June's Toy Haul Numero #3

  The smell of fresh toys in the afternoon!

 God bless Big Bad Toystore's Lootpile mechanic. That said, import laws over here means I can't ship everything in one go, which is why even though I purchased the entire Zabu wave... I'm getting each piece-meal, much like I did with Scarlet Spider's wave which only now I've completed.

Action Figure #373: D-Arts Noel Vermillion

  It's about time we get more gunslingers into this!

 Blazblue... Blazblue certainly was something, huh? It had some amazing designs, like Noel Vermillion here, but it also had designs that they completely ruined like Bullet, with her pose, or Makoto with her clothes. I wish there were other action figures, like Hakumen, Susano-o and Jin... but I'll take what I can get.

 Noel is a very good looking figure. She is very tiny, but has a nice amount of detail sculpted into the rubbery middle piece to simulate it being skin-tight. The skirt part of the vest is pre-sculpted, making her look very dynamic. She comes with her hat, which you can take off, as well as an alternate long-haired head. There are two optional red rope accessories you can plug on her arms, but do be careful, as they are made up of rather hard plastic, so bend them too much and they will break. She also comes with a little stand to prop up her gun if you add the shooting effect, because it can be a bit too heavy for her wrists.. although sometimes I've been able to pose it just fine without the stand.

 On the articulation side of things, you can tell that it's an older figure, she has ball jointed arms, elbows, knees, legs and wrists. They all work very well. For her torso, she has a ball-jointed ab crunch with a fair amount of range. The long haired head has this tiny issue... due to the hair, you can barely, just BARELY turn it to either side, which is a bit of a shame as I like it a tiny bit more with the hair hanging loose.

 She's a fine figure, she is. I just wish I had other Blazblue characters, the cool ones, to pair her up with!

8.0

Action Figure #372: S.H. Figuarts Ultimate Gohan Super Hero

  Hulk's anime counterpart.

 Being my favorite Dragon Ball character, it just makes sense that I needed a S.H. Figuarts of my boy, Gohan. I would've preferred Ultimate Gohan, but Ultimate Gohan Super Hero will have to do. He is wearing Piccolo's gi, so there's some charm to this look too.

 This is an excellent action figure. As soon as I pulled him out of the box, man, oh man, the guy was so much fun to play with. Starting with how incredible his sculpt is, he looks as if he was ripped straight out of Toriyama's pages. He also feels so good in one's hands, it's amazing. Mine has a teeny tiny issue in which one of his sideburns doesn't reach the edge of the faceplate I like by about a millimeter. I can live with it. Or I could paint it myself. The only complaint I have with his sculpt is that, just like many other Figuarts.. he is kinda gappy depending on how you toy with his arms.

 The articulation is excellent, I just can't drop the guy. Everything feels buttery smooth, and he holds his poses SO well. One thing to keep in mind... the butterfly joints feel, and look, as if they could rotate... but don't. I looked up videos and promotional images, but no, those butterfly joints DO NOT rotate more than a bit. This also means that you can't get perfectly straight raised arms, due to the shape of this butterfly joint. It's not a big deal, not at all, but something to keep in mind.

 This is what I mean with a potentially gappy torso.

 And this is how the butterfly joints look. They look as if they could rotate, but they don't.

  Among all my Figuarts, which aren't many... this one is my new favorite. It's fun to pose, fun to play with and the guy looks absolutely amazing, there's just so much detail sculpted into the guy.

10

Action Figure #371: S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Emperor Kiva

  How do you make Kiva even better? You paint him in gold.

 I struck gold, pun intended, with Kamen Rider Kiva, it was my first time watching Kamen Rider, not the Masked Rider adaptation, and I instantly fell in love with it. Vampires, a shy protagonist, monsters, two storylines set in different times... it was amazing. I would then go on to watch other Kamen Rider series, but none have felt so special to me as Kiva. This is Kiva's enhanced form, Emperor Kiva!

 I love the figure. When I set out to buy him, I was looking for the stickers on the box. Some said "True Bone Carving", but the box didn't have stickers, so was it a knock off? So I decided to go for the one that had stickers on the box. Turns out this was the older release, and the True Bone Carving version is the updated figure, with a cloth cape and better proportions. Oh well, live and learn!

 I'm still quite happy with it, he looks exactly like I remember him, the gold paint they used is just so captivating, I just love to look at the guy. He's also full of different parts and details and armor pieces and the such, to the point that it can feel a bit odd to handle him, because the sculpting has so many layers and details. The eyes have a translucent red plastic set on top of them, so they are always shining, it's so cool! And the cape is made up of four plastic pieces, so you can pose it as you see fit.

 One thing to keep in mind is that he feels very fragile. Pictured above are the pauldrons, which are held onto the shoulders by a tiny, tiny hinge. His back has a lot of pieces made out of hard plastic too, so if this guy falls down... those are going to break.

 By the nature of how the cape was sculpted, it can look a bit weird from the back when fully extended, because there's this gap in between the two pieces.

 His feet feel... like they are a bit too long. It might be just me, or it might be the wing thingies on his heels, but they just look too long to me!

 He comes with the usual assortment of hands, and you can move Kivat alongside the edge of the Sword! The articulation is fairly good. He has double-jointed elbows and knees, and the legs and arms rest on ball joints. The way the shoulder pads were engineered, you can just pop them up a bit and he gets his full range of movement on his arms. He has drop-down hips in case you need more range with the legs. Both the ab crunch and the waist have ball joints, but due to the nature of his design, namely the armor plates and belt, he doesn't have too much range to play around with. His beck too, due to the shape of the helmet, can't do a lot of crazy things. He's a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Oh! He also has a few doodads on his belt and on one of his arms, you can very easily pop them off if you want.

