Tag Archives: tamashii nations

March 19, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Marvel Gamerverse Cyclops

By Joe
A new challenger has arrived.

A funny thing happened in 2025 where two companies revealed they were going to be making action figures based on the hit video game series Marvel vs Capcom only for neither company to actually mention the words Marvel vs Capcom. It would seem that neither Hasbro nor Bandai wanted to compensate the Capcom portion of that pairing so instead we’re getting “Gamerverse” figures based on “the popular video game series.” Yes, it was kind of amusing watching the people at Hasbro try to talk around that fact, but to the initiated these action figures are clearly based on that series of games which began way back in 1994 as X-Men: Children of the Atom before morphing into the tag team video game confrontation series it’s most known for today. To see Hasbro mine this franchise for characters was hardly a surprise. They had basically already begun as much with their release of a yellow and blue Cable in 2024 and the Iron Man with proton canon set that came before it. 2025 was just the year they leaned into it more heavily and it so far has produced some pretty nice results. As for Bandai, I’m not sure if anyone saw that coming. It makes more sense for the company since they have had the Street Fighter license in the past and seem to still do though their output has dwindled more recently (which probably has to do with that I.P. getting licensed out to several companies now). Making some Marvel characters to scale with those seems like a natural pivot, but I wasn’t sure if it was something they were allowed to do. Most of the Bandai figures I’ve seen are based on film franchises, but I guess someone at Disney felt that video games was a natural extension of that.

He’s shorter and stockier than his Legends counterpart, though the picture makes it look more apparent than it does in reality.

I’m not sure if either company had advance warning of what the other was up to, but it seemed to work out nicely for Bandai that their first ended up being the leader of the X-Men: Cyclops. Hasbro didn’t touch the character in their own Gamerverse line and even Bandai’s follow-up, Spider-Man, has so far not made an appearance for Hasbro (Wolverine follows who was the star of the Hasbro releases last year). The X-Men are pretty damn popular and it was their video game that got the ball rolling so it makes sense to turn to one of them first, though Cyclops can probably be thought of as a slight surprise. Wolverine will always be the expectation, but even someone like Gambit could have lead the way or even Rogue or Psylocke. Cyclops has been featured rather prominently in marketing materials though so it’s hardly an upset that Slim would get the coveted debut slot. And as a character who fires lasers out of his eyes, he tends to lend himself rather well to action figures. And then there’s the fact that Hasbro has kind of struggled with this design at times. I think most agree the figure based on his look in the animated series has been their best take, but that was a pretty bare bones release that was also a Pulse exclusive. He also has that controversial cel-shading much of the collector community seems to despise. The figure was essentially re-released to general retail as part of the X-Men ’97 wave of figures, but it had a new, and terrible, portrait. Many have taken to swapping the portraits between the ’92 and ’97 versions finding it’s much easier to remove the cel-shading on just a head as opposed to a whole figure.

He still looks down on a standard Wolverine, but perhaps not to the degree most would want.

As for me, my goal with my X-Men collecting is always to assemble that ’92 animated team on my shelf in the most authentic way possible. The Hasbro figure is fine, but it does bother me he has no effect parts and the portrait is pretty off-model for the show. Not terrible, but certainly not perfect. This Gamerverse Cyclops isn’t really going to get me closer to my ideal take on the character, but it did look like a figure that was just a whole lot more fun. There are caveats though. For one, he retails for around $100 for North American buyers. That’s a big price, and even though I was able to get that mark down to $89 that’s still an expensive action figure in this scale. He’s also shorter and there’s a question of scale where the figure is concerned. It wasn’t enough to get me to bail, but now that he’s in-hand it’s time to figure out if this was money well spent.

He’s got enough stuff to duplicate a lot of poses from the games.

The Gamerverse packaging is pretty much like any other SHF release. My box got pretty well mangled in shipping since I got it through Amazon and they decided that $100 figures should just be placed in brown paper bags (meanwhile, my sub $10 manga gets the box treatment). They’re lucky I’m not an in-box collector. Out of the box, Cyclops stands at around 6.125″ to the top of his hair. If Bandai is going for true 1:12 scale then this might be okay. This is video game Cyclops, not comic or cartoon Cyclops. In the game, he’s pretty much average height and if they’re saying he’s a bit over 6′ tall then that seems to conform well enough. Where it will cause issues is for those who just want to slot him in with some Marvel Legends figures. Compared to the VHS series Cyclops referenced earlier, he is indeed shorter as I have that guy at about a quarter of an inch taller. Is that a meaningful distinction? That I can’t really answer as it’s going to be pretty subjective. He’s still taller than the ’92 Wolverine and ever so slightly taller than my ’92 Jean (with a ’97 head). That’s in just a straight up and down stance for all figures. Crouch Wolverine down or put some bend in the knees of Jean and he starts to look taller. For me though, the real thing that stands out is that this is a thick Cyclops. He has a big neck and something of a square head. Cyclops traditionally has a taller, slimmer, head in this costume, but with this design the head is more in-line with the neck. It’s an all-together different silhouette. His torso comes across as more compact, though in reality it’s the same size as the Hasbro figure if not a little taller. It’s the thickness and his unique belt that give off the appearance of a stockier torso. The legs are indeed shorter than usual though while his arms might be a touch longer than average or it’s just his big mitts that make it appear that way. This is the point where I mention that some folks who have this figure have purchased an aftermarket double ball peg for the inner torso that does make the figure taller. I think his issue, if there is one, rests with the legs though so I’m not too keen to fork over the $30 for a piece of plastic to see if I like it better, but it’s out there if that’s your thing.

Cyclops has two blast options plus two additional neck parts to adjust the angle of his blast and provide more stability, though the default neck is pretty good at both.

The other thing that stands out with this figure when grouped with your Legends is the shade of yellow in use. With Hasbro, recent editions of Cyclops have gone very yellow – a bright, lemony, shade. With this figure we’re back to that orange-yellow which Hasbro used to use for Cyclops. It wasn’t super obvious to me in the solicitation shots, but in-hand it most certainly is. I prefer this costume go more yellow as it plays off the darker blues better, but his bodysuit also isn’t the same shade of blue that Hasbro has been using. For that, we get a lighter blue with almost a metallic finish. It’s subtle, but there’s a purposeful shine to it. There’s also shading in the lines for the muscles and around the joints which does look nice in person. It’s just a shame the orange-yellow parts lack the same care. Those parts are basically all bare plastic and some take on a non-purposeful shine that looks cheap. In particular is the crotch area where Bandai is utilizing hard plastic caps to fill gaps like we used to see with the Dragon Ball line. The visor, unfortunately, suffers from the same. The painted yellow at the thighs and wrists looks better as it absorbs more light while the boots, unfortunately are colored plastic though they’re not the same material as those harder pieces. The skin tone is also extremely pale, almost a bone white. The hair is unpainted, but sculpted in a very convincing manner that’s almost too realistic, but otherwise looks nice. I should also point out that this design uses the non-traditional “A” shape for the rear of the harness that’s true to the game (and if you had the classic Toy Biz figure it was the same there) while most illustrations of this costume just have the rear mirror the front without the X logo.

Bandai also threw in this cardboard accessory that’s…interesting.

Those unsure of the overall look of the figure will likely need to be sold on the next two parts: accessories and articulation. At least in the accessory department, this figure is a clear upgrade over most others. Cyclops comes with five sets of hands: fists, two-finger pointing, open, clenching, and chop. The two-finger pose is for when he manually activates his optic blasts at the visor and also his pointing gesture for a victory pose in the games. The chop also comes from the games where he makes an X with his arms before unleashing his super. They’re all good choices, but more exciting are the effects. For optional expressions, we get a teeth-gritting and a yelling head to go with his default neutral expression. The hair swaps to all of the heads while the visors do as well. And for those we get a total of four: standard, power “leaking,” short blast, and long blast. The standard one is just that, it’s a shiny plastic piece with a red line painted on. The “leaking” one has a translucent, red, piece which mimics a lot of the game art for the character and is a pretty fun look for your self. That is, if you can resist using one of the blasting visors. The shorter one is more narrow and kind of like a blade while the longer one mushrooms at the end. Both are done with translucent red plastic sprayed with white for a nice look. Both are pretty great and shelf space may be the driving force over which one you prefer. Or how they fit since that’s a bit of an issue. The optional visors have a hard time sitting flush with the portraits and can leave a tiny gap near the ear. Heating the head you wish to use and softening the plastic can help, as can just plain old elbow grease. I haven’t had any issues getting them to stay on and I even placed Cyclops on my shelf with the heavier of the two blasts for a couple of weeks before getting to this review and his head never drooped and the part never fell out. Still, after my experience with the interchangeable face plats on the recently released Super Saiyan Goku, it’s a bummer to see a similar issue here albeit one that isn’t to the same degree.

This seems like a more relevant size comparison than perhaps one to Legends figures.

Rounding out the package is a cardboard standee of Cyclops’ massive optic blast from the game. It’s two pieces of cardstock and I guess it looks fine, but it’s a pretty cheap presentation no matter the quality of the print. I suppose it didn’t cost them much of anything to include, but I can’t see using this thing. Of more note are the optional neck parts. Of which there are two. They pop in and out very easily and the intent seems to be to provide a more stable base for the heavier effect parts. Both basically remove the ability for the neck to do much where it meats the torso while retaining the head articulation. One piece is more straight on while the other is angled up slightly. It’s a good thought and a bit of a fail safe in case the default neck proved to be too loose, but I haven’t experienced any issues with the standard one. For my two week experiment from before, I kept the standard neck in place just to see what would happen and it held up fine. Would it still after six months? A year? I don’t know, but it certainly doesn’t seem any looser. These extra parts can perhaps get a more natural looking curve to the neck for those blasting poses so they’re not worthless or anything, just interesting. And in case you were wondering, even the longer one doesn’t materially change the profile of the figure. It sits lower in the torso and I still have him at 6 and an eighth with the longest neck in place.

Natural rivals.

The other most likely area for this Cyclops to shine when compared with the cheaper alternatives is with the articulation. It’s what Tamashii Nations has staked its reputation on. With Cyclops, he seems to follow a lot of the same design philosophies as the recently released Scarlet Spider and that’s not exactly welcomed news for me. We do get a mostly typical load-out for a SHF release: double ball head, ball neck, shoulder hinges that peg in, butterfly, bicep, double elbows, wrist ball-hinge joints, diaphragm double ball joint, hips, thighs, double knees, ankle swivel, ankle rocker, ankle hinge, toe hinge. What’s missing? A damn waist joint. Why is Bandai omitting waist articulation from its Marvel figures lately? I don’t understand it. With Scarlet Spider, the culprit is a lower back piece that’s part of the waist sculpt and seems to only exist to prevent gaps from appearing at the waist. The joint itself is a simple ball peg, like most SHF releases, and it’s just this spacer that prevents rotation. With Cyclops, perhaps it has something to do with these straps that go over the shoulders. They connect underneath the abdomen and there’s actually some play here. You can pull them out and push them back in to provide for more articulation in the diaphragm. It’s a sound concept, but practically speaking offers little. That joint is pretty limited as it mostly tilts and barely rotates. There isn’t an obvious spacer like Scarlet Spider, but there is a blue piece that appears to be doing essentially the same thing and that is preventing the figure from rotating. The hips with the old cap system in place at least work well going forward and back as well as out to the side – certainly more than a Cyclops likely needs. I do like the more traditional thigh cut instead of that hideous thing they’ve been giving us in the Dragon Ball line and the ankles work well. There is an exposed, metal, ring on the hinge at the ankles which some may not like to see. They also did the same thing with the shoulders as we saw with Scarlet Spider where the inside of the shoulder is quite flat. If you put him in a standard T-pose he’ll look pretty weird, but I guess that’s a pose you’re probably not likely to do so does it matter? The butterfly joint is okay and doesn’t break up the sculpt much so we’ll call it a plus. Really, it’s just the torso that blows, but that is kind of a big deal since the torso is most of the figure. Nothing is stuck or floppy so the quality control where articulation is concerned is at least a positive.

I have some nits to pick with a lot of the figures here, but I don’t hate how this looks.

