Tag Archives: s.h.figuarts

January 24, 2024

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Trunks: Infinite Latent Super Power

By Joe
It’s Trunks with a new hairstyle!

In the waning days of Toys ‘R Us, I found myself at one of the nearby stores in need of something. What that something was, I don’t recall, but since everything was hitting clearance I had a look around the store. TRU had started carrying the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line of action figures which, at that point, was a rarity. That brand was mostly an online only thing for US buyers, though GameStop was stocking them as well. And on that day, they had finally started marking them down. TRU marked them up to start with, so it wasn’t until the clearance price hit 40% off that it even seemed inviting to me to grab the Super Saiyan Trunks figure. I had recently purchased Vegeta, but I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to get sucked into an expensive toy line. This Trunks, depicted with his hair tied back and in his Saiyan battle armor, was in the neighborhood of 45 bucks after the discount. It was certainly better than the 70 or 75 they had wanted initially, but did I really want this version of Trunks?

It turned out, on that day, the answer was, “No.” I carried it up to the register, but while waiting in line I thought better of it and set the figure down and carried on with the purchase I had intended to make. I wouldn’t say I regretted that decision, but as I’ve gone much further down the rabbit hole that is DBZ figures I have questioned if I want that particular version of Trunks on my shelf. It turns out, my decision that day ended up being a very good one as Bandai decided to release that very same Trunks in 2023 with a revamped color scheme and at the budget price of $35. By waiting these years, I saved some money and got a better looking figure – not bad! I obviously didn’t plan it that way, but what really changed between now and then to make me want this figure? Basically, not a whole lot, it’s just harder to pass up at $35.

The first release of this figure featured colors like the Vegeta on the right. This new one matches the new Vegeta (left).

Super Saiyan Trunks is just a reissue of that older figure, but with a really exaggerated subtitle. I don’t really know what they’re going for with “Infinite Latent Power” since that’s not how I’d describe Trunks at all. I guess it’s a nod to the point in the story where Trunks was concealing what he felt was his true power, but in reality, it was the fan-named Ultra Super Saiyan form that’s similar in power to Super Saiyan 2, but is so slow that it’s all but useless in a fight. Though I did kind of wonder why Trunks couldn’t just boost his power and then, rather than engage in a fist fight, just channel it into a massive energy attack? I guess I shouldn’t be putting that much thought into it since that isn’t really the DBZ way, but I will say that Trunks sure did look pretty bad ass in that form. It’s one I’ve always wanted a good action figure of, but this figure is not that. It’s him before that moment when he’s just standing and watching Vegeta take-on Cell. The ponytail look is at least unique to Trunks and it’s fun to see the Super Saiyan hair restrained to some degree, but it does stink he has no signature moment in this look other than getting punked by Vegeta.

Scream for me, Trunks!

As for the figure itself, it’s Trunks in the Cell Saga battle armor. As I mentioned going in, I didn’t get that original release, but I had the Vegeta who followed the same color pattern so I can at least compare this figure to that. This figure is a much richer shade of blue while the previous one was more pale. The powder blue is probably more accurate, but I love this darker shade. It’s probably my favorite shade of blue and blue happens to be my favorite color. The other main difference is the hair which has a shiny, pearl, finish to it. It’s still more yellow than gold, but it has some gold shading in the center part and it looks really nice. Bandai has tackled Super Saiyan hair in a few different ways over the years and this might be the best. Like the blue, it’s not necessarily the most accurate look, but it’s the flashiest. It gives it that impression that it’s glowing and it’s definitely a great hair color for powering-up poses and the like.

I probably prefer the more unique look of Trunks’ debut outfit, but I do enjoy this era of Saiyan battle armor too.

Because this is a figure releases in 2023, that also means the face is improved. Bandai has changed-up how they print/paint the facial details on its figures which really helps to sell these reissues even if you have the original. The hair and suit color are more subjective and even if you prefer the new to the old, I can still see being happy enough with the original to pass, but the face? It looks so good as the details are so much sharper and less soft. Trunks is sporting his stoic look by default and the likeness is terrific. He also has a teeth-gritting face and a yelling face and both look equally great. The hair sculpt features one, thick, bang hanging over his face which looks fine, but I do wish we had an alternate set of banges for the yelling head that has this piece turned upward or something.

Those are what’s new and improved, what isn’t likely any better is the overall paint job. Maybe it’s the budget price on display, but the paint is a lot sloppier than usual. Not so bad that you’ll see it from a shelf, but unusual for an SHF release. The neckline is not smooth at all and pretty fuzzy. The gold paint for the straps and the abdomen and back armor isn’t any better. The straps stop short before they meet the chest plate and the right side of the abdomen piece doesn’t see the paint continue as far as it needs to. The same issue is repeated on the back of the figure at the upper limit of that gold section. Trunks comes with a crossed-arms piece that can connect to his shoulders and that isn’t painted very well either. It’s a shame, because yeah, even though this is a cheaper figure than usual these areas still had to be painted. It doesn’t cost anymore to make sure it’s done right. I don’t think Bandai should be lowering its standards to offer consumers a more budget-friendly option when we’re still dealing with old tools.

Everybody looks pissed.

I already mentioned the three face plates and the crossed arms piece, the only other accessories are some optional hands. Trunks has fists, clenchy hands, and open hands. What he doesn’t have is a non-Super Saiyan head which the original release came with. That’s a bit of a bummer as it would have been cool if we got that here still, but with something other than a neutral portrait so we could mix and match with the Boy From the Future release from earlier in the year. I know, budget price and all that, but still a bummer to see that accessory cut even though I probably wouldn’t have used it.

Trunks doesn’t have any surprises when it comes to articulation, though I was surprised he’s not a lot of reuse from the Super Saiyan Vegeta. Thankfully, Bandai cares about scale to some degree so Trunks and Vegeta are almost entirely unique. Some stuff, like the feet and hands, are almost certainly the same, but just about everything else looks different as Trunks is both taller and leaner than his father. Even with the differences, they move the same. You get the double-ball jointed head which works okay, but the ponytail will get in the way. The neck is on a ball joint so that will help get more range looking down. Shoulders are hinged ball pegs with a butterfly joint. They’ll go out to the side better than horizontal and there are no restrictions with rotation. The butterfly joint is just okay, but it’s not ugly. Trunks doesn’t need to do a Kamehameha pose so it’s not a joint he needs to get a lot out of. In the arms, we get the biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows, and ball-hinged wrists and all works fine. The arms detach at the bicep to facilitate the use of the crossed arms piece. It’s still a pain to get the piece on flush on both arms, but it works okay. It does mean the arms come apart a little too easy sometimes when just messing with the figure, but I suppose it’s better than being too hard like the recently released Beast Gohan.

There’s not a lot of hands included with this set, but it’s probably enough.

In the diaphragm, Trunks has a hinged ball joint so you can lift the chest up and crunch forward and back. This creates more room for the articulation and helps protect the painted parts, though it can lead to some gapping if you bend him too far. The figure can rotate and tilt to the side as well. The waist is a simple ball-peg attachment which is mostly useful for rotation. The hips go out to the side better than 45 degrees, but not quite to splits. The figure has some floating bits in this area and if you can maneuver the thigh piece to slide under them you can get more range, but it’s fickle. Kicking forward goes to about horizontal and he can kick back a fair bit too. There’s a thigh twist, double-jointed knees, and ball-peg ankles which only provide for mediocre range. There is a toe hinge, for good measure.

I’ve always been a little surprised that with this costume being so basic that the figure doesn’t have more range, but it is what it is. It’s not bad, I just think the legs could be better. The ankles are always an issue with the Saiyan boots as well as Goku’s boots. There’s no doubt that their approach here looks lovely, but I wish they did something to get the ankles more range of motion in every direction, including the ankle rocker. Even though Trunks moves well enough, I do find he looks best just standing there, arms folded across his chest, with a grim expression on his face. Pair him with a similar Vegeta (like the reissued one) and you get a pretty bad ass looking father-son duo for your shelf. This isn’t my favorite look for Trunks, but Bandai did this one just fine. And at the price they’re selling it at you really can’t go wrong.

Because you can’t have just one Saiyan on your shelf, here’s a look at a few more:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta

We’re back with another action figure review from everyone’s favorite version of Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball GT! And really, the only thing people remember from Dragon Ball GT is the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Designed to bring the Saiyans back to their more primal roots, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation is pretty much on an…

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by Joe

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

He’s the Prince of all Saiyans. The last survivor to have laid eyes on Planet Vegeta, home world of the mighty warriors and birthplace of the legendary Goku. And he’s also a pretty fine toy. Vegeta, arguably the most popular character to emerge from Dragon Ball Z, has seen his likeness cast in numerous forms…

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by Joe

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October 27, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Orange Piccolo

By Joe

When Akira Toriyama set out to draft the plot for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero his original goal for the film was to take a favorite character of his and give him an upgrade. That character was Piccolo who had basically been left behind by the likes of Goku and Vegeta way back at the onset of The Cell Saga in Dragon Ball Z. After fusing with Kami, Piccolo was briefly the most powerful fighter on Earth, but he was soon surpassed by Cell, then by Vegeta, Trunks, Goku, and you get the idea. Following that arc, Piccolo was more like a resource for the heroes and sometimes fighter, but even when called upon, he usually just got whipped. And he was oddly okay with no longer being competitive, which I suppose is a reflection in a change in nature from the Evil King Piccolo to the Namekian he had become.

“Son! What happened?!”

That isn’t really fun though when it comes to story telling with Piccolo and it would seem that Toriyama wanted to have him be able to mix it up with the best of them again. Enter Orange Piccolo. Spoiler alert for those still waiting to see Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, but Piccolo makes a wish to the Eternal Dragon Shenron to have his latent power unlocked to defend the Earth from a new threat. Shenron grants the wish, but also does him one better and bestows a hidden power on the proud Namekian. Shenron is not usually known for his generosity, but since Piccolo (as Kami) created Shenron it would seem the dragon felt he owed it to him to give him a power not seen in ages. The movie doesn’t have time to explain it, but that power is an ancient one wielded by Namekian warriors. When their planet was in danger, the mightiest of the Namekian would turn to their Dragon Balls for a power boost. This is detailed briefly in the manga Dragon Ball Super and not the show or film, which is unfortunate because it sure explains a lot when it comes to Orange Piccolo.

He’s orange, buff, and feeling pretty good about himself.

Orange Piccolo is this buffed out state. We don’t know if this how the form was always represented, but I think we can assume the orange part is since it ties back to the actual Dragon Balls. As for the name, well that’s entirely due to Piccolo not having much imagination or time for fancy titles. The form’s name is basically an afterthought and a little bit of a joke that works with the Piccolo character. The only thing we really need to know is that Orange Piccolo is a really big version of Piccolo that’s orange and really powerful. How powerful? Toriyama suggests that he’s on Goku and Vegeta’s level in this form and likely behind Gohan’s new Beast form. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to assume that this is something Piccolo can now do at will or if he’ll need Shenron’s help in the future, but for now, he’s got a cool new form and it’s plenty powerful. Piccolo fans, rejoice!

Orange Piccolo probably marks the end of the Super Hero subline which has been a mix of general release and Premium Bandai figures.

What just might be the final release from Premium Bandai for Super Hero is indeed Orange Piccolo. The figure comes in the same Super Hero packaging as the previous releases only much bigger. And that’s because Orange Piccolo stands at around 7.5″, but beyond his height is his mass. Remember when Trunks got super buff in his fight with Cell? That’s kind of like what Piccolo goes through with this transformation. His head becomes more square-like, his neck is almost as wide as his ears, and his chest is massive. The flesh of his head, neck, and torso is a pale orange while his arms are a more saturated shade. He loses all of the lines on the normally green portion of his arms while the puffy areas remain yellow with a red rim (Super Hero followed the manga coloring so those areas were yellow instead of pink). That’s the basis of the transformation and you either like it or you don’t. I love these big, chunky, action figures so this works for me. At first, I was torn on Piccolo’s color change from green to orange as I think the green is just a part of his identity. Now knowing why he’s orange, I’m less bothered by it. It’s a neat way to call back to what the series is named after and strengthens the lore of the property (though it does raise questions as to why none of the Namekians tried this to stop Frieza, but we’ll just have to ignore that).

