E. Honda is a Japanese sumo wrestler with lightning-fast strikes and powerful throws. His signature moves are the Hundred Hand Slap and flying headbutt attack. He first appeared in Capcom’s Street Fighter II and numerous other sequels. Honda is focused on becoming the greatest sumo wrestler of all time. He entered the Street Fighter tournament to prove that sumo wrestlers rank among the greatest fighters in the world.
Name: E. Honda Line: Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers Manufacturer: Jada Toys Released: 2026 Price: $50 AUD Scale: 1:12 Accessories: Multiple interchangeable parts
I was never really a big fighting games fan back in the day. Mainly because I don’t think I’m any good at them and prefer team-based games. But I do remember playing Street Fighter II on Mega Drive at a friend’s house and definitely loved how excellent the gameplay was. I’m definitely a fan of the character designs from the game, so I’m mainly going to buy my favourite characters from the game.
SCULPTING
The sculpting is excellent! You can tell a lot of effort has been put into getting Honda just right by Jada Toys. It’s definitely easily recognisable as E. Honda and has all the details you would expect and bulk that E. Honda needs in good proportion.
PAINT
Paint for Honda is kept to a minimum, and that’s just how I like it! What paint there is, is clean and neat. The paint on the Yukata is great, and the face paint looks amazing!
ARTICULATION
This figure has a stack of articulation! Butterfly shoulders, double-jointed elbows and knees, good range of motion in the ankles and same goes for the neck and torso. You can get Honda in a number of great poses, but you are restricted by the yukata and it does make some pose and leg positions difficult. But, overall he’s a joy to pose.
ACCESSORIES
E. Honda comes with the following accessories: Hundred Hand Slap effect piece, a pair of open palm hands and an alternate head sculpt. The Hundred Hand Slap effect piece is great! It’s done really well. The extra “angry” head sculpt is excellent. The extra hands are a nice addition and helps vary the poses you can do. I do wish we got maybe one more pair of hands to use, though.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
The only issue I’ve had is that some of the joints are a bit tight (the arms) and the ankle joints are a bit too tight. I was wary of changing the hands out as the pegs are quite small, but the plastic feels pretty strong. If in doubt I’d just heat them up with a hair dryer.
PRICE
I paid $50 AUD for my E. Honda and I was happy about that price and supported a local business at the same time. Obviously, if you can get him for a cheaper price, all the better. But, considering the exchange rate for these figures it can get pricey sometimes.
OVERALL
This is an excellent figure and another home run for Jada Toys and their Street Fighter II series of figures. I really feel they are doing a great job at making quality well-made figures at a good price point. If you aren’t already buying these figures its definitely time to jump on board. E. Honda is amazing and is really fun to play with and looks great with the other figures from the series.
Inferno first appeared in the original Generation one cartoon in season two, with no explanation what-so-ever as tohow he arrived on earth. But proved himself a competent and helpful fellow Autobot whether fighting Decepticons or a blazing fire. Although his eagerness to engage in combat sometimes distracts him from his rescue job. His character had a memorable southern style accent and featured in a number of season two episodes after his initial appearance. He Transforms into a red Mitsubishi Fuso fire truck with ladder and has Ceramic plated armour to resist the extreme heat he has to deal with.
Name: Inferno (MP-33) Line: Transformers Masterpiece Manufacturer: TAKARA TOMY Released: 2016 Price: 11,990 YEN Scale: Roughly 22cm in height Accessories: Blaster Rifle, Water Spray Effect, Fire Hose, 3 Chest Plates, 2 Heads, 4 face Plates, 2 Nozzles/Wrist Blasters and 2 Wrist Communicators
Firstly I’ll address the elephant in the room. If you have already checked out my Best Of 2016, then you already know this figure is a home run as far as I’m concerned. So, in a lot of ways, it makes writing this review a bit redundant. However, I really loved taking photos of this figure, even if he was a pain to light correctly without any horrible glare from the light reflecting off the red. I eventually got into the mood after taking more photos of him (You’d think I’d have taken all my photos of him back when I did my list, but no, I’m not THAT organized or committed!)
As a child, I was lucky enough to own the original G1 Inferno along with Sideswipe and Beachcomber among others. Unfortunately, I ended up giving away both Inferno and Sideswipe after losing many of their accessories as you do when you are a small child with these type of toys. I never regretted the decision as I reasoned at the time, ‘Where would I be able to get the parts I needed?’ (pre-internet and all that) However, once aware of the power of the internet I did go out of my way to get a sample of both original G1 figures I was happy with. With that said Inferno was always one of my favorite Autobots and favorite Transformers in general.
With the announcement of Masterpiece Inferno I was quite excited as the prototype images of Inferno, looked really amazing. Also, he was scheduled to by released in November when I would once again be over in Japan. So the prospect of having him on release day was pretty exciting too! (Even if it was two days before I left Japan, but I got him none the less!)