At the end of the day, I’m a little conflicted here. This isn’t my ideal interpretation of Cyclops, but I can’t really say it’s off compared with the game it’s drawing inspiration from so I don’t think it’s fair to knock it for that. If you want to get more into it, this figure more embodies the artwork associated with the Capcom games as opposed to the sprite and that’s potentially a conversation worth having for those building out a Marvel vs Capcom collection. His scale is certainly off with Marvel Legends, but again, that’s not really this figure’s problem. Sure, I would have personally preferred him to scale better with Legends, but it’s not an expectation I can put on it either. It needs to scale with the figures Bandai is releasing though in that regard it’s impossible to say since he’s the first. He does seem to scale fine with Storm Arena which may matter more in this case for those building out that MvC display. What truly irritates me though is the articulation in the torso and the lack of paint on the yellow parts. He looks a little too cheap to be a $100 figure. Bandai doesn’t typically occupy that price range save for their more limited offerings, but maybe the Marvel tax is a significant one. If he were more at that mid-tier SHF price point, say $65, I’d feel better about the lack of paint, but at $100 this doesn’t really cut it. I’m left with a figure that I’m happy to have in my collection, but I don’t think he’s really worth the ask. I would not be shocked if this line dies because Marvel is fairly oversaturated at this point and the price is pretty insane. There may be deals in the future. I’m also less inclined to continue down this path despite my positive reaction to the Spider-Man they showed off. I need to think on that one some more and see how he turns out before committing to purchasing it. The same is true for Wolverine and whatever follows. If this line is one that interests you I’d recommend seeking out multiple opinions and going from there. Yeah, this hobby is an expensive one these days and six months from now you probably won’t miss that $100 too much no matter how you feel about this thing, but we probably should expect more for our buck.

There’s a lot of stuff I could list here that is likely of interest, but I can only select three. Maybe check out my Toy Review Archive if you want to know more of my thoughts on all of the figures that could relate tot his one:

S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider

In the two reviews I did of Scarlet Spider action figures I shared the origins of my love for the character’s design. To make it short, I found the appearance of him on a cover of a Spider-Man comic intriguing, but more is as a young artist I much preferred to doodle him in my…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Wolverine vs Silver Samurai

Video game inspired action figures are quite the hot ticket right now. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but maybe some of that is owed to Jada Toys and how well received their line of Ultra Street Fighter 2 action figures have been received. Hasbro, for their part, has had a “Gamerverse” subline of…

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by Joe

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Ken

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 came out of no where. I was a kid during the early 90s and into video games so I know a thing or two about Street Fighter. Street Fighter II was everywhere and is pretty much the reason why the one-on-one fighting game became a huge genre…

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by Joe

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March 12, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Goku – The Games Begin

By Joe
Hey look! Another Goku!

It was around 8 years ago that Bandai released an update to their Goku body. Dubbed the 2.0 mold, the company has since created many action figures of the legendary hero since then. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the sculpt, but some aspects of it have become dated. When Bandai wanted to do an update to Goku’s legendary Super Saiyan form, the company opted to completely redo the body rather than kitbash something together. New molds have been created for the likes of Gohan, Trunks, Krillin, and others and many collectors were left to wonder when Bandai would turn its attention to the protagonist of the series once again – a 3.0 body that it could then utilize for another round of different Goku figures.

This new Goku represents an upgrade over the 2.0 body (left) by incorporating some of the design changes implemented with the Super Hero Gohan (right).

That 3.0 body has arrived. And to debut the look Bandai turned to a pretty familiar look for Goku – that of a Super Saiyan. Dubbed “The Games Begin,” this Goku is specifically from The Cell Games era of Dragon Ball Z, an era of the show and manga most would describe as the peak of the show’s art. Those rounded edges of Dragon Ball and early Z were gone, replaced with sharp angles and well-muscled super men. I’m not here to say that everyone thinks this is the best of DBZ or Dragon Ball as a whole, but if you encounter licensing art outside the show chances are it’s going to resemble this era of the anime. And the franchise has basically retained this style ever since with the most radical departures being the Broly film and Dragon Ball Daima. Perhaps coincidentally, we did get a Daima Goku prior to this one – a figure I didn’t seek out. Some of the articulation tweaks Bandai made for that figure have been carried over to this one and it seems likely that these are here to stay.

Quality control is, unfortunately, a problem here as the faces struggle to fit the hair piece leaving behind small gaps.

The main difference in stylistic approach for this Goku update is the move away from an all sculpt approach to one that mixes sculpted parts with overlays. We saw Bandai kick the tires on such a style with Krillin and the Super Hero version of Gohan. There’s basically a sculpted base body with a rubbery overlay laid over the top of that for the upper portion of the gi. It presents better, and it removes the obstacle of trying to match paints to colored plastic as they no longer have to paint the exposed flesh of the chest, but it does change how the figures articulate. The other big change is the move away from those pegged-in sleeve cuffs Goku used to sport. The portions of the gi that covered his shoulders were always plastic caps that pegged directly into the shoulder. It made articulating the arm easy, but it did look kind of odd. The biggest change though is the move from a double-jointed knee to a single-jointed one. That is basically completely new and it’s the element of this design we saw on the Daima Goku first. Goku’s baggy pants always made sculpting the double joint a little messy and the shape of the pants also limited how much range the figure could get at the knee. Someone at Tamashii Nations must have been looking at that joint and concluded “What’s the point?” If it can only achieve a slightly better than 90 degree bend then why not try a single joint that basically does the same thing and presents better?

The alternate hair is arguable worse when it comes to gaps, and mine has a defect on that center piece of hair as well.

We’ll tackle the presentation element first. This new Goku stands at approximately 5.5″ to where I estimate the top of his head would be under all of the Super Saiyan hair. He’s essentially the same height as the 2.0 Goku when the torso hinge is not extended. If you were someone who liked displaying Goku with his torso stretched to the max then this one is slightly shorter. The faces look enough like Goku while the hair shape is appropriate. The sculpt on the body is more muscled and bulky which is appropriate for this era of the show. It does give him a slightly stocky look though. When I look at individual parts and limbs, it all seems fine, but put together it just looks a little off. Maybe his legs need to be a little longer? Is the neck too thick? There is a hinge in the joint where the head meets the neck and if the head is seated all the way down it makes the issue worse. I definitely prefer it extended. The torso uses some mixed media. We have the soft, orange, overlay with hard plastic underneath it. The overlay has a softer appearance that’s slightly pale compared with the harder plastic parts. It clashes a little with the orange of the lower torso and legs as the two have a different finish. The overlay also doesn’t include Goku’s blue undershirt so Bandai still needed to paint the exposed portion of his chest. The neck, face, and arms are unpainted for the flesh tone, but Bandai got pretty close with the painted part as far as matching the bare plastic goes. Like the overlay, it just has a different finish and thus reflects light differently so there’s a noticeable difference, but it’s not as extreme as we’ve seen with past releases.

The new knees at least turned out well.

The belt is a floating piece while the wristbands are now separate and unpainted. All of the blues on the upper body are different hues which is a little strange looking, but not necessarily inaccurate. The crotch area is done the way we’ve seen Bandai do it with more recent releases like Future Trunks.. Those floating, spacers, are gone and instead we have legs with obvious thigh swivels. Bandai cuts them out on a curve and has the side of the pants run higher than the front which seems needlessly complicated. It looks better from a straight side angle, but from the front it looks worse than an old-fashioned thigh cut. The single jointed knees do present cleaner and the boots are similar to the Legendary Super Saiyan Goku. Most of the paint on this figure is reserved for the details on the boots which is clean. The rest of the paint is mostly shading on the front of the pants which is heavier near the boots and lessens as it moves up the figure’s legs. The hair is done with pale yellow plastic and shaded with a soft orange which is a nice look and probably my preferred approach for Super Saiyan hair.

It would have been nice to get an effect part. I had to take this from a past Goku.

Did Bandai knock this one out of the park in terms of a visual upgrade? Not really. The arms definitely look better without those plastic caps pegged in, but I don’t like the look of the mixed media on the torso. There’s more front-to-back bulk in the torso which was my biggest issue with the old design, but the chest sill comes across as a little flat. The knees are definitely an improvement, but the thighs are not. I really hate this approach Bandai has been using lately. He also has that weird, droopy, butt Daima Vegeta has. I’m pretty conflicted here, so let’s move on to the rest.

This new shin joint is pretty weird.
Range is better, but it can get pretty gappy.

The accessory load out is pretty basic for Goku, but considering he’s in that more budget price of $35-$38 that’s to be expected. We get four faces for this one: stoic, teeth gritting, yelling, and a smirk where his eyes have that rounded-off look to them. We also get two hair pieces in the form of a standard one and a windswept one. Unfortunately, the windswept hair I received has a chewed-up portion on the center piece of hair on the front attachment. It’s pretty awful and I don’t know if I’ll ever display this one as a result. The faces and hair also do not go together well. This is a figure out of the Vietnam factory and we’ve seen that one have issues with the finer details of its output. With this one, it’s a struggle to get the faces to fit flush on either hair piece and you should probably just try and heat the hair first to see if that helps. The spikey nature of the hair also makes trying to use force to fit them together a painful exercise. Swapping the hair is also a pain as the ball peg in the neck will likely pop out first. I was able to pull the piece out of the hair without heat, but it left my fingers in some pain thanks to those spikes. For hands, there’s a set of fists, open, two-finger pointing, clenching, and Goku’s martial arts posed hands and that’s the extent of the hands. They come off and go on with relative ease, at least.

He can at least do a pretty solid Kamehameha pose.

Perhaps even more so than the aesthetics with this figure is the articulation when it comes to its selling points. Bandai has all kinds of silly buzz words associated with it, but what you need to know is this figure articulates a lot like the Gohan figure with only minor differences. The head is one such difference as we do have a hinge in there. There’s a little room cut out of the back of the neck to help with range looking up, but it doesn’t help much and exposes a gap under the chin. He looks down well enough and I can’t tell if the joint at the base of the neck is even doing anything here. The shoulders, the biggest selling points, are hinged ball pegs that plug into a cup inside the shoulder. That cup is on a hinge as well which gets us the butterfly articulation. The arms basically pull out to the side in order to have enough clearance to come across the chest. And it works! Goku can do a fairly convincing Kamehameha. There’s also the usual bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and hinged ball peg wrists.

Attempts at a pair of classic Goku stances return mixed results.

In the torso, there’s a ball joint in the diaphragm and a hinge below it for an ab crunch. The range is quite good in all directions, but as we saw with Daima Vegeta it does create large gaps pretty easily. The floating belt can be manipulated to hide it some, but it only does so much. The legs can go out to the side nearly to a full split and kick forward just a hair better than 90 degrees while going back is imepeded by his long, flat, butt. The thigh swivel does what one would expect while the single-hinged knee gets better than 90 degrees of bend going back. In a pretty weird move, Bandai put a joint at the boot, but not what you would expect. Instead of a swivel, it’s a hinge of some kind. It bends maybe 30 degrees forward and I guess it’s for adjustment posing in certain stances. It mostly seems to make standing the figure harder than it should be as this joint is pretty loose. Not floppy, but there’s little resistance. The ankles are ball-hinged so they swivel, hinge forward and back, and rock side-to-side. The range going forward is pretty much nonexistent on the hinge, but the rest is fine. There’s also a toe hinge if you value that.

The Cell Saga has been pretty well represented in this line.

All in all, this one is a bit of a mixed bag. I had high hopes when it was first unveiled and visions of replacing a lot of the Goku figures in my collection with updates on this body, but now I’m not so sure. I don’t think I’ll be getting the base Goku and I definitely don’t need Super Saiyan 2 or 3 updates. I don’t really like my current Super Saiyan Blue Goku so I tentatively have the new one on preorder, but it may be one I seek out reviews on to see if some of the finer points are at least cleaned up. Overall, on the articulation front Bandai and Tamashii Nations mostly delivered here. I don’t see much reason for the odd shin hinge, but the shoulders work well and the torso has good range, even if it can get unsightly. I don’t like the head or the thighs and the thighs play a big part in the aesthetics, which I’m less sold on. The proportions and mixed media look best when posed-up, but then you have the gaps to contend with so there’s a feeling like you just can’t win with this one. The quality control issues are also not a point in its favor. The faces don’t fit together well and swapping the hair pieces is not a smooth process leaving a lot to be desired. This may be a budget release as far as the line’s standards are concerned, but it shouldn’t feel like one. And since this is undoubtedly a figure that’s going to be re-released many times over I can’t help but come away disappointed with the end result. If it’s one you want, I would recommend giving it some time. There’s a reissue going up in March and it’s possible some of the quality control issues will be addressed there like they were with Future Trunks. This is the one time where you should avoid buying from anyone who has stock at the time this post goes up and instead seek out a preorder. There are also three other Goku figures on this body due for release in 2026 (base Goku, Super Saiyan God, and Super Saiyan Blue) so maybe check those out to see if the quality gets better before committing to this one.