The size and the expressions are what sell this figure.

As a figure, Orange Piccolo casts an impressive…figure…on a shelf due to that size. The figure is comprised largely of orange and purple plastic with the purple gi closer to a fuchsia to simulate an aura. There’s some pink shading on the gi as well that’s heavier at the cuffs of the pants and the abdomen. The other paint is reserved for the yellow and red portions and it’s done okay. This figure is a “premium” release and cost $85 so I wouldn’t blame anyone for demanding a little more out of the red piping. The right shoulder on my figure is a little sloppy and there are spots here and there where it could be cleaner. The elbow hinges, which have the pattern continued onto them, are surprisingly clean. I’m a little concerned how these painted hinges will hold up over time, but their movement is smooth so it may be less of an issue than it would be with a cheaper product. The fingernails look like they may just be painted on and they don’t look great. The portraits, on the other hand, are terrific in keeping with Bandai’s output of late. This is a pretty typical release in that it mostly looks fine, but would look improved with a paint wash (especially on the boots) here and there, but that’s something Bandai doesn’t seem to like to do much.

“Oh my, if it isn’t that pathetic Namekian I nearly destroyed all those years ago.”

Like Gohan Beast, Orange Piccolo uses a rubbery overlay for the top of the gi. And like Gohan Beast, this is a mixed bag. On the plus side, you remove any visible joints in the torso. There are new cuts in the cuffs of the shirt though and they need to be accounted for when posing as the figure will look terrible if they’re exposed. The main drawback though is with the articulation. Piccolo has a double-ball peg in his diaphragm, but it’s rendered useless by the overlay. It does nothing aside from annoy as sometimes it will rotate with the waist which can prove irksome since his barely visible abs won’t line-up properly with his pecs. Underneath the overlay, the chest is fully sculpted and painted so if you wanted to you can remove it and have a shirtless, but better articulated, Orange Piccolo, but do you really want to do that to your $85 figure?

“WAIT! WHAT?!? AN ORANGE NAMEKIAN?!”

Like Gohan, the rest of the articulation is mostly fine. The head is on an oddly shaped joint, but it essentially functions as a double-ball peg. The head comes off easy, but it still moves well in tandem with a neck joint and you get up, down, and some nuance. The shoulders are on hinged pegs and that peg slots into a butterfly joint. The arms go out to the side at just about a horizontal position and rotate fine around the cuff of the shirt. The butterfly joint is pretty limited thanks to the overlay. There’s more forward than back, but I question the need to have it at all if it’s going to be this limited. There is a biceps swivel and a double-jointed elbow which does bend past 90 degrees even with the added bulk. The wrists are on hinged ball joints so they rotate and hinge just fine.

“I’ve been looking forward to this, Frieza!”

The waist is on a ball joint so there’s some forward and back to go with the rotation at that joint. The belt is a floating piece that may tab in on the back. The flatter portions of the gi overlay will be exposed if you bend the figure too far in any direction, but the belt can be positioned to remove that. At the hips, the legs go out to the side to almost full splits and Piccolo can kick forward to a horizontal position. They don’t kick back very far and there’s a thigh swivel there that works okay, but isn’t the prettiest joint. Double-jointed knees bend past 90 degrees and the ankles swivel at the top of the boot. Because the boot is such an odd shape, the hinge and ankle rocker offer little range in any direction, but you get a toe hinge!

Not to be forgotten, is Gohan’s new Kamehameha effect part. It can be used with Goku, as well, or even Gohan Beast.

Basically, all of the problems Gohan Beast has so does Piccolo, but because of his bulky appearance, it’s even more restrictive. That’s not necessarily a terrible thing though. While I want my figures to have as much range as possible, this version of Piccolo is unquestionably a bruiser and brawler. I think he has just enough and the only real change I’d implement is to dump that overlay. If the overlay was designed to be removed easily because he went shirtless in the film or something then the trade-off would be worth it, but otherwise I’ve been content with the all plastic approach to the torso of past figures. I did see some reports of people getting figures with loose hips. I can say mine are fine. They could probably stand to be a little tighter, but it isn’t an issue. It’s likely something that’s just going to vary from figure to figure. The rest of the joints are all nice and smooth.

As for accessories actually intended for Piccolo, it’s basically four portraits and some clenching hands and slightly less clenchy hands. In other words, not much.

The one area Orange Piccolo does feel light though is with the accessories. He has just three sets of hands: fists, open, and a slightly clenching hand. He does have four heads: stern, smirk, yelling, and teeth gritting. They all look great too and are viable, but that’s where it ends for Piccolo. Because this is the Super Hero subline, he apparently needs to come with parts for the Gohan Super Hero figure like all of the rest. That means he has a set of clenching hands with posts on them and a Kamehameha effect. It’s the same effect that came with Super Saiyan 4 Goku only now it’s the more traditional blue instead of red. And I like the effect and I like that it can actually work with both Gohan and Goku, but where’s Piccolo’s effect part? I’d rather get an effect part for the actual character I’m buying a figure for, not someone else. It’s nice to have, but did that effect part actually help sell more Orange Piccolo figures? I’m skeptical.

This is one tag team you don’t want to mess with.

Orange Piccolo is another A-/B+ release from Premium Bandai. I like the figure, but I do feel like it’s missing that extra ingredient to push it over the top. And that’s how I’ve felt about basically all of these Premium Bandai figures I’ve purchased based on the movie. And since this was a Premium Bandai release, it’s basically made-to-order so if you snoozed several months ago when it went up for sale you’ve already lost. The MSRP was $85 and those who bought Gohan Beast got free shipping. It’s likely more expensive on the secondary market, but if you must have an Orange Piccolo, that may be your only option. Dragon Ball Super is rumored to be coming back to television in the near future, so maybe when the anime gets to Orange Piccolo we’ll see a re-release of some kind, but that is probably a long way off at this point. The $85 is pretty pricey for what’s in the box. I can give it a somewhat tepid recommend at that price, but anything over $100 would be a really hard sell. Good luck!

Interested in other releases from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero?

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Son Gohan Beast

Last summer, fans of Dragon Ball were treated to a new movie: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The intended purpose of the movie seemed to be to take two somewhat forgotten characters in Piccolo and Gohan and give them a makeover. The manga and anime Dragon Ball Super has basically been a story about Goku…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super – Ultimate Gohan Super Hero

As part of the promotion for the film Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero, Bandai released a wave of action figures from its S.H. Figuarts brand of characters from the film. The neat thing was, these releases were actually really cheap relative to other SHF releases with a MSRP of just $35. Of the four,…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , | posted in Film, toys

September 7, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Son Gohan Beast

By Joe
Unleash your inner beast.

Last summer, fans of Dragon Ball were treated to a new movie: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The intended purpose of the movie seemed to be to take two somewhat forgotten characters in Piccolo and Gohan and give them a makeover. The manga and anime Dragon Ball Super has basically been a story about Goku and Vegeta gaining power and fighting off the bad guys of the universe. Every other prior hero has essentially been knocked down not just a peg, but several. That’s not exactly a surprise as Dragon Ball has pretty much always operated like that with Goku gaining a rival and then leaving said rival in the dust. Really, only Vegeta has managed to hang around and even he’s usually clearly the second best, but after the events of Super Hero there just may be a new strongest in the universe: Gohan.

Looks like Bandai has discovered overlay pieces for their action figures.

Ever since his debut, Gohan has always been the character with the potential to be the strongest fighter in the universe. It’s just his main character trait, and the one that distinguishes him most from his father, is that he doesn’t desire to be the strongest. He doesn’t even like fighting. For him, it’s a means to an end. Originally, Dragon Ball Z was to end with Gohan stepping up and essentially taking over for his dad as the savior of Earth. Economics being what they are, series creator Akira Toriyama was convinced to continue on with his manga and Goku was reestablished as the best of the best. Some fans have always hated what became of Gohan following the Cell saga, but for me, that was always Gohan’s logical progression. With no danger present to force him to keep up, he was going to slip back into his lifestyle and pursue his passion of being a scholar. Ever since the series came back as Dragon Ball Super, Gohan has had to go back and forth between his pursuits as a scholar (and now husband and father) and the universe needing him. After getting smoked by a resurrected Frieza, he’s convinced he needs to at least keep up with his training to some degree and it pays off in the final chapter of the anime, but we don’t really know what he’s up to in the manga as that has (predictably) focused on Goku and Vegeta.

The Kaioken aura seems like the only one that could kind of work with this version of Gohan.

Not to spoil a year old movie, but Goku and Vegeta aren’t around in Super Hero forcing Piccolo and Gohan to defend the Earth against a new threat. And that threat is one that’s possibly even more powerful than our favorite Saiyan duo. We’ll talk about Piccolo’s journey in a month or so, but for Gohan his power-up is what is now called Gohan Beast. In a scene that’s nearly a 1:1 recreation of Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 transformation, Gohan is able to tap into a new level of power that basically mimics that of Super Saiyan 2, only his hair is even longer, silver, and his cracking energy is red instead of blue. His eyes go red as well making this a more primal take on the Super Saiyan look. It remains to be seen how Toriyama explains this in the manga (if he even does, though I consider that unlikely), but my interpretation is this is the new form Gohan vowed to achieve in Super. A form of his own creation, and perhaps it’s something born from him being mixed race. Either way, it’s more than enough to win the day and Gohan’s new form just may mean he’s the new strongest in the universe.

There’s definitely some shared parts with the Ultimate Gohan figure, but that torso is quite different.

Gohan Beast was going to be a major want from fans of Bandai’s action figure line, so it was hardly a surprise to see him go up for sale via the Premium Bandai website. Actually, I suppose I’m a little surprised this wasn’t a general release, but Bandai could always revisit it after the manga debut. Maybe without battle damage or something. The figure itself is very similar to the Ultimate Gohan Super Hero released a year ago, but also more different than I expected. It comes in the standard window box packaging with gold backdrop and was manufactured in China.

“So where’s your ultimate form, Piccolo?!” “Shut up – it’s coming.”

Gohan Beast stands at around 5.5″ to the top of his face making him basically the same as the previous Gohan figure. He’s still in his purple gi with boxy, brown, shoes only now there’s battle damage throughout in the form of hash lines sculpted in and some torn parts in the pants and top. The arms, crotch, and feet are pretty much the only parts repurposed from the older figure as the battle damage necessitated some new sculpting. The main difference is with the torso where Bandai opted to replace the sculpted-on gi with a rubbery overlay. This is true of the torso overlay and the sleeves which appear to peg-in somewhere inside the body. I’ll have more to say about it in the articulation, but from a presentation standpoint it’s an improvement as it allows the chest to be sculpted plastic and removes the challenge of painting it to match the sculpted color of the neck. The faces all look fantastic in keeping with what Bandai has been doing for the past year or so with its face printing and the hair is really well sculpted. It’s super spiky and a bit unpleasant to handle as a result. There isn’t really any shading on it though which is a bummer, especially for a “premium” release. The only thing I don’t care for when it comes to the presentation are the sideburns which are separate from the hair. They’re just a touch darker than the hair and the seam line is a bit annoying. There’s not much that could be done about it though unless they could have made them part of the hair, but maybe that would have looked worse or proven too delicate.

Once again, Lightning Collection effect parts come in handy for Dragon Ball figures.

