account immediately got locked for suspicious behavior. Thanks, Elon! I unlocked it pretty quickly and once I sent the DM he got back to me right away. We exchanged PayPal info, and Goku was on his way the next day. If you’re thinking of buying off of Toy Bro, I certainly recommend it so thanks to Jared for the hook-up which saved me about 30 bucks. If you’re curious what he had to say about this figure (I don’t think it’s this exact figure, I’m guessing the one he sold me was an extra) you can check out his video review here. I’ll probably watch it when I’m done typing this to see if his thoughts align with mine.

He unfortunately does not pair well with the Super Saiyan 2 aura as the giant hair prevents him from being able to get in close to have the lightning parts surround him.

This is definitely the longest intro to a figure review I’ve done, but part of that is because there isn’t a ton here for me to talk about. This figure is pretty old and I’m not sure if this is the first version released in 2017 or the reissue, but we’re essentially dealing with the same Goku body Bandai has released several times at this point, but with crazy Super Saiyan 3 hair. That’s why it’s a bit of a surprise to me the reissue is so expensive, but with the hair being what it is, it requires a larger box which takes up more room, it’s heavier, and maybe all of that is enough to drive the costs up. Or maybe BBTS has just slapped their own surcharge on the thing and it was originally less in 2021 (the other outlets that still have it in stock have it priced similarly, so it isn’t just BBTS).

A Goku like other Gokus, and yet not.

Goku stands about 5.5″ to the top of his face, taller if you include the hair. The hair sticks out about 3.5″ from his head so it’s pretty damn big. It’s cast in yellow, but has a top coat of a pearlescent paint to give it a shiny, sparkly, finish. There’s some orange where the hair meets the head for shading and it looks pretty sharp. The facial details are in place, though this figure predates what Bandai has been doing the past year or so with the faces on its figures so it has a softer, less-detailed, look compared with the more recent offerings. There’s still a noticeable outline around the eyes, and for some reason there’s some shading in the ear, so it’s not as if the face looks bad or anything. I just currently have him next to the newest version of Super Saiyan Vegeta and I’m missing the extra paint for the brow lines and creases around the eyes.

Some of the forms that followed Super Saiyan 3.

After that, the body is mostly unpainted plastic. The exposed flesh on the chest as well as the blue undershirt is painted as are the boots and wrist straps. The rest is bare plastic. There’s a very light application of shading around the crotch which is probably unnecessary. It’s at least not as heavy as some other figures which make it appear as if the character wet its pants. The lack of paint gives the figure a very clean look, just not exactly flashy. At least for the body as the hair is very flashy. And since this body is exactly the same as other Goku figures I’ve looked at, I don’t feel a need to rundown the articulation again. This figure does feature articulated hair as it’s connected to itself at two different points. They don’t really offer much as the hair is pretty firm and also really spiky. You actually have to be pretty careful handling it because it hurts! The head is also connected to the neck in a slightly different manner than usual and I think it’s basically a hinge. This means no nuance posing, but he can look down just fine and the rotation is there as long as you’re willing to work with that hair. And the hair obviously adds substantial weight to the figure and it does make the figure more difficult to stand than most, but it’s still doable. It needs a lot of shelf space though since the hair does extend beyond the figure quite a bit. The other joints feel a bit tighter than usual and I’m curious if that is deliberate to help offset the weight of the hair or just coincidence? Nothing is so tight I had to worry about breaking anything, but he’s tighter than my other Goku figures. And since he’s like those other figures, he also has the flesh-colored plastic inside the torso for the butterfly joint which looks silly from behind when that arms are as far as they’ll go. The plastic should be orange as it’s continuing his shirt, but it’s not.

No effect part, but at least he comes with a flight stand.
He does have a removable halo, which I guess is like an effect part?

The accessories for Super Saiyan 3 Goku are also mostly the same as other Goku figures with only one exception. For hands, we get a pair of fists, the martial arts pose hands, clenchy hands, instant transmission hands, chops, and splayed open. Pretty standard stuff, though I think a lot of Goku figures only bother to provide one instant transmission hand. Interestingly, I never noticed until now that the newer figures have a slightly thicker wrist peg. This means the hands for Super Hero Goku won’t fit on this figure. Goku also has four different expressions to swap between: smirk, teeth-gritting, yelling, and stoic with a side eye. They’re appropriate for the character and the only negative is that they’re just not as well-painted as current figures. Swapping hands and faces is a lot harder than is typical of this line. You may even need to use heat for some of them and I had the wrist hinge come apart on me when swapping one of the hands which is annoying (it’s easily fixed, at least). Goku also comes with an acrylic halo on a post which comes plugged into his hair by default, but can be removed. The actual halo is only slightly frosted rather than yellow like the one that came with Frieza or Super Saiyan 2 Goku. It looks fine, but there’s no way to hide the post so it always looks a little silly to me. Lastly, Goku comes with a standard Tamashii Nations stand. I’m guessing because he’s a bit harder to stand than usual the stand is intended to remedy that. It has the standard claw attachment without the crotch hook and it works well if you just want some added stability or want to put Goku in a flying pose. While I would have loved an actual effect part, I do always like getting another flight stand.

“What?! Just because you grew your hair out doesn’t give you an excuse to get so smug. Bow to me, monkey!”
“Yeah, there won’t be any bowing from me, Frieza.”

Super Saiyan 3 Goku is here to satisfy the urge of DBZ collectors to add this specific version of Goku to their collection. It’s perfectly fine for this line and I really like how the hair turned out. While the body is mostly unpainted, at least it has a pretty matte appearance and I like the shades of orange and blue in use here versus most of the other Goku figures I have. I guess the real question is if I had spent 70 or more dollars on this figure would I be just as content? Probably not. I don’t think I’d have regretted the buy, but I definitely would have felt like I paid too much. It would have been a lot of money for basically just a new head and generic stand. In an era where we’re getting some pretty nice looking reissues for $35, a $70 Super Saiyan 3 Goku reissue is a hard sell.

Feel like there aren’t enough Gokus? There are never enough Gokus!:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super Son Goku Super Hero

Back in the early 2000s I was a collector of Irwin Toys’ Dragon Ball Z line of action figures. When I started collecting that line, I just focused on my favorite characters which were primarily Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo. Gradually, the collector impulse took over and I started buying entire waves as they came out…

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by Joe
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2024 at 12:50 pm and tagged with , , , , , , , and posted in Television, toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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