SCULPTING I’m really happy with the amount of effort it appears Takara Tomy are putting into their Masterpiece Transformers. Inferno in hand is breathtaking, I love the size of the fire truck and it just oozes detail and quality. It really took me back to when I was young and my memories of receiving a G1Transformer that came in a proper box with numerous accessories. I spent a good 10 mins just pouring over the fire truck mode and all of its details. Upon transforming Inferno a lot of these details are carried over to robot mode. The face plates and helmets are on point and Inferno matches the animation model almost flawlessly, even if this makes him quite boxy in appearance. I love that the ladder disappears into his chest in robot mode. One minor nitpick with Inferno’s sculpting is that there was a bit of excess molding on the eyes on the faces plates which I ended up trimming off. The factory should be doing this, not me.
PAINT I’d like to assume most of Inferno is cast in the colour its meant to be. But, I’m pretty sure some parts a painted and matched to those plastic parts. I’m not going to take Inferno apart to find out. One thing Takara Tomy can work on is their paint applications, you don’t call your line of high-end Transformer toys “Masterpiece” and then drop the ball on quality sans MP Thundercracker. In my experience, the paint applications have always been hit and miss, but thankfully most of the time hit. For example, the blue eyes on the yelling/screaming face plate have been rubbed a bit and need a touch-up or on Inferno’s left shoulder there’s a little bit of red paint/scuff mark on the grey shoulder part. These are minor nitpicks, but sour my confidence in Takara Tomy with each new release I receive.
ARTICULATION Inferno has a lot of thoughtful articulation, some of it because of the transformation technique and some of it is just designed that way. He has lots of satisfying ratchet joints that make you feel confident that he will hold the pose and not have much trouble with his joints loosening up over time. Even though these Transformers look great in the heroic “museum pose” as seen in some of my photos you can still get very dynamic poses with Inferno if you want and he still looks great doing it and doesn’t look awkward.
ACCESSORIES Inferno comes stacked with oodles of accessories Takara Tomy shows everyone how it’s done (Bandai and Hot Toys, I’m looking at you) with useful and even cartoon episode-specific accessories. I had a lot of fun playing around with the many different chest pieces and hand/arm blaster combinations you can have. The options are almost endless and you can find a mix your happy with (to make it clear as if it’s not already, my go to is: animation model head and toy truck parts for the chest and arm). Plenty of posing options with the water spray effect for example. I’m really satisfied with the amount of accessories Takara Tomy have done an excellent job here.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS Besides minor paint app and factory molding clean up issues Inferno is pretty much problem free. I guess try not to loose some of those small accessories by keeping them in the box and all that jazz.
PRICE Amazon JP had a great price for Inferno of 11,990 Yen and this was me being late to the pre-order party too (not so for MP Megatron 😉 ) Most other retailers will have him for this price or around that depending on exchange rate, so shop around if you feel the need to. Just pay a price you are happy with, but he’s really an awesome figure so he’s easily worth it.
OVERALL Inferno definitely lives up to the title of “Masterpiece” he is another great example of how far Takara Tomy have come with their MP line since it was rebooted and another great addition to my ever growing Masterpiece display, his larger bulk and height make him tower above the standard Autobot cars and he commands my attention when I glance over at the display. With Grapple on the way, the Decepticons are starting to look a bit outnumbered!
Yuji Nagata is known mainly for his time spent in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He is the longest reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion with a reign of 392 days. He is also the only wrestler to have won all of Japan’s biggest single tournaments and, notably, spent a few years wrestling for American wrestling promotion WCW during 1997 and 1998. He is known for his stiff, shoot-style wrestling technique.
Name: Yuji Nagata Line: Super Star Figure Collection 44 Manufacturer: NJPW/Tohkon Shop Released:2001 Price: Then: Unknown, Now: 1500 Yen MOSC Scale: 5-6 inches in height Accessories: None
There’s no particularly interesting story behind buying this figure of Yuji Nagagta. I just bought it online for a pretty reasonable price, but I have been a Yuji Nagata fan since his days in WCW, but mainly due to Japanese wrestling video games that I’ve played. Still, if you’re collecting Japanese wrestling figures, you tend to buy your favourites first and normally get sucked in after you find out how badass all the other wrestlers are.
SCULPTING
This is easily the best part of the figure, the great thing about these Japanese wrestling figures is that they appear to have 3-D scanned the whole wrestlers body and added minimal articulation, it’s definitely the biggest draw card these figures have as it makes them very realistic and as close to match thing wrestler in real life as possible, so with all that said, with is a very real looking figure of Yuji Nagata!
PAINT
Paint is kept to a minimum and where it is used, it’s normally very neatly applied, this is one area you will seldom have to worry about for these figures, unless it’s loose as it might have been roughed up a bit. With earlier releases in the series you would get the card backer rubbing off some of the paint on the rear of the figure, but, later releases fixed this issue.
ARTICULATION
A grand total of three points of articulation for Nagagta: swivel joints at the shoulders and waist. That’s not really that much and you can’t do too much with the figure beyond it’s pre-set sculpted pose, but you can get some nice, slight variants to that pose, by simply moving the arms or waist a little bit.
ACCESSORIES
Yuji Nagata unfortunately doesn’t come with any accessories; some different arms would be nice, but this figure is as basic as Japanese wrestling figures get.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
The only problem you are going to encounter with these figures is plastic discolouration, which can happen depending on how the figure has been looked after; even MOSC samples can have problems if left out in the sun in a shop display. So, be very careful when buying any of these types of figures.