As for paint, it’s mostly kept to the face. The wristbands are painted and the flesh in the torn pieces on Gohan’s pants had to be painted as well. The color used for those bits is probably just a touch darker than the sculpted flesh tone, but it’s not particularly noticeable since there’s plenty of clothing separating them. The red sash around the waist appears to have a paint wash applied to it and the front of the pants look like they’ve been hit with a matte clear coat. It’s especially noticeable near the cuffs of the pants as the factory didn’t quite hit the whole area leaving the sides of the pants shiny by comparison. The matte finish at least matches the top of the gi and I would say that, overall, this version of Gohan presents rather well. Especially if you like the look of this form.

The way the sleeves are connected to the body really limits the shoulder articulation.

Where things get iffy with this figure is with the articulation. The addition of an overlay for the top is going to cause some issues, and for some, the presentation trade-off Bandai made might not be for everyone. The head is on a double ball peg allowing for rotation and tilt. The hair prevents the figure from looking up, and the head gets some range looking down. There’s a ball joint in the base of the neck which, when used in conjunction with the joint at the head, allows Gohan to look down quite a bit, and you get a little range looking up, but not enough for a straight-ahead flying pose. The shoulders are on a hinged ball peg which is connected via another ball peg inside the shoulder affixed to a butterfly joint. This lets the shoulder move up and down and forward and back, but the range forward and back is quite limited. The hinge in its default, high, position won’t allow Gohan to raise his arms out to the side in a full, horizontal, position, but if you slide the shoulder down first then you should be able to achieve that. The issue preventing a lot of range is the cuff of the gi which is done in a rubbery material and is connected to the body basically in between the shoulder and butterfly joint. At any rate, it’s not a floating piece like it was with Super Hero Gohan. I suppose one could separate it by carefully slicing it with a blade, but it’s unfortunate collectors need to cut up their figure to get the range of motion they’re accustomed to. And I don’t know if this piece would float properly if one were to do that, it might just slide down the arm and require further modification.

Gohan can manage a Kamehameha pose all right…

After the shoulder, there’s the usual biceps swivel and double-jointed elbow. The hands are connected via ball pegs and work fine. In the torso, there may be a ball joint of some kind in the diaphragm, but again, the overly is going to get in the way. If it’s there then it’s basically useless, and I only even suspect it’s there because Bandai basically always includes such a joint and I think I can see one when pulling back on the shirt. There’s a ball joint at the waist and that’s where you’ll get your rotation and tilt, but there’s little in the way of forward or rear “crunch” in the abdominal area. The legs are the exact same as Super Hero Gohan, so the range there is as expected and the only limitations are with the ankles as a result of the more boxy shoe design.

…but the Masenko presents problems.

It’s a bummer to see the shoulders and abdomen so restricted here with Gohan. The prior Gohan released had a fully sculpted gi so there’s an ab joint that works fine. The only eyesore associated with that is the cut across the gi and the fact that Bandai had to match paint to plastic when it painted the bare portion of the figure’s chest. The overlay approach is unquestionably the more aesthetically pleasing way to do it, but is that upgrade enough to warrant a reduction in articulation? In my opinion, the answer is an emphatic “No.” I expect this to be a highly articulated line and I want that extra range. I don’t care about the visual joint, because at the end of the day this is an action figure and action figures have joints on them. It’s fine. I suspect though this was done as much as a cost saving than an improvement. Doing things this way, Bandai doesn’t have to worry about the color of the inner joints for the butterfly mechanism as we so often saw. It may also be easier to assemble and reduce labor costs and it certainly reduces the need for paint hits on characters with this, basic, look. At this stage in the line, I’d like to see the figures getting better at a standard Kamehameha pose, not worse.

Because apparently every figure needs to come with more Ultimate Gohan parts, we get a new face plate with this release.

The articulation may not be up to par, but Bandai is probably hoping that fans will be happy with the accessory load-out, and for the most part, I think they will be. For faces, we get a pretty standard allotment: stoic, smirk, teeth-gritting, yelling. There is a bonus fifth face plate for Gohan Super Hero that features an angry expression with red-rimmed pupils which I assume is intended to be a pre-transformation expression. It’s done well, but I can’t see many actually displaying that figure with it, it’s almost strictly for those who like to photograph their figures. For hands, we also get a pretty standard allotment: fists, open, clenching, martial arts posed, and a two-finger right hand. That’s basically all Gohan calls for as you have hands for the Masenko, Kamehameha, and the two finger posed hand can be used for the Special Beam Canon he apparently taught himself.

Yeah, I can’t make use of this. Even the Ultimate Gohan figure’s arms won’t come apart to give it a shot.

To go with that usual assortment, we get one extra display piece and an effect part. Gohan Beast gets a crossed-arms piece which I suppose could be used with Super Hero Gohan as well. I don’t know how well it works with Gohan Beast though as I can’t get his arms to come apart at the bicep where it’s supposed to. I think this is a byproduct of these arms not really being intended to be utilized in such a manner originally as every other figure I’ve had with one of these pieces has come apart easily. When I try to tug on the arm, the whole butterfly joint tends to slide and I’m afraid the arm will come detached from within the torso before it comes apart at the bicep. The pieces are small, but even when I manage to get a good grip on a shoulder and start working the bicep it shows no sign of loosening. I wasn’t planning on displaying the figure with that piece on so I’m not going to force it, but it sucks when a figure can’t really use an accessory like this.

It’s pretty crazy that Gohan got a part like this before Piccolo.

The last accessory is a Special Beam Canon blast effect. It’s likely an acrylic piece done in translucent blue plastic. There’s a touch of white paint at the tip and it looks pretty good, but there may be some cloudy portions in the sculpt (I have one right in the middle). The spiral effect is a separate piece and it’s glued into the “missile” portion of the blast and back by the fingers. There’s a two finger posed hand sculpted onto it as well which had to be painted to match the figure. It’s not perfect, as painting acrylic to match is certainly not easy, but it’s not so off that it’s likely to discourage folks from using it. There is also a stand included that pegs into the end of the blast because otherwise this would be too heavy for the figure to properly wield. The bigger question with it concerns that hand piece as I’m not convinced they needed to sculpt the hand onto it. It creates problems because acrylic is not as forgiving as PVC so getting the hand on and off the figure is harder than it needs to be. The first time I tried to remove the part, it wouldn’t come off and the peg going into the figure’s forearm came loose before the peg in the hand. It’s also a delicate piece and my spiral part has already separated from the main blast back by the hand. It doesn’t really change the look of the piece, but I can also see people accidentally cracking this thing or snapping it trying to get it on and off. The shoulder range being so limited also prevents the figure from being able to grasp a bicep or forearm with the left hand, as Gohan might do when firing this blast. Even the post on the front of the box is proving really hard to duplicate.

I like this thing, but finding room to display it is going to be a challenge.

For collectors of this line looking for a good representation of Gohan’s new power-up from the movie this figure gets the job done. It just doesn’t earn an A. It’s more like a B- as the frustrations I ran into swapping some of the parts and the limited articulation were real bummers. They give the figure a bit of a “janky” quality which is not a way I would describe most S.H.Figuarts releases. I’m used to smooth articulation, good range of motion, and a painless integration process when it comes to the extra stuff. A lot of the issues I experienced with this figure were self-inflicted as the overlay harmed the function and the extra parts could have been done in a different manner as to minimize any issues. Why not have the blast effect just slot into a hand piece rather than make the hand part of it? Or have the fingers slide into the blast? It doesn’t need to be a tight fit, it just needs some stability at that end.

Do The Mario!

If you are interested in acquiring this version of Gohan then you’re unfortunately going to have to seek it out on the secondary market. This was a Premium Bandai release which is like a made-to-order item and orders closed awhile ago. The figure retailed for $65 and I would guess the aftermarket price is likely close to double that right now. Gohan is a popular character so it’s possible another version sees release at some point, especially as the manga moves into this part of the story. I wouldn’t bank on a re-release though if it’s something you really want.

Did you like Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and want to check out more figures from the movie?

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super – Ultimate Gohan Super Hero

As part of the promotion for the film Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero, Bandai released a wave of action figures from its S.H. Figuarts brand of characters from the film. The neat thing was, these releases were actually really cheap relative to other SHF releases with a MSRP of just $35. Of the four,…

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by Joe

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

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Film, toys

August 17, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Trunks – The Boy from the Future

By Joe
He didn’t exactly travel through time to get here, but he did have to cross an ocean.

The most captivating character in all of Dragon Ball Z for me back in the 90s was unquestionably Trunks. The offspring of Bulma and Vegeta who traveled back in time to warn the heroes of the day about impending doom on the horizon was unique for many reasons. For one, he actually looks like a normal person. Or rather, his hair does when compared with the likes of Goku and Vegeta. He wields a sword which is pretty different, and he sports some sort of half-jacket or 3/4 jacket that, while nothing I’d wear, he’s able to pull off. Mostly though, he was captivating to me because he was a character I knew was coming, but since the english dub of the show was stuck in Namek for so many years, he remained a mystery. And when FUNimation finally resumed dubbing DBZ when it became popular via Cartoon Network I finally got to see what all the fuss was about. It turns out Trunks is pretty okay. A tragic backstory, a determined will, and who is pure of heart – what’s not to like? Plus, he shows up and absolutely dominates Frieza, the enemy Goku spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 episodes fighting, dispatched in mere moments. Pretty bad ass stuff.

When it comes to Future Trunks, I definitely needed an upgrade. And Bandai, please, pretty please, re-issue the Dragon Ball Super Future Trunks!

Trunks, as one of the more involved character designs on the show, has always made for a rather desirable action figure. His figure in the old Bandai Super Battle Collection was, for me, one of the few worth getting. When Irwin Toys started making their own sculpts, a Trunks figure arrived before even Goku or Vegeta (actually, light praise since the same could be said of Yajirobe and King Kai) with a Super Saiyan version not far behind in their action feature subline. For a character with comparatively few episodes compared with the main cast, the show did get a lot of looks out of him which allows toy companies to do the same when it comes to figures.

We’re all in agreement, right? Trunks is cool because he has a sword.

When I got back into DBZ toy collecting, a Trunks figure was on my short list of figures I wanted. I almost picked up the battle armor version of Super Saiyan Trunks in the waning days of Toys R’ Us. A store near me had one with liquidation pricing, but it was still over 40 bucks and I just wasn’t that into the figure. It turns out, I was playing the long game as a better version of that figure is getting re-released later this year at the budget price of $35. I win again, universe! The real version of Trunks I wanted though was his first appearance. That’s the blue jacket, sword, short hair, look. Preferably, a Super Saiyan portrait, but it’s always nice to get both. My patience has paid off as recently released (okay, well, a few months ago because this sat in my Pile of Loot for a bit at Big Bad Toy Store) is a new version of Trunks from his debut episode. It is, as far as I know, an all new sculpt from an earlier version of the same which is why it doesn’t get the budget pricing (unlike Vegeta, who was released alongside him). That’s fine though as I don’t want a dated figure, just a good one. It’s a popular character we’re dealing with and did Bandai do Trunks justice?

Was this the last thing Frieza saw before he kicked the bucket?

Trunks arrives in the standard window box packaging for the S.H.Figuarts line. Out of the box, he stands approximately 5.25″ not counting the hair. As is often the case with this line, much of the figure is done with molded, colored, plastic with little in the way of paint hits. His jacket is a soft rubber with a very matte appearance while the sleeves are part of the arm’s sculpt. They’re a touch glossy when compared with the jacket so it’s not the most uniform look. The Capsule Corp. logo on the left bicep is more gray than white, but the opacity is at least appropriate. There’s a touch of paint at the ends of the sleeves where some gold buttons are featured, but that’s it for paint on the coat. The chest is painted flesh-color and it matches the neck, which is unpainted, better than some of the other figures I have. It’s not, however, especially clean as the left side is pretty rough looking where the flesh meets the shirt. There’s a little paint on the belt and boots and that is at least cleanly applied. The pants feature no shading that I can tell, and the plastic in his crotch region is more glossy than the pant legs which is a bit of a bummer.

Or maybe this was the last thing Frieza saw? He seems to be able to survive when in pieces.

