Thursday, October 13, 2016
VS Series 01: 4inch-Nel Rockman vs. D-Arts Rockman
Welcome to the VS series, a sort of new occasional article type for the blog; the vs series will focus on comparing different articulated/action figures that are based on the same design with the intention of analyzing the pros and cons of both figures! That said though, recolors are NOT gonna be tackled by the VS series because you're basically getting the very same figure and it's only a matter of personal color preference with those; originals vs renewals, on the other hand, will be done from time to time.Anyway, without further ado, let's start the 1st vs series!
Before anything else, the two figures to be discussed on this post already had their individual reviews completed so you might want to head there if you want more in-depth galleries and points and I'll leave links below for a quick access!
| Select Your Figure: | |
4inch-Nel Rockman
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D-Arts Rockman
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Point 1: Aesthetics
Picking one over the other is definitely a personal choice between these as while both Rockman figures represent the original Rockman; remember that he had 10 "numbered" games with a few more unnumbered ones and in some of the games his design changed, so yeah, there's that basically.
If you definitely want a real classic Rockman as in the short and somewhat deformed proportions for the blue bomber, definitely go for 4inchnel with that as they definitely based off their figure on it.
The D-Arts on the other hand is based on a more updated design which heavily based off the latter games like Rockman 8 and Rockman and Forte.
The difference between the two is mainly how the face looks and slight proportion differences but overall details are pretty much the same as Rock's design isn't really the most detailed thing ever. But as such when it comes to overall details, here's a breakdown between the two:
4inch-Nel
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D-Arts
|
Pros:
- Classic look
- Paint consistency
Cons:
- Several cuts throughout the body
|
Pros:
- Modern look
- More details (joints and clear red parts)
Cons:
- (for some) glossy plastic somewhat breaks the solidity of the presentation
|
That said though, for overall presentation and aesthetically speaking, I do prefer the D-Arts one mainly because if you just make him do a default stand than hands down, he'll basically look better than the 4inch-Nel one mainly because D-Arts have a more solid looking mold due to the minimal visible articulation cuts and well placed joints.
Point 2: Accessories
Left (4inchnel), Right (D-Arts)
Personally this is a no brainer win for D-Arts, I mean D-Arts definitely gives you like a whole lot of accessories, aside from having everything Sentinel offered as an accessory for their 4inchnel Rock (stand aside, of course), you have an extra Rock Buster (allowing you to recreate Super Adventure Rockman's Double Buster moment), a shouting faceplate, a rapid fire effect, a metool and even Rush! It's definitely a complete package here or if not for you, it's still definitely way more loaded than what you get with the 4inchnel release.
I do think giving Rockman a stand was also a very nice touch so that's definitely an appreciated thought on Sentinel's part and you can most definitely recreate more stuff with a stand if you are only after Rockman himself.
Point 3: Articulation
Left (4inchnel), Right (D-Arts)
Now this is where everything completely changes, while D-Arts won on the first 2 points for me personally (with Point 1 just being a slight win over 4inchnel), 4inchnel definitely blows the D-Arts figure away in this point by a long shot. While I was shooting for the 2 reviews, it was definitely clear to me which one was the superior one, posing D-Arts was a complete headache as he would normally deal with balancing issues on dynamic poses while 4inchnel definitely had no problem with it and it felt so natural. (He can even stand on one foot like it's cakewalk)
4inchnel doing the one foot stand on a somewhat running pose
What's additionally delightful with 4inchnel is the fact that the cuts barely make the view awkward once he's posed around. 4inchnel's wrist and ankle joints also feel existent while D-Arts barely made me feel like it even had a joint on those points most especially with the ankles.
Probably the biggest articulation advantage 4inchnel has over the D-Arts is the fact that 4inchnel can easily cross Rockman's arm so he can hold his buster while D-Arts takes a lot of effort to even make such a pose look decent.
4inchnel easily holding his buster with his other hand.
D-Arts trying to hold the buster with his other hand.
Judgement:
Overall, these two are complete extremes of one another when it comes to aesthetics and articulation; these two definitely shout that sometimes with designs such as Rockman's, you really have to sacrifice design for articulation and vice versa.
Initially, I had intended to let go of 4inchnel Rockman after shooting him for the review because I'm more of a visually pleasing but has satisfactory articulation guy above anything else when it comes to my action figure standards but then posing 4inchnel around was so easy and fun that it actually made me appreciate the figure by a huge margin. While it's true that D-Arts has way more accessories, it's also true that if the articulation is so-so, then those are mere decoration options rather than actual accessories.
Personally, I think the D-Arts still has the better value of the two though the two are very close in terms of giving you a bang for your buck. Anyway, so yeah, in the end, I still favor D-Arts but it is quite hard to find these days since it was released like 4 years ago(?) while 4inchnel is just a month old or so as of this writing so, it's definitely a good alternative if you missed out on the D-Arts. Again, this is completely personal judgement so if you really prefer the 4inchnel for its godly articulation then by all means, get it.
Anyway, that's about it, and if ever you're wondering why I never bothered to compare the prices here, it's because comparing a 2012 release to 2016 release just doesn't seem like a fair game especially with figure srps blast to bonkers nowadays compared to how it was 4 years ago, so, I purposely skipped on it.
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