Review 3A WWR EMGY Caesar

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Knives

This review was suppose to go up right before Comic Con. Unfortunately I ran into a few snags when attempting to use my iPad to post it on the way to San Diego. Apologies!

– Knives

INTRO

Fact: 3A’s release of the WWR Caesars was one of the/my most anticipated toy releases of the year. I wasted no time grabbing an EMGY when he dropped on Bambaland. I’d would have liked to snagged another color-way as well but what my parents told me when I was a child unfortunately still holds true. “Money does not grow on trees.”

Fact: A few months later, I purchased the awesome looking 003 which came as part of the Father and Son two pack. I was stoked.

Fact: I received my Father and Son two pack in the mail and was absolutely over the moon with excitement to get home and open up the massive box. I smiled at the thought of basking in what was sure to be some bright red form of toy geek nirvana.

Fact: Watching the clock at work because you can’t wait for 5pm to roll around only makes time move slower. Avoid clocks when anxious.

Fact: I finally opened the two pack and was incredibly underwhelmed, let down and saddened when I did. (review here) Good feeling gone. Hope for mankind lost.

Fact: I put off opening my EMGY for over 3 days as the weight of disappointment that close together would surely cause me to burn my collection and by proxy, my house, to the ground.

Fact: The wife would not be pleased by this. I advise to avoid fire under distress.

Fact: I finally opened my EMGY Caesar.

Fact: I smiled.. more than once.

Fact: I’m writing this review at 7:00am in the morning at the top quarter portion of a six hour flight, in a crowded cabin and next to a screaming baby.

PACKAGING

A color coded slip cover is the first thing you’ll see when opening up your Caesar. For EMGY, you get some stark yellow design elements and a dash of logos to balance things out.

Slips are nice, but a little boring. Underneath it, we get to the good stuff. A printed image of a super cool Ashley Wood painting. The painting itself features the dome topped Gravedigger. It’d been cool if Ash did a unique piece for each color-way, but being as there were close to 50 different ones (ed note: exaggeration) I can’t fault them for simplifying it.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Obviously, you get a giant yellow (EMGY) bot, along with his huge rifle, side arm and knife. You also get a little catalog of the ghosts of 3A past, aka toys you can’t get anymore less you brave the treacherous after market sea. You also get a pretty awesome WWR comic as part of the deal.

The comic is pretty short, and save for a few select panels and some really nice paintings on the last few pages.. it’s relatively light on exciting content. But it tells a little WWR story which has an actual beginning, middle and end (take that Popbot!). WWR is something many like myself have been asking for more of since Ashley put out the World War Robot collection several years back, and just like so much of what the man does, the result has me clamoring for more.

THE BREAKDOWN

This is a first for Rad Toy Review. I’m basically reviewing the same exact toy as I did a few weeks back with the 003 from the Father and Son two pack. There are some immediate, obvious contrasts of course, one is red, the other yellow, but at their core, they’re the same thing.

So what’s a fellah to do? How do I write a new perspective to something I JUST wrote? Well, as it happens, the clothes do indeed make the man. On some accounts, the machine.
Emgy might as well be an entirely all new toy as the differences between the two, if only aesthetic, feel truly immense.

Let’s being shall we? I went with the EMGY color-way not out of any particular love for yellow, but because I’m fortunate to have both an EMGY Grunt and EMGY Dropcloth. The three should look smashing together on display. (hint: they do)

The WWR Caesars are all part of 3A’s LUX line. This is intended to mean that, for a price, we get a higher quality, more refined and all around better collectible. My vocal reaction to the claim upon first unleashing 003 to the world was this giant, disappointed “meh”. EMGY on the other hand, holy crab cakes! Look at this sexy beast!

3A did some really good things with the paint job on this big fellah. The layers of weathering we’ve come to expect from them is all here with streaks and smears, sponged dirt and splatters. Take a closer look and you’ll see some of the stuff that calls back to the 3A of yesteryear.

We have silver metal popping out from underneath his yellow coat, edges worn by harsh conditions and the elements. There’s small flecks of red here and there, subtly offsetting the dominate dirty yellow. I haven’t seen toy “metal” look this metal in a long, long time! Say what you will about the design, Caesar is painted up very,very nice.