What does look great though is the face. Bandai has really upped their game when it comes to their face-printing and Trunks is no exception. The linework around the eyes is sharp and clean and I like the little paint hits on the creases of his skin and at the ends of his eyebrows. The Super Saiyan hair is cast in a pale yellow, but with a kiss of light orange paint in the center. I honestly think they could have gone a touch heavier with the shading, but I’m glad to see it’s here. This is probably the approach to Super Saiyan hair I like the most. The translucent hair is a bit fun, but not really screen accurate, and the gold color they sometimes use is overkill. And then there’s the Super Saiyan Gohan head which is just pale yellow with no shading which was definitely lacking.

No energy effects, so I had to improvise.

In terms of the accessories, this is one of the most complete Bandai releases I can think of. Trunks comes with two heads and five faceplates. Four of the faceplates are for his Super Saiyan look. We get a neutral expression, yelling, teeth gritting, and a side eye. For that look, he also has two pieces for his bangs, one that’s basically neutral and another for when he’s powering up that’s pointed skyward. The second head is a base Trunks head with his very 90s haircut in molded, purple, plastic. He has one faceplate for this hair and it’s a neutral one. If you’re only going to have one, then it makes sense for it to be neutral. I’m a little disappointed that the upcoming Trunks in the battle armor doesn’t come with another base Trunks face as it would have been a clever way to expand both figures, but that’s not a shortcoming of this release. The base head is nice to have though, but it looks a bit off to me. The hair sits rather high, and while I’m happy the figure can be both super and non, I do wonder if I’ll ever really use this one. To go with the faces, Trunks has six sets of hands: fists, gripping, clenching, open, flat palm, and a more nuanced gripping hand. The extra gripping hands are kind of unnecessary, but I do like that his right hand and left can have a different grip which is kind of neat.

He looks pretty great with this aura effect. I’m going to have to make some room for it.

And Trunks needs those gripping hands because his signature accessory is his sword. The blade comes with its own scabbard which looks to be sculpted in a silver and then painted brown with light blue straps. I’m not sure if this brown is from the manga or something or just an error as it was more of a red-orange in the anime. The paint isn’t perfect on the straps, but it’s featured on the figure’s back so it’s not going to be displayed prominently in most cases. It slings over the figure’s shoulder via a strap done in a soft plastic. It’s painted well enough and seems to stay in place just fine. When posing the figure the strap might pop off and it is annoying, but it’s easy to work with, at least. The sword itself is sculpted in the same silver and the handle is painted brown. I like the shape of the blade and it comes to a nice point, something the old Irwin toy couldn’t do because of safety standards. The pommel of the sword is removable which is how you’re supposed to slide the handle into one of the gripping hands, which is a nice idea. The pommel does pop off rather easily though, so do be careful as it would be an easy thing to lose given its size.

Here comes the Burning Attack, or whatever he calls it.

Trunks comes with everything he needs (save for a blast effect), but does he have the articulation to wield it all properly? The head is on the usual double ball peg, though the hair covers the back of his neck enough to limit the figure’s ability to look up. Looking down isn’t a problem and the ball peg at the base of the neck enhances that range. Otherwise, you get rotation and plenty of nuance posing there. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs which fit into a socket attached to a butterfly joint. Trunks can raise his arms out to the side past a horizontal pose, rotate all around, and the butterfly has quite good range. It comes with a visual trade-off though in that Bandai did the rear of the jacket in segments. I don’t know that they needed to. On one hand, it’s on the rear of the figure and is also further obscured by the scabbard if that’s in place. On the other, it’s pretty ugly and visually unappealing. We also have a biceps swivel and the left one, for some reason, has a tendency to pop off. It’s easily popped back into place, but can be annoying. The double-jointed elbows bend well past 90 degrees and the wrists use the usual ball peg setup. They’re recessed quite deep in the cuffs of the jacket though so the range isn’t as robust as usual.

The figure also comes with a base head, if you want that.

In the torso, the usual ball-jointed diaphragm is present. There’s no hinge that I can see, and it mostly provides some lean to each side and rotation. The range back and forward is minimal, and if you turn too far you will expose some gaps on both the side of the torso or on the back and front. The waist is ball-jointed as well and it’s actually elevated more than usual. This is because the floating belt obscures the gap and it does let the figure bend forward and back quite a bit. Plus, it provides the customary swivel and a little tilt. The hips will allow the figure to do splits and also kick forward about 90 degrees. The range going back is minimal, and there’s a thigh swivel as well. The look of this joint is a little ugly though as they felt it necessary to have the paints continue up the side of the thigh all the way to the hip and I don’t know why. Or maybe they shouldn’t have the cut-out in the crotch, but it looks goofy. This is also the lone loose joint on my figure. It will hold a pose, but it’s a little floppy which is unusual for a S.H.Figuarts release. The knees are double-jointed and will go a bit past 90 degrees. There’s no boot swivel, and the ankle joint will bend back pretty far, but has almost zero range going forward. The ankle rocker is just okay and there’s a toe hinge, if you want it.

Trunks has great range in the shoulders, but it does come with this wonky setup with the jacket.

The articulation on Trunks is mostly good. I like the range in the shoulders and torso as he can hit a variety of sword poses. He can easily grip the sword with both hands or just one and he can also grip the handle while it’s sheathed, a favorite of mine. I don’t really like the hips though. The range there is great, but the looseness is unpleasant. This one was made in the Vietnam factory and it has that cheaper feel to it some of the figures out of that factory have possessed. Most of my nitpicks though are with the presentation. The jacket is over-engineered and the hips as well. I don’t like that there’s a sizable gap between the base of the neck and chest, but at least the strap on the scabbard can obscure that. The paint could also be better and the boots stick out to me as looking especially cheap. They need a wash or something to just class it up a bit. This is, after all, not one of the $35 efforts.

“Wait! Your dad’s Vegeta, and your mom is an inventor who knows me…?!”

Presentation nitpicks aside, where Trunks flourishes is with the display options. The faces all look so good that picking just one is a challenge. Maybe I would have traded the side-eye one for a smirk, but I also do like that one. The only accessories that could have made this release better is the usual blast effect, which most figures forego, or optional bare arms so he could have his end of arc look. That would have caused problems with the butterfly joint though which is done in blue. They would have had to include some caps or floating pieces to obscure that in addition to the arms, so I get why they didn’t pursue that further. Plus, I prefer the jacketed look more and I wouldn’t want that to be compromised at all to make way for such a thing.

These Super Saiyans practically grow on trees.

Trunks is one of the most popular characters in Dragon Ball Z and I think anyone who collects this line should probably grab this figure. It’s not perfect, but it looks nice on a shelf. I just hope we get more Trunks from Bandai down the road. We’re getting the battle armor reissue which features Trunks as a Super Saiyan with his hair tied back, but I’d really love a bulked-up Super Saiyan Trunks from when he challenges Cell. Yeah, it ended up being a bad form for fighting, but damn did it look cool!

Interested in more Dragon Ball action figure reviews? Here’s a few to check out:

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

He’s the Prince of all Saiyans. The last survivor to have laid eyes on Planet Vegeta, home world of the mighty warriors and birthplace of the legendary Goku. And he’s also a pretty fine toy. Vegeta, arguably the most popular character to emerge from Dragon Ball Z, has seen his likeness cast in numerous forms…

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by Joe

Bandai Dragon Stars Super Saiyan Trunks

Dragon Ball Super did to me what basically every cartoon/anime does:  it made me want toys based on it. It’s a compulsion I’ve never outgrown, apparently, and Bandai has made it fairly easy (but not cheap) to get what I want. Months ago I did an entry on the SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta. That…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Television, toys

May 11, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta

By Joe
I can just hear him yelling “Damn you!”

We’re back with another action figure review from everyone’s favorite version of Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball GT! And really, the only thing people remember from Dragon Ball GT is the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Designed to bring the Saiyans back to their more primal roots, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation is pretty much on an island all its own when compared with other versions. It’s essentially been erased too with the creation of Dragon Ball Super and is but a footnote in the world of Dragon Ball at this point. Maybe it will come back at some point, certainly never say never, but for now it’s the black sheep of Super Saiyan transformations.

They think they’re so cool.

The Super Saiyan 4 power was achieved in Dragon Ball GT by Goku. Not wanting to feel left out, he was soon followed by Vegeta, as he often is. Vegeta took some shortcut to get there, pretty much a betrayal of his character and something to add to the long list of reasons why many fans don’t particularly care for GT, but once he did the look was pretty similar. It was a little different though which is actually yet another unique aspect to this transformation. It’s certainly terrific fodder for fan art as individuals try to imagine how Trunks or Gohan would have looked if they had done something similar, but as for the actual series only Goku, Vegeta, and their fusion Gogeta managed to pull this off. Bandai released the Super Saiyan 4 version of Goku last year and I think most expected that Vegeta would follow just as likely many expect a Gogeta next year. And at the time, I assumed it would be an easy way to make a quick buck off of some unique tooling that had to take place for Goku, but it looks like I was wrong with that assumption. Vegeta has a lot of new parts and is almost a completely different figure from Goku despite looking very similar. Maybe since both were manufactured at Bandai’s factory in Vietnam there was more room in the budget for new tooling? However it was accounted for, it’s nice to see that really no shortcuts were taken with this release.

“Behold! The true evolution of the Super Saiyan form! Jealous?” “Uhh, sure…”

Vegeta in his Super Saiyan 4 form stands at approximately 5″ to where the flesh of his head ends and a tick over 6″ to the tip of his hair. He looks good beside Goku as he’s noticeably shorter, but also not as bulky. And it’s really that slimmer profile that necessitated the need for new parts for Vegeta as he can’t really share anything with Goku as a result. In fact, I don’t think a single part is shared as I thought maybe the tails were, but Goku’s is a little more full than Vegeta’s. Even the little pieces for the butterfly joints appear to be different. Design wise, there’s a lot that’s different as even though both follow the same design principals with big hair and a furry torso, Vegeta’s ended up red compared with Goku’s more hot pink. Vegeta’s hair also became more of a chocolate brown. It retained it’s main Vegeta shape, except with hair going down his back as well and the same two parts coming over the shoulders. Because of that desire to keep Vegeta’s classic hair shape, he almost looks like he has a super mullet of some kind. It’s a bit of a goofy look, but that’s Super Saiyan 4 for ya.

Well that isn’t pretty.

With Goku, there was a sense that the figure was a bit rough around the edges coming out of the Vietnam factory and some of that seems true of Vegeta. This look required more paint than Bandai seem to like as we get the red fur on the torso which meets up with a bare chest and some of the abdomen. The paint is pretty crisp along the right side of the flesh-tone parts, but less so on the left for some reason. The painted belt looks nice though and most of the colors appear to match when it’s painted vs plastic. The neck, which is bare plastic, is just a touch off and glossy in comparison. The faces all look great when it comes to the eyes, mouth, and linework. The paint on Vegeta’s trademarked widow’s peak is not as well done though with the stoic expression looking downright terrible. The other portraits are at least acceptable. It looks like his gloves are all bare plastic and so are the arms. They appear to have cut off his forearms past the elbow so they could key the gloves on and avoid having to match paint here, which is fine. The pants are really nicely painted though and have a lot of shading applied. I have no idea if they’re supposed to be leather or some other material, but it looks nice. The boots are mostly bare plastic with the yellow portions painted on. They look all right, but juxtaposed with the shaded pants right there makes them take on a very plastic look. There’s also no shading on the rear of the pants so apparently that’s where they cut a few corners. Aside from the one portrait though, this figure does a good job of nailing this unique look for Vegeta so if you wanted a Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta for your collection I think you’ll be pleased with how he looks on your shelf.

I bet his mom thinks he’s cool.

