Friday, September 18, 2015
Review: Revoltech Yamaguchi Raiden
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Kaiyodo |
| Figure Number: | 140 |
| Origin Series: | Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 14.5cm tall |
| Original Price: | 4,267 Yen |
| Packaging: |
While Raiden is one of the last few releases from the Yamaguchi line of Revoltech, he still is my first Yamaguchi line review here in the blog! I'll make it quick though as Yamaguchi boxes are pretty generic without any special features whether the figure is a human or a mecha; the front is just this full white with lots of text and a window while one side features a shot of the figure you're getting and the other is your generic Revoltech explanation on how their joints work like yoooow, you've seen that quite a number of times here already so I won't go into that anymore. The back does feature your usual product shots but also breaks down every bit of Raiden's features and even an accessory list (complete with images!) which is pretty neat though again, nothing really special on these boxes, so yeah, let's head on to the main focus, shall we?
| Details: |
As usual, I'll start with the head, Revoltech definitely isn't a line you can expect much to capture likeness when it comes to capturing human faces be it based from 2D or 3D models, so with minimal expectations, I wasn't much disappointed with how Raiden's face turned out.
He definitely looks far from his model in terms of the skin build since he looks old here but I guess I've seen worse from Revoltech and Raiden's face sculpt is definitely more bearable; it's probably because they based it too much from the rough sketch so the mold looked like he has a lot of wrinkles lol.
The hair looks neat although, by all means, it's not very accurate as well but it definitely works for me. The earpiece looks sleek though and definitely Revoltech doesn't joke around when it comes to armor pieces as even his jaw piece looks superb.
While the head was less desirable, Revoltech certainly did a fantastic job on Raiden's cyborg body as the paint choices looks great overall and than the details don't really fall short although there are some messy excess paint here and there if you check it carefully. While there are some minor paint flaws on mine, I still love the overall finish on Raiden's suit as it definitely looks great under proper lighting.
The sheath for Raiden's HF Blade is also finished pretty well as there definitely is some appeal in that shiny silver paint finish that really pops out the molded in details. There's also the fact that it's not just for display as it definitely does its intended function, to store his HF Blade and his knife.
| Accessories: |
Raiden comes with a bunch of accessories which includes your default Revoltech stand and the accessory container; while there is the old revoltech stand (which isn't really all that useful), there is a new stand that comes with Raiden and this one doesn't have a base as it's intended to be used to support his one leg standing poses and lastly, there's also a new clamp that can be used with either stands as the clamp is to be used to clip onto sheath's root.
Going on to more of the extra stuff, Raiden also comes with a box board which you can cut out and form the popular boxes from the franchise. Additionally, Raiden also comes with a forceful step effect which goes very well with some running poses.
Raiden does come with a total of 3 pairs of extra hands in the form of gripping hands, open hands and chopping/piercing hands as well as one special left hand intended to hold his knife.
Hands, stands and extra stuff aside, it's quite amusing that Revoltech provided Raiden with an alternate red eye for his "Jack the Ripper" persona; swapping the eyes could get a little tricky though and that the eyes are ridiculously small so do be very careful and don't misplace them.
Raiden also comes with a watermelon as seen in the demo (correct me if I'm wrong though) though aligning the watermelon's black lines are impossible. A neat feature is that you can split the watermelon into two for some fun shots which is good for use on a lot of figures.
As I've mentioned already in the details section, Raiden does have his High Frequency Blade with him as well as a knife which are pretty much the only real accessories you'll ever need in this rendition of Raiden.
Last but definitely not the least is probably my favorite on his non-weapon accessories and it's none other than a visored hair piece! The visor totally works if you don't like his face and not to mention that it does make Raiden a lot cooler so yeah, kudos Revoltech for including this one!
| Articulation Points: |
Going to articulation, Revoltech's got it perfectly this time on the neck as Raiden's neck joint is ridiculously easy to thinker with (easy sideways tilt is always a good thing) and it has a very great range to boot in terms of looking up, down or sideways!
Raiden also has been given some eye articulation which you can move with a small adjustment tool included in the package.
Going to arm articulation, the shoulder joints does easily allow you to raise Raiden's arm sideways quite easily but the opposite can be said when you try to rotate his arms from the shoulder points as they're completely a nightmare since the shoulder joints of Raiden are double jointed revolver joints; additionally, the shoulder joints also act as minor bicep swivels. The elbows use single revolver joints but they work pretty well as they give Raiden a pretty good range of arm bending as well as allowing his arm to be rotated much better than what the shoulder provides. Wrist articulation is basically the same as your old wrist style figma hands though what's nice is that Raiden's gripping hands has their pins styled so you can instead point his weapons towards enemies.
Torso articulation is your basic ab crunch which does quite well in bending forwards but is pretty limited when it comes to outwards stretching; additionally, you can rotate the torso via his waist point.
As for Raiden's leg articulation basic sideways split and leg raising via the hip joints are pretty plain and simple and both of them has good range capability but when it comes to more dynamic poses though, Revoltech simply reminds you of how flawed the revolver joints are and you'd simply wish that the hips should've been ball joints instead. The knees also use single revolver joints and much like his elbows, they function pretty identically. Raiden's ankles have good enough bend/raise capabilities and really great tilting range; lastly, he does have toe joints.
| Poseability: |
Raiden's overall frame is definitely packed for action and dynamics as the frame definitely does allow you to pose him in a lot of ways and that is indeed commendable though some joints really need some getting used to for you to pose Raiden in that one pose you just have to make.
What I really loved about the frame is that double gripping the high frequency blade is pretty much cakewalk for Revoltech Raiden and that's definitely something as not only is double gripping possible, you can still pose him in pretty dynamic stuff while doing so, definitely something that deserves praise as not a lot of articulated figures can do such with ease.
The knife is also a very welcomed addition but I didn't use it that much since Katanas are definitely the way to go for cyborg "ninjas".
The most fun part is the inclusion of the heel piece which lets you grip his HF Blade on his feet as he does so in many of his movesets in the game.
There's definitely a great amount of poseability here and this is definitely the most poseable Revoltech that I have handled ever since and I just love it!
Raiden's accessory set highly compliments the figure itself and it definitely gave me quite an enjoyable shoot as the figure is really great articulation-wise.
| Final Thoughts: |
While Raiden definitely is far from perfect, it is pretty clear (to me at least) that Revoltech definitely tried out a lot of things with him and all of them are pretty much successful as while the face sculpt leaves little to be desired, they did provide you with good alternatives such as the visor and again, this is pretty much of the best humanoid revoltechs I've handled to date and there's little to dislike (like the usual joint problems lol). Raiden was released in the later ends of the Yamaguchi line's span and he definitely made a good impression to me. Being the only 6-inch articulated Raiden to date, I definitely recommend this to any fan of the character as the figure is really amazing in many ways. Raiden is one of my pre-orders back then from the now-closed CWToys.
I give Raiden a transformed score of 4.5 out of 5.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment