S.H.Figuarts Super Mario with option sets A & B from Bluefin/Tamashii Nations
Finally, a Nintendo licensee broke through the weird deals and made it stateside officially. And he's pretty okay, too. As you can see, Mario here is represented in his more common red shirt and blue overalls, with that classic smile and nose-defining mustache. The paint is all super crisp, and the details are all sculpted, giving them a nice look.
Mario's head articulation kind of stinks. It's a head on a ball socket and that's it. For something bearing the "Figuarts" name, it is pretty limited. If you half-pop the head out of the ball, you get better range, but not by much. I don't know if this could be fixed easily, but part of the flaw is Mario's large cranium.
The shoulder and elbow articulation are also pretty limited. The outward motion of the shoulder sucks, but it is unobstructed and can rotate up without a problem. The elbow stops at a 90 degree angle, and that's that. His wrists are also just pegs so they only twist.
His hips continue the trend of being limited in the outward motion but a achieve a greater distance than the shoulders. His knees do a bit better, but not by much. The hips can go forward pretty well though, so he can do a good jumping pose.
He comes with a Red Mushroom, a Question Block, and a coin.
The "?" Block is amazing. It is scaled well to Mario, and has tones of sculpted detail. Also, it can peg onto a special stand piece.
The coin is hella chromed out, and has a small peg hole for a tiny clear stand. When viewed right, it looks like it's hovering, which is a cool effect.
The Super Mushroom! More sculpted detail and excellent paint. This is a great little chunk of toy.
Option kit A steps up, and it's a doozy! Look at all that stuff!
The brick does not have sculpted detail, but is well painted and has the same peg hole as the "?" block.
GOOMBA!!!!!! He looks so angry and squat and just awesome. I really love this guy. The detail is all sculpted on, so the paint really pops.
Another coin, this time with a longer stand to simulate Mario bumping up under the block.
This is a special stand piece meant to hold the blocks in question. It works well, but side-by-side isn't as tight as it is in the game.
Mario gets a stand holder. Just rip off his back and attach a new one, with a hole!
The stand included here does a good job of holding Mario's heavy butt in the air.
And hey, you can simulate him getting coins...
...or simulate him murdering a Goomba that was just minding his own business on this piece of grass. That's cool too.
Option set B! This one has pipes and coins and shells and...HANDS?!?!
So, yeah, this set gives Mario some new hands. Pop off the old ones, and enjoy those sad little pegs that are not articulated.
The new hands have stigmata holes, so Mario can be your lord and savior or some such business
.
The tops of the pipe come off, and can be swapped for one that is deep or one that is a stand. Pretty cool, actually.
*pipe noise pipe noise pipe noise*
You can also store extra parts in the hollow pipe, if you want.
Koopa shell! This looks just as good as the Goomba, but has no signs of life. I wish we got a full-on Koopa trooper. It comes with bent pegs or straight pegs so Stigmata Hands Mario can hold it.
Yup, he's holding that thing. The bent rods allow him to hold it face forward, and the straight rods allow him to hold it sideways. They go in well enough, but I had a harder time getting both hands to stay on while posing him. I'm pretty "eh" on this feature.
But you can totally have him kick the shell into Goombas, as murdering them is something Mario likes to do.
With all three sets, you can make a neat little scene from the games. I think it's pretty cool, but I wish I had, like, 8 more of each to really go nuts. That would be cool.
Mario is short. Look at him there, with other Nintendo and Tamashii toys. Also a Figma. He's tiny, but also pretty hefty. So he has mass over height going for him.
Mario isn't a great Figuart. Shocking, I know.
I'll be honest here - I like Mario, but I don't think he's a great toy. He just isn't as poseable as I would like, and he lacks any type of other faces, which always help with poses. I will say at 20 bucks he is a steal, but if you want both Option sets, those will also run you $20 each, for a pretty normal price of $60 total for a "complete" Mario. All three sets plus Mario at $60 would make total sense to be, but a stripped down more retail friendly 20 dollar Mario also makes sense. If you like Mario, or Nintendo then get this figure. It is still the best articulated Mario on the market, and it's not awful...just not a normal Figuart.
This review was provided courtesy of Bluefin/Tamashii Nations
Awesome review man! Just got these myself in my travels, great sets.
ReplyDeleteI just opened mine. Though I think he is missing some articulation, I think his charm makes up for a lot of his faults. Definitely, glad I only spent $20 on him though.
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