I’ve been getting a little taste of July of late in the dead of winter as not one, not two, but three action figure exclusives from San Diego Comic Con have arrived at my door. That’s because the nature of the exclusive has changed over the years. Why make a limited number of something and sell it at one location when it’s something a lot of people want? As a company, you’re just denying yourselves more sales and letting resellers reap the rewards. That is why Bandai has been making its event exclusives available to non-attendees when it comes to most conventions. The lone exception thus far as been last year’s World Tour version of Son Goku Awakening Super Saiyan, a re-release of Super Saiyan Goku from the moment where he first transformed. And I think the only reason why that one was kept exclusive to the events and store fronts it was sold at is because shortly after a similar, but new, version of Super Saiyan Goku was put up for preorder (we’ll be talking about that one in due time).
When I first got into Dragon Ball action figure collecting I intended to only get my favorite characters. This was back in the early 2000s when Irwin Toys had the license. One of their earliest figures was Raditz, and since he wasn’t a favorite of mine on par with the likes of Vegeta and Piccolo, I passed. Then as more figures came along I got caught up in the frenzy and just started buying everything and only passing on the figures I felt turned out exceptionally poor. I regretted not getting that Raditz in the end and for some reason I didn’t consider that when it came time for Bandai, via the Premium Bandai route, to do its own Raditz. I hemmed and hawed, but at the time I was (stop me if you’ve heard this) just getting my favorites. Fast forward a few years and my collection is bigger than I intended. While I have never gone full completist or anything, I do have my favorite arcs and such from the manga/anime and Raditz represents a hole. The same was true of Nappa and thankfully he got a re-release via the convention route. Now, it’s Raditz’s turn.
Raditz comes in the event exclusive packaging which is just the standard package, but with a two-tone approach. In this case, it’s orange on black. This version also comes with a buddy, or rather a foe, in nephew Gohan (more on him when we get to the accessories since that’s essentially what he is) though it isn’t a moment specific release since at that point in the fight Raditz had some battle damage. And since Premium Bandai is intended to be a one and done affair, Bandai couldn’t just re-release Raditz with some new accessories. No, he necessitated a new color scheme. In both the manga and anime, Raditz had black armor with dark brown shoulder pads. When Bandai made its first Nappa figure, it featured the same color scheme as that’s how he appeared in the manga and his first appearance in the anime. When the event version came around, it meant Nappa could have his anime colors from when the Saiyans land on Earth. Raditz, unfortunately, has no real other look so he’s recolored to have light brown shoulder pads. It’s not accurate to the show or manga, but beggars (i.e. me) can’t be choosers.
Raditz stands a tick over 6″ to the top of his portrait and considerably taller when you factor in that giant mass of hair he’s got going on. He has his scouter, which features a blue lens now, and the muted brown shoulder pads and other plating over dark navy, almost black, armor. The scouter is removable, but only so you can swap the faces. There’s no replacement ear if you want to go without the Scouter look since Raditz never took it off. The hair is pretty damn huge, as expected, but done in a more simpler manner when compared with Super Saiyan 3 Goku. It’s thinner and lighter so it isn’t the impediment to standing that it is with Goku, which I guess is why we don’t get a flight stand for Raditz. In addition to the color change on the armor, the bands Raditz wears on his left arm and left thigh are now silver instead of red. It does pair well with the white piping of the armor, though I wish they had just left it red. One advantage this release has over the original is that the faces are using the new printing process recent DBZ figures have featured so they look very nice. My lone complaint is that they didn’t do the portraits in the same manner as they’re done for Vegeta with much of the front hair part of the face. This means there is an unsightly gap between the hair and sideburns. It’s a small thing, but we are talking about an $85 figure.
As is customary with S.H.Figuarts releases, there isn’t a ton of paint on Raditz. There’s basically no shading and the paint is reserved for the trim work on the armor and the bands on his arm and leg. What’s there is pretty clean. His skin tone is on the pale side, but I think that is to differentiate it once more from the first run of the figure. It looks good, but it’s also a bit of a shame for those with the old one since I think these faces are a slight improvement, but probably would look off when placed on the old figure. The joints are colored pretty well and don’t feature any extreme differences from the softer parts, a problem we’ll be talking about on another SHF release in the not too distance future.
For accessories, Raditz gets a solid complement of faces. We have a stoic/grumpy face, a smirk where he’s giving a side eye, a yelling face for when he’s angry, and a perplexed/surprised face for when he spies an unexpected power level on his scouter. Unfortunately, my stoic face is not aligned properly and his eyes (in particular, his left eye) is printed partially over his eyebrow which makes his pupil all but disappear. I reached out to Bandai about a potential replacement, but they send the error essentially wasn’t “bad enough” to warrant any action on their part. I guess they don’t take the “Premium” part of their store too seriously. For hands, he’s got a set of fists, open, and clenching. His left hand was a bear to swap as the joint kept coming apart at the forearm, not the wrist, so I had to hit just the fist to get it off. The other hands are also tough to get one snug and may need some heating up.
We get two versions of his tail. There’s the “belted” version that goes around his waist and an extended version. The extended version has a bend to it and I suspect that’s so Goku can grab it, provided you have a Goku with gripping hands (I don’t think I do). He also has a crossed-arms piece like many a cocky fighter before him. The arms can disconnect at the bicep and the crossed arms piece can be inserted. It’s a piece that’s never fun to put on, and with Raditz the shoulder pads and his incredibly spiky hair cause some issues. I mentioned that Raditz is easier to stand than Super Saiyan 3 Goku, but he’s still not as easy to stand as other figures in the line. For that reason, he actually has a panel on his back that can pop off and there’s a replacement part that features a port for a stand. We saw something similar with Piccolo, though Raditz required the adapter so it can get around the hair. You basically take any stand, remove the claw, and it can slot into that for easy posing.