Interested in some of the figures referenced above? Then check these out:

Dragon Ball Daima S.H.Figuarts Vegeta

Dragon Ball Daima has come and gone, but we’re still getting action figures based on the limited series. When it comes to the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, that’s usually par for the course. It’s not like the classic movie tie-in toy line where product shows up in stores weeks before the movie hits theaters.…

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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 Dragon Ball Z Krillin – 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.…

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by Joe

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February 5, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider

By Joe
Look at this beauty!

In the two reviews I did of Scarlet Spider action figures I shared the origins of my love for the character’s design. To make it short, I found the appearance of him on a cover of a Spider-Man comic intriguing, but more is as a young artist I much preferred to doodle him in my notebook than Spider-Man himself. And that’s due to the lack of those tedious web lines the traditional Spidey costume contains. And even so, there’s something about the simplified look of the red body suit with a ratty, blue, hoodie over it that works. The shape of the eyes worked for me and the exposed web shooters also looked kind of cool, but what really sold it are the artists (Tom Lyle is the one who is credited as designing the character) who drew and colored this look because that heavy, black, shading just made him seem so much more intense and mysterious.

I like all three of these figures, but this new one from Bandai does make the other two look quite dull by comparison.

When Scarlet Spider showed up in the movie Across the Spider-Verse I immediately wanted a figure of that look. The art designer (Kris Anka is credited as the character designer) for that film clearly knew what made the costume pop as he was depicted with heavy comic shading in every scene he appeared in. Hasbro, unfortunately, declined to include him in their companion action figure line, but they did release the character on a retro card later. Medicom did one and then even did a shaded one last year as a convention exclusive, but the shading was basically just a little black on his face. It wasn’t what we saw on film or in the comics, but here comes Bandai! Bandai has released a few figures in its S.H.Figuarts line based on the movie, but for some reason I never considered them a possibility for this look. They’re usually not really into painting their figures while Medicom has actually done comic shaded figures of Spider-Man in the past. When they showed this one off though I knew I had to have it. I even preordered it via Hobby-Genki, an import operation in Japan, rather than wait for one of the US stores to get the figure in. And, of course, because of those wonderful tariffs it ended up costing me about the same so while I didn’t save any real money, I did get the figure a little quicker.

I do like these wall crawling hands.

Ben Reilly comes in the standard SHF box. There’s some artwork on it that is vaguely similar to the style of the film and it’s adorned with photos of the figure in action. To my surprise, there is an included set of basic instructions for the figure as opposed to having them printed on the inner box flap like most of the recent Dragon Ball releases. Scarlet Spider (which has a hyphen in the name on the box which I’ve never seen before with this character) stands at about 6.5″ so he is right there with the Legends figure so if you think that one is appropriately sized for your Marvel collection then this one should be too. I like that figure, but placing it beside this new one really makes it look inferior. It’s just bare plastic while this figure from Bandai is covered with black shading and it looks fantastic. They didn’t hold back and there’s a liberal amount of the black on every part of the figure. The web shooters and cartridges on his belt have some nice linework on them as well and there’s even a little shading on those goofy ankle pouches. I really like how the mask turned out and it helps the white eyes to really pop. The blue of the hoodie is a touch darker than the Legends figure and the same is true for the red making it look a lot closer to an actual scarlet shade of red. There’s tons of shading on the rear of the figure as well so there was no skimping at any point.

Even the rear of the figure has as much as detail as the front.

This figure is stunning and I don’t think there’s a thing about the presentation here that I’d change. It’s going to run into some issues where the linework won’t stay in-line when you move limbs, but because there’s so much it’s not as noticeable as it could be. The hoodie is non-functioning, if that matters to you, so he can’t pull it up over his head. It’s also hard plastic so those who prefer soft goods might be turned off a little, but I don’t think you could do shading like this with soft goods. Bandai did load him up with some accessories, though not as many as the Medicom release. For hands, we get fists, gripping, gripping with a thumb out, wall-crawling, web-shooting, and open hands. The wall-crawling hands have a more pronounced arch to the fingers which I like when compared with other versions of the same. There are two web lines – one with a ring at the base to mimic a web-shooting pose and one long one for swinging. There’s an unmasked portrait which also has a neck piece as part of it and Ben looks like his douchey self from the film. It’s great, but I’ll never use it after taking some pictures. What’s missing is a flight stand. An expensive Spider-Man figure should always come with one, but Bandai almost never includes them with their offerings unless absolutely necessary.

Two accessories that turned out well that I’ll likely never use: the unmasked portrait and the time bracelet.

Where this figure does stumble is in the action department. Like any Tamashii Nations release, there’s a bunch of joints on this guy, but unfortunately they don’t seem to work very well. The rundown is pretty typical: head, neck, shoulders, butterfly, bicep, double elbows, wrist, diaphragm, waist, hips, thighs, double knees, ankles and toes. What works well is the head and neck which has plenty of range and personality and I have no issues with the arms or knees. The butterfly joint is restricted and doesn’t go forward or back all that much. It’s better than nothing, but the sleeve piece of the hoodie prevents the figure from reaching over its head in a swinging pose. The ankle rocker is pretty limited too and quite steep. What sucks though is the torso and, to a lesser extent, the hips. Scarlet Spider can do the forward to back splits, but out to the side is pretty limited. The torso though feels almost static. I can’t get the joint under the hoodie to do anything. It wiggles so I’m pretty sure it’s there, but it’s useless. The waist also just seems to pivot and rock a bit. What I can’t get it to do is actually rotate and that’s just bizarre. It might just be seized, or something with the shape of the cut is causing it to bind. It’s quite unfortunate.

If you have a stand handy he can get into some decent web-swinging poses, but the lack of rotation in the torso is frustrating.

The end result is that this is a Spider-Man figure that’s not very good at doing Spider-Man type poses. He can do some, but basic wall-crawling is pretty much out. He can only do a basic crouch and he’ll need some kind of support to actually hold the pose on your shelf. It’s a bummer, and honestly quite surprising as most SHF releases I have articulate pretty well, even some of the odder designs. And this is, ultimately, a guy in a skin-tight suit with just a hoodie to get in the way. It should be very easy to articulate, but they completely dropped the ball.

At least the shading is so good that he doesn’t really have to do much to look cool.

Does that make this release a bad one? Yes and no. If you want and expect articulation better than your $25 Marvel Legends figure then this will let you down. This is a downgrade in articulation from the Legends figure and especially the MAFEX one. It’s honestly more on par with the Mondo sixth scale Spider-Man than those figures. Maybe even worse because of that waist. I’ll do some checking around and see if anyone else has the same issue with the waist as I do and if I can at least get that to rotate I think I’ll be a lot more satisfied, but it will still be lackluster. If you don’t need this figure to pose as well as a Legends figure, then you’ll likely be a lot happier. I do think this is one of the best looking figures in my collection. It’s a Mondo type of presentation on a 1:12 scale figure. It looks spectacular, and that’s what I wanted. It’s a damn good thing that it looks great in a standard, hero pose lessening the desire to do something more exotic. It still shouldn’t be that way, but presentation matters a lot too. And that’s what it comes down to. If you are as in love with the appearance of this one then you’ll probably be happy. If not, then you should probably pass because this figure isn’t cheap. It’s actual price tag from an import shop is around $80, but after shipping and duties it will end up around the $110 Big Bad Toy Store is charging. If you shop around you may find a better deal, but either way this is a pricey figure. If I wasn’t such a fan of this particular look I would likely chosen to admire it form afar, but even with the articulation limitations, it’s my favorite Scarlet Spider in my collection.

If you’re curious what I thought of those other Scarlet Spider figures and even that Mondo one I mentioned then look no further:

Marvel Legends Retro Card Scarlet Spider

It was in this space last year that I shared my fondness for the Scarlet Spider costume when I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Scarlet Spider action figure. I don’t buy much from Medicom because their figures are really expensive for what they are, but I sometimes break my own rule when I think they’ve made…

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by Joe

Medicom MAFEX Marvel No. 186 Scarlet Spider

When I was a kid, one of my favorite past times was drawing. Like most, I started really young with a box of crayons and coloring books. I’d eventually start keeping markers, colored pencils, and other instruments in a plastic McDonald’s case that came from a Happy Meal. It was blue and had a map…

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by Joe

Mondo 1/6 Scale Spider-Man (Spider-Man ’94)

It took a long time for Mondo’s Spider-Man to get to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to even buy it. I passed on the Mondo offering in 2024, debated the symbiote costume variant, but ultimately passed on that as well. The X-Men line from Mondo is my true love and…

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by Joe

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October 9, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Cooler: Final Form – 40th Anniversary Reissue Edition

By Joe
Let’s celebrate 40 years of Dragon Ball with the timeless Cooler!

Bandai sure picked an interesting way to celebrate 40 years of Dragon Ball. Well, in the United States they did. In Japan, to mark the occasion the company released a brand new Goku and Shenlong action figure set based on the cover of Dragon Ball issue #1. Makes sense. For the US market, we get a reissue of Frieza’s brother, Cooler, as he appeared in the movie Cooler’s Revenge. If you’re familiar with Dragon Ball Z movies, then you probably know that they’re all non-canon. They weren’t written by series creator Akira Toriyama and they mostly exist just to have something DBZ related to put in a movie theater. That doesn’t mean they’re all bad or terrible, and Toriyama at least did design characters like Cooler, but if you’re looking to celebrate a milestone such as 40 years of Dragon Ball wouldn’t you want to celebrate, I don’t know, Dragon Ball?

If you already have version 1 of Cooler, this is the only reason to get version 2.

Truthfully, I can’t say I’m disappointed at another chance to add Cooler to my collection. I don’t particularly care for the movie he’s from, but as a character design he looks pretty neat. He’s like a cross between Frieza’s second form, Imperfect Cell, and the architecture of Planet Namek. He’s very alien looking, but there’s enough to him to tie him to his brother that it works really well. Originally, this figure was solicited via Premium Bandai which is a made-to-order service where the figures are meant to be one and done. At the time he went up for preorder I felt like I was all set with characters from the movies. He didn’t feel like something I needed in my collection. Fast forward the 8 months or so it took for delivery and suddenly I had regrets. Not only did Cooler look pretty cool, he turned out really well from an engineering standpoint and just looked like a damn fun action figure to have. Aftermarket prices were crazy though so I just resigned myself to my Cooler-less fate.

Cooler and a pair of Friezas. Not pictured: their sister Fridge.

Over the years, Bandai has seemingly realized that limited runs of products people might actually want down the line is a bad business strategy. For some previously Premium Bandai only releases, we’ve seen them get the convention exclusive treatment with a new deco. With Cooler, it’s not even that. This is exactly the same release as the one from three years ago. Even the packaging is the same. The only difference is now it’s labeled as a 40th anniversary reissue edition and it comes with a base. And the actual base is just the standard Tamashii Nations base that’s an acrylic disc, in this case translucent purple, and it has the 40th anniversary graphic on it. There are four ports for an action stand, but no stand is included. It’s kind of cheap that they didn’t just toss in the armature for the stand, but I’m guessing collectors who already have the first one are glad there isn’t a new portrait or effect part included to give them pause about rebuying the figure. This edition is clearly intended for those who passed on the first release or weren’t actively collecting back then. And at $90 MSRP, it’s more or less the same price as it was then too (I don’t remember what it cost exactly).

Where the big boys play.

Cooler is one of the taller figures in this line coming it at about 7.25″ to the top of his head and well over 8″ to the tips of his spikes. He’s comprised primarily of purple plastic for the base body and white plastic for the carapace like shell over the chest, head, wrists, and shins. There’s some dark purple shading on the body most prominent in the thighs while the dark purple accents on the forearms, forehead, and shins have a very glossy finish which contrasts nicely with the matte white. There are numerous hashmarks carved into the white bits reminiscent of the Full Power Frieza and its battle damage. There’s no shading applied to those parts though which is a bit of a bummer. I’d love to see what a light wash would do for those marks as I think the figure would pop more if they were brought out. There is some paint on the face reserved for the red eyes and some black outline. It’s actually more of a dark gray around the eyes with a very light gray used on the faceguard. The nails on his hands and feet are painted a shiny black and overall this is a nice looking figure. The proportions are terrific and he looks mighty imposing even on a shelf with numerous tough looking characters.

Not a perfect paint job.
“I want you for Cooler Corps!”

