When you’ve been making figures of a specific property for a long time, there comes a point where there just isn’t much left to turn into plastic. That’s why companies like Bandai, and they have been with Dragon Ball for a very long time, end up resorting to playing the hits with incremental upgrades. And it’s magnified with a property like Dragon Ball Z which stopped producing episodes and manga 30 years ago. When Bandai brought in Tamashii Nations now more than 10 years ago to liven up the DBZ brand, it made a lot of the main cast, but those designs grew long in the tooth. That’s what lead to the 2.0 body for several characters, but even that’s old now so we’re onto 3.0. The 3.0 Goku body debuted last year and the response has been a little tepid. It’s clearly superior to the old one in some obvious ways, but perhaps inferior in others. My experience with that figure, Let the Games Begin Super Saiyan Goku, also were plagued with some minor quality control issues. The kind that are more annoying than deal-breaking (well, the alternate hair piece is basically unusable), but still not up to par with the majority of releases in the line. It gave me pause on future figures on that body and I did end up cancelling a preorder I had for Super Saiyan Blue Goku. One I could not entertain canceling was Super Saiyan Son Goku – Fighter of Rage. That’s because this one was through Premium Bandai, the pay-up-front storefront that doesn’t allow cancellations. Here’s hoping I didn’t get burned again because this one is nearly double the price.
This version of Super Saiyan Goku is essentially a redo of the Awakening Super Saiyan Goku Bandai released years ago. It depicts Goku right after his initial transformation into a Super Saiyan during his fight with Frieza. His gi is in tatters, the blue undershirt is all that’s left from the upper body portion, and his flesh is marked with battle damage. He’s ripped, but not nearly as bulky as he’ll get during the later stages of the fight which is captured in the Legendary Super Saiyan Goku figure from a couple of years ago. In other words, this is a pretty hyper specific look for Goku and the only reason to get it is if you think that older figure needs an upgrade or you never got it. I never got that one. It was reissued a couple of years ago as a Tamashii Nations pop-up event exclusive and I was surprised it never made it to the website. Had it, I probably would have bought it as it still looked pretty good and I think Bandai upgraded the face-printing on it like it has for other reissues. I think it had translucent hair which I don’t love, but it’s also not a dealbreaker for me. With this one going up, I no longer need that one and my primary motivation for ordering it was just that I didn’t have the old one. It’s a cool look and an iconic moment from both the show and manga. It did cost $65 and Bandai made it more enticing with a free shipping promotion, but $65 for a good figure these days is becoming the norm. And by Premium Bandai standards, it’s on the cheaper side. When it arrived it looked good in the standard window box packaging, but on the lower left corner of the box read a warning: Made in Vietnam.
During COVID, Bandai seemed to shift a lot of their manufacturing from China to Vietnam. I think it started before that because as time goes on labor gets more expensive in China where factory jobs probably aren’t as enticing as they used to be for the general population. Plus, they’re good at it and can charge more. Vietnam is the upstart in this scenario and is thus attractive to companies like Bandai because they do have lower prices. They also have less experience with action figures as intricate as what Bandai puts out. Some releases, like Cooler, have come out of the Vietnam factories and have been stellar. Others, like Trunks, not so much. That 3.0 Goku was out of Vietnam and it felt like a real step back for the factory there. With this figure using some of the same parts, I assume it’s out of the same building. Does the Premium Bandai distinction mean it gets a little more TLC? Maybe. Hopefully. Thankfully, my fears in this instance are largely unfounded. This figure is what I expect of not just a Premium Bandai release (and let’s face it, the “premium” tag isn’t implying better quality), but a Tamashii Nations figure in general. The parts fit as intended, there’s no weird, chewed, up edges on the plastic, and the paint is where it’s supposed to be.
Goku stands at approximately 5.25″ to where his face ends. Factoring in the hair, and we’re up to 6.625″ to the tip. He’s pretty much eye-to-eye with the Games Begin Goku. The look and finish is much more premium. That Goku is $35-$40 and looks like a cheaper toy. This one has more elaborate shading on the pants to mimic that Super Saiyan aura. The material also has a softer feel in-hand possibly because the material needed to be thicker to accommodate the additional sculpting. There’s less shine as a result from the plastic even though when it comes to paint there really isn’t a ton here. In terms of parts sharing there’s basically none. I would guess the innards share some parts, but the visible portions of the sculpt are all different. Mind you, they’re the same base mold, but everything here has sculpted battle damage. Even the hands. I’m not sure if that saves them any money, though they’ll likely find other uses for these tools down the road. The shirt is an overlay that’s been glued down and the body beneath has sculpted damage as does the shirt. One of my few complaints is that the top of the shirt was not glued down and it sticks up like a tank top. That may be purposeful to accommodate the articulation, but it is a bit annoying. The belt is a floating piece and the pants are the most elaborate part of the sculpt. There’s lots of little strands of material sticking off and torn parts where flesh is exposed underneath. They also fixed the look of the hips to some degree making that cut-out for the thigh swivel less obvious. I still feel they’re overthinking this part of the sculpt and articulation, but at least it’s better than before.