Big guns. That’s been sort of a theme of late with the big bots I’ve reviewed. Zaku had an absolutely massive beast of a gun and while not quite as huge, Caesar’s isn’t too shabby either. EMGY C is one of the select Caesars to get the newly designed smart rifle. Other’s came packed with the same rifle that previously came with WWR Armstrong’s.

How well designed this new smart rifle is, like so much else in life, is completely objective and probably up to your personal tastes. I think it’s pretty great. It’s heavy, hard edges and bulky barrel look tough. The removable clip, scope and color coordinated bits add some interest. It’s an all new look for WWR and projects as though it’d pack a heavy punch. Something which seems well suited for a Caesar.

Standard issue with all stripes of Caesar is their harmonic knife and trusty side arm. I loved on the knife a bit in my 003 review and I stand by said loving here. The knife is a sick piece of kit. Of course EMGY’s has yellow accents to ensure no one picks it up by mistake and runs off with it.

The side arm looks great as well. Color coordinated and with a trigger guard that actually fits Big C’s fingers. Something that shouldn’t even be review worthy, but as 3A can be pretty dyslexic about whether or not the weapons they give their characters actually fit or not, it seems worth mentioning. It also helps when posing him Solid Snake style with blade and pistol at the ready.

Shields. The EGMY crew has an abundance of them and they are in many ways, synonymous with the color-way. While all the Caesars sport a shoulder shield of some kind, I thought it was fitting they gave EMGY two.

This is where I must address what is basically my only real complaint about Caesar.. EMGY Caesar that is. The weight of the shields on his arms are too much for the balljoints at his shoulders. This could be an isolated thing and I just lucked out with one of whom’s BOTH arms flop around needlessly at his sides. I say that, because I don’t recall having the issue with 003. Maybe he warped some in the heat during shipment or maybe he slipped past 3A’s QC. Whatever the case may be, it sucks to get a new toy and immediately have an issue on your hands. I’ll say this here, 3A’s Customer Service is some of the best out there. They’ve helped me out countless times in the past with all sorts of little issues ranging from scuffed paint to broken weapons. Even replaced things I broke myself! But to fix this, I’d have to ship Big C back to them. That’s not cheap nor is it something I want to deal with.

Instead, I went for a bottle of super glue and slowly built up a fine layer around the joint until I got it tight enough to hold the poses I needed him to.

Speaking of pose. You can get quite a bit out of the big guy. He’s the most articulated bot out right now from 3A. His size does inhibit how spryly you’ll be able to move him around, but with some patience and little work you can squeeze a ton out of him.

The skirt draped around EMGY will be familiar to anyone who’s owned a dropcloth. All the pros and cons of the waist high moo moo are included as well. The biggest negative being the bags, sheath and holster are all held on by little cloth tabs tucked into it’s waist band. More likely than not, the second you take your Caesar out of his package a few of them will already be untucked and the bags will be hanging loosely. I miss the good ol’ days when bags had loops on the back and a belt strung through them to keep them solidly in place.
I’ve been dealing with this small annoyance since day one of collecting 3A. I’ve learned to accept it, but it still irks me the slightest bit. A little tip: If you pull your straps through and get enough slack you can simply tie them together for sound keeping.

FINAL WORD

Night and day. Red and yellow. That’s how different the 003 and EMGY Caesars are. 003 was a mountain of plastic disappointment, looking cheaper than it should have and frankly, dull. My EMGY Caesar however, is the bee’s knees. The killer paint app, the double shields, the tough flat head, the newly designed smart rifle, a harmonic knife and the ample articulation make for a really fun and impressive bot.

I want to pose this guy.. move his arms around into exciting poses with that awesome canon/rifle/broomstick. Get him sneaking up behind a grunt with blade drawn for the kill. Lots of cool, exciting and fun ideas pop up just looking at this guy sitting here.

There in lies the rub. I know I’ll probably never bother.
Once he’s set up on my shelf, he’ll most likely stay exactly however he sits from now until I absolutely HAVE to move him. The fun of grabbing a toy to mess around with during a moment of downtime isn’t really an option. He’s just too big and cumbersome to easily toss around. A crowded shelf of carefully placed toys doesn’t help.

It shouldn’t matter to me. I’m technically a grown up.