PRICE
I paid 1300 YEN using a bidding service to get one for myself and a heap of other figures, so it worked out to be pretty cheap. There are a few Japanese websites that sell this type of wrestling figures and there are also a couple of great stores in Tokyo, too!
OVERALL
This is a great figure if you know what to expect from it: It’s going to look amazing, but it will have very limited articulation, and you are pretty much buying a realistic statue. There are also a few variants of Yuji Nagata, so it can be fun chasing down the other ones if you are a big fan of the wrestler. It’s a bit of a niche market for Westerners, but they are still fun to collect!
Greatest Tag-Team ever! If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
The Imperial Stormtrooper is one of the most iconic and distinctive movie soldier designs ever, which is instantly recognisable to even non-fans of Star Wars. The elite soldier us the main ground force of the Galactic Empire and an ever-present reminder of the power of Emperor Palpatine.
Name: Stormtrooper Line: Movie Masterpiece Series Product Code: MMS267 Manufacturer: Hot Toys Released: 2015 Price: $190.99 – 199.99 USD Scale: 1/6 Accessories: Various hands and weapons.
I initially wasn’t going to buy this particular figure, don’t get me wrong, I do love me some Stormtrooper figure goodness, but, 1/6 scale figures do take up more space than their smaller action figure counterparts.
However, as luck (or fate) would have it, I happened to be picking up some orders from a friend, who just received the two pack set among some other goodies. After watching him unbox them, I knew then and there, I must have them! They just oozed quality, it was plain for me to see even with them sitting in the box, these were lovingly made figures.
So, I went home and did just that, ordered at least one figure for myself. Self-control be damned! ( Thanks, Ev! Damn it all! Haha)
LIST OF PARTS
Inside the box you get the following items:
One Stormtrooper figure Seven interchangeable hands One blaster rifle One blaster pistol One display stand
SCULPTING
As far as sculpting goes, this figure is excellent. I would never consider myself an expert when it comes to Stormtrooper helmets but, in my eyes, this is the best version made in 1/6 scale to date, it looks like Hot Toys used the “hero version” of the helmet for their reference material too as it matches that version the best. Everything is just the right size and shape. All the armour fits nice and snug on the body, it’s really like it walked off the screen and into your hands.
PAINT
Well, we all know by now that Hot Toys do an excellent job with their paint application; and this particular figure is no exception. The paint on this figure is mainly small details on the helmet and chest armour. As per usual, it’s nice and neat. I really love the gloss finish on the armour, it makes it look and feel amazing in hand.
ARTICULATION
The Stormtrooper presumably has the standard amount of articulation that the normal True Type body would have, being: Ball jointed neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, double jointed elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, ball jointed chest, swivel waist, swivel/hinge hips, double jointed knees and ball jointed ankles,
Now, the outfit can restrict this articulation a little bit, especially around the shoulders and crotch. Otherwise, you can get him into plenty of Stormtrooper type poses with little-to-no difficulty, in most cases the “standing to attention, museum pose” works best and looks so damn cool.
OUTFIT
Technically, the whole figure is the outfit, I’ve already raved about the armour, the black body suit underneath is fine, it’s stretchy, well-tailored and doesn’t restrict the joints.
ACCESSORIES
Just a small amount of accessories with this figure, something that’s really becoming the norm for Hot Toys releases as many fans and reviewers alike have made mention of.
You get a number of hands in different poses and two types of blasters, the standard one we all know and love and one only seen in promo shots, so Hot Toys attention to detail is pretty good in this instance.
I like the variety of hands they are all pretty useful to get a good variety of different poses and expressiveness out of the Stormtrooper.
Lastly, you get what I’ll call the “standard Star Wars base” with the figure, I’m not a fan of it, it’s the classic black display stand for me.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
Not really too many things to watch out for, perhaps the odd factory paint blemish? Perhaps the pleather holster tearing or deteriorating over time? The quality in this particular figure is top-notch.
PRICE
I paid about $190 USD plus shipping from Animarket, and I was happy with that. He’s a little bit more expensive on the secondary market these days, but if you can find a deal, more power to you!
OVERALL
If you want that classic Stormtrooper in 1/6 scale, then this is the figure to get, it’s simply put, the best 1/6 Stormtrooper to date and puts all other attempts to shame. I’m pretty sure if you are a Star Wars, Stormtrooper and Hot Toys fan, you already have this figure and you know what I’m talking about; if you still haven’t scratched that Stormtrooper itch then what are you waiting for? Buy this figure! It’s that simple.
Nami is the Straw Hat Pirates’ Navigator and one of the first to join Luffy’s crew. Initially forced to serve the fishman Arlong as his cartographer, Luffy frees Nami from their service, after which Nami decides to permanently join the Straw Hats. Nami is obsessed with obtaining large amounts of money, and her dream is to draw a complete map of the Grand Line.
Name: Nami (Sailing Again Ver.) Line: Portrait Of Pirates (Excellent Model) Manufacturer: MegaHouse Released: 2011 Price: Then: 5,700 YEN, Now: about the same if bought in Japan Scale: 1/8 Accessories: Base
Originally my wife and I (who is the bigger One Piece fan out of the two of us) were going to watch the Anime together, that was until we reached the end of what Madman had put out here in Australia and are waiting for more DVDs to be released.
