Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Review: D-Arts MewTwo
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Bandai |
| Origin Series: | Pocket Monsters Red/Green |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 16cm tall |
| Original Price: | 3,990 Yen |
| Packaging: |
MewTwo actually started the pokemon series of figures for D-Arts and this also applies to the box style which carries on to the newer S.H.Figuarts releases for the series these days. Like my previously reviewed D-Arts Pokemon, there's really nothing I can make out of the box style aside from saying that there's an anime art on the front while the sides only have a "who's that pokemon?" silhouette. If you actually noticed, the front window has another "who's that pokemon?" sticker which definitely isn't MewTwo and that is to confirm that my package has the first production bonus "accessory" packed inside the box. The back, like always, features MewTwo's gimmicks and if might notice my box's back is faded and that's because of bad box placing at home. XD
| Details: |
Starting off with MewTwo's head, I believe MewTwo's look has definitely evolved throughout the years and generations of Pokemon games and for what this figure was based on, it highly reminded me of the one from the first MewTwo Pokemon Movie, there's definitely that fierce look in the sculpt and even the overall shape of the head and I love it since that is basically the image of MewTwo that is stuck in my head.
The eye decals look great and are really expressive which definitely adds to the representation of the Legendary Pokemon from the first games. Additionally there's also that tube-like detail on his back which does look nice and do note, this doesn't hinder the articulation and you'll see more of that later on!
There isn't much details to talk about on MewTwo since he IS almost a single toned humanoid pokemon to begin with so there are definitely no paint misses in here. The overall silhouette of the figure makes a very satisfying representation of the Pokemon but some might dislike the fact that there's a LOT of visible seams throughout MewTwo's body mold.
Much like D-Arts Lizardon (who's a later release than MewTwo), MewTwo's tail will probably strike the biggest unattractive factor for some people as there's a heavy show of seamlines in there as the tail is segmented into several "tubes" to prevent us from having a brick tail; while I myself think it looks pretty meh, I'd always welcome this rather than have a brick tail.
| Accessories: |
MewTwo doesn't come with much as he just comes with that big Pokeball base, an energy/psychic ball effect along with a hand that can peg on to it (can be used as either left or right hand btw). My pack does come with Mew since it's a first production bonus that's packed inside the clamshell as well and additionally, there is a stand arm that can be used on Mew to display him "floating" and together with MewTwo.
The energy/psychic ball certainly does look great especially with all the spiky bits and wrinkles molded in there though the fact that you can't fit a tamashii stand peg in it is a bummer since the only way to properly hold it is via the smaller peg on MewTwo's alternate hand.
| Bonus: |
As mentioned in the packaging section, the silhouette sticker in the front window indicates that your piece was part of the production wave and the silhouette (even indicated in the japanese text) is none other than the original and the 151st pokemon, Mew!
Mew is definitely just that one extra where you can just take it for granted since Mew is definitely not articulated in any way and that the paint finish/plastic feel on Mew feels really cheap like it's some candy toy due to how ridiculously shiny the plastic is as obviously seen the photo above. What I do not know is that if you don't get the first production bonus, is Mew the only one going away? or will the bonus stand arm disappear as well? For those who know, do give me a heads up by leaving a comment here!
| Articulation Points: |
Since MewTwo is a humanoid, he does actually have some similar elements to your normal "human" figuarts in terms of movement like for the neck joint; MewTwo has a really satisfying downward movement and a rather "good enough" range upwards, there is a point on the upper connector of the neck but it's pretty limited but does indeed MewTwo's upward movement by a bit. Sideways tilt is also possible and you can rotate his head towards the left or right to a neat degree but you can't rotate it by a full 360 due to MewTwo's design and figure build.
Do note that whenever you rotate MewTwo's head towards the left or right, the tube-like part on the back of his neck moves as well and is made up of soft plastic; so long as you don't pull off an exorcist on MewTwo, I don't think it'll rip/break so it is pretty safe there.
MewTwo's arms can't fully rotate due to the design and it can pretty much just go forward to somewhere near 90 degrees and the same goes for the sideways raise. MewTwo does have bicep swivels and does have epic double jointed elbows. The wrists are ball jointed so it's pretty much a less move-y figuarts wrist and a cool thing about MewTwo is that each of his fingers are ball jointed as well so you do have a wide option on his hand poses.
While the default hand does have all three fingers articulated, the alternate hand has a static middle finger, so yeah, don't try to move that around else you might break it.
For torso articulation, the waist and ab joints does work together to achieve that satisfying outward stretch to allow you to pose MewTwo at a flight pose while there's around a 35 degree forward bend since at this part, only the ab joint makes a cut. You can rotate MewTwo's upper torso on the ab joint and this does allow you to tilt it sideways as well.
As the tail is divided into a lot of cuts, this only means that each segment in the tail are individually articulated though some segments does move better while others barely move and each of these segments are held by ball joints.
MewTwo's hips are on a ball joint that you can pull down to have a more stretched out feel and due to the design, you can rotate the legs fully but in turn, the sideways split only goes as far as near 45 degrees. The lower leg is where MewTwo differs from human figures from the D-Arts and SHF lines as the whole knee section does allow you to bend it forward and stretch backwards both to very satisfying degrees; additionally, the connection points does allow you to rotate the lower half of the legs. Finally, the toe joint basically goes on a swivel it does fully rotate if you want to make MewTwo look very awkward haha.
| Poseability: |
Starting off with action poses, as there's a limited number of accessories, MewTwo's badass poses definitely comes from using his inclusive effect parts and there's definitely a ton of smash references you can make from it; the frame is moveable enough to actually allow you to do a charging "hadouken" pose and there's definitely a lot more you can do with it; having 2 MewTwos also allow you to have him hold two of it since the alternate does again work as either a left or right hand.
Without using the effect, you can do some more "human" poses or merely display MewTwo's devastating psychic power with the help of effect parts and other figures.
The poseable tail does allow you to swing his tail in many ways making it a legit "tail whip" or those tail attacks that MewTwo does on smash.
If I had more effect parts, I could've done more since MewTwo can indeed learn a lot of other attacks in the game but yeah, his frame is definitely poseable for his build and it is pretty enjoyable; his ground poses can also be pretty well balanced thanks to his tail which you can use to act as support to help him stand properly.
While I didn't appreciate Mew that much, its addition to the set does allow you to do a Mew vs MewTwo fight by playing with the effect part as if the two of them are firing off the same move since the main dish IS a clone of the bonus after all.
| Final Thoughts: |
MewTwo is definitely a strong figure who started the D-Arts (now S.H.Figuarts) Pokemon line, while I don't have Mega Blaziken yet as of this writing, I definitely think MewTwo is the more enjoyable of the two humanoid pokemons that I have in my collection currently. If you can get past the seam lines and are interested in trying out the D-Arts/SHF Pokemons, MewTwo is definitely not a bad start. I guess easily popping out parts are my main concern on MewTwo but overall I think it's an almost perfect representation of the said pokemon and the accessory count feels just right by all means. I did get this figure from Omniclone (no links since his ebay is inactive now) way back when he was first released but yeah, a really great figure!
I give MewTwo a 4.5 out of 5.
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