EMGY Caesar is awesome. Figures like this are why I collect 3A. Loose shoulder joints aside, I’m completely satisfied with how they produced this guy. I guess what I’m starting to see with my own collection is that I just don’t NEED any more big bots. They become permanent fixtures and eat up a ton of space.

So even though I have this new toy that I want to kiss and hug and call George, it’s probably the last 1/6 scale giant robot that I’ll be adding to my collection.

Of course giant robots are what got me into 3A in the first place.

Giant robots are cool.

Like really, REALLY cool…

Sigh… I have no will power.

PROS:

Fantastic attention to detail from paint/weathering to articulation and accessories
All new bits and pieces head to toe
Epic big bot with great articulation. High kicks galore!
Huge shields, huge gun, huge bot = huge awesome
EMGY looks baller when paired up with his crew

CONS:

Shields are heavy and may cause issues when posing the arms
3A still uses little tucked straps which fail to keep bags/sheaths/holsters tight and where they’re supposed to be. The 14th century called and wants their buckle-less straps back!

Review 3A’s ZAKU Gundam Inspiration Model

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

Living in Hawaii has it’s perks. With fantastic weather, beaches and outdoor activities galore it’s one of, if not the best places I’ve lived. The one thing I’ve yet to find here however, is a decent comic book shop. One of my favorites is in Columbia, SC where I lived around 2002/2003 with a good friend and fellow comic book geek. Since it was Columbia, SC and not Hawaii we’d pass the time by frequently hitting up what was then the coolest comic book shop we’d ever known. The large portion of the comic shop held true to it’s name and had thousands of comics. A small strip of wall space was dedicated to Japanese imported obscure anime action figures and an over abundance of old yellowed Spawn toys that nobody collects anymore. They also had a baffleing array of Gundam Model kits.

My buddy and I had been eyeballing them for some time. Both of us had vague memories of watching the anime as kids and the models themselves looked amazingly intricate. One weekend we caved and decided to get the most expensive kit we could find. At the time it was $85.

To make a long story short, we spent the next 3 weeks, in our spare time, putting that beast together. Thus starting a chain of more trips to the comic shop, more expensive kits bought and more spare time over the course of many weeks tied up in deciphering the kanji instructions and piecing the giants together.

We loved it.

That year or so period of time of my life is pretty much the total sum of my knowledge of Gundam. So please don’t read this review in hopes for some trumpet blowing, alarm ringing guardian of Gundam lore, because I’m not that guy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that guy. Read on if you want to know what we thought about this 3A/Ashley Wood wink/pinch/nudge at the essence of Bandai’s Gundam Zaku.. if only in name.

Now where’d I put my monocle?

PACKAGING

Coming to us in the biggest package I’ve received via post in a long while, Zaku arrived with some lovely box art on front. The sides and back are basically blank white with only a few small titles and logos dotted around.

I was a little miffed that part of my box was crushed by some gorilla (or blind monkey) who works for the Postal Service. Thankfully nothing was harmed inside.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Even though all the bots you get from 3A are incased in a plastic clam shell, for some unknown reason seeing Zaku in his kinda took me back. Like seeing Han in carbonite. He’s such a big dude!

Zaku’s free! Dang he’s bulky. He’s pretty much one piece save two bags hooked to his sides.

His weapons of choice include an absolutely massive (and awesome) rifle..

and a large (yet skinny) battle axe.

You also get one of the largest posters I’ve seen come packed in with a 3A figure. As you can see here, my dog Murphy is feeling a little oppressed by how much space it’s taking up on his couch.

THE BREAKDOWN

I honestly didn’t know where to start with this guy. Everything on him takes a little time to move around and pose simply due to his overall heft. Posing him with his (again, HUGE) rifle is a bit of a feat because length wise, it’s practically bigger than he is.

That’s what.. she said?

And wouldn’t you know it? The first thing I attempt to move greets me with a “crack“.

Yes, it appears that the supposed “moveable” part of the joint was actually more fixed in place than the “un-moveable” part. Thankfully it was only a flesh wound and took just a tiny bit of glue to patch and get back on track. On to brighter things.