Vegeta has a pretty similar loadout of accessories as Goku. It basically comes down to a bunch of hands, four faces, and an effect part. For hands, you get a set of fists, Big Bang Attack flat palms, open hands, clenching hands, clenching hands with a peg in the palm, and a set of stye-posed three finger gesture hands. The clenching hands with the peg in the palm works with the effect part, which is this little, translucent, green/blue ball of energy with some sculpted lightning cracking around it and a hit of blue air-brushing. It’s not as visually impressive as Goku’s charging Kamehameha effect, but it’s fine. Vegeta can either palm it like he’s getting ready to shoot an energy blast or it can be positioned in-between his clenching hands like he’s powering up a Final Flash technique. For portraits, we get four: stoic, smirk, clenching teeth, and yelling. All four have his eyes forward, so no side eye, and the actual face is painted very well on each. It’s just the previously mentioned widow’s peak that is an issue with the stoic head being so bad I consider it unworthy of display. The other three are fine, with the yelling head being the best under close scrutiny. If I felt confident I could match this shade of brown with a Gundam marker or something similar I’d probably attempt a touch-up. At least it’s the stoic head, which is a bit boring for Vegeta, and not an expression I was likely to use anyway. It should still be better though and it’s also missing some paint behind the ear. All in all though, a solid spread of accessories. I suppose I’m a little surprised at the lack of a crossed-arms piece, but those are always a paint to fiddle with anyway so I don’t miss it. One quality control issue I’ve had with this figure is the ball hinge on the right wrist keeps coming apart. It snaps together, but it’s pretty annoying.

Vegeta is probably angry that his effect part is smaller than Goku’s.

Vegeta may be comprised of all new parts, but he’s still pretty familiar as far as articulation goes when compared with Goku. The head is on a double-ball peg, but since the head is basically all of the hair, he’s a bit limited. He can rotate, but he can’t look up, and he mostly looks down as a result of the joint at the base of the neck. The hair on the back of his head limits how far he can rotate as well and he basically has no room for any nuance type movement. Tamashii Nations tried to lessen the impact of the hair by making the tufts that come over the shoulders and hang off of his head separate pieces connected via ball pegs. They only do so much though. The shoulders are on ball pegs, but they’re quite tight and really don’t get much play in the joint. They are hinged though and Vegeta can lift his arms out to the side past a horizontal position and rotate all around. The butterfly joint in there lets the arms come forward a bit, but almost nothing back. It’s a little messy looking due to the nature of the design, but at least he can do his Final Flash pose so I guess it’s worth having. There is a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbows that bend past 90 degrees, and ball-hinged wrists that work fine. All of the joints so far are on the tighter side. Nothing scary or that required heat, but nothing is remotely loose so far.

Final Flash!

In the torso, we have what I assume is a double-ball peg in the abdomen. I don’t feel a hinge, so this guy just can go forward, back, rotate, and tilt to the side. The range back isn’t very good, but he crunches forward a solid amount which is probably more important. The tilt going to the side is sufficient and he rotates plenty far, possibly all the way if you really wanted to push it. I’m also not seeing any paint rub or gapping issues which is probably more important. At the waist, it’s another ball joint so you get more rotation there and some pivot. The hips feel like ball joints, but it’s hard to see in there since there’s some pieces in the way. Vegeta can do splits just fine, but he can only kick forward to a horizontal pose and really can’t kick back much at all. There is a thigh swivel which works fine, but isn’t the prettiest thing. It’s so poorly implemented that it creates the illusion that these legs don’t belong on this figure. It’s easily the ugliest aspect of the figure and it’s something I’d like to see Bandai move away from. The double-jointed knees really don’t go much past 90 degrees. They also create some gaps at the base of the knee joint when pushed as far as they’ll go. At the ankles, it looks like we just get a hinged ball peg. The foot can go back a little, and basically doesn’t go forward at all. The ankle rocker is a touch restricted by the design of the boot. The ankle can rock in a fair amount though that I don’t think it’s going to be too problematic for posing. There’s a toe hinge, but it’s pretty damn ugly and implemented so poorly that I don’t think it’s usable. The tail is also connected via a ball-hinge, but it’s essentially pre-posed in an S shape and the articulation just serves as a way of making sure it doesn’t get in the way.

I have no idea what Vegeta’s aura looks like in this form, but this looks pretty cool.

Vegeta was doing pretty well until we moved below the waist (hopefully, that’s not what she said). I think he absolutely should have more range kicking forward and back and the knees are pretty limited for a SHF release. Some aspects of this release though are definitely an improvement over Goku. The shoulders look more natural and the neck doesn’t sink in like it tends to with the Goku figure. Sometimes the joint at the base of the neck slides past the chest and leaves a gap, but it can be pushed back into place easy enough. It’s more finicky than anything. The thigh cut looks worse on Vegeta when compared with Goku since his baggy pants mitigated it some. Removing the subjective component of which Super Saiyan 4 looks better, I think Vegeta turned out better than Goku as a result and it just feels like he’s less rough around the edges. The joints being tight and smooth helps, and the only thing Goku has over Vegeta articulation wise is better range at the hips. And even there, Goku came up a bit short too so it’s marginal.

Whenever Vegeta wants to feel tall he calls Krillin.

This whole review is honestly kind of pointless because what’s going to drive someone’s purchasing decision is how much they like the Super Saiyan 4 look. If you think it’s the coolest transformation of all, then this is a no-brainer. If you hate it and consider it an abomination then save your money. This isn’t going to convert you or anything. I feel like the rare person who occupies the middle on Super Saiyan 4. I think there’s an absurd component to the look, but that’s also what makes it charming and unique. I don’t have any love for Dragon Ball GT, but getting this goofy look into my display feels like the right choice. And as a figure release, Vegeta is solid. The sculpt is great and some of the paint is good, but it’s still not up to standard for the price point. The accessories make up for that a bit, but at an MSRP of around $65 this one is definitely pushing it. The fact that this one features all new tooling helps justify the price, but a bargain it is not. Still, if you like the look of Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta then I think you’ll be content with the purchase. And for me, this is probably all I need from GT so if that Gogeta does follow as expected don’t count on seeing a review for it here.

Missed our review of SS4 Goku? You can check it out below along with other S.H.Figuarts releases from the world of Dragon Ball:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Goku

In the world of Dragon Ball, there are varying opinions on which version of the anime is superior. Dragon Ball Z is unquestionably the most popular, but there are people (like me) out there who swear by the original Dragon Ball that came before it. More recently, Dragon Ball Super has entered the fray and…

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by Joe

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

He’s the Prince of all Saiyans. The last survivor to have laid eyes on Planet Vegeta, home world of the mighty warriors and birthplace of the legendary Goku. And he’s also a pretty fine toy. Vegeta, arguably the most popular character to emerge from Dragon Ball Z, has seen his likeness cast in numerous forms…

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by Joe

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March 23, 2023

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Event Exclusive Super Saiyan 2 Son Goku

By Joe
He’s attained a level beyond that of a Super Saiyan!

I feel like I need a little break with all of the TMNT reviews I’ve been doing lately. I could use a break from action figure reviews all together, but I have quite the backlog and I buy tons of them so I only have myself to blame for that. Today, we’re looking at last year’s event exclusive Super Saiyan 2 Goku from Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line. For the past couple of years, Bandai has been doing event exclusives like basically everyone because they sell well, but with Bandai they’re not exclusive to any one event. The same cast of characters tends to get sold at multiple conventions and when that’s all done they also put them up for order on their Premium Bandai website. The only downside to ordering online is the wait as it’s sort of a made-to-order situation. I wish they would just unload their stock first and then turn to that, but instead, other retailers seem to get the unsold merch which they sell on their storefronts at inflated prices. The waiting isn’t that big of an issue though, and most of these event exclusive figures have just been repaints of older figures which is great because it gets them back out there and often looking better than before. Last year’s round of exclusives included re-releases of Majin Buu, Android 16, and Shenron, but the only one I grabbed was Super Saiyan 2 Goku.

Scream for me, Goku!

The Super Saiyan 2 transformation is perhaps the most boring of Goku’s transformations. I think it’s due in part to the original planned ending for Dragon Ball being the battle between Gohan and Perfect Cell. Gohan would ascend to a level beyond Super Saiyan, and for him, the transformation looked pretty different from his Super Saiyan look. His hair stood all the way up, looked to be longer and fuller, and then you got the aura and lightning effects. Series creator Akira Toriyama was convinced to keep going though so we got another arc and in that one it was decided that Goku needed to be the main hero once again. This meant he needed to achieve the same level of power as his offspring and then go beyond that. Super Saiyan 2 was the big transformation for the Cell arc, but for the Buu one it was Super Saiyan 3 allowing the Super Saiyan 2 look to essentially be an afterthought as it concerned Goku. As a result, it doesn’t look much different from the standard Super Saiyan look. Goku basically just loses most of his bangs and his hair is a bit spikier plus he gets the same aura with blue lightning effects. Simple, but still kind of cool. As sort of the forgotten and less celebrated transformation, I have a bit of a soft spot for it. Mostly, it was Bandai’s approach to the aura that got me to pounce on this one.

Bandai has taken multiple approaches to Super Saiyan hair. The honey yellow with shading on Vegeta might still be my favorite, though the new Gohan hair looks like a solid base, but needs some shading of its own. I do like the approach with Goku here. The Dragon Stars Trunks is obviously the most basic approach, and probably the worst, but it was also a 20 dollar figure.

This Goku figure is more than familiar at this point. He is exactly the same as almost every Goku figure I’ve reviewed so I’m not going to go into too great of detail for this review. I mostly just want to talk about what’s new. For the sculpt, it’s very little. We get a brand new hair piece that has a nice shape to it and is evocative of the Super Saiyan 2 look. There’s a metallic gold paint in use, which is typical of these event exclusives, and it does give it a very nice shimmer. Considering this is a form that is known to basically always feature an aura, I think this paint job works better than usual. It helps distinguish it from a Super Saiyan look. Would I want all Super Saiyan hair pieces to feature this paint job? Ehh, probably not. I like the yellow in play on my Super Vegeta and the shading is done well on that figure. I’ll be talking about it eventually, but the recently released Super Saiyan Gohan head went in a different direction and I’m still sorting out my feelings on that one. I’d love to see Bandai try casting the hair in white and then hitting it with an airbrush of yellow. Absent that, this looks good. The only thing I don’t like are the pieces of hair off to the sides of Goku’s head. There is a sizable gap between his forehead and these pieces that just looks unnatural to me. It looks like they should either be right on his head, or further from it. They do at least hide the sideburns and the seem created by the hairpiece behind them. This Goku also has a halo since this is Goku from when he takes on Majin Vegeta, which also explains the more basic gi he’s wearing that lacks any markings on it. I’ve never really liked the halo effects when it comes to Dragon Ball toys because even if the post is transparent, you still see it. It just pegs into the hair, but it doesn’t seem to want to come out so it might be glued in. I’m tempted to just rip it out, but I’ll probably leave it.

These things are a pain to insert and quite brittle.

As for the body, the only other new part is the chest. Since this is Goku from his brief return to Earth, his shirt is ripped which was something that occured during his fight with Yakon. He would go Super Saiyan 2 to battle Vegeta shortly after. There’s a sculpted rip in the orange part of his top and it looks okay, but it really could use more paint. Most companies would paint the inside of the rip darker than the outside. Just like most Goku figures, the only paint is really the blue and the flesh-tone of the upper torso, the blue on the sleeves, and the boots. The boots aren’t as clean as they are on some of the other Goku figures I have, even the budget-friendly Target offerings, so that’s a bummer. He does appear to have some light shading in parts. It appears to be yellow on the legs and a little on the torso to help sell his glow, but it’s very subtle. I wish there was more paint as the orange has a very plastic look to it, as do his arms and neck, but this isn’t a line known for using a lot of paint. He still has the floating crotch pieces which have a tendency to rattle around and feel cheap, but they work with the articulation so I don’t mind them as much as some folks do. I do hate the sleeves and how they pin into the shoulders and handling this figure just illustrates how Goku is in need of a redesign. They can do better than this and this mold is getting pretty long in the tooth.