 Overall, I think he is a great figure, he looks great and he is a character I adore, so I can't wait to display him on my shelves! He does have a few shortcomings, but I think the overall figure is very much worth it.

8.5

Action Figure #370: Marvel Legends Ms. Marvel(WarBird/Captain America/Radioactive Man 3-Pack)

  It's plane? No, it's a Bird? No, it's a Warbird!

 Call her Ms. Marvel or Warbird, this is probably Carol Danvers most iconic look. So... I know a new Warbird, featuring the brand new female buck is coming out... but she's a target exclusive, scalpers everywhere.... but, BUT, it also made this old figure go down in price, and I've been needing a Warbird figure for a long, looooooong time, as she wore this costume when she was in the Avengers alongside Spidey!

 This Ms. Marvel figure is cast in the Gamora muscular sculpt, which is the right buck for her. I love how the black looks, and her thunder icon is painted in metallic gold, which looks great. That said... I think I would've preferred a yellower yellow on her hair. For some reason, there are plenty of paint splotches all over the figure, which is a bit disappointing. Being an older figure, she also has that empty look in her face that so many of Hasbro's older female figures have. 

 Being cast on this mold also means... yeah, the left arm feels as if it's stressing the shoulder peg every time I lift her arm. I'm going to glue it on to her, and since she has single-jointed elbows it won't affect her articulation. She's as tall as Bucky Cap, which fits her very well.

 As seen in this phot.. she has some lipstick paint on her right cheek, there ere flesh splotches of pain on her gloves, and some black paint on the side of her breast. It feels as if she was painted a bit haphazardy.

 Not the best action figure, but in case I don't get my hands on the new Warbird for a reasonable price... she'll work in my displays.

6.0

Action Figure #369: Figma #256 Hero

  Oh god, I'm relieving the catchy fight music1

 For a long, long while Persona 4 was my favorite game of all time until I cycled back to Final Fantasy VII. I still love the game however, so of course I wouldn't mind having a figure of Yu Narukami, AKA, the Hero. This figure is actually based on Persona 4 Ultimax Arena, in which he was given a name, so why they called him 'Hero' over Yu is beyond me!

 Look at this bombastic guy! His jacket was molded as if it was flowing in the wind, and his shirt is unbuttoned just enough to show some skin, which makes him look very stylish however you decide to pose him. As with most of the Figmas I own, the sculpt is fantastic, and he comes with a fair amount of accessories, even DLC for their AEGIS figure, being a couple of joined hands so that she can suplex him, like the back of the box shows!

 As with other Figmas, he feels very nice to the touch. The back of his legs look a bit weird due to the ball joints, but I don't mind. The one BIG issue I have with him is that he can't hold his Katana very well, it will always fall down if you're not careful.

 The articulation is alright. He's got ball jointed legs and arms, and he's got a ball-jointed waist. There's no ab-crunch whatsoever. Figma's trademarked ball jointed elbows and knees work as good as if they were double jointed, and technically, they are! Since the ball-joints have to pegs. There are no butterfly joints in the figure, so even though his ball-jointed arms have a lot of range, some double-handed poses will be impossible.

 He has toe articulation, but... that's as high as it can go, so it might as well not even be there.

 See that line on the side of his torso? The figure is admittedly a bit gappy if you look to closely, so don't! Below the jacket are holes, so don't try to force it too much.

 Another issue I had with the articulation is that that's as high as his head can look. The head is connected to the neck via a ball joint, and it seems to be able to move, but either mine is stuck, and I don't want to force it, or the head doesn't allow it to go back anymore.

 I think this might be the worst figma I own, in-between the neck joint and the Katana... but he is still a very good figure, he looks very stylish and looks good no matter how I pose him.

7.0

Action Figure #368: Marvel Legends Hallow's Eve

  The perfect figure for Halloween.

 I didn't know who Hallow's Eve was so I had to google her. Hm, her civilian name sounded familiar... Turns out Marvel wasn't just happy ruining Ben, they also had to ruin his love interest from that mini-series exploring his past! Now she's a villain that puts on masks to gain powers... why?

 Origins aside, at the end of the day what I want is a great action figure, and... I love the color scheme on this girl. It's Halloween in female action figure form! The expression on her face is absolutely evil, I love it. She comes with a few masks... but they are just for holding, as she can't wear them. One thing I think they didn't quite get right... is the hair. A quick google search, as well as the artwork on the side of the figure, will show you that her hair should be a bit darker than her clothes, but the difference in the figure itself is barely noticeable.

 As for the buck itself, it's the Shriek mold, which gets her pinless joints. She's also wearing a hood that you could probably take off with some finicking around. She also wears Green Goblin's sash, and a sort of scarf thingie around her neck. I really like the overall look.

 On the articulation-side of things... It's the usual, none of her accessories prevent her from doing anything this buck can do.

 A tiny gripe I have is that her scarf isn't secured on her neck. While the hood does create some friction with it, so I haven't had it fall off from her shoulders, I still would've liked something a bit more secure, maybe have it glued onto the hood istelf as a single accessory?

 Hallow's Eve might not be a character I will ever like considering how they ruined such an old character... but I like the figure. Being a huge Halloween lover might have something to do with it, however!

8.0