Tag Archives: tamashii nations

January 24, 2024

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

By Joe
It’s Trunks with a new hairstyle!

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

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

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

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

Scream for me, Trunks!

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

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

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

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

Everybody looks pissed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Joe

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

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

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by Joe

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

October 27, 2023

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

By Joe

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

“Son! What happened?!”

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

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

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

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

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

The size and the expressions are what sell this figure.

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

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

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

“WAIT! WHAT?!? AN ORANGE NAMEKIAN?!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Joe

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

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

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Gamma 1 and Gamma 2

Last year saw the release of a brand new film in the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The mouthful of a title was a bit of a throwback affair. It seemed that Toei and series creator Akira Toriyama wanted to use the film to return the spotlight to Gohan and Piccolo, two…

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by Joe

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

September 7, 2023

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

By Joe
Unleash your inner beast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gohan can manage a Kamehameha pose all right…

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

…but the Masenko presents problems.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do The Mario!

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

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

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Gamma 1 and Gamma 2

Last year saw the release of a brand new film in the Dragon Ball franchise: Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. The mouthful of a title was a bit of a throwback affair. It seemed that Toei and series creator Akira Toriyama wanted to use the film to return the spotlight to Gohan and Piccolo, two…

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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 Super Son Goku Super Hero

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

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by Joe

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

May 11, 2023

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

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

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

They think they’re so cool.

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

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

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

Well that isn’t pretty.

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

I bet his mom thinks he’s cool.

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

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

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

Final Flash!

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

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

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

Whenever Vegeta wants to feel tall he calls Krillin.

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

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

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

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

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by Joe

SH Figuarts Super Saiyan Vegeta

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

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by Joe

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

March 23, 2023

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

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

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

Scream for me, Goku!

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

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

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

These things are a pain to insert and quite brittle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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by Joe

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

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

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by Joe

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

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

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by Joe

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November 17, 2022

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

By Joe

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, the only one I grabbed initially was Goku as I was looking for a base version of Goku and that figure really stood out as better than the alternative to me. I was tempted by Piccolo as well because the headsculpts looked like an improvement over the figure I have, but ultimately I didn’t want to spend money for some new heads. Another temptation for me was the new Gohan. Depicted in his “Ultimate” form, the adult Gohan from the film looked really interesting because it would appear he’s on a newer body that could see some reuse down the road. At the end of the day though, I’m not a huge Gohan fan so I decided to pass. The question was rendered moot too when he sold out really quickly as there’s a legion of Dragon Ball collectors out there who have been waiting for a good interpretation of Ultimate Gohan.

Then Bandai put up for sale on its Premium Bandai webstore two characters from the film: Gamma 1 and Gamma 2. They’re the “sort of” villains from the film and I liked their look. I wasn’t sure if I liked it enough to pay the Premium Bandai upcharge to get them though, but once I finally saw the film, I ended up taking the plunge. The thing with those figures is they both come with optional parts for the Ultimate Gohan figure. I suppose I could have sold those parts to recoup some of the expense of those two figures, but instead I just went in for more and purchased the Gohan figure. Retailers opened up some additional preorders for him, at the slightly inflated price of $40 (he may have started off there too and I just forgot), and I grabbed one of them. I’ve had the figure for about a month now, and let me tell you something: I love it!

My Gohan, you’re looking unusually focused this morning.

Gohan comes in the usual window box and should look fairly routine from outside the box. Once removed, he stands just shy of 5.5″ to the top of his face, closer to 6.5″ if you want to go to the top of the hair. Gohan from the movie is depicted in his classic Piccolo training uniform. It’s a purple gi with red sash and he has the big, chunky, shoes he and Piccolo both feature in the movie. He basically only distinguishes himself from Piccolo via his black wriststraps. He’s in his “Ultimate” form which was his ascended form he learned from the Elder Kai during the Buu Saga. It’s basically Gohan’s ultimate form, hence the name, though it doesn’t come with a flashy transformation. If anything, he just has slightly bigger, spikier, hair. He’s also jacked and that comes through in the sculpt. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to Goku who keeps going through all of these different forms and hair colors to get more powerful, but his kid just bulks up a bit. I kind of like that about Gohan, though he has his own wild transformations too.

