Action Figure #896: Anime Heroes Sir Crocodile

 We callin' him Sir now?

 What I like about Bandai's budget line is that they just come out with new figures every now and then with no fanfare or announcements or anything. Sir Crocodile is one of the most iconic villains in One Piece because he was the first one to defeat Luffy, and he looked suave as hell doing it, so... when I discovered this guy existed, I quickly got ahold of him.

 The thing I find funny about this release, is that the box is decorated with Crocodile in his pre-timeskip outfit, but the figure itself is wearing his new post time-skip outfit. Was it a last minute change? Laziness? Who knows, but it's kind of a dumb oversight. The figure itself, well, as I've said before, Anime Heroes works well with One Piece because they already have weird caricaturesque proportions, so the wonkiness works in their favor. And in that way, sure, Crocodile in his top-heavy, lanky frame comes to life. I'd like to pay my respects to the sculptors, as western budget lines usually fumble anime faces, but Crocodile's is perfect. They are using new pinless engineering now, which looks pretty nice.

 His only accessory is his cape... which is molded plastic and sits on his shoulders, which means he can't hold a fun pose AND wear the cape, making it virtually useless.

 The figure uses new import-styled multi-piece joints, of which I've never been much of a fan. He has double jointed elbows and knees, but despite being double jointed the range of both isn't very impressive with the arms barely going over a 90 degree bend, with swivels on his biceps, but not on his thighs for some reason, at least the legs can turn a bit on the socket that is connected to the hips. The waist is on a ball joint, but there's barely any range, and there's no ab crunch. He also has drop-down hips. In other words, while the joints are built different, the articulation is more or less the same it's always been. In my case, his right leg is very squeaky and loves to come off, but a drop of oil seems to have solved it.  He is quite a bit taller than Bucky Cap, and judging from how Sabo looks with him, you can probably mix him with Figuarts if you wanted to.

 So, props where it's due: The sculpt is really, really good. Anime Heroes usually look a bit wonky, but Crocodile has an accurate heavy-top frame that translated into plastic really well, and I can't stress enough how good the head sculpt is. That said, they took the time to over-complicate the joints to use more pieces, but they don't have too much extra range, but not give him better torso articulation? Or even thigh swivels? Kind of a missed opportunity. That said, he's fine. He's a good Crocodile figure, just wished they found a better way to get his cape on.

7.0