When you get those pieces in (hopefully without breaking them) and get Goku positioned just right the effect does look pretty cool.

For accessories, we get the standard assortment of hands: fists, splayed, martial arts posed, Kamehameha hands, and a set of hands in a two finger pose for his instant transmission technique. For faceplates, we have four varieties: stoic, cocky, yelling, and a teeth-gritting expression. The face printing on all four is terrific and very much in-line with the more recently released Super Hero Goku so at least that’s one advancement this figure possesses. The other accessory is the main one and it’s an aura effect. It’s a big, yellow, burst that can be positioned behind the figure. It’s a much sturdier part than the others I have and it’s cast in translucent plastic that alternates from being clear to yellow to clear and to yellow once again. It’s a new mold when compared with the stand-alone one Bandai sells and I’m guessing they did a new one because this has some extra bits. Four, blue, translucent, plastic, sparking effects are included. They attach to the yellow effect via a ball peg at the end. This allows them to be manipulated so when you place Goku in front of the backdrop effect the lightning can be positioned coming around him. It’s a terrific idea to try and sell the Super Saiyan 2 transformation, though the execution is lacking. The ball pegs are really hard to get into the yellow effect. I even snapped one trying to get it in and had to glue it back together. There’s no reason why it needed to be this challenging to pull off. Once they’re in they at least stay in and the effect works well enough. It’s very specialized so this isn’t an effect you’re likely to use with other figures, but if you wanted to I suppose you could use it with Majin Vegeta or the new Super Saiyan Gohan, but then your Goku doesn’t have an aura to stand in front of.

That’s essentially it though. I’m not going to run through the articulation since this is the same figure I’ve reviewed before and some of them are linked below. If you’ve been collecting DBZ Figuarts releases then you know this one pretty well. And if you have all of the Goku figures then Super Saiyan 2 is the missing link, so to speak, as they’ve never done it before. I’m guessing that made this one fairly popular. I’m curious if he’ll get a more standard release at some point without the metallic paint job and maybe without the torn shirt. It’s a bit odd to make the Super Saiyan 2 form an event exclusive, but it was also easy to get so I suppose it’s like any P-Bandai release. If you want it, you’ll have to venture out onto the aftermarket. Some retailers have this figure still in stock, but it’s pricey. I don’t think this release is worth paying over 100 bucks for, but if you really want a Super Saiyan 2 Goku and somehow missed out then I guess you have no choice. Just be prepared to keep your expectations in check. You’re paying for new hair and an effect part as the body has been done before. And if that’s fine with you then go ahead. I’m personally a little underwhelmed and certainly annoyed by the quality of the plastic as it relates to the sparking effects. I don’t resent having this in my collection, but I probably could have done without considering I don’t even have Super Saiyan Goku or Super Saiyan 3. I guess I like the Super Saiyan 2 form more than I realized.

Need to know more about how this Goku articulates or want to see how good he could be with a redesign? Look no further:

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

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super – Ultimate Gohan Super Hero

As part of the promotion for the film Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero, Bandai released a wave of action figures from its S.H. Figuarts brand of characters from the film. The neat thing was, these releases were actually really cheap relative to other SHF releases with a MSRP of just $35. Of the four,…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Son Goku

That is quite the mouthful, is it not? The Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Son Goku is the latest action figure from Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts to arrive in Target stores in the US. This form of Goku is what happens when a Saiyan ascends to Super Saiyan God level, and then goes Super Saiyan again. Confused?…

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by Joe

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August 19, 2022

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

By Joe
Wait! Don’t go! I swear this is a Goku worth talking about!

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 even if I never would have imagined I’d buy a figure of Yakon or Yamcha in a yellow suit. Anyway, what happened is my collection was surprisingly light on DBZ’s main character: Goku. Irwin was also pretty bad at keeping popular figures in circulation, they basically made a wave of figures and then moved onto the next one so late adopters were pretty screwed (and maybe that’s partly why they went out of business during the line’s life). I would eventually get the Series 4 standard Goku, but only because I found it on clearance for 4 dollars at a KB Toys (it was a pretty bad likeness), but I never got a Super Saiyan Goku or others. I did get some of the later Goku figures that Irwin and Jakks Pacific (who bought the license from Irwin when it went bankrupt) released, but my collection was definitely light on the legendary Saiyan.

I lead-off with that nugget of info because I’m partly amused, and partly shocked, that Goku dominates my collection of S.H.Figuarts based on Dragon Ball. This latest release based on the new movie Dragon Ball Super – Super Hero brings my total of Goku figures to 5, which isn’t a ton, but it’s amusing to me because I have only 1 Vegeta, 1 Piccolo, and zero Trunks. I’m also not including in my total of Goku figures my Goku Black and the two Kid Goku figures. Perhaps more amusing to me, the only other characters I have multiples of are Krillin, Master Roshi (one as Jackie Chun), and Bulma(!). I’m pretty sure the me of the early 2000s would be quite surprised that I would have more Bulmas than Vegetas, but that’s where we are. This obviously wasn’t deliberate on my part to make up for my lack of Goku 20 years ago. It’s largely the result of me getting into this line very slowly. I initially only intended to collect the figures from Dragon Ball, but they’re so few and far between that I started branching out to Z and Super and event GT! There are figures of Vegeta and Trunks that I’d like to have, but they’re no longer in circulation and I’m just not willing to go secondhand on them. Maybe one day, but for now Goku gets to dominate.

I wouldn’t normally advocate for buying a figure just for a new face, but I might for this one.

So why am I adding another Goku to my collection? Well, I didn’t have a base Goku having passed on the Saiyan Raised on Earth release and when this particular figure went up for solicitation I just happened to like it. The color palette for the new movie is based on the manga and the promotional images just made this figure look nice. Rather than a red-orange gi, this Goku is sporting a much lighter shade of orange. The promo images did a good job of making the figure look like it had more of a matte finish, and the portraits looked really sharp. And since it was being solicited at the bargain price of $35 I figured “why not?” And I’m happy to say the figure is more or less as expected. This is a Goku after all and it’s on a body that we should all be plenty familiar with and those promotional images ended up being honest about some parts of the figure, and less so about others.

The yelling expression is also on point. Whatever Bandai did differently with this one, keep it up!

First of all, the portraits for this Goku look terrific. In comparing them with past releases, I’ve narrowed it down to a few things that seem to make them “pop” better than before. For one, Bandai painted all of the lines including the ones under the eyes. They also used black instead of that brown shade they often use on the faces which helps to better reflect the anime. The eyes also look to be larger and the eyebrows have a little more shape to them. That’s pretty much it, which isn’t much, but the end result looks so much better. These are the best portraits of any Goku I have and it’s also helped by the selection. There’s the usual smirky face, plus a side-eye smirk that’s a little redundant. Then we get a yelling face which looks great because they made sure to round off the eyes, as Goku is often depicted, and the paint is so sharp that it really feels like Goku is screaming at me when I look at the thing. The fourth portrait is more of a frightened or surprised look which we’ve seen out of Goku plenty of times, usually in more comedic moments. It’s my favorite of the bunch and since it’s so different from the other figures I have it’s likely I go with this look in my display.

I’ve expressed my displeasure with this butterfly joint in multiple reviews, but I don’t think I’ve ever photographed it.

Aside from the faces, this Goku is pretty much like all of the others. There are actually subtle differences among the Goku figures I had before this one. Super Saiyan God Goku has a slightly leaner mold in places while the absurdly long named Goku had a different torso due to some battle damage while Super Saiyan 4 Goku is very much its own thing. This figure though is exactly the same as the Super Saiyan Blue Goku I reviewed a while ago. That’s both a good and bad thing. On one hand, the figure is a solid representation of Goku from the anime. It looks pretty good, the proportions are okay, and it mostly moves well. It’s just getting long in the tooth. There are some things it doesn’t do well, like move at the hips out to the side or much at all in the torso. If you wanted this Goku to be positioned in a true flying pose where he’s parallel with the ground it wouldn’t work because he can’t bend his head back far enough. The butterfly joint also isn’t the greatest and this figure has the same problem as that prior Goku in that the inner portion of the butterfly joint was molded in a flesh color instead of orange so it looks like his shirt is ripping. He also has the old shoulders which seem to be getting phased out and they feature the sleeves pinned to them which I have never liked. The ankles are also still on ball-pegs and they’re not great either. That’s what it doesn’t do very well, but what it can do is allow for enough posing that someone with many Gokus on the shelf can still find variety here.

A sampling of Gokus. This figure and the one on the right (the figure’s left) are pretty much the same.

I don’t feel the need to dive into the articulation anymore than that given this is a reused figure covered before. The only other thing to talk about are the rest of the aesthetics and accessories. Given this is a $35 release, it’s probably no surprise that the accessories are limited to the face plates and hands. It’s always a bummer when we don’t get something extra, but thems the breaks. The hands are fairly standard: fists, open, martial arts pose, Kamehameha, and one right two-finger Instant Transmission posed hand. The gi is sculpted in that lighter orange and I like how it turned out. There’s still a bit of a glossiness to it, but it seems to be less severe than usual. The same can be said for the other parts of the figure like the flesh tones and blues. The painted bits are color-matched well and applied cleanly. The undershirt and sleeves are painted better than my other Goku figures and the boots are nicely done. There is some shading, but it’s limited to the lower parts of the legs. I’m not sure I quite understand what Bandai was going for here. Do they think it works best for an aura type effect? You basically have a darker orange at the shins that gradually blends into the light orange by the time it reaches the upper thigh with little shading anywhere else. There’s a hit of it on the orange part of the sleeves and maybe a tiny bit on the abdomen, but it’s so subtle that I’m not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me or if it’s really there. Aside from that, the only other criticism I have for the paint is the opacity on the symbol on both the front and rear of the gi could have been increased. What looks very nice though is the hair which has a matte finish to it. I don’t know if they hit it with a clear finish or if the plastic is a little different as it feels softer than the black hair on Kid Goku. Whatever they did, keep it up because the hair turned out wonderful.

Goku is at least a character worthy of multiple releases. If you want a base Goku, this is the one to get.

The Super Hero version of Goku is likely a figure most fans will know if they want it or not the moment they see it. If you have a standard Goku already, it’s probably something that can be ignored. However, at $35 it’s quite cheap for a Figuarts release and that might get people to double-dip on base Gokus just for the new portraits. If you’re like me and don’t have a version of Goku like this, I think this is the superior release when compared with the Saiyan Raised on Earth version. That is largely a subjective opinion though as I prefer the more orange gi and I like the faces better. You may have the opposite opinion. At the end of the day, it’s certainly nice to have options.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Film, toys

May 31, 2022

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Krillin – Earth’s Strongest Man

By Joe
The Earth’s Strongest Man!

My Dragon Ball collecting was once simply focused on the original series, Dragon Ball, but has been expanding over the years. I’ve definitely leaned more towards Dragon Ball Super of late, but one of my Dragon Ball Z purchases last year was the event exclusive Nappa. I don’t know why I like Nappa so much. Maybe it’s because I, and many others, watched the Saiyan Saga of DBZ over and over because, for a long time, it was all we had. Well, we had the Namek Saga too, but that was far less interesting. When I got Nappa it became apparent right away that I had little to pair him with. I would add Piccolo, but presently I have him displayed with his arm missing as it was in the Raditz fight (I suppose I should get Raditz, but that’s not happening given his price on the secondary market). Then along came Krillin. Who better than Krillin to position facing off against Nappa? If I had liked the Kid Gohan that Bandai did I might have grabbed that, but Krillin seems appropriate and he’s a likable character too.

That whole “Earth’s Strongest Man” title would be more impressive if the Earth wasn’t full of Saiyans, Namekians, Androids, etc.

