*REVIEW* Figma Bloodborne Hunter

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Intro: 
Hey all, it’s been awhile since our last review!  In the good ol’ days, I had the bandwidth to write 4k+ word reviews, take dozens of photos and shoot and edit a bunch of HD video. With life being as it is, things change, responsibilities increase, time becomes more limited and that freedom to dwell on, write, photograph and video toys to our hearts content is simply no longer a possible reality here at RTR.

The thing is, other than the lack of copious free time… everything else is the same. We’re still knee deep in toys and we still love talking about them. We miss doing rad reviews. So now we’re working to streamline our process to make it possible again!

The idea for now, is to stream our reviews live on our new Twitch channel (Please sub!), then post on Youtube for those who prefer that format. Finally, following up with some pretty photos and a written review a few days later here on this website. Hopefully, this will enable us to pump out the reviews at a regular pace once again, while still bringing you the quality and style we’ve been known for.

So without further delay, here’s our review of the Figma Bloodborne Hunter. For the live, unboxing review please check out our youtube or twitch channels.

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Breakdown:
I LOVE Bloodborne. I was never very good at Dark Souls, even though I always find myself buying and dumping some serious game time into them with each new release… eventually, I’d get stuck, I’d get frustrated and then I’d rage quite, never to return. But when Bloodborne came out,  I played it beginning to end, fending off all desires to rage quite when stuck and pressed on until I persevered and defeated the last foe. The time period, the creepy atmosphere and the rad looking hero with that insane giant saw cleaver switchblade, ticked all the right boxes for me.

I was able to get my Hunter through Goodsmile several months ago when it went up for preorder.  I’m glad I did, because it looks like he’s pretty hard to find now at a decent price now that he’s starting to ship. Figma figures always feel a little steep for me. You’re getting a slightly small for 1/12 scale figure for around $80+, once you lump shipping and everything in. The Hunter is no different.. I think he cost me $90, all in. Sometimes, when I get a figure in hand, the price I paid becomes a faded, distant memory.. it’s no big deal because what I’m holding in my hand feels more than worth it. But I still feel the sting with the Hunter. I don’t regret buying him at all.. but he’s not quite the figure I’d hoped he be.

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The Hunter comes with a couple weapons and a few extra accessories. A pistol and his amazing switchblade saw cleaver make up his selection of weapons. He comes with 4 sets of additional hands and a nifty little plastic hand holding piece. Also included is a handy plastic stand that plugs into his back so you can try to pull off Spiderman-style poses and an officially labeled clear figma plastic baggy. Obviously, the baggy is used to hold a sandwich, maybe some crisps? Let your imagination run wild.

The Hunter’s body is pretty standard for a Figma figure. If you played with with one before you know it’s basically ball joints everywhere. Unfortunately, while you can certainly get some nice looking poses out of him thanks to the generous base articulation, several areas are inhibited by his design. This is most apparent at his hips where he can just barely raise his legs forward due to belt straps in the front and jacket tails in the back.

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Good, Bad and So So:

This brings us to the stuff I liked and the stuff I didn’t. Starting with the good stuff. He just looks fantastic. The sculpt and details on him are very accurate to the source material. The paint, while mostly dark and lacking much contrasting colors, is clean and well done. His saw cleaver looks wicked and can be folded in half just like in the game. I also love the old style pistol and the details on it are rendered amazingly well. I really dig that he comes with a  little holder for all his hands. It’s so much easier to just have this hidden behind him on the shelf to swap out hands whenever I like, than to have to dig out his box and pull them from there. It’s such a simple thing, but it’s great!

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What’s less than great is the fact that the hands are super soft. The gripping hands, at least. His Saw Cleaver fits in his hand fine, but it’s a bit heavier than the tolerance of his grip will allow for. It seems to have loosened up more over time as I played around with posing him for the photos. On top of that, the wrist pegs don’t stay in very well so it’s an additional thing to wrestle with while your trying to get him posed up with the massive blade.