In the meantime, my wife bought herself the complete comic series up to the most recent book. (All in Japanese obviously) so I don’t know if we will continue watching the DVD or if she will just read the books herself.
Either way, I’m quite happy to buy the characters I like the most in statue form which the two of us can both appreciate together.
SCULPTING
One thing I always tend to find about Japanese toy companies is they will always understand the characters which originate from Japan stylistically better than western or other Asian countries.
They just seem to have a better grasp of how to go about making the character look like it walked off the screen and into your hands and P.O.P Nami is no different. There was a little bit of hit and miss with the first figures in the series but MegaHouse has really upped their game with every new release.
This particular version of Nami is after the series time-jump, where Nami has grown up a bit and filled out (to paraphrase Sin City) and in a lot of ways has now become fan service and a lot more sexualized then she appeared before the time-jump.
There are things I like about the design (longer hair, more mature, proportioned body) and things I don’t (bust size is a bit over the top and she could wear better fitting clothes).
With that, all said it’s still an excellent representation of how Nami now looks in the Manga and Anime. MegaHouse have done a great job of translating those drawings into 3D and not losing the things that make Nami look unique. (Even if a lot of Anime/Manga female characters look pretty similar, to begin with.)
PAINT
As expected nice and neat, the highlights for me are the hair, which has a translucently near the tips and the jeans which have some subtle blending of colours. Besides that, everything is up to standard and you have little to nothing to worry about.
ARTICULATION
Nami is a statue and there fore has no articulation at all.
ACCESSORIES
Nami comes with a base to help her stand up and that’s about it, it’s cast in a bright orange plastic and feels like it’s quality plastic in hand.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
You aren’t going to have any issues with Nami, unless you bought a fake (hopefully not) or bought a really bad second hand one. (Once again, hopefully not)
PRICE
I bought my Nami, just like Nico Robin from my mate who was down grading his collection so I got her for a really good price (about $40 AUD, if I remember correctly) and if you can make it to Japan you will be able to find her in various conditions for decent prices. Obviously the place to go is Japan, Mandarake among others always has a seemingly endless supply of One Piece P.O.P and the prices are always great, plus you know it’s not a knock off too.
OVERALL
As far as character representations go I’m quite happy with this particular version of Nami and that’s what it comes down to if you are going to collect MegaHouse P.O.P ‘Excellent Model’ series, just buy whichever ones you like the best, they all tend to work together in a display cabinet, even if they are from different parts of the overall One Piece story.
Bear Ottoman (Bear Osman) is made by Real X Head, which is a small Japanese company run by Mori Katsura, who makes vinyl toys. Over the years there have been a number of figures and variations released as well as collaborations with other people or stores. Bear Ottoman is a larger size 8” adult sized figures from Real X Head, which is in collaboration with Goccodo and have proven very popular variant with Sofubi collectors!
Name: Bear Ottoman Taipei Toy Festival 2016 Exclusive Line: N/A Manufacturer: Real X Head/Goccodo Released:2016 Price: First released – 6000 – 10,000 YEN (guestimate) Scale: 8 Inches in height Accessories: None.
I bought this particular Bear Ottoman or Bear Osman online about a week ago, it’s not really an exciting story as it was pretty much a case of add to cart, wait to see if it was in stock and then pay kinda order. However, my journey to obtain a Bear Osman I was really happy with has spanned a few years since I started collecting Real Head figures.
I originally wanted to obtain a “Crazy Colours” version of the character, as at the time, this was the colourway I liked the look of the most. But, understandably, had no luck trying through various channels (I knew this particular figure would be very hard to track down regardless) and resided myself to being happy owning a grey and black Bear Osman.
That was until I noticed this particular variant online, in my opinion, this one even eclipses the crazy colour one, so much so, I have no desire to own it anymore, I’m quite happily satisfied with this one now it’s in my hands.
SCULPTING
I’ve talked about the base body of this type of figure plenty of times before in previous reviews do I’m not going to repeat myself again and again and again. It’s still a great body and has held up well over time. The new parts here are the head and right arm, which are unique to Bear Ottoman.
The Head sculpt is just outstanding. The amount of fine detail is simply amazing, a lot of work went into this head and it is easily one of my favorite head sculpts from Real Head, the bear claw-like arm is awesome too, there’s also plenty of great detail there as well, with finely sculpted hair all over it.
PAINT
This is one thing about the figure that determines for me whether I like it or not, the colour scheme and design of the paint application. For the longest time, I had a Bear Osman which was molded in grey plastic and had a black rub over the top. It was pretty cool and really showed off the details in the sculpting, but was still quite boring to look at.
This particular Bear Ottoman is quite the opposite it has a pretty electric colour scheme and it really pops. I also love that it has been cast in phosphorescent (glow-in-the-dark) vinyl which adds another layer of cool to the figure. (I do love me some glow in the dark figures!)
The paint is expertly applied and has some really nice blending and airbrush work. I really love the pink/blue and black colour choices too, it really contrasts well with the phosphorescent vinyl.
ARTICULATION
The larger sized Real Head figures all have the same amount of articulation, which tends to be the following: Swivel Head, Swivel shoulders, swivel waist and swivel forearms.