The bigger price point is essentially all tied into the sculpt because Goku doesn’t come with a ton of stuff. He has five portraits he can utilize: neutral, teeth gritting, yelling, a smirk, and an alternate teeth gritting expression where he’s looking down and the shape of his mouth is different from the other one. He also has two hair pieces one of which I’d call neutral and the other is a powering up option. The powering up one is harder to get onto the neck peg, especially because this utilizes that double peg with the hinge in the middle that likes to flop around, but it’s not impossible to get on. The faces fit snug and are less prone to leaving gaps when compared with The Games Begin Goku. Some take more effort than others, but it’s definitely an improvement. They do take more elbow grease with the alternate hair, but I was able to get all fairly snug with some effort. For hands, Goku has fists, his martial arts posed hands, a more relaxed take on the style posed hands, Kamehameha hands, and open hands. There is no effect part included which is a bummer and something that really should be customary with these Premium Bandai offerings. There’s also no flight stand and no extra parts for another figure (something they love doing with their store exclusives) so pretty light by the company’s standards. We’re over due for a new Kamehameha blast effect, though I’m almost relieved that he does not come with yet another charging effect.
The articulation is basically the same as The Games Begin Goku. There’s less stuff on the torso so the arms are a bit easier to work with. He has that goofy neck joint, but it doesn’t really let him look up much. Down is fine, and don’t be surprised if the faces work their way off slightly when positioning the head around. Especially with the alternate hair. The arms can get into various charging poses and I like that the battle damage is continued throughout the articulation such as in the butterfly joint caps and in the knee bends. The knee is that single hinge, but it goes beyond 90 degrees. The right knee is a little funky because it’s exposed due to the torn fabric. When you bend it all the way it will leave a gap below the exposed knee cap, but that knee cape is on a hinge itself and can be adjusted to your liking eliminating the gap entirely. The forward and back ab crunch is also a little better and less gappy than before. We also still have that odd pivot point above the boot. I found with the previous Goku it was a touch loose and made standing him more of a chore than it should be, but here it’s not as loose. I still question it’s usefulness. Everything is pretty smooth, but there are places where the figure will pop apart if you push things too far or if it gets hung up on something. Since it’s basically all ball joints, there’s no real risk of breakage, just be mindful if you pop the arm off by mistake that inner pieces may go flying. I do find the shoulder can get hung up at times on the cap pieces meant to close gaps. It might even be a good idea if you run into the same to just pop the arm off and adjust it (or not, I did this and the arm disconnected at the cup-hinge inside the torso and was a pain to get back in, but it did fix the floating piece so your mileage may vary). The cap on my figure’s left shoulder was really jammed in there and wasn’t hiding things as well as the right shoulder. I also popped the figure apart at the waist by mistake and the blue piece covering the abs flew out. I couldn’t tell which was supposed to be the front and back, but thankfully there’s a promo image where it’s very exposed so I was able to figure that out. If you find yourself in a similar situation, the front has a crease that goes all the way across while the back has two creases towards the sides.
This is ultimately a better figure than the previously released The Games Begin Goku. It has a more premium look and feel and everything seems to work as intended. The articulation is good, not the best I’ve ever seen, but a wide variety of Goku poses are available. At $65, it’s an okay value, but since it was a limited Premium Bandai run that means virtually no one will pay $65 from here on out to acquire this one. Had I missed out, I may have been willing to extend myself a little further to add it to my collection, but with how often Bandai re-releases exclusives as variants I’d probably wait. They just announced a new full power Frieza that’s a re-release of the previous exclusive only now they actually painted the battle damage which is arguably better (no, I’m not rebuying it just for that). I don’t know why they don’t paint the battle damage to begin with and it really should have been painted here. Just fill in those sculpted-in lines with black and it would better match the source. There should be a little blood too. The accessories are a tad light, but not egregiously so. I would have loved an energy part, or a portrait of him actually transforming with the whited-out eyes. As is, it’s a good release and I feel much better about it than I did the last SHF Goku I purchased. I have a few more on preorder bought and paid for so hopefully they turn out just as well.
If you like Goku, I have no shortage of Goku figure reviews:
S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Goku – The Games Begin
It was around 8 years ago that Bandai released an update to their Goku body. Dubbed the 2.0 mold, the company has since created many action figures of the legendary hero since then. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the sculpt, but some aspects of it have become dated. When Bandai wanted to do an update…
Keep reading
S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku (Mini)
It’s no great secret that the black sheep of the Dragon Ball universe is the anime Dragon Ball GT. Created in-house by Toei animation, Dragon Ball GT was a continuation of Dragon Ball Z without creator Akira Toriyama. While Toriyama had to grant approval to many aspects of the series, he wasn’t directly involved with…
Keep reading
S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Son Goku & Dragon 40th Anniversary Edition
It was last year that Bandai and Tamashii Nations announced a selection of special releases in the S.H.Figuarts line of action figures celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Among those announced was a brand new version of kid Goku and Shenron from the cover of the very first volume of manga for…
Keep reading
The Nostalgia Spot 
Leave a comment