The big accessory Raditz comes with is, of course, his nephew Gohan. Gohan is a mostly static figure and it’s depicting him when he emerges from the Saiyan pod to confront his dear uncle. Unlike Raditz, this little guy is fully painted because he’s basically a slug figure. The paint is done quite well as the emblem on his shirt is clean and there’s even little tears under his eyes. Gohan has an angry expression, but he also has a second faceplate which features his eyes closed like he’s smacking into Raditz. There is a tiny bit of articulation at the head which is on a ball and the ponytail is as well. Now, I lamented that Raditz doesn’t come with a flight stand like Super Saiyan 3 Goku, but there is one in the box. It’s here for Gohan though. Yeah, it probably would have been a little greedy to expect two, but it is what it is. Gohan needs the stand because he literally can’t stand on his own given the sculpt. It would have been cool if he was supplied with a second lower half that you could pop out so he could stand, but if such a thing were at the expense of the stand then I guess I’m fine. If you don’t value the Gohan much, you can just leave him in the box and give the stand to Raditz, but I personally can’t see myself doing that.
Raditz being a bulky character in Saiyan armor isn’t the most poseable of figures. He’s pretty similar to Nappa when it comes to restrictions, only now you have to deal with that big mass of hair. The head is, like SS# Goku, on a hinged ball peg and there’s another ball joint at the base of the neck. This gives the figure solid range at the head looking in all directions, and since the hinge is behind the face plate, you’ll always know which war it’s oriented. The hair curves away from the body in such a way that it provides for more clearance than one might have expected. There’s also a joint maybe a third of the way down the hair to give it a little nuance. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs and they lift out to the side beyond 90 degrees as the shoulder pads are on hinges and lift out of the way. Those shoulder pads are a nuisance with the crossed-arms piece though and getting them to stay flush with the chest armor is damn near impossible (even the glamour shots feature a gap). The biceps swivel and that’s all good while the double-jointed arms are a bit too beefy to go much past 90 degrees. The hinged ball joints in the wrists are pretty standard, but the design of the Saiyan armor restricts the range pretty severely.
In the torso, we get a ball joint. I’m not detecting a hinge in there so it just goes forward and back a bit. There’s some rotation and tilt, but do be mindful of paint rub on the abdomen when doing so. The waist does rotate a little bit, but it’s pretty minimal, while the armor bits down here are all hinged as well. There’s a decent chance they’ll pop off repeatedly when fiddling with this guy, but try not to get too frustrated. The hips go out to the side maybe 45 degrees, so no splits for Raditz. They kick forward nearly 90, and go back a bit. There is a thigh swivel and it’s incorporated into the sculpt rather well and the double-jointed knees, like the elbows, only go a little past 90 because of the chunky anatomy. It’s one of the better looking knee joints as a result since there’s no gapping present. The ankles are restricted like the wrists, but you get a bit of a rocker and they’ll move forward, but not much back. There’s also a toe hinge, if that’s something you value. It’s not a good one though as it doesn’t stay flush with the sole of the boot.
Raditz is a bulky figure and mostly moves like one. His biggest issues from an articulation standpoint stem from the design of the Saiyan armor. Bandai hasn’t really come up with a good way of doing it as the hinges just don’t work very well. Yes, they’ll get out of the way for certain poses, but it looks stupid when there’s this big gap between the chest and shoulder. They almost need to be on a track instead so then can slide back and create the illusion that the armor is bending. Or, Bandai should just supply different shapes that plug in. That would probably be the most aesthetically pleasing approach, but it would probably be more expensive. Though given the amount of characters that wear this style of armor, I think they’d be able to make their money back. It would also provide for a reasonable excuse to reissue the Ginyu Force, and since they’d be a little different from the original P-Bandai releases, it’s something they could do without betraying the intent of that service. My figure did have a fairly loose left hip joint. I popped the leg off and found it was drowning in some kind of a lubricant. It wasn’t a clear oil, but more like Crisco as it was a milky color. I ran some dry Q-Tips through the hip and leg and it’s much better now. If yours is loose you may want to take a look for yourself.
Despite some qualms I have with this figure, I do mostly like it and I think it’s a great representation of Raditz. Yes, the colors are no longer anime accurate, but they’re close enough. If the armor had been a carbon copy of Nappa’s then it would bother me more, and really the only thing that bothers me are the red bands now being silver. Everything else looks great and the little, in-scale, Gohan is a fun inclusion. I wish we could get more of these slug style figures for the various kids and little guys in the show because the articulated figures of Kid Goku, Krillin, and others are way too big. The bad portrait is a definitely a bummer though. Some could wave it off as not a big deal since he has other display options, but we’re talking about an $85 release. That shouldn’t happen, and for a company in this business to just throw their hands in the air over it does not engender much consumer loyalty. For whatever reason, I’ve always been drawn to the design of Raditz so I’m glad I finally gave in to my own wants and picked up a figure of the character. Maybe this means we’ll now get a new Goku from this fight with a special, snap-on, Special Beam Canon to reenact one of the most iconic shots from the anime? I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t happened yet, but we also still haven’t received a Kamehameha Goku vs Vegeta’s Galick Gun style of release so there’s still plenty of iconic moments left wanting and it wouldn’t shock me if Bandai gets to them all some day.
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