For the type of figure, this is it’s a good amount of articulation. You can pose the figure a bit, but normally the “museum pose” is the default pose I keep my figures in. It’s just nice to have the option to pose it differently if you wanted instead of this being a solid statue type of figure.
ACCESSORIES
No accessories, unless I would want to include the vest he comes with. It’s pretty cool looking and beefs up the torso a lot. It’s a really nice touch and I think really makes the figure stand out from the rest of the Real Head figures I have that have the same body.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There isn’t anything to worry about with these types if figures.
PRICE
Here’s the part where it can get a little crazy, especially if you are buying Bear Ottoman on the secondary market and to be honest if you are looking to buy one of these figures and not living in Japan, this is the only way whether its from toy reseller stores or Yahoo Auctions JP the price mark up can be quite high.
Even this particular Bear Osman wasn’t cheap and being an exclusive to a toy show not even held in Japan, you know you are going to be paying a lot of money to get one unless you went to the show. So be prepared to spend big when acquiring this particular figure type.
OVERALL
I really wanted a Bear Osman in my Real Head collection I was really happy with and this one is it. I can finally stop my searching and feel satisfied that I have a really amazing variant of the Bear Ottoman character after a few years of searching (or waiting perhaps) for one I really liked.
The price for this particular character is normally quite high, so if you want one, make sure you are happy with the paint application and are comfortable with the price you paid. Even although I paid a bit for this figure I am really happy with it and it’s one of my prized vinyl figures now.
The Castle Of Cagliostro is a Japanese Anime action/comedy released in 1979 and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It follows master thief Lupin The Third as he and associates Jigen and Goemon attempt to find the source of counterfeit bills, but in doing so ends up rescuing the princess held by Count Cagliostro and uncovering the hidden treasure that the Count is after.
Name: Lupin the third – Castle of Cagliostro (series 1 and series 2) Line: Kubrick Manufacturer: Medicom Released: 2003 Price: Then: recommended retail price 504 YEN . Now: varies depending on figure Scale: 3.5 Inches in height Accessories: Various (depending on figure)
Medicom make a lot of different products, one such product they are known quite well for are Kubricks. For me the Kubrick figure is a type of toy/collectible I would only ever associate with Japan, even although it shares similarities with Lego, the design is still what I would call ‘very Japanese’ so much so that if I were to put together a short list of toys that instantly make you think of Japan Kubrick would be one of them.
Their simplicity is one aspect that really appeals to me, how a character is broken down to about as basic as it can be, but still is a great representation of the character, is definitely part of the Kubrick charm in my opinion.
Back in late 2002 and early 2003 Medicom released two series of Kubricks based upon the classic anime film, Lupin The Third: The Castle Of Cagliostro. listed below is a breakdown of each series and the ratio of figures per batch of 24, these were blind boxed so you never knew what figure you were going to get, on top of that Medicom loves to throw in chase figures which are really rare and can be quite hard to come by.
Series 1 consists of the following figures:
Lupin The Third (5:24)
Daisuke Jigen (4:24)
Goemon Ishikawa (4:24)
Fujiko Mine (in disguise) (2:24)
Lady Clarisse (in wedding dress) (4:24)
Gustav (1:24)
Kage (Cagliostro assassin) (4:24)
Series 1 CHASE Figure: Archbishop (assortment ratio unknown)
Series 2 consists of the following figures:
Count Cagliostro (3:24)
Lady Clarisse (4:24)
Inspector Zenigata (4:24)
Police Riot Officer (6:24)
Fujiko Mine (4:24)
Lupin The Third (in wetsuit) (3:24)
Series 2 CHASE Figure: Count Cagliostro (in Cagliostro wedding ceremony attire) (assortment ratio unknown)
The Castle Of Cagliostro was one of the first Anime films I watched when I was younger, at one time, one of our local TV stations (SBS) had a weekly screening of classic anime films and along with Akira, Ghost in the shell etc The Castle of Cagliostro was one of them and after first viewing I found myself wanting to watch it and others again ( so it was a short trip to the video store for me!)
Also if anyone knows the full list of anime movies SBS screened during that time, let me know as I’m curious about what the full list was!
Needless to say, these movies left a big impression on me and made me a fan of anime from there on.
Now, when it comes to these particular Kubricks, on my first trip to Japan I picked up just Lupin by himself from Liberty 7 (back before they got raided for all their Kubricks) (and from the sounds of it, I should be placing the blame well and truly on that little box, if the stories are true from their blog page)
As I obviously recognized him and was also won over by the Kubrick charm at the same time I could see he was from a set, but decided just Lupin was enough for me at the time, However each trip I would slowly pick up a new figure or two from each series, until it was starting to look pretty much complete outside of Gustav, the Archbishop and the chase figure of Count Cagliostro. (Thanks to Nakano, Osaka and other various Japanese stores selling Kubricks)
Thankfully as luck would have it I was able to snag all three from eBay from a Japanese seller who had them up for sale (series 1 in a complete set and the count by himself) after being able to do some research on the chase figures through Mandarake’s sold listings on their website (it’s almost like an archive after all!)
Seeing that there’s so few info on this set I’ve decided to review it as part of my ongoing effort to cover toys and figures that don’t get as much love as they should (pretty much my blog’s mission statement anyway!)
