S.H. Figuarts War Machine from Tamashii nations
All guns and guns and missiles and guns.
Time for War machine. So this is going to be a slightly shorter review, as I feel there is a lot of similar ground with Iron Man. Also as always I'm still experimenting with the photos so bear with me. Its a evolving process
For whatever reason, I could not get a good shot of him without making him look squat. His proportions are fine, but he is be not being very photogenic right now. Bad War Machine. I think he looks better proportion wise, than Iron Man, but I also don't have a huge issue with Iron Man proportions.
The paint and detail work on this guy is great. Not only are the lines between the silver and gunmetal sharp, but the Red triangles above his eyes are there too. His eyes do not have a LED in them. They put a chrome-reflective piece in there and holy crap does it ever look great. Really makes them pop out and look illuminated.
The Air force decals are all there and looking sharp. Some of those are tiny, and still have great crisp detail.
Here you can see the similar folding in leg panels to help with leg articulation, also where the Chain gun's ammo belt is mounted in. That thing is super flexible so it does not get in the way of posing as much as the Hasbro version did.
The belt plugs into the center of the upper back using just friction, but in all my fiddling I have not had it pop out. The chain guns arm plugs in right above it, using a very sturdy peg.
The arm is really jointed with a beg that can rotate at the base, a hinge above it, then another hinge connected to a rotation joint where the gun meets the arm. It allows for a pretty wide range of movement, and never feels like its going to break. Though I do recommend being careful with it.
The arm mounted guns are sculpted very well. Minimal paint, just a yellow stripe, but they come off.
The elbow and knee joints are just as good as Iron Mans, minus a few degrees due tot he armor hindering them.
His forward and back crunch are both fantastic, even better than Iron Man's in my opinion.
They pull this off with a better segmented stomach section. Its not that much far off from IM, just moves in a cooler fashion.
His ankle tilts are still great, except the bottom of the calf armor does get more in the way. Which sucks because it renders some of the jointing useless.
Swapping the hands is accomplished via two ways. In one way you just pop of the hand and pop the new one on. The second way, you remove the fist armor first, then put the new hand on, and return the hand armor to its clip. Its a slightly annoying extra step, really only needed to remove the fists.
The fist armor and how it makes removing the fists a bitch. I feel like it should not be removed excessively, but I might be a tad paranoid.
His accessory count is pretty on par with IM, though minus a pair of repulsor blasts hands, which he did uses (if only barely) in the movie. Two sets of flying effect parts, one set of arm guns blast parts and one chain gun effect part. The lack of repulsor blast hands is more than made up for.
Adding in the shoulder mounted weaponry is as simple as popping out the cover plates, and popping the new one in.
Duel missile launchers, which I really can't recall if he ever actually had 2 in the movie.
And the "ex-wife" which was hilariously useless. Though nice to include, as it is often forgotten about.
Obligatory flying picture!
The 4 sets of flying blast effect parts go into the feet, and calf mounted boosters.
And instead of the swappable air brakes IM has, War Machine gets opening back boosters, that are on hinges. Unfortunately the holes are not deep enough to put in the effect parts.
Also due to the chain gun, he cannot tilt his head up as high as IM can for a better flying pose.
The calf boosters have a piece that swaps out, even though the one in the calf has a hinge joint on it. The new piece has little arms to make it look more like it came out of the calf, but I think its mildly unneeded.
These gun effect parts really catch light well.
They simply plug into the chain gun, and plug over the muzzle of the arm mounted guns. Easy to pop on and off, which is always a plus. They, like the flying pieces, are cast in a translucent orange with a gradient effect of light to dark and then white painted on the backside, almost like smoke.
Unleashing hell.
So his arc reactor normally is just a clear circle over a detailed under layer, like IM's, but here it caught some ambient light and made it glow. Neat!!
This is what it normally looks like. I would have preferred them to try and make the arc reactors have some color tint, especially after the eyes on War Machine here. It is a minor gripe, on a otherwise fantastic toy.
I said this before, but man, they look fantastic together.
And since I forgot to do it with IM, a size comparison with a regular S.H.Figuarts Kamen rider. These guys are made to be much taller, and fit more inline with a 6 inch collection. With War Machine being the tallest of the bunch, these look like people in armor, not just robot suits.
Overall I really enjoy War Machine, and the Iron Man 2 figuarts in general. I really hope they continue with the line and make more armors, I'd gladly buy them. It does suck that they did not get a official US release, and the second hand prices are climbing higher. Hopefully a reissue is in the future for them, and people have a chance to get these for normal, sane prices.
Great review, Ichabod. I'm going to have to look for this guy and IM at SDCC
ReplyDeleteJust be careful with the prices. I don't think these are worth more than...60 each. If you're willing to pay more, be my guest though.
DeleteThanks, I'll keep that in mind
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that he came with the Ex-Wife. D:
ReplyDeleteHuh, I never noticed those back boosters before! Nice!
ReplyDeleteMy only real 'complaint' is that the chaingun can't quite hit all the angles it needs to. It feels like the connect piece at the gun side needed a small rotating joint to really gt all angles. Nothing close to a deal breaker, but I feel its a slight detraction.
Interesting your pic with Rider 1; I actually feel the scale is pretty good. Figure Americans are taller on general than Japanese, factor in the armor suits, and i feel like they could exist in the same toy universe.