The new style for the shoulder joints can be a bit finicky to work with, but the reward is that they look so much better than the old style with the sleeve cuff pegged into the shoulder itself.

Like most figures in this line, Gohan is largely composed of molded, colored, plastic which minimizes the need for paint. I suppose “need” is a strong word and certainly a subjective one as many (myself included) would like to see more paint on these releases. It’s much harder to criticize them for that though at this lower price point. With Gohan, there appears to be a hint of shading on the legs, which they like to do for some reason. It’s not as visible with Gohan as it is with Goku and his orange gi, which almost works out better for Gohan. It adds just a touch of depth and comes across well. It’s also helped by the fact that the purple is quite matte on this figure giving him a nice finish. The chest is painted and it’s not a perfect match to the neck and arms. The chest has a matte appearance, while there is a touch of shine on the neck, but it’s not awful. The red sash is a separate, floating, piece though it is rather snug on the figure. It may cause some paint transfer if you’re not careful. Lastly though, the faces for this figure look terrific. I don’t know what Bandai did to improve their facial printing, but keep it up. The previous Goku figure looked nice, but Gohan is even better. These faces all look fantastic and it really brings the figure to life. The hair also looks nice and it’s even tricky to figure out where the seem is to remove the bangs because the fit is so good. The only blemish is a bit of mold release, roughness, on the side of the hair. It’s not very noticeable from a shelf, but it does kind of suck and I considered trying to exchange it, but opted not to. Aside from that though, I think this figure looks wonderful.

On one foot with not assistance, and on the flimsy plastic of the arena playset at that.

Adding to my enjoyment is the articulation. I’ve been a little critical of the various Goku figures as I acquire more of them because that figure has some limitations and some features that are a bit of an eyesore. This figure doesn’t solve every problem that Goku has, but it comes close. The head is on a double-ball peg with another ball joint at the base of the neck. He can move around nice and smooth and there’s great nuance posing afforded by this setup. It’s only weakness it he can’t look up very well so if you wanted to position him in a flying pose parallel with the ground it would look awkward. The shoulders have a newer style of joint similar to what Krillin has which means theres no pegged in shoulder piece to look stupid. The sleeve is just a floating piece the arms goes through and it pegs into a ball and hinge style of joint inside the torso. The end result is you get some up and down movement at just the shoulder before even engaging the hinge which allows the arms to be raised out. You do have to work with the sleeve to get them horizontal, but it’s do-able. There is still a butterfly joint and that may be the only limitation here as he doesn’t seem to reach across quite as far as Goku. A Kamehameha pose is still possible, but a little less natural looking. The rear of the joint is cleaner, though there will still be angles where it looks unsightly. The joint is all cast in purple though so at least it doesn’t look as ridiculous as Goku’s where the interior is flesh-toned. The rest of the arms are typical stuff with a biceps swivel, double-jointed elbow that goes well past 90 degrees, and ball-peg wrists.

This one needs a stand though.

In the torso, we get a ball-joint at the diaphragm. There is no hinge in there to lift the upper torso higher which seems cleaner, but the figure also doesn’t have much range forward and back. He can pivot a bit on the joint as well. Below that is a waist twist which feels like a ball-peg of some kind. It mostly lets him twist, but you do get some nuance posing out of it as well. At the hips, we have some kind of a ball-joint that works very well. Gohan can achieve full splits and kick forward plenty far, though can’t kick back because he does have sculpted cheeks. There’s a thigh twist below that which is very smooth and the double-jointed knees both look and function well. At the boot, there’s a swivel and the feet are ball pegs. They don’t have much range going forward and back due to the cuffs on the shoes, but the rocker works okay. There’s also a toe hinge if you like those.