SCULPTING
Kubricks are made using a base body and then adding extra pieces to them to make up a character, the base body consists of smooth flat surfaces it works well as a blank canvas for the character to be created on. Each figure is a pretty great representation of each character as they appeared in the anime, each with their own specific accessories. They all look great, even if some of the extra chest pieces look a little soft and a little oversized. (Fujiko, for example)
PAINT
The paint application is the other part of the puzzle to really make Kubricks look great! Most of these figures are not too heavy with the paint applications, it’s quite minimal in all honesty. Still, it’s all very neat with little to no slop.
ARTICULATION
Kubricks will in most cases share the same amount of articulation unless hindered by an accessory (the Alien space suits for example) Kubricks have the following basic articulation: swivel head, ball-jointed shoulders, swivel hands, swivel waist and ball-jointed hips. These joints are meant to mirror human movement and they accomplish that quite well for each joint’s simplicity. You can get some decent poses if the extra parts don’t interfere too much. But, In most cases, the neutral arms down by the sides, legs straight AKA straight out of the package pose works best.
ACCESSORIES
Each Kubrick comes with appropriate accessories and Medicom really did a great job with these. As you can see in the photos each character has the appropriate gun or sword, but some of them don’t come with anything at all as that’s perfectly fine too as some of them didn’t have anything to begin with. (Lady Clarisse for example)
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
Not too many things I can think of. Perhaps, losing the tiny accessories or even the hands as they can come out fairly easily. These are made for collectors however, so they should be well taken care of.
PRICE
Good thing most of the characters in these two series aren’t going to be very expensive if you happen to come across them. only the chase figures or ones that are short packed will have a higher asking price. So it just depends on how much of a completionist you are.
OVERALL
Kubricks in general are always going to be cool. The designs are that perfect combination of simplicity and detail and I think Medicom have pretty much covered all the characters they possibly could from the movie. I think this is easily the most complete set of Lupin merchandise you are going to come across let alone from the Castle of Cagliostro. If you are a big fan of this movie like me, the two series of Kubricks are a nice set to have. it was fun for me to track down the complete set, even if it did take a bit of time to do so, but there was a lot of toy store hunting in Japan, with eBay ultimately filling in the last few gaps. Medicom have done an excellent job as usual.
Shockwave has a cold, brutal, scientific approach to war. His thought process is ruled by logic. He sees emotion as a weakness and a distraction. He also seeks to overthrow Megatron as leader of the Decepticons. He transforms into a powerful Cybertronian laser gun and can fly in either gun mode or robot mode.
Name: Laserwave (MP-29) Line: Transformers Masterpiece Manufacturer: TAKARA TOMY Released:2016 Price: 12,000 YEN Scale: Roughly 21 cm in height Accessories: Numerous hands and gun hand and mini Laserwave gun.
I don’t know if I’ll get to reviewing every toy and/or figure featured in my “Best of 2016” list But, I’ll try my best to get through most of them at some stage.
Shockwave/Laserwave made that list and is a pretty awesome figure, even if I don’t actually own it myself, my brother is the bigger Shockwave fan, so naturally he was the one to buy him. But, that means I still have access to the figure to do a review as it’s a pretty good addition to the Masterpiece lineup.
SCULPTING
Both robot and gun mode look great! But, out of the two modes, robot mode is easily my favorite. I really think that Takara Tomy has done an excellent job in matching the look of the character from the cartoon series and translating that into toy form.
The figure in hand looks amazing and it towers over most of the Autobots. (Even if some fans have complained about the height, the show bible height chart tends to suggest otherwise.) There are plenty of nice little details all over the figure, If I had one complaint, it’s that the lower legs don’t stay together as well as you’d like.
PAINT
I’m pretty sure Laserwave has hardly any paint application if anyone him, I’m going to assume the feet have been painted grey and maybe the outside panels on the legs, but I think that’s about it.
Otherwise, everything has been cast in the colour it’s meant to be and that’s just the way I like it! It’s a very nice shade of purple, I wouldn’t say show or vintage toy accurate, But it suits Laserwave well enough.
ARTICULATION
With the Masterpiece Transformers figures, they really have a decent amount of articulation, but some of that articulation is to assist with the transformation. So I’m not really going to try and list every joint and joint type with these kind of toys.
With that said Laserwave is still quite fun to pose and play around with. He has standard joints like ankle pivot and knee joints, elbow joints etc. Most of these joints are ratchets so you know they aren’t going to loosen up on you over time.
ACCESSORIES
The Type of character Laserwave was in the cartoon, you knew he wasn’t getting too many accessories, also it didn’t help that his design he didn’t really need anything either. (Hand? Check. Gun hand for a weapon? Check.) You get a few different hands/gun hand and you get a mini version of Laserwave in gun mode, which for some weird reason he used as his own handgun in the cartoon.
So to combat that Takara Tomy has included purple clear parts so that you can turn him into the vintage toy version as well! This is a nice touch and I really do like the look of that clear plastic.
His gun hand and gun barrel both light up and his backpack also turns into a stand for the gun, which I think is quite neat.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
I can’t see there being too many problems with Laserwave, besides some sections like the legs being a bit dodgy in terms of how well they hold together he’s still a solid release. Just make sure you put those Decepticon logos on straight!