The one thing I do know about Bandais age old design of Zaku is that he has a somewhat iconic “mono-eye”. Ashley Wood tossed that out the window to the chagrin of those that chagrin that sort of thing (note: Please know that I’m not knocking the reaction. If someone decided to do something like give Optimus Prime some terrible paint job with purple and orange flames going down the front of his truck cab or gave him an actual mouth, I’d be.. huh? What’s that you say? Michael Bay.. yeah, I’ve heard of him.. HE DID WHAT??”)

So yes, the mono eye is gone and we’re left with what I’d call a pretty typical 3A-esque head sculpt. Gas mask inspired with two round eyes and tubes flowing out it. It’s tiny too when you compare it to the rest of the body. I think it looks cool that way. If one thing is clear about the design of Zaku, it’s all about exaggerated proportions.

Despite my first attempt at wiggling it around ending with a temporarily broken (and expensive) toy, I really love the shield Zaku has mounted on his person. That thing looks seriously heavy with the massive bolts on the outside and thick hard edges. 3A could have been lazy and left the inside portion clean and simple. Instead, they took the time to sculpt some really nice lines, paint some contrast details and weather it up.

Both the chest and back have hoses running over them and the affect is really cool looking. Zaku has layers of detail to him that I haven’t seen on other 3A bots. There’s a lot of interest pretty much anywhere you look.

I really love the back pack. It doesn’t come off to my knowledge, but has enough mass to it to look believably integral to the rest of Zaku’s design that you’d probably want to keep it on all the time anyway.

Sparring for the spot of MOST exaggerated body part would be the fingers. They’re extremely long, thin and spidery. My wife called them “creepy.” From some early shots of them, I thought they needed to be beefed up to fit the rest of Zaku’s massive form, but now that I’ve had him a few days, I think they work really well. If I had one complaint it’d be that the thumb is the exact same size/piece as the rest of the fingers, which just looks odd when you spread all his phalanges out wide. On a possitve note, they’re awesome for “I’m-a-gonna-gitch-ah” gestures.

I love the way the arms and legs are designed with bulk overlapping layers that give you that feeling that there’s more “machine” underneath the exposed shell. The left shoulder’s armored “pad” is almost as awesome as the larger shield. It’s also slightly articulated. You can really tell 3A took their time with this guy, getting all the angles and curves to coexist just right. Once again, everything looks heavy like any self respecting war machine should.

Speaking of war, lets get back to that BA gun Zaku leisurely strolls about with. The whole deal is made up of 3 parts. The gun body, a extra long clip and side grip. I thought making the side grip left/right swappable was a nice touch. Lefty’s and righty’s can join hands in mutual celebration with this guy.

The gun itself is beautifully sculpted. Coupled with the overall bulk of Zaku’s frame, it really gives the sense that it’s capable of unleashing all varieties of hell on his enemies.

I have mixed feelings about Big Z’s axe. On one hand, the blade is cool and having him hold it in a sort of neutral guard duty like pose looks dangerous enough. The problem arises when you try to get him to take a swing with it. The handle of the axe is a series of cylinders. Zaku’s fingers are long and spindley and can wrap around the handle easily. However, it’s difficult for him to get a firm grip on it since there are no edges to run into his flat fingers. While I could get it to stay occasionally, at most angles I put his arm/axe at, the weight of the blade would immediately cause the axe to swing down with gravity. Had there been some sort of flat surface on the hilt to wedge against the grip of his fingers, this wouldn’t be an issue. I found a place to “sheath” the axe between some of the tubes on his back that I think works really well, which is most likely the way I’ll display him.

As for articulation, Zaku is up there with 3A’s finest. Just about anywhere you’d expect a ball or swivel joint to be, there is one. Even with the heavy shields on his shoulders, you’re able to extend his arms out quite far and get some nice dramatic motion out of him. The only surprise was the lack of any sort of forward/back waist joint. I’d assume this is the result of the heavy layering of details on his torso that I was praising a few paragraphs earlier. Giveth and taketh away.

Zaku is relatively decal free. He has a few dotted around his massive body, but he’s a lot more “plain” than I’m used to from 3A. Most of the interest comes from his dynamic proportions and layered sculpt. What’s there is cool, however. I’m unsure of what nods, if any, his decals hold for long time Gundam fans. Fill me in if you know!

I’ve mentioned how big Zaku a few times this review. He is big. I was surprised to find that my EMGY Caesar is actually a little taller than him. Regardless of that technicality, Zaku appears more massive than any other 3A bot in my collection, even my Heavy Bramble. He also has a more solid feel than other bots in that scale. For 3A, he’s quite heavy. Here’s a quick shot so you can get an idea of scale.