Apart from the fancy new base, Cooler’s accessories are relegated to extra parts of a pretty conventional nature. He does have a second head which omits the faceguard that kind of just appears when he wants it to in the movie. The alternate head features a sinister smirk and drops the gray shading around the eyes. The sculpt is nice, but the paint is not crisp along the right side on my figure. For hands, we get a set of fists, clenching, open, and pointing gestures. He also has an alternate set of feet like his brother that are closer to a gripping pose. Swapping parts is pretty effortless as the hands and feet come off and go on with little force. The head ornament, if you will, pops off and is shared between both portraits and that has a nice seamless integration on both heads.

They had to get creative with this one.
Not loving how the tail turned out.

The articulation for Cooler is rather extensive and creatively applied. The head is a standard double ball peg with a ball joint at the base of the neck as well. The shoulders are butterflied and the big armor pieces that loop over them are pegged just inside the pectorals. This allows them to move out of the way while the pecs also tend to hide the peg. Pull the arms back all the way and it will expose a small gap inside the pectoral area, but I’m impressed with the clearance and lack of part rub. Whoever designed this joint had to be precise and they nailed it. The rest of the arm is the typical hinge and ball peg at the shoulder with a bicep swivel, double-elbow, and ball hinge wrist. There is a ball joint in the torso which gets really good forward and back movement as well some rotation and tilt. You have to work around the shape of the chest to make use of it, but it’s there and it’s smooth. The ball joint at the waist provides another point of rotation and will help in getting the figure to crunch forward and lean back. There is some gapping there and on the back when bending as far as it will go, but it’s not as pronounced as we’ve seen with other figures. Hips will kick forward about 90 degrees and can almost hit splits out to the side. From there, you have a thigh swivel, double-jointed knee, and ball hinge ankles. The knees do produce some gaps, but otherwise range is solid to good at all places. The tail connects via a hinged ball peg and there’s another ball joint about halfway through. Mine is stuck at the first ball joint and won’t swivel, but all in all I don’t like the look of this tail and would prefer something that’s preposed instead.

Can Goku handle Frieza’s brother?! Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!

This is an overall impressive release from Bandai and Tamashii Nations. He looks great and aside from the tail, the articulation is integrated very well into a fairly complicated design. And even better is how smooth the joints are. They are nice and tight without being too tight. Nothing is even remotely loose. This figure was manufactured in the Vietnam factory and it’s easily their best output that I’ve handled. I think the days where you can tell where a figure was made in this line without looking are over. I was right to feel remorse at not buying him the first time around and I’m glad Bandai made him available again. It’s something they should do more of as I know there are a lot of collectors who hate that they missed out on characters like The Ginyu Force. If they do another run of Cooler’s metal form I may need to reconsider on that one too. And while I’m disappointed that we in the US weren’t given a shot at that special edition kid Goku, at least we weren’t shut out completely. Unfortunately, if you missed this preorder earlier this year then you’re out of luck. Hopefully the presence of this edition will knock down aftermarket prices on the original for those who want him.

The Frieza family is certainly an interesting one, though probably not a healthy one:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Full Power Frieza

Frieza is the villain from Dragon Ball who just refuses to die. His initial battle with the heroes of Dragon Ball Z spans a whopping 30 episodes! Thank goodness that DBZ was a weekday show or else it would have taken more than half a year to see Frieza get taken down. And that’s just…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z – Mecha Frieza

When you have an action figure line as long in the tooth as the Bandai/Tamashii Nations Dragon Ball Z line from S.H.Figuarts, you tend to find some pretty obscure characters making the jump to plastic. Characters that may have existed for a blink and you miss it kind of moment, but when one’s collection already…

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by Joe

Dragon Ball Z: Cooler’s Revenge

Japanese Title:  The Incredible Mightiest vs. Mightiest Original Release Date:  July 20, 1991 English Release Date:  January 22, 2002 Directed by:  Mitsuo Hashimoto Screenplay by:  Takao Koyama Running Time:  47 minutes This seems as good a time as any to talk about the titles of these movies. The direct translation from Japanese is right at…

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August 14, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Deadpool & Wolverine Wolverine

By Joe
Another figure from last summer’s blockbuster. We like to stay current here.

It feels like a theme this summer for me is buying action figures I previously deemed unworthy of my money as they go on clearance. Sometimes that’s a dumb thing to do. If I didn’t want something six months ago why should I want it now just because it’s cheaper? In the case of today’s review, the answer is because I think it’s a good figure. The S.H.Figuarts Wolverine from the movie Deadpool & Wolverine is probably the best figure yet of the character from that film, with the caveat it’s the most expensive and technically isn’t from the film. Both of those aspects of the figure is why I cancelled my original preorder, but when I saw I could get the figure for 40% off I decided that was good enough to get this imperfect representation of Wolverine.

Probably the best figure from the movie so far, even if he never looked like this in the movie.

Let’s cut to the chase – this figure is not really from the movie. It depicts Wolverine in full costume which includes the mask and the sleeves. At no point in the movie did we see Wolverine look like this. By the time he put the mask on he had ditched the sleeves. Unfortunately, Bandai didn’t base their figure on this look nor did they include an unmasked head like the Marvel Legends release. There could be reasons for that which are perfectly valid. Bandai may have been going off of concept art released to them by Disney which is probably the most likely reason. They may have also not wanted to pay for the actor likeness to include a Hugh Jackman head which would make them cheap. It would have been nice if such could be included, or if there were bare arms also included (or just made the default look), but we can only judge the figure on what is present and what it’s trying to achieve. It just meant that it wasn’t worth $85 to me. As imperfect as the Legends release is, I was mostly sated in having it, but the lure of a better price has brought me here today.

And for those wondering, no, you can’t use the Legends unmasked head with this one.

Wolverine stands at approximately 6″ to the top of his head, or just a little taller. Hugh Jackman is 6′ 2″ so that little tick over the 6″ mark basically puts him at an accurate 1:12 scale, assuming the boots he wore in the film didn’t add an inch or two. He is shorter than the Legends version which I had at 6.5″, but that’s pretty consistent for Legends which tends to run a little bigger than true 1:12 scale. He seems a little shorter than the SHF Deadpool though that seems to mostly be in the head. That Deadpool has an oversized melon that becomes more apparent when placed with this figure (for the record, Jackman and Reynolds are both listed as being 6’2″). The costume is textured all over like the one from the film and it’s comprised mostly of colored plastic. The yellow is a pale yellow, especially compared with the more saturated Legends release that is more like honey colored. This shade looks more accurate to my eye. The blue and black is what’s painted, as well as the tiny silver buttons, and everything is pretty clean. The finish is nice and on the blue of the gloves, boots, and shoulder pads there’s a bit of a glossy finish which reflects the look of the film as well. The claws are a nice, metallic, silver and quite pointy. Be careful swapping hands as those claws are rigid and will hurt if you’re not careful.

Deadpool is actually a little taller this time.
It works.
They don’t like each other.

What stands out the most with this release vs the Legends ones are the proportions. The head size, shoulder width, and leg length all look pretty accurate to the film. The Legends one was pretty stumpy despite being a taller figure and it was my main peeve with that release. There’s a solid amount of mass as well in the torso, legs, and arms, though I would have liked the chest to be pumped out just a little more, but that’s more of a nitpick. The details of the costume are all captured well and I like how they did the folds of the neck portion. The Jackman likeness also looks fine to me. Granted, it’s just the area around his mouth, but the paint is clean where it could have easily gone off the rails with all of the facial hair. The fins on the head are also a rigid plastic which likely helped keep their shape in transit whereas the Legends one is a little warped.

He comes with three sets of non-clawed hands, but I bet most will never use them.

Wolverine is much lighter than his co-star when it comes to accessories, but he also doesn’t demand the sort of weaponry that Deadpool does. For portraits we get two: neutral and teeth gritting. I like the personality of the teeth gritting head more, but both are fine. For hands, we get fists, open, and relaxed hands. For clawed hands, there are fists and open and that ends the accessories. It’s light, but in terms of hands I’d say we’re set. Yes, we should have bare arms and an unmasked head and that’s a shortcoming of the figure. If they couldn’t give us an unmasked head they could have given us a yelling one. It was five dollars cheaper than Deadpool so at least that appears to be reflected in the price, but it’s still an $85 figure so if you wanted more from it then I think you’re entitled to such feelings.

If you find fists boring there’s these hands.

Since this is a SHF release it should also make this Wolverine the best articulated figure of this version of the character and for the most part it is. The head and neck work together allowing Wolverine to look up and down, but maybe not down as much as some would want. It has all of the rotation and nuance you would expect of a SHF setup. The butterfly at the shoulders doesn’t allow for much, but the figure can do the claws across the chest pose. The shoulder pads are pegged into the front of the shoulder and can be moved out of the way. The shoulder can raise a little past 90 degrees and it rotates fine. The double-jointed elbows and knees bend past 90, and the wrists, thigh swivels, and toe hinge do what they’re supposed to.

The articulation isn’t amazing, but is probably good enough for this version of Wolverine.

The torso is a little more mixed. There’s a ball joint in the center which allows for some forward and back. In conjunction with the ball-jointed waist, the figure can bend forward a decent amount, but it adds nothing going back. There’s no rotation in that upper torso joint, but there is tilt. The waist is where the rotation comes from and even more side-to-side tilt. The hips go out to the side almost to full splits, but kick forward a tick shy of 90 degrees and have no range going back. The ankles can go back a little ways, but have little to no forward movement. The ankle rocker works fine at least, but there’s no boot swivel or swivel at the glove. In terms of visuals, none of the joints are ugly. The thigh swivel is pretty apparent, but not to the degree it has been on some of Bandai’s Dragon Ball figures. The elbow joints stand out a little because they are a slightly brighter yellow and bending them all the way will produce small gaps. The same is true of the knees.

It’s not the Wolverine I want, but it is pretty fun to have.

This Wolverine from the film is basically what I expected of the figure. It’s articulated reasonably well and for the look it’s going for it pretty much nails it. It’s just not the look I wanted and wasn’t willing to buy for full price. And that was my mind set when I cancelled my original preorder: why buy something I really don’t want? I want a sleeveless Wolverine. If he was that way and still lacked the unmasked portrait I would have paid full price. Ideally, we’d get a figure that comes with both. In a way, I place almost no value on the sleeved look. I’d happily ditch those arms in favor of the bare arms look and that’s how I felt with the Legends figure as well. I just think the costume looks better that way. At a reduced price though, this is fine. It’s very functional and I’ve had him on my desk for about a month and I mess around with him when I have some downtime. He’ll look good with my Deadpool, and if Bandai comes back with the version I want I’ll have to consider that one was as well. Since they’ve apparently had trouble moving this one though I’m not holding my breath. If this is the look you want for Wolverine on your shelf, then you’ll probably be satisfied with this release provided you feel it’s worth it vs the cheaper Legends release. And since basically everyone seems to have this one on sale, you probably won’t have to pay full price for the pleasure of finding out for yourself.

Here are all of the other Deadpool & Wolverine reviews we’ve done up to now:

S.H.Figuarts Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool

Despite the fact that I own dozens of them, I don’t really consider myself a fan of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series of action figures. They largely are able to get a purchase out of me thanks to Hasbro’s exclusivity agreement with Marvel/Disney which basically makes them the only game in town. Despite that, I will…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Deadpool & Wolverine Wolverine

It might be hard for the young folk to believe, but once upon a time movies based on comic book characters were treated like box office poison. Unless you were Superman or Batman, you just didn’t belong in cinema. Even those characters weren’t bulletproof. Superman had a nice run, but fizzled out with the fourth…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool

Despite the amount of reviews presents on this blog, I still do not consider myself a Marvel Legends collector. That’s because my interests are somewhat narrow when it comes to the Marvel brand. Over the years I’ve developed a fondness for Deadpool as depicted on film by Ryan Reynolds. I think the comic book character…

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by Joe

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May 29, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Goku (Mini)

By Joe
Goku is back for a new adventure which includes a literal downgrade for him.

When Akira Toriyama sadly passed away in 2024 it shocked the world of manga and anime. While his passing was sudden to those confined to the fandom, he at least had one more adventure to deliver in the world of Dragon Ball that would be unveiled later in the year: Dragon Ball Daima. I’ll talk more about the series when I finally finish it (I had to wait for the English dub so I could enjoy it with my kids), but I definitely don’t need to see it all before I can talk about the toys. Daima figures were unveiled well before the series debuted and some of them have actually been out for a little while. I wasn’t sure how deep I wanted to go with the toy line, but when I saw the subject of today’s post on sale at a discount I figured “Why not?”