Now, when you get really into figure collecting, other, perhaps strange, things influence your purchases. I didn’t just want Krillin to pair with Nappa, I also found myself both curious and a little excited about some of the changes Bandai made with the figure. This is Krillin 2.0 essentially replacing an earlier figure released in the line. I never liked the aesthetic of that figure, but this one looked good based on the solicitation images. What also jumped out at me were the sleeves and abdomen. Yes, sleeves can influence my purchasing decision. Rather than have those little, blue, cuffs pegged into his shoulders, this figure appeared to have free-standing sleeves like an actual shirt. Is it dumb that I paid over 50 bucks for a toy based on how the sleeves looked? Maybe, but that’s toy collecting!

Things are a little strange looking under Krillin’s head, but this actually works pretty great.

Right now, someone is probably reading this and shouting to themselves, “This is the wrong Krillin!” And yes, I know, and I knew that when I bought it. This Krillin is based on his look during the Cell Saga where he has a blue undershirt and boots like Goku’s. The musculature is also more defined and less rounded, though I don’t know that Tamashii Nations would do that any different if this were a proper Saiyan Saga version of the character. I’m fine with the slight inaccuracy when it comes to my display and if a Saiyan Saga Krillin were to follow without the shirt and in the martial arts slippers I likely would not seek to “upgrade.” This is fine.

He’s small, but fierce!

Krillin, being one of the shortest characters from Dragon Ball Z, stands just a little over 4.5″ when you get him out of the standard window box. This figure comes out of the Vietnam factory which is still relatively new to action figure production for this line. Krillin certainly looks like a Figuarts release. There’s a lot of colored plastic and little that required painting. This edition of Krillin is also meant to be anime accurate so there’s no white on his eyes. There’s a lot of little, painted, details on his face that look nice. Aside from that, the paint is limited to his wrist bands, chest, belt and boots where a solid job of matching plastic to paint is on display. Where things look less great is on the legs. It looks like some shading was applied to the front of the pants, and that’s good, but it was only done on the lower pieces. The upper thigh is not shaded so it looks like mis-colored plastic and the shirt isn’t either. This has become a trend with the line and it’s a bit baffling. Why shade from the mid-thigh down, but no where else? It just makes it look like his gi is two different shades of orange and it’s unbecoming. Shade it all, please! The kneecap piece also appears to be shaded, but for some reason it came out glossier than the rest of the leg. It could be a different type of plastic was used there. It’s especially noticeable with the right knee on my figure.

What is going on here?!

Even with the iffy shading, the figure looks like Krillin and it’s shortcomings won’t be picked up by most when it’s on a shelf. And how good it looks on that shelf will depend on how well the figure is articulated and able to hold a pose. This is where the Vietnam factory has show its inexperience as sometimes the joints don’t feel quite up to par for this line. And with this figure, we have some new stuff to talk about. Krillin’s head is unique in that it basically sits on a drum, or barrel, instead of a ball-peg. There’s a double ball-peg within that, but it’s certainly odd to see. I can only assume this was done to close some of that emtpy space that would exist without it. Since Krillin is bald, Bandai doesn’t go with faceplates since those are usually hidden by a character’s hair. The drum approach looks a bit odd when the figure is head-less, but it works just fine. It’s just very squeeky when rotating the head, but the range of motion is there. The only thing Krillin can’t do well is look up unless you’re using the ab crunch too. It looks like the base of the neck should be able to move, but mine won’t budge so perhaps I’m mistaken.

He does make that face a lot.

In the abdomen, that new style of ab crunch works fine as he can bend back a little and forward a lot. There’s a ball joint in the waist that also adds to the range of motion and provides rotation and tilt and I like how it looks. These shoulders though, they’re pretty interesting. So what we have is a ball-hinge that pegs into a socket in the chest, which pegs into another below it. The orange and blue pieces you see are just floating bits and the actual joint is cast in blue. The upper shoulder is also just a piece that fits inside the blue shirt cuff and over the blue joint in there which the arm pegs into at the biceps. All of your up, down, and in and out movement at the shoulder comes from that ball and socket joint inside the figure. It works okay, but you have to fight with that orange piece at times which will pop off it’s peg and create some ugly gaps. The left shoulder on my figure is also especially stubborn and I had the whole thing come apart at one point. I should have stopped and taken a picture for this review, but I was afraid I would forget how the whole thing went together. The setup for this joint makes it surprisingly difficult to just raise and lower the arm on the shoulder hinge as it’s tough to get the needed leverage. My arm came apart because the biceps joint was taking on too much of that so the peg popped out. Bandai uses shallow pegs, likely to prevent snapping of the joint, so it doesn’t take much to cause it to pop out. The butterfly joint also doesn’t function too well. I found if I forced the orange cuff to rotate back I could get Krillin’s arm across his chest, but I don’t think it’s designed to do that and it created unsightly gaps. The butterfly joint is rarely a strong suit of these figures so I don’t consider it a great loss, but it’s something that has to be mentioned. At least the shirt cuff looks better though! The rest of the arm is a standard double-hinged elbow and ball-hinged wrists which work fine.

“Goku! Senzu bean!”

The shoulders are a bit sloppy, but below the waist things are just fine. Krillin can do full splits and he has his double-jointed knees. He does have sculpted buns so he can’t kick back all of the way, but can kick forward. There’s a thigh twist and the ankles are on ball-hinges. The way the boots are sculpted though limits the range, especially out on the ankle rocker. He also gets almost no range going up on the foot, but he can go back a decent amount. There’s also a toe hinge which works fine, but doesn’t really add anything of value. Lastly, the knot in his belt is articulated so if you want the ends to appear like they’re blowing in the wind you can do so.

Not the best Kamehameha pose, but it’s not like the Goku figures are that much better.

Krillin moves okay, I think the shoulders need some more work, but I like that they’re exploring other solutions for that joint that isn’t just pegging a chunk of blue plastic into the figure’s shoulder. And when it comes to accessories, Bandai took care of the little cue-ball. Krillin comes with four portraits: stoic, yelling, teeth-gritting (with a side-eye), and scared. I like getting four, but we are definitely missing a smiling portrait. Oddly, such a head isn’t being included in the Battle Armor Krillin that was recently up for order (not that I would have bought a second figure just to make this one smile). What’s here is done well though, and as I mentioned before, the subtle paint work on the expressions is all clean and applied well. In addition to the heads, we get six sets of hands: fists, open, martial arts pose, Kamehameha hands, two-finger pose hands, and open palms with peg holes. There’s also a bonus 13th hand that’s grasping a bag of senzu beans. The peg holes on the open hands are for Krillin’s blast effect: the Destructo Disc! It’s cast in translucent, frosted, yellow, plastic and has a buzzsaw design. The peg is pretty short, but it fits in the hand and looks okay. Because it pegs into Krillin’s hand, it can’t be used with the stands that peg into a blast effect so it can only be positioned above Krillin’s hand. There might be stands I’m not aware of that could work with this to depict the Destructo Disc in flight, but you won’t be able to do that out of the box.

I love all of the headsculpts, and the bean bag hand is fun, but who is really going to display him doing something other than this?!

The one additional drawback with this figure is becoming a common one out of the Vietnam factory and that’s in the joint tolerance. And it’s at those shoulders again. The right shoulder on my Krillin is pretty loose, so it’s easy to move and position, but the weight of the Destructo Disc makes it want to sag. The left shoulder has the opposite problem as it’s quite tight and getting his arm straight up for the proper pose was trickier than it should be. Plus, Krillin rarely uses his left arm for the Destructo Disc so I’d prefer to pose him with the left. Hopefully as the factory releases more figures these details get cleaned up, but for now, it feels like a roll of the dice when a figure shows up with the “Made in Vietnam” language on the front.

Nappa! Don’t touch it!

Krillin 2.0 is a solid entry in the S.H.Figuarts line of Dragon Ball Z action figures. Yes, I was a bit hard on some aspects of the figure, but that’s because this is a $55 release and we should have high standards for a figure at that price point. If this were a $30 Target release then some of these would be easier to overlook. Even with the warts, the figure displays well enough as long as you don’t get one with a shoulder so loose that it can’t use the energy effect. Mine is a touch finicky, but it’s holding up so far and at least I can swap the effect to the left arm if I absolutely have to. I like that they’re trying new things, and giving us updates to the older figures that are dated at this point. I just think maybe they over-engineered these shoulders and they could accomplished the same look, with something simpler. This figure is definitely worth getting if you like Krillin, want to upgrade from the old one, or are rounding out your DBZ display. And as a general release item, there should be plenty in stock at MSRP if you still need one.

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March 31, 2022

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super Event Exclusive Color Edition Beerus

By Joe
The God of Destruction has arrived.

Let’s take a break from the Goku and Goku-adjacent figures and talk about a totally different character: Beerus. Or should I say Lord Beerus: God of Destruction! Beerus made his debut in the film Battle of Gods which essentially became the premiere of Dragon Ball Super. He’s some sort of cat creature who happens to be charged with destroying worlds within his assigned universe. Being a god, he’s only sort of a villain. I guess if he were a Dungeons & Dragons character he might be considered Chaotic Neutral, or maybe Lawful Evil? I honestly can’t remember if there’s a rhyme or reason to his destruction. When we’re introduced to him, he is seeking out the Super Saiyan God and has come to Earth in search of, who else, Goku. If Goku can’t impress him and show him the power of a Super Saiyan God, then he has no use for Earth and will destroy it, so I guess he’s lawful? Anyway, he’s one of the best new characters to come to the show so I’m happy to add this event exclusive edition to my collection.

Like many a Dragon Ball villain there’s a lot of power packed into a somewhat unassuming frame with Beerus.

Beerus embodies the power of a god and Dragon Ball villain, while also displaying the traits of a cat. He gets sleepy, can be petulant, impatient, and certainly carries himself in a regal manner. And like many characters in this universe, an easy way to please him is via his stomach. He loves food and it’s the food on planet Earth that initially spares the world from his destruction. He’s quite threatening, but easily slips into a comedic performance as the scene demands. He’s terrific. And this figure is actually an old one from 2016. It was part of Bandai’s San Diego Comic Con collection of exclusives from last year. Premium Bandai’s website basically couldn’t handle the volume of people interested when the item went up for sale, so they offered a make-up sale a couple of days later that was for a second batch. I really wanted the Nappa they released, so I just went for that because the site was so slow and buggy that trying to add multiple items to my cart felt like a risk I just couldn’t take. However, when the second sale went up I gave in and grabbed both Beerus and the Super Saiyan God version of Goku.

“Come at me, if you dare.”

Unlike Nappa, this version of Beerus is a better use of an event exclusive. I loved that Nappa, but he was a re-release of a figure done in his proper animated colors. That’s something most fans probably wanted from the original release, and making him an event exclusive kind of sucks. Since it ended up being easy to get, I guess little harm was done other than some folks felt compelled to get two versions of the same figure. With Beerus, his change is subtle. I don’t have the original release, but from what I can tell, the main difference is just in the collar-like shirt he wears. I don’t know the proper name for the garment, but it’s the blue and black item he wears over his shoulders. The original was a standard matte look, while this one is done with a shiny, chrome-like, finish. It looks cools, and it’s the type of thing that owners of the previous figure probably don’t feel compelled to buy, while those looking to fill a hole in their collection aren’t settling for some glow-in-the-dark variant or something.

The dreaded Finger Poke of Doom!

Being that Beerus is an older release, there’s going to be some dated things on him. Let’s start with the aesthetics. He looks like Beerus from the show/movie. His default, stoic, look captures that of the character and a cat as he appears content, but those narrow eyes have a menacing quality to him like his mood could change at the drop of a hat. His skin is a pale gray-violet which works well with the blues and blacks of his attire. The only shading on the figure is on the front of the pants while the other painted flourishes are rather clean. The sculpt is rather nice as it captures how thin the character is and Bandai did a great job at the hips which don’t jut out like the Goku Black I looked at recently.

These two literally do not see eye-to-eye.