The Masenko pose is a bit tricky. Anything that requires the figure to raise its arms above the shoulder is tough because of the shirt piece.

Most importantly, all of the articulation is really smooth. No stuck joints, no uncomfortable creeking or squeeking noises, and it’s all very visually appealing. That may not sit as well with some other folks as I can see some wishing Bandai sacrificed some of the form to get better range in places. The torso feels like the biggest issue as we could probably get a better ab crunch in there. The ankles also aren’t great, but I think that’s partly due to the character design and the shoes present. The shoulders still aren’t perfect, but I think they look much better this way and I’ll take the reduced range there for this visual. I would definitely be interested in seeing a new Goku on this body, though I don’t know what version (I did order the Super Saiyan 2 Goku, but it’s on the usual buck). Maybe a brand new Super Saiyan 3 or “Awakening Super Saiyan” Goku?

He can do a reasonable Kamehameha pose though.
Fire away, Gohan!

This is a bit of a budget release, but there are still some accessories to talk about. Unfortunately, they’re not particularly exciting. Gohan just comes with some extra hands and face plates. For faces, he has a stern expression, teeth-gritting, and a yelling one. For hands, we get fists out of the box plus Kamehameha hands, martial arts pose hands, and a set of open “Masenko” hands. That’s it. It’s expected given the price point, but still disappointing to only get a conventional spread of hands plus three facial expressions. An effect part would have been welcomed and, honestly, adds mere pennies to the cost. How about the Super Saiyan 4 Goku blast effect, but in yellow or blue? Just something to put in his hands for a Masenko effect, though his shoulders aren’t really made for the charging effect so maybe it’s better not to draw attention to that via an effect?

Bandai is really killing it lately with the faces.

If this is the new, standard, body going forward for Bandai then I think it’s pretty good. It could be better, but I think we’ll get a lot of nice looking figures out of this. And even though there are some short-comings, I still love this releasae. And I don’t even consider myself a fan of Gohan. Nothing against him, I don’t actively dislike the character, he’s just not my favorite. This figure though is one of my favorites in the line and I’ve been having a blast with him just posing and fiddling with him on my desk while he waits for me to write this review. And maybe that’s partly what took me so long as I drew out the process. He’s going to head for the shelf soon and join his buddies, but I am definitely looking forward to getting those extra parts with the Gamma brothers so I have an excuse to mess with this one again. If you thought you didn’t need it for one reason or another, I must encourage you to rethink that. And at 40 bucks, this feels like quite the steal. This figure is way better than the Apocalypse I reviewed recently, a figure I did ultimately like, and it costs the same. While lesser companies are getting more expensive, Bandai is actually getting cheaper and that’s awesome. Keep it up!

I wasn’t sold on him initially, but I’m pretty happy to have added Gohan to the shelf.

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October 20, 2022

The Robot Spirits MS-07B-3 Gouf Custom (VER A.N.I.M.E.)

By Joe
Norris is back and he has a new toy.

It’s time to take a look at one of my most anticipated releases in Bandai’s The Robot Spirits line based on the anime Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team. And that figure is the Gouf Custom which was piloted by Colonel Norris Packard during the climactic battle at the end of that series. The Gouf is basically a Zeon mobile suit that’s pretty similar to the Zaku which we already looked at. It’s just got a cooler design and a different weapons loadout. My expectation was this figure would be very similar and share some parts with that previous release, but to my surprise, it does not. Is that a good thing? Well, the Zaku is a terrific action figure so if another figure to follow was going to imitate it then that would be fine by me, but who also doesn’t love a figure that’s unique on their shelf?

The Gouf Custom comes in the standard window box this series is known for. The window is tiny and just gives a peek at the figure and it’s adorned with product shots that are probably renders as opposed to actual photography. It’s easily resealable and the tray that holds the figure in the box just slides out. There are no tie-downs, which feels like a god-send given the amount of those things that wind up in my carpet.