PRICE
Amazon JP is the place to go if you want to get the best price for Laserwave, you can pick him up for about 12,000 YEN and that’s a pretty good price for what you get if you ask me.
OVERALL
Laserwave is a welcome edition to the Transformers Masterpiece Decepticon ranks. He may be lacking in accessories, but more than makes up for that in awesomeness and cartoon accuracy alone. He is a great example of taking the original toy and updating it. If you are collecting the Masterpiece line you need to pick up this Laserwave/Shockwave figure, you won’t be disappointed that you did!
Snoopy is the pet beagle of Charlie Brown in the long-running comic strip, Peanuts. Appearing in the comic strip since the 1950s, Snoopy has become one of the most iconic and recognisable characters from the series.
Name: Snoopy and Woodstock set Line: Vinyl Collectible Dolls Manufacturer: Medicom Toy Released:2011 Price: Then: 3,990 Yen, Now: roughly 9,000 Minimum. Scale: (Snoopy) 11.5 cm in height, (Woodstock) 4.5 cm in height. Accessories: None
This particular figure hadn’t really been on my radar to purchase. I knew of its existence, But never went out of my way to pick it up. That all changed after watching the Peanuts movie fairly recently, seeing my wife and son both like Snoopy too, I thought why not pick up one of the best-looking collectible figures available from Medicom.
SCULPTING
It’s always going to be hard to turn a 2D drawing into a 3D figure, but I think Medicom have done a pretty good job. Snoopy and Woodstock look best from the side, front on, not so much. From the side, they definitely evoke that distinctive Peanuts look, so I guess you could say that’s their best side. Lots of very smooth surfaces and hardly any texture matching what you would assume the character would have if you turned a drawing 3D.
PAINT
Snoopy and Woodstock are both cast in the colours they are meant to be; normally, that’s my personal preference for most figures over painting them, so that is already a big plus for me. What paint there is, is kept to a minimum. It’s nice and very neatly applied, up to Medicom’s usual high standards.
ARTICULATION
Snoopy has very basic articulation; his head is a ball-joint and his arms are swivel joints. It’s not really too much, but once you play around with Snoopy a little bit, it’s nice to have the option to change up the basic pose even if it’s just a slight variation.
ACCESSORIES
I could technically count Woodstock as an accessory, seeing that Snoopy is the biggest draw of the set to me. He’s got one swivel joint where his head meets his neck. He’s sculpted just as excellently as Snoopy and it’s neat he’s included as he really rounds out the set.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
None that I can see, except maybe Snoopy’s white plastic; could yellow if placed in direct sunlight and his neck joint might become loose over time if regularly posed.
PRICE
I paid a fairly decent price seeing I bought mine off Ebay, pretty much the same price as he can go for on Amazon JP, which was around $90.00 AUD including shipping, from Japan. That’s not too much of a mark up when compared to some of Medicom’s other products, considering I was fairly late to the party. With this particular set, I would try and pay as close to retail price as you can.
OVERALL
If you are a fan of Peanuts or Snoopy you really need to have this figure set in your collection, it’s an excellent representation of Snoopy and Woodstock, I haven’t seen anyone else make a figure that comes close to looking as good as these two do.
Marvel Studios Captain America: Civil War continues the story after the events of The Winter Soldier and Age Of Ultron. After a series of unintentional accidents where the Avengers actions have lead to collateral Damage, Iron Man and Captain America take different sides on deciding what direction should be taken to oversee the Avengers actions. Leading to a climatic battle between the two sides, Scarlet Witch joins the side of Steve Rogers battling against her former teammates.
Name: Scarlet Witch (Civil War Version) Line: Movie Masterpiece Series Product Code: MMS370 Manufacturer: Hot Toys Released: 2016 Price: $199 – $250 USD Scale: 1/6 Accessories: Various hands and items as well as a display stand
I’ve already reviewed the first version of Scarlet Witch from Hot Toys here. I’ll be repeating myself a little bit as this figure has a few things in common with that release. However, it does improve on some of the lacking aspects of the previous release (quality of hair, boot articulation etc.)
This is the first Scarlet Witch figure that I bought for myself, I waited for one to come up for the right price and promptly made my purchase and soon enough she was on her way from Japan via EMS and the price wasn’t half bad either.
Even if I’m a little behind on the release schedule (Scarlet Witch was released in December 2016 after all!), the wait was worth it, now that I have her in hand.
LIST OF PARTS
Inside the box you get the following items:
One Scarlet Witch figure Seven interchangeable hands One necklace Four Scarlet Witch power flame effects One Tiny Ant-Man figure (in running pose) One display stand
SCULPTING
This is the same head sculpt that came with the first two versions of Scarlet Witch and some collectors aren’t happy about that. It’s almost like they expect Hot Toys to make a new head sculpt with every new release. I’d rather they do what they are doing now, where they nail the head sculpt the first time and keep using it, just keep improving the paint application with each new release.
They have done a great job capturing the likeness of Elizabeth Olsen, so why ruin it by trying to improve on perfection? The body is pretty much the same too, but the hands and boots are not.