While there’s no surprises here, in that I knew what I was getting when I ordered him.. now that I have him in hand, I really wish he came with a few more weapons. Some bombs, throwing knives.. a different type of switchblade weapon, etc. You collect so many interesting weapons and items in the game that it seems like it’d be a no brainer to give him more than a handful (rimshot!) to play with. One of the extra set of his hands are smaller grip hands.. but I’m not sure what they’re intended for as they don’t fit around the Saw Cleaver handle or the pistol very well. It’s almost like they’d planned to make a few more things for him to hold early in production and then decided against it once it was factory time. For the money I paid, I really wish they had.

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It may sound like I have a lot of complaints about this figure.. but really, overall, I dig him. Once I got him posed up nice, I sat him on the corner of my desk and really love the look of him. There’s just a few things that I wish they’d done differently or perhaps simply done more with.
If they bring out any of the beasts or other characters, I’ll definitely be buying him a companion or two.

PROS:
-Accurately depicts the “hero” from Bloodborne
-Fantastic sculpted and painted details
-Solid articulation throughout
-Spare hand holder is an ingenious addition
-Weapons look awesome

CONS:
-Some hip articulation is severely limited due to the jacket and hip straps
-Grip hands are too soft to securely hold his Saw Cleaver for very long
-Hand pop off too easily
-Would have been nice to have a few more weapons included

Check out our Youtube Channel for more reviews and sub to our brand new Twitch channel to see reviews first and live!

3A’s Action Portable Round 2 Available Now!


Head over to Bambaland.com as fast as your kicks will carry you to snag/pre-order the 2nd coming of ThreeA’s popular 1/12 scale action portable action figures.

My instant buy of the group is the bambaland exclusive, Blind Cowboy/Ghost Horse set.

We reviewed the 1/6 version of the set a few years back and it remains on of our favorite things on the shelf! Check that out if you have any doubts.

ThreeA Mortis TK Hunter Preorder Info

 

TK HUNTER DEATH MASK HACK ONSALE 30th OF MAY only at BAMBALAND.COM!
24″ tall
6″ ACTION PORTABLE TK

USD $588
Price Includes Free Worldwide Shipping

SDCC 2015 Wrap Up! Toys & Collectibles

Alive, slightly less sore, a little less tired and a whole lot more excited about all the amazing goodies coming out in the next year. That’s me, right now, a few days after the mean streets of SDCC closed it’s hollowed halls.

Actually, THAT’S me (Thanks Sideshow Collectibles), sporting my first ever semi-cosplay as the mighty Jack Burton from Big Trouble and Little China. Never having done that sort of thing before I can tell you, it’s a little strange being on the other side of the lens. I was stopped constantly by people happy to see their nigh-forgotten hero brought to life in front of them so perfectly.
“Wait a minute, Kurt Russel didn’t have a beard in that movie.”
“But he COULD! It’s all in the reflexes.”

I took a million photos, just like I do each year and as a result, I’ve only been able to go through and edit a few. I’m splitting my wrap up into two sections. For this article, I’m focusing on the Toys and Collectibles. I’ll post our massive Cosplay gallery in the next day or so. If you’re here for that, check back soonly!

Someone told me this year’s SDCC felt muted compared to past ones he’s been to. I told him I felt more like someone turned the volume all the way up, but then unplugged the subwoofer. All the noise, crowd and aggressive fart clouds were there… but something else wasn’t. There’s no punch line or resolution to this paragraph’s setup.  I honestly can’t explain why I felt that way because I could never quite put my finger on it.
Maybe I’m just getting old or jaded… or both.

Most of the usual movie franchise-flaunting epic-ness was still in full effect, though the lack of Marvel popping off a big super hero movie to blow the doors off things with it’s mega star powered money machines was certainly noticeable. But we had freaking Star Wars! You simply can’t get bigger than that, can you? DC/Warner Bros had Batman V Superman which raised hope as well as expectations for many. Leaked trailers of the new Ryan Reynolds/Sony R rated Deadpool flick as well as the up-until-now-almost-universally-panned-as-going-to-be-awful Suicide Squad caused a huge stir.

At one point, whilst I roamed the floors, the cast of Game of Thrones caused people to amass in claustrophobic picture-taking panic when they sauntered onto the showroom floor for their scheduled signings. I was only able to snap a few before the swarm overtook me.

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