That is a lot of hardware for one arm.

Once removed from the packaging, the Gouf is quite familiar in size and build quality. It’s only around 5″ tall not including the fin on the helmet so it’s a quaint little guy. The Gouf follows a lot of the same design elements as the Zaku with the single-camera “eye” and various hoses along the body. The shoulder pauldrons are horned for added menace, but unlike the Zaku, both shoulders feature the same design. The legs are similar, but different, as far as the molds used go. There’s really not much reuse here, maybe the hands or the rear skirt piece, as the Gouf is just different enough to necessitate it’s own molds. The main difference between the two is the color palette. The Zaku goes for that traditional, military, olive drab while the Gouf opts for a rather pleasant sky blue. The torso is a darker blue-gray and there’s some black on the knees and feet, but the dominant color is clearly the blue. And I like blue, so I’m just naturally drawn to this one. And like most releases in the line, there’s very little paint. It’s mostly limited to the eye and some red on the chest. Otherwise, we’re mostly dealing with colored plastic and it looks okay, but a paint wash wouldn’t hurt.

Similar, but different.
He can handle that massive amount of plastic on his arm, but add an effect part…

Since this figure required extensive new tooling, it also differs when it comes to the articulation. The head still sits on a ball peg and the base of the neck can hinge back allowing the Gouf to look up. It’s limited in looking down, and the top of the head is removable to allow for the eye to be re-positioned. The shoulders are pegged in and the joint it pegs into moves a bit for mostly nuance posing. The pauldrons peg in as well and they’re going to get in the way. The Gouf can’t quite raise its arms out to the side, but can get reasonably far. The arm rotates just fine, and there’s a pseudo-butterfly joint in the torso that affords some minor movement there. There’s a biceps swivel, but surprisingly just a single hinge at the elbow. The Gouf can just about hit a 90 degree bend, but I’m surprised it can’t go farther. The hands are on ball pegs, per usual, and the tolerance is just okay. I wish they were tighter, but we’ll talk more about that later. The torso has a ball-joint and hinge in the diaphragm that lets it tilt side-to-side a little. He can bend back just a tiny amount, but not forward at all because of the design of the chest. Once you engage the hinge, however, you can make this thing bend back really far, but it exposes a giant gap. It does provide some clearance though for the front, diamond-like, piece on the chest to slip behind the lower torso to get some better ab crunch. There’s a waist twist below that, but the hoses that wrap around the figure restrict the movement there quite a bit. At the hips, we have some big old balls that peg into a really small piece of plastic which looks a bit scary. The Gouf can’t quite do full splits due to the skirt pieces, but it does kick forward very far and back a little. The knees are double-jointed and there are no issues there nor are there any issues with the thigh twist. The ankles are surrounded by a lot of plastic, but the feet hinge forward and back and you get a little rocker action. They also have that joint in the middle of the foot that allows for more bend in the same style as a toe hinge, only it mostly provides range down as opposed to up so I don’t know that it’s very useful for standing. Lastly, there’s two thrusters on the rear of the figure on ball hinges for some directional posing when using effect parts.

If I so much as breath on this guy right now that arm is falling down.
If I’m going to display this guy utilizing the blast effect, I think I’ll go with the smaller gun because the figure can handle that.

The Gouf moves just okay. Part of that is due to the hoses around the body of the figure which didn’t allow for much. Bandai could have tried adding some sliding pieces there to allow for more movement, but that would come at the cost of some of the aesthetic. I’m more disappointed in the elbows and wrists. I keep checking out the elbows thinking I’m missing something, but they really are single-hinged. The wrists feature fine range, but like some of the other figures I have from this line, they’re too weak. This guy has trouble holding heavier weapons which happens to matter quite a bit if you want to hand it a Zaku bazooka. As we’ll see shortly, at least the weaponry the figure comes packaged with matters more for the shoulder joint than the wrist, but that’s also a problem as the shoulder joint could stand to be tighter.