He’s a little fella.

The only thing you need to know about Dragon Ball Daima to enjoy this figure of a wee little Goku is that in the very first episode a wish is made that turns all of the main cast into children. If it sounds a little like the beginning of Dragon Ball GT then just you wait until you get deeper into the series. The inaugural wave of figures from the show in the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line is three of the main characters in child form: Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. The Saiyan boys were released at the wallet-friendly price of $35 while Piccolo was a much more expensive $60 (I guess that’s one expensive cape he’s wearing). I was pretty smitten with the Goku, but not entirely sure I needed it. I figured I’d hold out for Bandai to revisit Dragon Ball era Goku with a similar approach as this new figure is far more appropriate in size, but obviously things changed.

This just makes me really want a new Dragon Ball era Goku.
His head gets smaller the taller he gets.

This version of Goku is titled Goku (Mini) and he sure lives up to it. He comes in a standard sized box and there’s a lot of blank space around him. Take him out and he stands at approximately 2.75″ to the top of where his head likely is and only stretches to about 3.325 at the highest point of his hair. This is a little guy, but make no mistake about it this is still an SHF release. The styling is very much evocative of Daima so if you did want this Goku for a Dragon Ball display it won’t exactly work unless you’re willing to overlook the differences. His gi is a pale orange and the top extends past the sash in the middle which is atypical for Goku (his end of Z attire is similar, but that’s in blue and gray). The boots are a bit simplified as well as they’re now all blue with rope around the lower part which is now white instead of red. The faces in the show are illustrated in a slightly different style. To me, it looks more like a conventional “toon” approach and the figure reflects that. All in all, it’s a fine looking figure it’s just very much pulled from Dragon Ball Daima so if you’re not into the look of that series then it might not do much for you.

I love this little scrunched up expression. He looks like a toddler who just had his juice supply cut-off.

In typical Bandai fashion, paint is kept to a minimum with Goku. It’s basically reserved for the details of the face, the blue undershirt, the blue wristbands, the white ropes on the boots, and the soles of the boots. The paint is cleanly applied and the blue painted parts match well with the blue plastic parts. There’s no shading on any of the orange parts of the figure. While that does mimic the show fairly well which is bright in its approach, it can’t hide the fact that the orange plastic has a cheap appearance to it. Now, maybe one might argue that it should since this is a relatively inexpensive action figure for the line, but a low price does not mean it need look like a cheap product. It would be nice if they just hit the figure with a matte coat to cut down on that plastic look. The boots have a nice, almost satin, finish and if the pants did too that might improve the look of the figure. Given that it’s so small, the cheap appearance isn’t as detrimental as it would be on a five or six inch figure, but it’s not something that’s completely unnoticeable.

The power pole is back!

The low price point does not equate to a low accessory count. And even though this Goku is quite tiny, he has some pretty familiar accessories when it comes to the hands. Goku has a set of fists, gripping, martial arts posed, and Kamehameha hands. They may be tiny, but they aren’t hard to swap, just don’t drop one on a carpeted floor or you may have a hard time finding it. Goku also has four different portraits to swap between: smile, yelling, side eyed teeth gritting, and a frowny face that is kind of adorable. In atypical fashion, this Goku also comes with a second hair piece. He has his default look and a wind swept look which is becoming a little more common. Super Saiyan Gohan came packed with the same, though he wasn’t $35, and the new Lowest Born Saiyan Goku also has a windswept option. Since Goku goes back to his roots, so to speak, with Daima he also decided he needs to arm himself with his trusty Power Pole once again. Similar to the Dragon Ball Goku figures, this one comes with a sling and holster for the Power Pole that can be easily equipped. He also has a little nub of the power pole to slot into the holster, or you can remove it and arm him with an extended version. It’s shorter than previous Power Pole accessories and is kind of cheap looking since it’s just a red cylinder of plastic, but it gets the job done. It’s about 3″ and I think it could stand to be a bit longer, but I guess he can always wield an older model if you have one. Lastly, there’s an optional lower shirt piece that’s more dynamic and should give the hips more range when it comes to articulation.

That’s a better charge pose than a lot of adult Gokus.
He can get his arms extended pretty effortlessly too.

The accessories are plentiful and Tamashii Nations also tried to make sure the articulation was up to par as well. Mini Goku has the standard double-ball setup in the head that lets him look around in all directions except for up. This is a bit of an issue for a little guy and it’s one largely caused by his hair. The shoulders are done pretty well as they’re ball pegs inside the figure giving him a butterfly joint then the usual ball-hinge on the outside. The small torso means the butterfly works pretty well and it also looks good as it’s similar to how they did Krillin and Super Hero Gohan. There’s a bicep swivel at the end of the sleeve and then single-hinged elbows that bend a little past 90 degrees with typical SHF ball-hinge wrists.

Kicks are a bit of a challenge since we’re dealing with tiny parts here.

The torso is where the figure feels more limited. Goku has a ball peg at the waist that lets him rock back a little, but not much forward. You also won’t get much tilt, but it rotates freely. The hips are ball pegs and even with the more dynamic lower shirt piece the figure can’t go out to the side for full splits. He is largely unimpeded kicking forward and back while the single-hinged knees allow for a 90 degree bend. The ankles have the hinge and ankle rocker combo we’re used to seeing on newer figures from Bandai. The hinge is pretty restricted, especially going forward, but the ankle rocker is surprisingly generous. There’s also a toe hinge for good measure.

He’s surprisingly easy to stand even with these tiny feet.

The articulation is probably enough. The single-hinged joints in the knees and elbows are not as restricting as one may expect and they do come with the added benefit of being more aesthetically pleasing than most double joints. I do wish the figure could look up better and I don’t see a good reason as to why it can’t raise the legs out to the side all the way. The shirt hides the hips so the designers were able to go bare bones in that region and yet the articulation is still impeded somewhat. A little tweaking there to give the figure more dynamic kicks would have really helped sell this one, but even so, it’s pretty good.

This is a fun little figure, I just wish I didn’t have to buy Goma to get Goku’s power pole effect piece.

Goku (Mini) is a fun little figure to mess with. It comes with a lot for the price point and those who like Daima and want a kid Goku from the show will likely be pretty content here. I do think some articulation tweaks would have gone a long way, and given that he’s so small, a flight stand feels almost like a necessity. If you want him posed on your shelf fighting adults or larger beings you’re going to need to get him on a stand. Given the $35 price tag, I’m not surprised at the lack of a stand, but I would have paid another 5 bucks to get one. Or rather, I wouldn’t have waited for a discount. Like I said though at the start, my initial pass on the figure wasn’t because I thought it was a bad deal, I just wasn’t sure if I needed anything from Daima. What i really want is an updated kid Goku from Dragon Ball as the ones Bandai already released are just way too big. A new one in this size with some styling evocative of the original manga/anime is quickly shooting up to the top of my personal “Most Wanted” list. Even if that never comes to be, this tidy Goku figure is still pretty damn good all on its own.

There’s plenty more Dragon Ball around these parts if you’re interested:

SH Figuarts Kid Goku

I was so happy with my Super Saiyan Vegeta from SH Figuarts that the very next day I purchased a second figure:  Kid Goku. Now I’ve mentioned more than once here that I prefer Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z. It’s just a tighter and more fun series with better action sequences. The characters become…

by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Krillin – 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.…

by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Super Saiyan Son Gohan – The Fighter Who Surpassed Goku

When Goku shattered his ceiling and became the Super Saiyan of legend to topple the seemingly unbeatable Frieza, the story could have come to an end. Where could the hero go after attaining this awesome power and vanquishing the ultimate evil? The being responsible for not just the death of his father, but the destruction…

by Joe

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April 2, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool

By Joe
Marvel’s cheekiest hero gets the premium treatment.

Despite the fact that I own dozens of them, I don’t really consider myself a fan of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series of action figures. They largely are able to get a purchase out of me thanks to Hasbro’s exclusivity agreement with Marvel/Disney which basically makes them the only game in town. Despite that, I will say perhaps my favorite Legends figure that I own is Deadpool from the movie subline. Specifically, I like the Deadpool that came in the two-pack with Negasonic Teenage Warhead. By Hasbro standards, or really any action figure standards, it’s a damn fine release. It’s well sculpted, it’s painted well, it comes with enough stuff, and it also poses pretty well. I liked it so much that I bought the almost identical re-release from the Deadpool & Wolverine movie.

“Wait! Who the hell are you?!”

I may like that figure, but I have always been interested in something a bit more premium. Legends may be the only game in town when it comes to retail in the US, but for specialty shops and online we have the imports. And in this case, I’m talking the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line. I am very familiar with the brand thanks to all of the Dragon Ball product that’s been released and I’ve had my eye on the Deadpool offerings for awhile. I passed on the first take because Bandai, for some reason, did not include any guns in the package. Deadpool kind of needs those so no guns meant no sale. I don’t know why that was, if it was a Bandai thing or a Disney one. Warner Bros. did ban guns from being included as accessories with DC action figures – did Disney briefly consider the same? I say briefly because it didn’t impact Hasbro or really any other figure release I can think of. The issue was rectified with the Deadpool 2 version of the character, but that featured the much darker and drab color palette from late in that movie which wasn’t really what I wanted. For Deadpool & Wolverine though, I finally found a version of the character I was willing to throw some money at.

Bandai left, Hasbro right.

This version of Deadpool is, I assume, very similar to the past ones in the line. Just like the Legends version, little needed to be re-sculpted to make it work and it’s the sort of release where you really need to look closely to see what’s changed. The most obvious change though is just the color. This Deadpool is a bright red where as the others were noticeably darker. I would say the old costume was the color of dried blood, pretty useful for a character who gets shot and stabbed a whole bunch. The bright red does make the figure look cheaper by comparison. Bandai likes to stick with colored plastics as much as possible over painted parts and Deadpool is no exception. The red parts have that plastic look to them despite being richly textured. The black, both painted and non, has more of a satin finish to it. I’m not sure there’s really anything Bandai could have done to alleviate the issue with the red aside from throwing a wash on it. He does get pretty dirty in the film so it wouldn’t look terrible, but I get why they wouldn’t want to do that. It’s just one of those things that can’t be helped.

“Gasp! It’s Hugh!”

The good news is that’s basically my only complaint when it comes to the look of the figure. Aside from that red, he looks awesome. This figure is well proportioned to resemble actor Ryan Reynolds (and his stunt guys) in suit from the film. I like the head size, the shoulders, the length of the limbs – all of it. If this weren’t such a heavily articulated figure I’d say he looked like he stepped out of the movie. The hits of gold all seem to be in the right place and accounted for on the chest and the back of the hands. The belts, holsters, and straps are all where they should be. There are multiple textures throughout the body that help make the figure come alive along with little folds and creases in certain parts. He looks great, and standing the figure next to the Hasbro offering, you can tell which one cost more money.

It’s good to have the guns back.
“Time to make the chimichangas”

Deadpool also comes pretty well stocked with accessories and extra parts. For starters, we get a whopping ten sets of hands. That makes sense since Deadpool is a pretty expressive character and since he wears a full mask he tends to use his hands a lot. For those hands, we get sets of fists, fists with blades poking out, gripping, c-grip, finger-bang, thumbs up, trigger finger, relaxed, chop, and splayed open. Some of these hands have clear multiple uses. The “finger bang” hands are also pointing hands while the c-grip hands can be used to make a heart gesture. There’s basically nothing missing here aside from a middle finger gesture, but maybe Disney wasn’t okay with that? Deadpool also comes with 3 sets of interchangeable eye plates along with the set he’s wearing in the box. There’s a little tool included to help pry them out, though it’s still a little tricky even with it. For eyes, we have what I’d call neutral, happy, angry, and surprised. On their own, the differences are subtle, but it makes a difference when you get them into the head. Again, Deadpool is a very expressive character so these inclusions are much appreciated and I assume a lot cheaper for Bandai than doing three extra heads.

“What do we have down here?”
“Look! A baby knife!”
“Eat your heart out, Van Damme.”

