Thursday, September 29, 2016
Review: D-Arts Rockman
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Bandai |
| Origin Series: | Rockman |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 10.5cm tall |
| Original Price: | 3,675 Yen |
| Packaging: |
D-Arts Rockman's (or Megaman in the US) box is nothing too amazing but it does give you a great overview of the set contents. Up front you can see pretty much everything you're getting and it does have this feel of old school touch to it if you inspect the box closely as there are traces of 8/16 bit goodness throughout the box which does the job well as Rockman is definitely a nosta. As usual though, sides and back of the box features various product shots from tamashii to entice people into getting it haha.
| Details: |
First off the bat, Tamashii Nations based their Rockman on the latter designs, which was around the Rockman 8 era since it had the better proportions in both Art and Sprite. And that happens to be my favorite as Rockman's proportions look better overall.
A look at the default face instantly shows Rock's stern face and I must say, it is very well translated into figure form as the likeness of the character has been captured to a huge degree and the proportion of the helm to the face is definitely perfect.
The ear pieces make use of clear dark red plastic which look great and the lining molds around it look fantastic! Overall, the finish on his helm is flawless; there really isn't much to his helm aside from housing 2 different blue paint jobs which are both painted in their rightful places to produce that accurate Rockman helm in figure form.
There isn't much to say about Rock's body as well since he isn't as detailed as his brother from the future but what I definitely liked is how consistent the paintwork is throughout his body. There are just about 3 or 4 blue shades that you'll see through out the figure and it is quite pleasing to see when things are consistent.
Additionally, tamashii nations added in some nice detailing in his elbow, hip and knee joints. These aren't suppose to have that lining finish but it definitely works to hide the fact that it's merely a joint.
One particular detail is the bar detail on his Rock buster, it's definitely spot on though my piece has that minor paint spill in one of the golden colored bars.
The bottom of his feet and the buster core also use the same clear red plastic that the earpieces use and those definitely look great under good lighting.
| Size Comparison: |
D-arts Rockman is pretty small if I must say so and miraculously, he is as tall as what Tamashii indicated in their website since this is usually off by a bit. Rock stands 10.5cm and that pretty much says a lot about how small he really is, below is a comparison between Rockman and D-Arts Forte as well as with D-Arts Rockman X.
Being just a few cm taller than your average Nendoroids, here is Rockman next to another blue mascot, nendoroid Sonic!
For a final comparison, I checked out my inventory during the shoot for a small figma and the smallest one visible that time was figma Anzu Futaba who is actually taller than Rockman.
| Articulation Points: |
Rock's head has a great range for looking up and down, you can also fully rotate it via the neck as well as do a minor head tilt from it.
Shoulder joints allow his arms to fully rotate, raise up to a 90 sideways as well as pull it down for certain poses as the shoulder joint is connected to the body via a ball joint.
Both the forearm and buster options can bend to a full 90 degrees while additionally allowing you to fully rotate the forearms via the connection point for the elbow joint from the upper half of his arms.
The hands work on a ball joint but you can barely make use of it (the joint) aside from rotating them.
Rockman does have cuts on on his abs and waist but these barely do anything and are only usable for minor body bending/twisting.
Hips are on a ball joint and does have a nice sidesplit range to around 45 degrees, they can also raise Rockman's legs to a full 90 but almost little to none when moving them backwards. Additionally, you can swivel the legs by a little using the hip joints and this somewhat makes up for your none existent thigh swivel.
Knees can bend to a full 90 degrees as well but unlike the elbow joints, you cannot rotate the lower half of the legs via the connection point from the legs' upper half.
Probably the weakest part of Rock's articulation is his ankles, it's really hard to move it and if you actually do, there's really minor movement going there and this hits back on Rockman's overall balance as it is hard to keep him on a flat footing.
| Accessories: |
Rockman's accessory pack is actually the best part of this set as you virtually come with everything you'd want for him plus, bonuses! Rockman comes with an extra Rockbuster as well as an extra forearm if you want to have him possess dual busters or dual hands, each forearm also come with an alternate pair of open hands.
Rockman has two alternate faces which comes in the form of Rockman grinding his teeth and my favorite, a shouting face!
Pretty much like X, he comes with an alternate buster tip which provides a peg hole to port his bullet effects.
Additionally, D-Arts Rockman comes with a static Metool; Metools are those iconic worker enemy mascots found throughout various Rockman games. The metool itself is spot on in appearance, detail and paint work.
The Metool's hat can be removed so you can remake it's indestructible hiding state.
The biggest bonus is definitely Rockman's trusted companion, Rush! Much like Rockman, the paint is very consistent throughout Rush's mold, nothing eye popping about the details as it should but it is definitely a great mold overall.
Unlike the Metool, Rush is a fully poseable figure and seriously speaking, this set should have been officially dubbed as Rockman and Rush instead of just Rockman alone; Rush features the same neck engineering as Rockman which allows you head tilt, a decent range of looking up and down as well as rotating the head to look sideways.
There is a swivel on each of his limb's connecting point from the body and each leg can bend to 90 degrees using the knee joint. The biggest surprise is that Rush's ankle joints are definitely way more movable than that of Rockman's.
Lastly, Rush's tail is also articulated as it moves on a ball joint.
| Gallery: |
D-Arts Rockman is definitely a good representation of the character and while it definitely is just "okay" in terms of artculation, the pack it self proves to make up for whatever Rockman lacks on his articulation as there's definitely more to do with the inclusion of Rush and a Metool. The alternate faces really help bring out a good amount of expression for Rockman in appropriate scenes and his articulation does actually allow you to do his iconic poses from the games which is fine already as it is. Lastly, while you never really see Rockman wield double Rockbusters in the sidescroller games, he did actually do it in the shooting/interactive game "Super Adventure Rockman" and that is a huge plus. Anyway, that said, please enjoy the gallery below! (And sorry if they are mostly over exposed as my shooting for review skills have definitely rusted a bit after months of not doing one.)
| Final Thoughts: |
As I've said this is not the perfect Rockman figure, the set release is definitely a great release and a great representation of the iconic Blue Bomber. As of this point though, it doesn't seem like Tamashii will ever continue with their Rockman releases beyond him and Forte but luckily D-Arts Rockman's height will allow him to blend in with the quite recently new 4inchnel line from Sentinel who seems to be pushing out Robot Masters as Cutman is already out for pre-order as of this writing.
Considering his pricepoint during his release, the set was definitely a bang for the buck and if you can actually find a cheap one these days (note he was released years ago and I got this from Pre-order), then definitely dig in for it.
| Special: |
The reason why I finally decided to review this guy is because the 4inchnel Rockman is already released and I already got it; if you aren't following my FB Fanpage, then know that is a prelude to a new series of articles here for the blog called the "VS Series" and #01 will feature both of the mentioned Rockman figures, in here, I'll go to an in-depth comparison of the two figures and inform you, the readers, of the pros and cons of each figure. Click on the photo below to check out the comparison!
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