The heat wire is neat, but did it have to be this long?
Now he’s like Batman!

The Gouf comes with the standard assortment of hands and a tree to place them on when not in use. They are: gripping, trigger, slightly wider gripping, open, and style posed. His melee weapon of choice is the heat saber which is just a sword. The blade is done in gray, but with a nice, graphite, finish and the hilt is a blue-gray piece of unpainted plastic. He has a three-barrel gatling gun that clips onto the left wrist with an effects part that can be affixed to any barrel (a special three-barrel effect part is coming in a new options set next year). On top of that, a shield can be affixed which is on a hinge piece like the Gundam Ground Type so it can be raised off of the figure’s arm which is necessary to make use of the effect part. When stored flat, the heat saber can slide behind the shield and a massive gatling gun can fit over that. This gun can accept the effect part plus an added burst effect as well, but doing so creates a lot of weight on the figure’s left arm and it’s rather cumbersome to pose. The last weapon is the heat wire which clips into a peg hole on the right arm. There’s a tiny plug that has to be removed first which is a nice bit of accuracy, but also a touch impractical since it’s hard to get it out and easy to lose. The wire itself is bendy so you can do some fun stuff with it and topped with a grappling hook. It’s also around ten inches in length so you have a lot to play with, almost too much. If you want it to just be firing in a straight line it looks kind of ridiculous and can’t support its own weight. I much prefer a coiled look, but I don’t think that’s anime accurate. The last two accessories are thrust effects that can be used on the jetpack or the feet. Like all figures in this line, it can accept a flight stand so opting for a flying pose is possible if you so desire. The effect parts are the superior ball-hinged variety so positioning them is quite easy. Bandai also included an extra fin piece for the head in case one gets lost or breaks. It does pop out very easily.

Maybe I’ll display him flying with all of that stuff on his arm just for the sheer lunacy of the visual.

The Gouf Custom looks the part and comes with enough stuff to really outfit it for battle, but I do find myself a little disappointed with this one compared with the other releases in this line. It’s design makes posing it less fun than the others, and the cumbersome accessories add to that frustration. It basically looks cool in a vanilla pose, but struggles with the more dynamic stuff. It also has a more fragile feel to it which just adds a layer of anxiety to the experience that isn’t much fun. And given that most places price this figure at around $80, it makes it harder to recommend. On one hand, if you’re really into The 08th MS Team it’s hard not to include the Gouf Custom, but on the other hand if you’re more interested in just having a figure or two from the line then it might be easy to just skip this one. If I was only getting one enemy mobile suit, I think I’d go with the Zaku over this which is not what I expected going into this review, but it is what I got.

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August 19, 2022

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

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

Back in the early 2000s I was a collector of Irwin Toys’ Dragon Ball Z line of action figures. When I started collecting that line, I just focused on my favorite characters which were primarily Vegeta, Trunks, and Piccolo. Gradually, the collector impulse took over and I started buying entire waves as they came out even if I never would have imagined I’d buy a figure of Yakon or Yamcha in a yellow suit. Anyway, what happened is my collection was surprisingly light on DBZ’s main character: Goku. Irwin was also pretty bad at keeping popular figures in circulation, they basically made a wave of figures and then moved onto the next one so late adopters were pretty screwed (and maybe that’s partly why they went out of business during the line’s life). I would eventually get the Series 4 standard Goku, but only because I found it on clearance for 4 dollars at a KB Toys (it was a pretty bad likeness), but I never got a Super Saiyan Goku or others. I did get some of the later Goku figures that Irwin and Jakks Pacific (who bought the license from Irwin when it went bankrupt) released, but my collection was definitely light on the legendary Saiyan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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August 10, 2022

The Robot Spirits MS-06JC Zaku II Type JC ver. A.N.I.M.E.