Deadpool also comes with his usual assortment of weapons. For melee attacks, he has two katana. Like they are in the film, the katana are a little small and thin. I don’t know if they’re technically katana as a result, though I also don’t know if they’re technically small enough to be considered wakizashi. They look nice though with some gold inlaid in the hilt. For storage, he has the scabbards that go on his back and that part plugs in. These swords don’t actually slot into them though, I’m guessing to prevent paint rub, and instead the figure has two dummy sword hilts to plug into them instead. Similarly, we get a sheathed knife that plugs into his right calf. If you want Deadpool to actually brandish his little knife, there’s an empty sheath to swap it with and a little knife all by itself. Lastly, we have the two desert eagles (I think) and their holsters. Unlike the bladed weapons, these do go into the holsters when not in use. They are the black versions of the weapon and not the gold ones he acquires during the film. It would have been nice to get the gold ones, but maybe that’s for a future re-release. The guns look fine otherwise, though I find his trigger hands are quite snug with them. Posing them convincingly is more challenging than I’d like.

“Who invited you?”

That’s not everything though, as Deadpool has one other accessory of note: Headpool. Headpool is the decapitated and decrepit remains of a Deadpool from an alternate universe. He has this old school leather pilot’s helmet with a propeller on top that allows him to basically float around. What’s left of his mask just dangles in tatters while his exposed skull is free to yammer away, despite no longer having a voice box. He’s basically a visual joke in the movie that Bandai brought to life. The head is well sculpted and painted and the little propeller does rotate, but that’s it for articulation. I’m surprised the jaw doesn’t move. Also included is a clear, acrylic, post that plugs into the head at one end and features a c-clamp on the other. It’s designed to clip onto Deadpool’s forearm, which works well enough, but I wish it had an optional platform to just stick him on the shelf beside Deadpool or a way to plug into Deadpool’s back so that he’s hovering over his shoulder. With the setup provided, he’s really only useful in one pose and I don’t know how many collectors will want to clip this guy onto Deadpool’s arm? I definitely don’t so it feels like a wasted accessory.

“Ohh that’s pretty cool…”

That’s a pretty good spread, all things considered, but there are some obvious omissions. The last Deadpool Bandai released came with some gun effect parts that I would have liked to have seen included. I guess we’re getting Headpool instead, but I would honestly trade him for the gun parts. Also not included is an unmasked head. For me, this isn’t a big omission as I’d never display him unmasked, but I understand people who think one should be included. Obviously, releasing the figure without one means that Bandai didn’t have to pay Reynolds for his likeness. If that keeps the figure’s price down a bit, then that’s a worthwhile trade-off as far as I’m concerned. Hasbro did the same, and as far as I know, the only figures with the Reynolds likeness are coming from Hot Toys. Maybe Bandai will come back to this with an unmasked head? It’s possible, but none of their other Deadpool figures featured such so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Deadpool: “Snikt!” Wolverine: “What the fuck are you doing?”

This Deadpool figure comes with a lot more parts than its Hasbro counterpart, but it also features more articulation. Or at least it should. The Hasbro one is pretty well articulated on its own with only a few areas of weakness (basically the waist). This figure should remedy that, though I have to say upfront that posing this guys can be quite annoying. He is what I’d call a “fiddly” figure. He has so much extra stuff keyed into his body that will constantly pop off on you when posing him. The knife especially. It’s best to just take that off and pose him then replace it when you’re done. I already mentioned that the eyes are not the easiest things to swap, but they pale in comparison to the hands. For most, I needed to heat them up in order to get them onto the wrist pegs. This is unusual in my experience with a SHF release and it definitely does knock the fun-factor down since this figure has so many damn hands and so many possible expressions and poses to take advantage of. I basically did a lot of these pictures with a bowl of hot water at the ready that also eventually needed to be reheated. I tried to plan out my pictures as much as possible to get through as many as possible while the water was still warm enough to do its job. It makes me wish Bandai did the Medicom thing of putting the extra hands on acrylic posts to keep the entry hole as wide as necessary. I don’t know if that practice actually works or if it’s just confirmation bias at play, but I didn’t have any issues with my Medicom figures in the past.

“All right kid, hand over the pizza!”

With that out of the way, lets rundown this articulation. We have a double-ball at the head, ball at the base of the neck, butterfly joints, shoulder ball hinges, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, ball hinge wrists, ball-jointed torso, ball-jointed waist, ball-jointed hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, ball-hinged ankles with ankle rocker, and a toe joint. That’s basically the standard SHF setup and most of it works as intended. You will get great personality out of the head and the elbows and knees bend well past 90 degrees. At the hips, the holsters pose issues when trying to bring the legs out for full splits. Going forward and back isn’t an issue, but out to the side is as he can’t even really get to 45 degrees. The butterfly joints work well, but he has these shoulder pads that really make getting much use out of the bicep swivel more trouble than it’s worth. The figure is going to fight you at times in the shoulder region as a result. There is rotation in the diaphragm, but that waist seems to mostly offer forward and back. He can at least get a decent crunch going forward and arch his back enough until the scabbards get in the way, but the figure is more limited than I expected.

“Ow! Fuck! I wasn’t really gonna shoot him!” “No one messes with our pizza, dude!”

This is a figure where the articulation is there, but you have to work for it. I wish Bandai had done the shoulders differently when it comes to the padding up there and I also wish they had come up with a more creative solution for the belt and the impediments there. Maybe just make those holsters peg into the belt so they can swing out of the way? That would probably make the suit less accurate to the source, but if the actual holster itself still pegged into the thigh maybe it wouldn’t matter? The old hinged ball in the diaphragm may have helped too. That setup can lead to gapping issues, but if it’s on the back of the figure (and amongst a lot of black) it may have been worth the sacrifice. This is an expensive figure, most US retailers have it at $90, so a little extra engineering should be expected. Especially when so much of what’s in the box is likely reused from past Deadpool figures.

Wolverine: “I gotta get the fuck outta here.”

I bought this version of Deadpool because I wanted a premium version of the character for my shelf. Did I get what I paid for? For the most part, yes. It looks better, it’s more expressive, and even though it can be a chore to pose it does ultimately pose a little better than the cheaper Hasbro offering. Is it just worth more than 3x what that Hasbro figure costs? Honestly, probably not. If you’re comparing the two as apples to apples then, yes, this Deadpool figure is the superior action figure. It’s just going to be a more subjective exercise when value is added to the equation. I’ve been pretty happy all these years with that first movie Deadpool I bought. Hell, I still enjoy the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends Deadpool. I really didn’t need the updated Legends figure for the new movie, but I wanted more Deadpool. I certainly did not need this one, but I’m happy to have it. A more rational and cost-conscious person could probably buy one of the Legends offerings and be perfectly content with that as well. If you have the money and want the best Deadpool on the market, then yeah, go for it. If you’re content with the Hasbro figure then I don’t blame you if you come to the conclusion that you don’t need this.

Bandai did also release a Wolverine to pair with this Deadpool. Unfortunately, it’s just not good enough for me to buy. Priced at $85, the figure is not much different from the Hasbro offering in terms of what’s in the box except for the fact that it doesn’t have an unmasked head. I don’t place much value in that when it comes to Deadpool, but I absolutely do when it comes to Wolverine. And what I couldn’t get past is the lack of sleeveless arms. The Bandai Wolverine is basically a look we never saw in the movie. When Wolverine had the sleeves on he went unmasked. He only masks up at the end when his suit is pretty beaten up and dirty. The proportions look way better than the Legends figure which is quietly kind of terrible in that area. The saving grace of that figure is the fantastic Hugh Jackman portrait. And with that figure, I can compromise at $25, but not at $85. If Bandai comes back with the Wolverine I want I’ll get it, but for now, Deadpool is going to fly solo on my shelf. Well, not exactly, since he has plenty of Deadpools to keep him company. And Headpool, how could I forget about Headpool?

If you’re looking for more Deadpool figure reviews we have more Deadpool figure reviews:

Marvel Legends Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool

Despite the amount of reviews presents on this blog, I still do not consider myself a Marvel Legends collector. That’s because my interests are somewhat narrow when it comes to the Marvel brand. Over the years I’ve developed a fondness for Deadpool as depicted on film by Ryan Reynolds. I think the comic book character…

by Joe

Marvel Legends Deadpool & Wolverine Wolverine

It might be hard for the young folk to believe, but once upon a time movies based on comic book characters were treated like box office poison. Unless you were Superman or Batman, you just didn’t belong in cinema. Even those characters weren’t bulletproof. Superman had a nice run, but fizzled out with the fourth…

by Joe

Marvel Legends Deadpool 2 Two-Pack

Look through my various toy reviews and you’ll probably notice that I’m not much of a Marvel guy. That wasn’t always the case for me though as I was huge into Marvel Legends once upon a time. I basically stopped around the time Hasbro was awarded the Marvel license. I felt there was a dip…

by Joe

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

March 14, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Jiren – Final Battle Exclusive Edition

By Joe
Whether you’re a Jiren fan or not, it’s hard to deny that this figure looks pretty cool.

It would seem that FOMO, the fear of missing out, is my primary motivation for purchases in Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line of Dragon Ball action figures. The last one we looked at was a big one for me in Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Super. That dreaded FOMO was strong enough that it got me to buy a figure I knew was compromised and had no chance of truly satisfying me, but buy it I did. Today’s FOMO purchase was done almost for the opposite reason. Really, it happened only because I initially decided not to get that Trunks figure and put my money towards this one instead. And I am talking about Jiren.

This dude must live in the gym.

Jiren is the big bad guy from the so far final arc of the Dragon Ball Super anime. The series has continued in manga form, but as of right now there’s no real concrete proof the anime will resume. In terms of Dragon Ball bad guys, Jiren isn’t very interesting. The plot of that final arc is that the Gods of the many universes have decided to pit each universe against each other in a battle royale. For the victor, a wish from the Super Dragon Balls which are capable of granting any wish one can think of. For the losers, total annihilation in the form of getting wiped out of existence. It’s not even death, it’s just deletion. As a result, all of the warriors competing against our favorite heroes are just fighting for self preservation. While some are certainly bad guys, most are just like Goku, Gohan, and all the rest in that they just don’t want to be ended.

He’s more bulk than height.

Jiren, for his part, is not a bad guy. He is supremely confident bordering on arrogance, but he’s not the taunting type like Vegeta. Instead, when he determines that no one is worth his time he chooses to sit in a meditative state. It comes off as arrogance from the outside, but whenever he’s challenged he backs it up so it’s not like his arrogance is unearned. Furthermore, as a character design he’s a little boring for an Akira Toriyama character. His defining feature would be that he has a massive upper body and comparatively small legs. His head is almost like that of your garden variety alien just without the massive cranium. He also has those Frieza-like ear holes which show up in many character designs. As a result, he’s really just like a random video game boss from a plot-less arcade brawler. Our hero Goku just needs to get to him and then find a way to overcome him. Jiren isn’t evil, he’s also not exactly heroic, he’s just a guy.

“Don’t make me throw this at you!”

Because of my attitude towards Jiren I’ve never felt much of a pull to add him to my collection. I saw the figures before I ever saw him in the anime and was feeling incredibly underwhelmed by the design. The figures came and went though and they actually seemed to receive high marks from those who bought them. The sculpts, the way the articulation was implemented, and the overall size made them seem like really good action figures. Ordinarily, that’s not enough to get me to buy a figure of a character I’m not attached to, but then I went and got Ultra Instinct Goku and the desire to add a Jiren to pair with the figure manifested. When I felt similarly underwhelmed by Bandai’s 2024 convention exclusives, it was Jiren that I decided to preorder and Jiren alone.

He probably would need a bigger aura than the standard one. Maybe that’s why one wasn’t included?

Jiren comes in the standard event exclusive packaging with a black and red color scheme. This is Jiren as he appeared at the very end of Dragon Ball Super his body hulked up to gargantuan proportions and his uniform in tatters. Like Trunks, this event exclusive version has a new paint job and it’s trying to replicate Jiren’s red aura. His ordinarily pale purple flesh has a blush of pink to it while his black pants also have a shiny, red, hue applied that almost makes him look like he’s candy-coated. His flesh has a matte finish so this high gloss approach is far less distracting on Jiren than it is with Trunks. The only thing I don’t really care for is that his white gloves, once the pearlescent red overcoat is applied, makes them blend in a little too much with his arms. There’s not much contrast there aside from the gloss. The same is true for the boots, but since he’s still wearing pants it doesn’t look as noticeable. All that is to say that I don’t hate this approach and it’s executed well enough, but if I could have the standard paint job I’d probably choose that over it.

He’s destined to battle Goku for as long as both are on my shelf.