As nice as Beerus looks, there are a few nitpicks to find. His neck gets a bit gappy where it meets the upper chest, and I wish his face had a wash or something on it as it looks rather plain. His nose should probably be darker than the rest and just some subtle paint touches on some of the lines, as we saw with the Super Saiyan 4 Goku, would really bring out the features. His feet appear to be cast in blue plastic, which is rather odd. I only know this because some blue is peaking out of the seems and at the pins in the toe. And lastly, he also seems a bit too tall. Beerus stands at about 5.75″ to the top of his head, 6.625″ to the top of his ears. Goku is about 5.625″ to the top of his head, so his eye level is lower than that of Beerus which doesn’t look right. It’s been a few years since I watched Dragon Ball Super and it wouldn’t surprise me if Beerus was drawn shorter in that than he was in his debut feature, sort of like how Vegeta was suddenly taller when he became more of a good guy, but I don’t think even this is accurate to Battle of Gods.

Yeah, that doesn’t look right.

Aside from the paint, this release is the same as the older one so the accessories included are also the same. They’re just appearance accessories, so optional heads and hands. In addition to the neutral expression, Beerus also has a yell and a yawn. Both look terrific and I think all three portraits have worth in a display as the more comedic yawn is still a spot-on depiction of the character. With the hands, things are less interesting as Beerus comes packaged with fists and can swap to gripping hands, open hands, and he has a right, sort of clawing, hand. It’s a gesture he uses when firing some of his attacks and could also be used as a “Come here” gesture. What’s curious though are the gripping hands as he has nothing to grip. Was there a short-lived directive at Bandai to make sure all of their figures came with gripping hands? It’s bizarre, as Beerus doesn’t wield any weapons in the film or show so they really are useless. I would have preferred more style posed hands, or maybe one with chopsticks and a bowl of ramen or something. There are no effects parts either, which is always bummer. It does help that Beerus doesn’t really have a signature attack, but he could still have something.

Those knees aren’t pretty. On the plus side, these yawning head is great!

Where the figure really feels dated is with the articulation, which also factors into the appearance somewhat. The head is on a ball hinge, like what Bandai uses for the wrists. It’s okay, but once the head is on you don’t really know where the hinge is so it doesn’t function super well. Also like the hands, it’s something you have to battle with just to get those heads on. There’s a ball joint in the base of the neck so he can bury his chin and also look up a bit with the usual rotation and tilt. The shoulders have part of that collared garment pinned to them, like most of the Goku figures do with the his sleeves. It’s a bit unsightly, and you need to be careful with those pieces as they will slide under the chest part and could get scratched. It’s a ball hinge so the shoulder can move up and down a bit, but the butterfly joint is useless due to the chest piece getting in the way. There’s a biceps swivel and double-jointed elbows and a ball-hinge wrist. In the torso, there’s a diaphragm cut but it’s pretty tight. It feels like a ball-hinge so if you pull up on it you can get him to crunch back. Leave it low and the figure makes some uncomfortable noises when rotating there, and he doesn’t get much forward crunch either way. The ball-joint at the waist is a bit better and that’s where you’ll get rotation and a little tilt.

Note the single tear squirting out of his right eye.

At the hips, Beerus has hinged ball-joints that drop down. Leaving them in the up position results in a nice looking joint that is reasonably functional out to the side and kicking forward and back. Dropping the leg doesn’t add a ton, just a little extra clearance on the kick, which is probably why we don’t see this joint too much anymore. The knee is where things really get poor though as Beerus has just a single joint with no cap on the front. When you bend that knee, you just see the joint at the kneecap and it’s ugly. It’s unfortunate because that yawning expression would lend itself well to certain sitting, bent knee, posing that will expose this shortcoming. This is simply just an outdated joint, as some of the early SHF releases featured the same, and has been retired in favor of what we see on other poufy pants characters like Goku. It’s too bad they couldn’t fix that for this release. At the ankle, we also have the old ball-peg system. You get good movement back, little forward, and the rocker is just mediocre. There is a toe hinge, but I don’t have much use for toe hinges. Beerus, being a cat, also has a tail and that’s connected via a ball-hinge. You get some decent posing out of it, but the tail itself doesn’t articulate further. It’s soft and pliable, but does not have a wire in it so it’s fairly static. It’s a thin tail, though, so I’m fine with it not being segmented for articulation.

Beerus is right to yawn in Nappa’s direction.

Beerus is an old figure with a shiny coat of paint added to go along with a fancy box. The sculpt has aged well so he should still look the part on your shelf. I have some nitpicks with his size, but I largely think he looks good. He just shows his age primarily with those knees and it’s the one thing I would definitely change. This isn’t a budget release, after all, as he retailed for $50 so it would have been nice to see an upgrade made there. Even factoring that in, I still think he’s worth the price tag and I do find myself quite charmed by this release. He’s very much an essential character if you’re collecting Dragon Ball Super. Since this figure was an event exclusive, you’ll need to seek him out on the secondary market. Big Bad Toy Store is carrying this edition, but at a significant markup (more than 100%) so you might be better off on eBay or Mercari. I like the figure, but I don’t $100 like the figure so I guess it will come down to how important it is for you personally to add Beerus to your display.

“Buy me or the Earth is destroyed!”

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March 25, 2022

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super Goku Black – Super Saiyan Rosé

By Joe
Wine enthusiast Goku has arrived.

Our last look at an S.H.Figuarts release was the Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Goku. Now, we look at a figure from the series that effectively replaced GT: Dragon Ball Super. And perhaps the most popular villain from that new series is Goku Black. Without getting into spoiler territory, Goku Black is basically an evil Goku from an alternate timeline. It’s more complicated than that, but a big part of his saga is trying to figure out how he came into existence so I’ll refrain from elaborating. All you really need to know is he looks like Goku, which isn’t exactly new territory since we already have Bardock, who looks just like his son, and there was Turles from the Tree of Might who also looked like Goku, though he’s non-canon. Goku Black is actually worthy of looking like Goku and being the true doppelganger as he’s extremely powerful and also quite evil – the usual Dragon Ball enemy.

Goku Black is part of the series of S.H.Figuarts releases going to mass retail like Target. I had forgot about him until I came across him in store recently. I had seen this release on retail outlets online for the “budget” price of $35 and for some reason I didn’t make the connection to Target. This figure is a reissue, so that’s part of the reason why it can be priced so low relative to other SHF releases, and it omits some accessories (like effects parts) from that past release. The surprising part is that this figure is quite different from Goku. All of the Goku’s at this price point have basically been the same figure with a different deco: Goku, Kaioken Goku, SSGSS Goku, SS Goku. Goku Black basically only gets to recycle the hair and left hand from those figures. It’s possible parts of his body are shared with other releases (like Zamasu) that I just don’t have, so Bandai apparently got what it needed to out of the original tools and can put this guy out there for cheap. Still, I was surprised to see him head to Target before a more popular character, like Vegeta, but I wasn’t necessarily disappointed either.

Coming up with poses for this guy feels tricky without accessories.

This edition of Goku Black is in his Super Saiyan form, which he calls Super Saiyan Rosé since his aura is pink. The original release from 2018 came with extra heads and parts, but this one is just the super version. I always like to get the extra stuff, but I’d honestly never use the non-transformed head so I can’t really complain. The hair has that pearl finish we saw with the Super Saiyan Blue Goku and it is an attractive piece. It’s also the exact same mold as that previous Goku. That’s kind of it though as far as what he shares with that Goku as his left ear has an earring, so he gets new faceplates, and his right hand has a ring as well. For clothing, he wears a black bodysuit with a purple tunic over it. It’s not form-fitting like the body suits Vegeta is so fond of, so there are sculpted folds and wrinkles in the forearms and biceps as well as the pants. The torso is basically one piece, while the bottom of the tunic (including the belt) is an overlay. There’s a little shading on the front of the figure, but it’s fairly subtle. Most of the figure is molded plastic, but since the colors are deep and more muted than typical Dragon Ball costumes, it looks pretty nice. There’s no mis-matching colors and the little bits of painted details, like the jewelry and face, look nice.

What’s the matter, Black? Someone pee in your cereal?

There are two areas of the figure that don’t look great to me. The first is the shoulder area where Bandai is utilizing that peg system for the sleeve cuffs. This allows the arms to move unencumbered, but the sleeves do stupid things as a result and result in gaps. You can fiddle with them so that it looks okay in most poses, but it always felt unnecessary. The other part that doesn’t look great are the hips which flare out to an abnormal degree. His hips are wider than his shoulders which is pretty crazy and obviously not accurate to the source material. And it’s not the overlay causing the problem as that’s actually tight against his hips and thighs. It’s just a weird design.

Also, no flight stand included, but you probably could have guessed that.

When it comes to the articulation, we have some good and some not so good. The head is a double ball peg, though it might be of an odd design like we’ve seen on characters like Lunch and Kid Goku. It basically provides rotation, tilt, and together with the joint in the base of the neck allows the character to look down. He can’t really look up though as the cuff of his tunic blocks that, but I suppose Goku Black looks up to no one. At the shoulders we have those ugly sleeves, but aside from that the butterfly joint works fine as the shoulder can move up and down and he gets decent range going across the chest. The interior of the joint is painted properly too, unlike some of the Gokus we’ve seen. Biceps swivel, double-jointed elbow, and wrist peg all work as expected. Ball joints in the diaphragm and waist provide twist and tilt and also allows Black to crunch forward and bend back an acceptable amount. The hips, despite being ugly, at least function well as the character can do almost a full split and the thighs swivel. His double-jointed knees work very well, but it’s at the ankle where things kind of suck. He just has those ball-peg ankle joints which don’t provide a lot of range and are prone to popping off if you push it too far. He can bend the foot back okay, but he can’t really go forward and the ankle rocker sucks. The toe hinge is tight, but also really small and I don’t see it adding much.

Aww, they’re twins!

The articulation on this guy is largely acceptable. It’s really just those ankles that I don’t like and the sleeve system up by the shoulders. All of the joints are nice and tight without being overly tight. Nothing is loose, and despite being a cheaper release, this guy feels like a SHF release. Which means, as a budget release, his only true weak area is in the accessory department. This guy just has optional parts, so no effects pieces. It’s unfortunate because those pieces are already tooled, so for Bandai the only cost is plastic. I get it though, translucent, purple, plastic isn’t exactly usable on a lot of things so it probably costs more than most parts as the machines have to be loaded with the stuff and there’s probably a lot of waste involved. Nevertheless, I can still be disappointed. Black comes with four portraits: smirk, yell, side-eyed teeth grit, and a scowl. For hands, we get fist hands, open “clenchy” hands, martial arts pose, and one two-finger Instant Transmission right hand. The clenchy hands and martial arts ones have a slightly different shape when compared with Goku, but they’re fine. Each right hand has the ring sculpted and painted as well. It’s an adequate assortment of stuff, there’s just nothing to put it over the top.

In hand, Goku looks far more paler than Black, but the flash of the camera says otherwise.

The Super Saiyan Rosé form of Goku Black is a solid release made even better by the $35 price point. Marvel Legends comes with less stuff and are now hitting $25 or more at retail, so $35 for an average SHF release is practically a steal. And I think he looks, and feels, more premium than most of the Goku releases at that same dollar amount. I think that’s mostly a result of the color palette in use as that orange plastic we see with Goku has a cheap vibe. Even Black’s skin tone is more saturated and warm and all together just more pleasant to look at. While I miss the effects parts, I don’t miss them enough to want to pay the after market rate which is around $200 these days.

This guy is available at various specialty shops online and should be arriving at Target now. I grabbed him because, when he first came out, I was trying to stay away from collecting Dragon Ball Super, but now I regret passing on some of them. I mostly got this guy in hopes that Bandai will re-release the Dragon Ball Super version of Future Trunks as he would pair well. Hopefully that’s in the cards along with Super Saiyan Blue versions of Vegeta. And if not, Goku Black is still a worthy addition to my humble display.

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