By Joe
Now you face the Zaku!

After talking about two different versions of the Gundam Ground Type from Mobile Suit Gundam – The 08th MS Team it’s about time we talk about the bad guys. That’s right, the Principality of Zeon has their own mobile suits, and in true bad guy fashion, they look pretty cool. Arguably cooler than the good guys and their Gundams. I say arguably because it’s definitely not as cut and dry as it was with say G.I. Joe in which Cobra always had the better looking vehicles and uniforms. The Gundams are mostly refined with a touch of elegance despite their rather beefy and cumbersome appearance. The Zeon and their Zaku are even bulkier with less flash, but they have a certain menace about them not present with the Gundam mobile suits. I think the distinction is captured rather well in the choice of melee weapon for each, the futuristic, Jedi-like beam sabers of the Gundam vs the violence of the axe-like Heathawk.

Weapon storage – the stuff that excites me.

Bandai has sunk its teeth into me with its Robot Spirits collection based on The 08th MS Team anime, so I basically had to get that show’s interpretation of the Zaku. The Zaku is, like the Gundam, featured in various series of Mobile Suit Gundam and it usually looks fairly recognizable to anyone familiar with the franchise. They’re usually green or olive drab and armed with that aforementioned axe, the Heathawk, and feature a single camera in the head that appears as a red, glowing, “eye” that makes the suit resemble a cyclops. They usually have some heavy artillery as well, maybe some spikes here and there, as well as tubes around the head or encircling the torso. They’re basically never not cool looking, and while I actually do prefer the look of the Gundam to it, that’s by no means a slight upon the Zaku.

This line runs small, but the scale from mobile suit to mobile suit is quite nice.

The Robot Spirits version of the Zaku from The 08th MS Team looks about as expected. It stands at approximately 5″ in height and is composed of mostly colored plastics of differing shades of green. There’s plenty of sculpted detailing on the body of the beast with a spiked shoulder pauldron on the left arm and a spiked shield on the right shoulder. This version of the Zaku appears to be based on the second episode of the series, and a spare part that comes in another set would only seem to confirm that since its a reference to a battle in that very episode. The main torso of the Zaku is a deep, forest, green while the limbs and head are a lighter shade of green. The hoses connecting the thigh and the lower leg as well as the head and torso are a gray, almost purple, color and in that head is the menacing red eye. Pop off the top part of the head and you can even spin that eye just like in the show to have the Zaku’s focus elsewhere.

Like the Ground Gundam, the Zaku is pretty beefy and tank-like, but it moves and poses well enough.

The Zaku, like the ground Gundam, is well-articulated for such a beefy design. The head is on a ball and hinge combo that lets it look way up as well as down a bit. It’s neat because as you force the head up the coil that is the neck becomes more exposed. There’s a butterfly-type joint in the sides of the torso that let the Zaku’s arms come forward a bit and an ab crunch that allows a generous amount of range forward, but little to none back. The shoulders are a bit limited, especially the left one, due to the presence of the pauldron and shield, respectively. The left arm can almost be raised to a horizontal position, while the right can achieve that and a touch more if you spin the shield around. There’s a biceps swivel and another swivel above the first elbow joint. You may want to make sure the upper elbow swivel is in the proper spot as mine was not out of the box and I thought it only had one elbow hinge. It does not, there are two, and the Zaku can bend its elbows well past 90 degrees. The wrists are the standard ball pegs and there is a waist twist, but it doesn’t seem to want to go very far to either direction so I’m not going to force the issue.

The last thing you see before you die.