The selling point with Jiren is not the paint, but the sculpt. This is a big, beefy, boy. He’s really not extremely tall by SHF standards. He comes in at roughly 6.75″ making him noticeably taller than Goku, but he’s still shorter than a figure like Nappa or Orange Piccolo. What really stands out is just the bulk. Jiren has this huge, puffed-out, chest that really captures the look of the show’s art. If I have one consistent criticism with this line it’s that the chests on most figures aren’t big enough. They’re usually plenty broad, but view the figure from the side and it’s like their pectorals are nonexistent. It’s almost like they just drew their muscles on with a sharpie. Jiren does not suffer from that which makes him an interesting figure to look at and handle. I love chunky figures, and Jiren certainly fits the bill. His arms are massive as well and while his legs look small by comparison, they’re still thicker than Goku’s. I may not love the character design, but it would be hard to argue that Bandai didn’t nail what was presented to them.

Tag! You’re It!

I was pretty disappointed with how the Trunks figure had a bunch of accessories cut. With Jiren, that’s not a problem. He seems to have retained everything from the standard release including all four portraits: neutral, teeth-gritting, yelling, and a closed eyes with teeth gritting. The closed eyes head captures his frustrations when he finds he’s being overpowered late in the fight and also works as an expression for when he’s taking a blow on your shelf. They look good and the only aspect of them I don’t really care for is the thin, white, outline around the eyes. It makes it look like Jiren just has massive pupils, but when I look at stills from the anime it sure looks to me like he’s supposed to just have big, black, eyes. Any other colors are just shading and trying to create the illusion of a somewhat reflective surface.

I was surprised by the double-ball peg wrist joints.

For hands, Jiren has four sets to choose from: fists, clenching, chops, and splayed open. For his left, clenching hand, he also has an effect part. It’s basically a little handheld fireball and it’s made out of translucent orange plastic. There’s an indent for that specific hand which allows his thumb to slot into it so he gets a good grip on it. You don’t need the indentations if you just want to stand him with his palm pointed up holding it, but if you want to pose him like he’s going to throw it then you’ll want to stick it in his left hand. It’s always good to get an effect part, but it is pretty small and not something likely to stand out on your shelf. As was the case with Trunks, what we’re really missing is just an aura effect to pair with this exclusive paint job. A red aura makes too much sense here, but Bandai didn’t want to throw one in. He already cost $75 so I guess I can’t be too upset about the omission as I doubt I would have been willing to pay much more than that for a character I’m lukewarm on.

Looks like you missed, Jiren!

A bulky body presents challenges for anyone looking to cut it up and apply articulation, but it’s something the folks at Tamashii Nations are pretty adept at. Jiren’s torso is certainly cut-up for articulation, but not distressingly so. There’s no gapping at the base of the neck and he gets decent range there. The heads pop off very easily, but at least they go on just as easil, as they use that drum setup we’ve seen with figures like Krillin and Nappa. His shoulders are on big, butterfly, joints and they get okay range come across the chest, but that chest is so big that it can only do so much. It doesn’t go back really at all which is more disappointing than the range going forward. Range at the shoulder otherwise is fine and you get a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and ball peg wrists. The double-ball peg wrist was a surprise as normally they use a ball hinge. It functions well enough, but if you want to get the most range you’ll have to accept a gap between the wrist and hand.

And now Jiren must pay the price for failing to land a blow.

The torso features what I assume is a double ball peg in the diaphragm. It’s mostly for tilt forward and back as there’s really no rotation. You get a little of that at the ball-jointed waist. Between the two, the crunching forward and back is nice and you get just enough rotation to make it work. This hips go out to the side almost to a full split and kick forward 90 degrees. He does have a sculpted ass so there’s nothing going back unless you kick the leg out to the side. The figure has thigh swivels, but mine won’t budge. I don’t know if that’s a common issue or not. It could be caused by the new paint job since it seems like a thick coat which may have required some tiny adjustments to the tooling that weren’t made. Or I just need to hit it with a hair dryer. Double-jointed knees are fine and the ankles are hinged. They didn’t leave enough space for the ankle rocker though so it’s pretty limited. There’s also the customary toe hinge if you want it.

Oh the agony of defeat – better luck next time, bud!

Jiren’s articulation is probably going to be good enough. He’s meant for strong, powerful, poses and he has the capability of pulling off such feats. I wish the diaphragm joint allowed for some rotation. I think their old hinged-ball joint would have made that possible. More so, I’m disappointed in the ankle rockers as he has some pretty small feet relative to his size and not being able to get them flat on a surface in some stances can make keeping the figure upright a challenge. It’s enough though and the combination of sculpt, paint, and articulation makes this a worthwhile release. It wasn’t the re-release I was hoping for, but it’s not one I regret buying. He fits in nicely on my shelf opposite Goku and now I kind of want a proper Dragon Ball Super Frieza to add to the confrontation. It looks like Bandai has taken this listing off of their website as he was available in February as an in-stock item, but that doesn’t mean he sold out. They may be holding back stock for in-person sales at conventions and pop-ups. For that reason, it may not be terribly expensive on the secondary market. If it’s a figure you feel like you need, then I do recommend tracking it down. If it only retails for a small markup then I’d consider it worth it as I don’t think we’re ever going to get another Jiren. What is out there is likely all that ever will be.

For more Dragon Ball Super action figure reviews look no further:

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

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…

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by Joe

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

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…

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by Joe

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March 12, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Future Trunks – Super Saiyan Exclusive Edition

By Joe
Trunks is back from the future and needs help cleaning up yet another mess.

When looking back on the anime adaptation of Dragon Ball Super, I think my favorite arc is the Future Trunks/Goku Black one. It does get messy at times, and like most things Dragon Ball it goes on longer than it needed to, but it had some real, emotional, stakes which isn’t often found in Dragon Ball. The time travel stuff is always a ton of fun and Dragon Ball has its own spin on how time travel works with new wrinkles introduced in Super. And it marked the return of fan-favorite character Trunks, the boy from the future. The future version of Trunks is much different from the younger one in the main timeline. That Trunks has had a relatively carefree life (though he technically did die once) whereas the future counterpart has only known hardship. And he’s basically just another son seeking his father’s approval, but he just so happens to be the son of Vegeta, not the sort of touchy feely dad. The saga provided some closure there, and unlike the Cell arc from Dragon Ball Z, Trunks got to be the hero of his own story as opposed to sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to take down the big, bad, guy. Though he still needed an assist from God.

I liked this version of Trunks so much that I even got the Dragon Stars version. It’s the only Dragon Stars figure in my collection to this day.

It was years ago that Bandai and Tamashii Nations released the Super version of Future Trunks in the S.H.Figuarts line. 2018, to be exact, and at a time when I wasn’t collecting this line like I am now. Even so, I considered getting it, but it seemed pretty pricey to me at the time. I had not yet been conditioned to the SHF pricing model (some would say that’s a good thing) and I decided not to get it. As you can probably guess based on where this has lead, I ended up regretting that decision. The figure is even more expensive now on the secondary market as it has never been re-released. And perhaps worse, the secondary market can be tricky to navigate when it comes to a figure as old as that one because bootlegs are a real problem. And since it’s an older figure, it’s also a bit dated and spending the extra coin in today’s dollars might just leave me with a serious case of buyer’s remorse. No, instead I’ve opted to bide my time in hopes that Bandai would return to Trunks. He is, after all, a fan-favorite and probably a safe bet to sell well. It’s just a question of whether or not the Super version is as popular as the one from DBZ.

The height is okay, but damn is Trunks tiny next to Goku and Vegeta.

2024 ended up being the year where my patience paid off. Maybe. Future Trunks was announced as a convention exclusive, but like most exclusives, it meant he was going to be a variant of the original release. To be specific, this is considered the Gallick Gun edition. Trunks has adopted one of his father’s signature moves and with it comes a purple aura. To achieve this effect, Bandai gave Trunks a coat of pearlescent paint with a purple hue to it. They also went with the translucent Super Saiyan hair which they’re rather fond of when it comes to convention exclusives. I didn’t love the look, but it wasn’t going to be a deal breaker. What bothered me more than the new deco is the cut in the accessory load-out. Gone is the standard Trunks head even though he can certainly perform the maneuver when not in his Super Saiyan form. Worse though, is the removal of the Hope Sword. In the anime (spoilers if you have yet to watch it), Trunks has his sword break while battling his foe. When all hope seems lost, Trunks basically creates a Spirit Bomb out of his broken sword. The effect part was this big, translucent, blue, sword that I think even necessitated its own stand. It was pretty awesome in the show and seeing it in figure form was a huge draw to that original figure for me. Having that get cut, plus an MSRP of $75 for this new version, really soured me on it.

And he’s even tiny next to…Trunks!

So I didn’t get it. What? But this is a review for that figure, you’re probably saying to yourself as you read this. Yes, obviously, I changed my mind. The regret of passing on that original figure was pretty hard to get over and still is. I didn’t preorder this figure, but unlike in past years Bandai apparently made more than what was ordered. Future Trunks was stocked after the fact on their webstore along with some other exclusives, and to make it even more enticing, Premium Bandai ran a free shipping promotion on its website for a week. And damnit, they got me. They got me for the Vegeta we looked at last week, they got me for the Trunks we’re looking at this week, and damn near got me on the Mini Goku, but I figured I was already giving them enough of my money. Now that I have paid for this figure, it’s time to sort out some feelings.

The paint job here is trying to sell the idea of an aura around him. Problem is, I don’t have the right color or know if they even make one in the proper shade.

Future Trunks comes in the event exclusive style box which, in this case, goes for a black and pink color combo. I’m surprised they didn’t go with more of a purple considering the theming, but whatever. It’s just trash to protect the figure inside. Trunks is, as advertised, in his Super Saiyan form and stands approximately 5.25″ to where I assume the top of his head would be with his hair extending far beyond that. Out of the box, he won’t have his scabbard across his back and to put that on you will have to remove his head. It’s not really one of those SHF heads that’s designed to come off and go back on easily and the spiky nature of his hair doesn’t help things. I went ahead and dunked him him in some hot water to make it easier. You will also likely need to remove the scarf piece that’s around his neck which tabs into the chest. The scabbard can then slide over an arm easily enough and there’s an extra tab hole behind the right shoulder to secure it in place, though it isn’t really necessary.

The Gallick Gun pose – it’s kind of goofy, but it’s what Bandai chose to hone in on with this edition.

It should be stated that this version of Super Saiyan Trunks is what some fans have dubbed Super Saiyan Rage. Trunks, during his battle with Black, taps into another fountain of power through sheer rage. His hair sticks up higher and becomes even spikier than usual similar to his Ultra Super Saiyan form from Dragon Ball Z, only this time it comes without much added bulk. His eyes do white out and his yellow aura develops a blue core which seemed to signify to the viewer that this was similar to Goku and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue. It’s also seemingly just as powerful as he’s able to go toe-to-toe with Black in this form. It is an anime only thing, so who knows if Toriyama considered it canon, but Gohan’s Beast form sort of follows in its footsteps as a form that’s unique to half-saiyans.

We have a few charging effects in this line, but we’re really lacking in the beam department.

Bandai got the hair right, but not much else when it comes to the look. The outfit is all there and fairly accurate. Trunks has a more traditional jacket than the half one he used to sport and his pants are pretty much the same as they’ve always been. The figure though is just very slight. Put the new Vegeta next to him and they look like they’re two different scales. The height is okay, but the face, the arms, the torso – they’re all narrow and thin which isn’t something I see much in Dragon Ball. Place him beside the somewhat recent Future Trunks from the DBZ line, and it’s even more stark. That figure looks like it’s the more mature fighter, not this one who should be much older. Some of that is likely due to the jacket being all part of the sculpt. There isn’t a body underneath an overlay. It makes for a clean presentation, especially compared with the somewhat janky recent Future Trunks, but it definitely slims the profile. In order for Trunks to exist under this jacket, he’d have to be around 100lbs. He would be a very small man, which is not befitting the character from the show.

He’s still carrying that old blade. Well, actually, it must be a different one since he’s broken them before.

Aside from that issue, and it’s a rather big one, Trunks looks okay. The portraits have been given some enhancements and they’re nice and crisp. The paint on the body is clean and this new finish seems to achieve what it’s going for, whether I subjectively like it or not. The translucent hair is still kind of a sore subject for me. That might be going too far, but I don’t prefer it to painted hair. I think the best would be to go with a pale yellow and then a shiny coat of paint over it. The hair is coated like the rest of the figure so it has a shiny quality to it. I know it’s supposed to be the result of an aura, but it mostly reminds me of soap bubbles and the colors that dance around on their surface. It is what it is and I don’t hate it, it’s just not an improvement over what we had before. And since he doesn’t come with an aura effect to go with it, it does feel incomplete to me.

Silly boy, you can’t stop a god with a knife!

I’ve already mentioned how accessories were cut for this re-release, so just what was maintained? Well, for starters we get four portraits: smirk, teeth-gritting, yelling, and yelling with a side eye. They’re fine, but what’s missing is just a stoic, or grim, expression which is the expression I think of first when it comes to Future Trunks. I don’t think we really need the smirk, to be honest. And it would have been awesome if one of the yelling heads had whited-out eyes. For hands, we get a set of fists, gripping, splayed open, clenching, and one left, relaxed hand. I think the relaxed hand is here for him to hold his scabbard, though I don’t know for sure since it’s not in any of the pictures. The right, clenching, hand also has a hole in it and it’s for the effect part which is a little, translucent, purple, energy ball. It comes on an acrylic post that’s maybe a third of an inch long and it pegs into the hand via a ball socket. This is for his Gallick Gun charging pose which is one awkward pose. I guess Vegeta couldn’t have a Kamehameha stance so he does this thing where his palms are always pointing out as he charges the maneuver with his hands together. It’s achievable, but weird looking. Maybe that’s why he pretty much stopped doing it in favor of other attacks?

I warned you.

Lastly, Trunks has his trusty sword. We get two versions: regular and broken. The broken one serves a narrative purpose, but also it’s easier to slot into the scabbard. The hilt is painted green while the blade and pommel are silver, but like the figure itself, there’s a hit of pink on the blade so it matches the whole aura theme they’re going for. And like the DBZ counterpart, the pommel comes off so the sword can slide into the gripping hands. It only goes on one way, which is a bit annoying when you’re fiddling with such a tiny thing, but the figure gets a very tight grip on the handle. Almost too tight as it takes some elbow grease to get it out of his hands once there.

Everybody talks about the Father-Son Kamehameha, but what about the Father-Son Gallick Gun?

One area with this figure I have little to complain about is the articulation. Since the figure doesn’t utilize an overlay for the coat, all of the articulation is cut right into the figure and since the scabbard is secured via a sling, it doesn’t fall off constantly. The head is on a hinged ball peg, which I hate, but it does function fine. The scarf will limit his range though, and while it is removable, it leaves behind a giant hole in his chest so that’s not really a viable solution. Shoulders, biceps, elbows, and wrists are all standard stuff. The figure does have butterfly joints in the shoulders and they work well enough coming forward, but offer nothing going back. There’s a joint in the mid-torso that pivots a bit side-to-side and allows for some forward and back. A waist joint is where you’ll get most of your rotation and he can crunch forward and back thanks to it and the hips. Since this is an older release, he doesn’t have those annoying, sculpted, butt cheeks. Mai may be disappointed, but it allows for full splits going forward and back. Out to the side, you get about 45 degrees. If you can find a way to get the caps in his hips to slip over or under the thigh swivel then you may get more, but it’s hard plastic and not very forgiving. Beyond the hips, Trunks kicks forward well and the thigh swivel affords some pivot. The knees and ankle hinges are fine while the rocker is limited. There’s also a toe hinge if you want it.

How I imagine it would look to be in the presence of the Father-Son Gallick Gun.

I don’t want to overstate the articulation here. It’s not elite or anything by the standards of the line, but it’s functionally sufficient. Trunks can hit all of the Trunks poses well enough. He can hit his downward swing, jab, or have his hand on the handle while the blade is in the scabbard. It will work, and what holds the figure back is not the articulation, it’s almost everything else. The paint job is executed well enough. It’s something you either like or you don’t. The sculpt is dated and not true to the character. He may look off when posed with the new Vegeta, but that Vegeta sculpt is actually just as old. His proportions were never right and this is a version of the character begging for a redo just like the DBZ version received. The reason to get this figure is if you really like the character and feel better paying $75 for it as opposed to the $120 or so you’re likely to pay for a secondhand version of the old figure. That figure will have more stuff and a more true-to-the anime paint job, but will have all of the same problems as this one plus the older face printing. And if you’re thinking of using the updated face plates with the old figure, it’s probably not going to work. The flesh tone here has a purple hue to it. It may not be apparent when looking at the figure by itself, but place it beside another character and it stands out. He’d basically look like poisoned Trunks if you tried to mix and match.

He’s still Trunks and he’s still cool, but he could be so much better.

Am I content with my purchase? I still don’t know. This is an obvious compromise for my collection. It’s a character I want in my display, but not the version of the character I would like. If I could get the older version for a hundred bucks or less then I would not have bothered. Both are compromised takes on the character, but the original less so. And that Hope Sword is pretty damn cool. If you have that old figure and decide to get this one too then you could probably use the depowered head on the new body. The necks won’t match, but the scarf will hide it if you want. The only reason to do that though is if you really like Future Trunks. This version is okay, but not what I want. I would have much preferred they just give him a blueish hue and make him Hope Sword Future Trunks. At the very least, he should have his own aura to go with the Gallick Gun. A Hope Sword Trunks could have created his unique yellow and blue aura and would have looked way cooler. Plus such a display would lend itself well to being off on its own in a different part of your collection making the size issues less of a concern. Oh well. If you’re like me and really regret passing on the Super version of Future Trunks, I guess you may as well grab this one if you’re okay with the price. Once it’s gone though (and it’s no longer being offered on their website, but it may be making the convention and pop-up store rounds) I wouldn’t entertain paying so much as a dime more than MSRP. Hopefully, something better for Future Trunks is in our future.

If you like Trunks or are just really into Dragon Ball Super then you may like checking out these reviews:

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March 7, 2025

S.H.Figuarts Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta – Unwavering Saiyan Pride

By Joe
Now more godly than ever.

I guess we’re making the first week of March Vegeta Week here on The Nostalgia Spot, and why not? He is royalty, after all. This one should be a short one since we’ve looked at this figure before. Multiple times. Bandai has been able to extract a lot of value out of their Super Saiyan Vegeta mold which I believe was an early 2.0 body for the S.H.Figuarts line. It was also the first figure in the line I got way back in 2018. It’s funny to look back on how smitten I was with that figure and now I look at it and seem to only notice the flaws. What has at least held up over the years is the overall look of the sculpt, which is good since Bandai hasn’t really changed it. It’s not perfect, but obviously good enough for me to keep buying it. I now have four versions of this figure, plus two more that also share some parts. For awhile, I had just one Vegeta figure and now there are many, but since he is Saiyan royalty I guess that’s fitting.

Goku could use a similar upgrade.

Much more recently, Bandai reissued it’s Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta for the line’s 15th anniversary. That figure was one I had been hoping would see a revision because I had missed it back when it first came out and I have come to really enjoy the look of Super Saiyan Blue. I was, however, disappointed with the reissue because there were no updates to the original figure. In more recent times, Bandai has reissued figures aplenty, but always with improved face-printing. They didn’t do that for their special 15th anniversary figure and the result was a figure that looked dated. Fast-forward a few months after release, and we find out that another Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta is on the way and this one was ticketed to be part of the budget-friendly $35 subline. These are the figures shipped to brick and mortar stores that typically are of the most popular characters and are designed as an entry point for newcomers. Even though the price was far better than a lot of new figures in the line, I was still annoyed by the release since I had just spent good money on a lesser version. I got over it though, and when the Premium Bandai website was offering a free shipping promotion in February I decided to just grab this new Vegeta to seemingly right the prior wrong.

I have no shortage of Vegetas.

Dubbed Unwavering Saiyan Pride, this Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta is indeed very familiar. The body is exactly the same as the previous release, but the deco has been refined. The original was white and brown on the armor with a shade of blue for the bodysuit that bordered on purple. It’s a similar color to the manga. The re-release from a few years ago (which I didn’t bother to review) saw the blue altered to a more royal blue with the straps and plating on the armor lightened to a shade of tan. The white portions of the suit are a more off-white. This new Vegeta keeps the off-white while pairing it with a dull shade of yellow-brown that basically sits in between the prior two figures. The bodysuit is a new shade of blue with a touch more yellow. It reminds me of the ocean in the Caribbean giving it an almost warm feeling as opposed to the usual coldness blue imparts.

The faces on this one are so good.

This updated shade is likely here to play off of the new head sculpt. As far as I know, this portrait is entirely new. The shape of the hair is different from all of the other Vegeta figures I own. It fans out more which does seem to match his depiction in Dragon Ball Super – maybe we should think of this as a Toyotarou version? The hair is a light blue with a pearl finish. Like the body, there’s a touch more yellow making it lighter than the previous Super Saiyan Blue figure. It does help to give off the illusion of a radiating Vegeta and this figure would pair well with an aura effect.

He’s got the hands for a classic Vegeta stance, but those hips won’t let him go much lower.
This pose makes me wish he had an effect part, but for 35 bucks one isn’t expected.

I like the overall approach by Tamashii Nations here, but the execution is a little suspect. I suppose it should be expected at the lower price point, but there’s no reason to skimp on quality either. After all, it’s the same company on the box no matter the price. Paint is a little sloppy in places and most noticeably around the neckline. The blue is fuzzy and my figure has a blob of brown on the back of the neck which I guess is from the armor straps. The edgework around the armor isn’t as clean as it could be, and like the recently reviewed Old Style Battle Clothes Vegeta, some of the steel in the right elbow joint is visible suggesting it was slightly misaligned during assembly. More annoying though is the miscolored parts as the crotch piece is a darker blue from the rest of the legs. I think this is caused by the crotch being a slightly harder plastic and the legs having a little bit of a wash applied to them. I don’t know how well it shows in pictures, but in-hand and under normal lighting conditions it’s pretty noticeable.

Maybe my least favorite expression of the bunch, but it still gets the job done.

What did turn out well though are the portraits. These are Bandai’s best Vegeta expressions yet and they alone are worth the upgrade. We get four expressions this time: stoic, yelling, teeth showing, and a smirk. Maye instead of stoic I should call this Vegeta Resting Bitch Face because he looks kind of pissed. He looks really ticked off with the teeth-gritting expression and the smirk is the perfect, cocky, Vegeta we all know and love. I love all three, while the yelling one is a bit more specific. It’s also longer as a result and looks a touch off to me, but not terribly so. The rest of the accessories are the same old, same old: fists, clenching hands, martial arts pose hands, open hands, and a right thumb gesture. He also has the old style crossed-arms piece that connects at the biceps. I didn’t bother to try it out this time because I already have it on two of my Vegeta figures, three including the Namek Vegeta.

“Step aside, boy, I’ll handle the rest.”

Articulation is exactly the same as the past Vegeta figures. The new head doesn’t function any better or worse and they’re still sticking with that annoying hinged ball peg for the neck. The hips are the most restrictive part of the figure while the hinged joint in the mid-torso feels welcomed after handling the last two Vegeta figures that lacked it. It’s mostly fine, but showing its age here. We could use a Vegeta with better butterfly joints as well as better hips. The ball peg ankles also need to be fired into the sun.

Kick that imposter’s ass, Vegeta!

Is this a figure that’s worth $35? Absolutely. It’s not perfect and some aspects of it are dated, but compared to other brands at this or a similar price and it’s still damn impressive. It gets right what it needs to and that’s the color pallet and the expressions. This is probably the best Vegeta figure yet unless you really like Super Saiyan 4. I prefer a more traditional Vegeta and while Super Saiyan Blue might not be anyone’s idea of traditional, I do think the guy looks good in blue so if I had to get rid of all of my Vegeta figures but one this would be the one to keep. I do think we could do with an update and hopefully Bandai is willing to go beyond the anime and give us Vegeta figures from later in Super. Those would present an opportunity for something new. They also haven’t done his maxed out blue from the end of the anime. Perhaps an ascended Super Saiyan Vegeta on a new body could be in the cards? That would lend itself well to redos. We’re also getting a new base form Vegeta via the Dragon Ball Daima line this year and I’m interested in checking that out. For now though, I’m happy with this Vegeta and glad I didn’t pass on it. Even if I now have a small army of Vegetas.

I hope you like Vegeta…

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z Vegeta 24,000 Power Level

When a toy line is as long in the tooth as Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z line, producers tend to start looking in all of the various crevices of the property for new material. We recently looked at a figure that did just that in Mecha Frieza, a version of the chief villain of the…

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by Joe

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta – S.H.Figuarts 15th Anniversary Ver.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, S.H.Figuarts, Bandai turned to the fans. There was a large roster of releases eligible for re-release to mark the occasion, and anyone who wanted to could cast a vote for their five favorites. The winner was, not surprisingly, Vegeta. And in particular, it…

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by Joe

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

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