PAINT
I don’t think there’s anything new I can really say here as far as paint applications go. Hot Toys continually put out the best mass produced painted figures in the market, no one can come close to surpassing them yet, they are all still struggling to keep up and it’s not just the heads, it’s the whole package! A lot of companies don’t bother to paint things like hands or bodies properly, not Hot Toys, it’s things like this that make them the best.
The care and attention to detail is second to none. Civil War Scarlet Witch is another shining example of this. The paint application on the face is extremely realistic and brings an unparalleled level of realism to the figure and excellent job by JC Hong and his team.
The head sculpt maybe the same, but the paint apps aren’t, I feel out of the three heads released thus far, this is the best version to date, just something about it looks a little stripped back, but it somehow makes the sculpt look even better, perhaps Scarlet Witch was just hiding under too much makeup the first time around.
They’ve even fixed up the flat flesh tone issues that the first Scarlet Witch had (the hands now having gloves on them helped in this instance.) Hot Toys have brought their usual paint application A game with this figure.
ARTICULATION
Scarlet Witch uses what I guess we can call by now the standard Hot Toys female TrueType body, which appeared around the release of Jill Valentine, Baby Doll, and Resident Evil Alice figures. Which we haven’t seen a release of it by itself yet, either, but we can only hope and pray for that!
It’s a great base body and has a few different leg, arm and bust variants to make it quite versatile. This particular version has the following articulation:
You can get Scarlet Witch into a good number of poses and she’s not hampered too much by her clothes, like the first figure, the only part where she struggles are her boots, this time, though, it’s not a bad thing that she has extra added articulation where the ankles are, instead of solid boots, its that said articulation makes her a bit more unsteady on her feet ( I think the shin/calf part of the boot makes the ankles become a little looser than they should be), but at least this version of Scarlet Witch can now do much deeper stances, I’d recommend using the stand for her, however. Otherwise, it’s all good, nice and tight joints, she is a pleasure to pose.
OUTFIT
Yet another category Hot Toys by default excels in. They have mass produced 1/6 clothes down to a fine art. Now there are other companies that are catching up. (in my opinion, Blitzway are the closest) But Hot Toys still consistently nail it with each new release and keep pushing that envelope more and more.
I’m very impressed with Scarlet Witch’s outfit as a whole. The long red coat is the stand out for me, it just looks amazing, it’s incredibly detailed and it also has some wire in the ends so it can be posed flared out and even some tiny buttons to keep it pinned to her body at the waist!
I also like the look of the corset and ‘leather’ tights visually, for whatever reason, I find this outfit very appealing compared to the previous releases, even if it’s a bit more subdued than say, her Avengers outfit. So kudos the film’s costume designer and Hot Toys for replicating it in 1/6 scale.
ACCESSORIES
You aren’t getting a lot of accessories with Scarlet Witch. A few extra hands and four “power effects” it’s a little bit more I guess then the first Scarlet Witch and the extra “power effects” are great and add a little bit more variety to your display options.
I feel the choice of hands is great, there is enough variety to get a lot of cool looking poses from Scarlet Witch and I did have a lot of fun trying different combinations out and playing around trying to get the best poses out of her.
The included mini Ant-Man is a nice touch as well.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
There aren’t really too many things to watch out for with this figure, handle her carefully and read the instructions are two good pointers. Also, take care changing the hands out, I haven’t had a problem with the female figures wrist joints yet, unlike some of the males ones, but it never hurts to heat up the hands a little to make them a touch softer, if you want to be extra careful!
PRICE
I paid about 24,000 YEN for Scarlet Witch and I’m pretty happy with that, beats the local price here ($340 -$ 360 AUD, you are kidding me!) Obviously, shop around and try to get the best price you can, but don’t delay too long as she appears to be quite popular. (When the price is right of course!)
OVERALL
This is my favorite Scarlet Witch figure from Hot Toys to date. If you haven’t picked up a Scarlet Witch figure yet, I’d say go out of your way to get this one. Otherwise just choose the one with the costume you like the most, either way, you won’t be disappointed. I feel this version has the best paint applications on the head sculpt and best rooted hair (out of the three releases) too. She’ll look great with the rest of your Avengers figures and better still look great with Quicksilver too.
I collect G1 Transformers and Dino-Riders as well as random toys from my childhood. I collect Hot Toys 1/6 scale figures and I also like Japanese soft Vinyl toys (Sofubi) as well.
I am a very big fan of 1980's toys, As most toys released during this period are in one word: Awesome.
I have been collecting for a number of years and have been collecting Hot toys from their very first movie masterpiece figure.
I have experienced almost every aspect of being a toy collector, from being a customer, to seller, to wholesaler, to even working as a distributor for 1/6 scale brands. I have a fair amount of experience with 1/6 scale products, some of my colleagues even call me a Hot Toys guru.
I also do a fair amount of kit-bashing of figures, custom clothing, scratch built figures, customized figures etc.
I enjoy toy collecting very much and toys in general is something I have a great passion for.
Blog Mission
What I intend to bring you are reviews on current released figures, retro reviews and articles on various details and facts to do with toys.
My main goal is to make this blog interesting, entertaining and informative.
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Any text or photos can not be used on another site without permission or a link back to my site.
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