At the hips we have the usual skirt armor and on the Zaku it blends really well when in a neutral pose. There’s something satisfying about kicking the legs forward and watching the skirt piece come apart. Anyway, the Zaku can kick out to the side at 45 degrees or better, and can kick forward a fair amount with almost nothing backwards. There is a thigh twist and the knee is double-jointed to bend past 90 degrees and it looks good. At the ankle, the feet can rock side to side a bit and the foot bends forward a surprisingly amount, but not back very far. There is a toe hinge that you have to pull out on first before it will bend back. It’s odd, but it works. All of the joints on this guy work very smooth and there’s a nice tolerance to them. He can wield his heavier weapons with little issue and overall I’m very happy with how the articulation turned out.

That’s a pretty big gun.

For the accessories, we have the usual load-out of hands plus a little “tree” to clip them onto. There’s gripping hands in the box, plus another set of tighter gripping hands, trigger hands, relaxed hands, and open hands. For weapons, this guy is pretty well stacked. There’s a collapsed Heathawk that can clip onto either hip plus a deployed Heathawk that’s longer and features a golden blade to simulate it heating up. He has his 120mm machine gun with circular magazine that can be held or stored on the rear of the figure with an adapter. He also has the Zaku bazooka which has an adapter for the rear of the figure and a second one for a shoulder mount meaning this guy can store all three of his main weapons without issue. The bazooka features a removable gravity-fed magazine that even has a little sculpted missile in it. Both weapons feature moving parts to help facilitate with posing, but feature little in the way of paint aside from the cameras on them. No effects parts are included for them either, but they can take them. The machine gun uses the same effect part as the ground Gundam’s machine gun while the bazooka uses a rocket effect that, as far as I know, has not been included in any 08th MS Team release. There’s also an interchangeable plate for the arm shield that replaces the spiked portion with a flat one as some Zaku in the show carried such a shield. Lastly, we have two effect parts for the Zaku’s rear thrusters, though these ones are not ball-jointed like the ground Gundam Desert type. The Zaku’s thrusters are on ball joints so you can at least adjust them there.

The figure holds this bazooka reasonably well, though the front handle is useless in a firing pose. Of course, with no included FX part it’s hard to say how well it truly works since those tend to add a lot of heft.

It’s a solid assortment of accessories, though as seems to always be the case with Tamashii Nations releases, I’m left wishing we got some more effect parts. This guy has spots on the figure where gunfire blasts can be affixed, like on the shield, to make it look like it’s under fire. And of course there’s both weapons that can use some. I really wish the bazooka came with a missile effect because the one included in the Options Set doesn’t fit. There is a part in that set though intended for the Zaku and it’s a battle damaged one. It’s basically a stump that can replace the figure’s left arm. It pops off and on pretty painlessly and it’s cool. It’s meant to allow for a recreation of the Shiro vs Norris fight in that second episode. The Zaku also has the usual peg hole for a Tamashii Nations stand, but does not come with one.

War. War never changes. Except when it does and includes light sabers and hot axes wielded by giant robots.

Overall, I’m really happy with this release from The Robot Spirits line. I might even like this Zaku more than the Gundam Ground Types I’ve reviewed as it’s real easy to work with. There’s plenty of options for a display right out of the box, and more if you have some additional accessory parts. It doesn’t feel as overwhelming as the two Gundams which almost have too many options that I can never settle on anything. And then when I do, I usually wind up feeling like my posing is way too vanilla for what they’re capable of. Nevertheless, that’s a “me” problem, and so is my desire to add another Zaku! If anything, I’m disappointed I only got one, but at around $70 via US retailers, it’s not really the type of release one should army build. Like the Gundam Ground Type, there is at least a variant of sorts on the way in the form of the Gouf Custom that I plan to get so I will have another Zeon unit to join this one. It’s just do I want to make it an even 3 on 3 some day? We’ll see.

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May 31, 2022

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

By Joe
The Earth’s Strongest Man!

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

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

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

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

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

He’s small, but fierce!

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

What is going on here?!

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

He does make that face a lot.

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

“Goku! Senzu bean!”

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

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

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

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

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

Nappa! Don’t touch it!

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

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