So what chinks in this massive bot’s armor did I find? To be honest, I really had to work at finding some anything negative. I did keep coming back to his head. There was something there that was bothering me but I was having difficultly placing what it was. I like the double eyes and tiny sized noggin. The hoses running from the sides down his back. It wasn’t until I started going over the rest of the fantastic details sculpted into his arms, legs and torso that it hit me. There’s zero details around the base of his head/neck. It’s smooth, flat and looks like a part someone accidentally skipped over. If it was covered up by other pieces that’d be one thing, but other than the two hoses draped around the area, it’s completely visible. There’s no transition between shoulder, scrawny neck and tiny head head. With so much careful detail sculpted everywhere else, the lack of any at all in such a large area really stands out and to me, looks unfinished.

FINAL WORD

Most of what I’ve said about Zaku has been pretty positive. Guess what? Most of what I THINK about Zaku is positive! I genuinely really like him. His exaggerated proportions are going to be up to personal taste. Some will hate them, while some (like myself) will love them. I’m sure my lack of history with mainstream Gundam lore probably plays heavily into my arms wide open approach to this guy. But come on, even the nay sayers out there have to admit that it’s really cool to get a 3A toy that doesn’t feel kit-bashed or has all it’s pieces borrowed from previous toys. While he screams designed by Ashley Wood and there are definitely a few familiar touches, head to toe Zaku is pretty much all new! Yay new! Who’s with me?

This is 3A’s first released 3rd party licensed figure after ABC Warrior’s Mongrol. If they can keep the quality of their licensed figures up to this caliber, you and I are in for some treats down the road.

Pros:

Fantastic sculpt and layered details
Massive bot with practically all new parts head to toe
Impressively articulated
Ridiculously huge gun. This is a good thing.
Exaggerated proportions. I give ’em the thumbs up.
Figure has a good weight to him. Looks and feels solid.
Nice use of sparse decals and excellent weathering.
Love the shoulder shield and pauldron

Cons:

Mine broke immediately. It was an easy fix, but I stand by the concept that I should never have to fix new things I paid good money for, including toys. Use more glue or whatever on fragile, moveable bits 3A. Build those parts to last.
Axe design is cool, but Zaku can’t hold it very well given how smooth and round it is.
No forward back torso/waist articulation
No sculpted or decal details top of shoulder to base of neck. Looks odd/unfinished.

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REVIEW 3A Queenie of 7 Bones

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

Up until about eight months ago or so, I wasn’t into PopBot. I really didn’t know anything about it, and of all the 3A toy lines, it was the last wall of my personal resistance. Last year, I decided to get PopBot: Big Beautiful Book from IDW as well as a cool sketch in it from Wood himself. When I got that puppy home I dove head first into the hardcover beast. The world of Ashley Wood’s Popbot is a convoluted, confusing mind screw coupled with gorgeous paintings and sketches. My hope was that I’d develop some sort of appreciation and attachment to its characters. I told myself that if I’d take the time to read and re-read the massive catacomb-like storyline, I’d glean a bit of real understanding and background of the dramatically illustrated world.

Nope. No idea. None what-so-evah. There’s something in there about a talking cat that sings and sleeps with robot hookers, some robots who want him dead, a blind cowboy that shoots his teeth, Sherlock Holmes waxes wise, Lady Sham is chatting it up with the devil in the wastelands, more robots, a few salt and pepper shake’s worth of Tomorrow Kings, Andy Warhol has his own talk show where he keeps interviewing some rapper dude who keeps killing him… I don’t know. The saga continues, I guess?

The Popbot world is as big, varied and fascinating as it is confusing, silly and unorthodox. The only thing I took away from reading the Popbot collection other than an even further appreciation for Ash’s skilled brush is that I now have the general knowledge that those characters and their vague stories exist.

But that’s the odd thing. Now that I have that, it somehow manages to be enough to make my ears perk up and my F5’n finger twitchy anytime 3A announces a new Popbot figure. I’m hooked on PopBot. 3A has to be lacing them with something.

Which brings me to 7 Bones, another expansion of the PopBot world. The 3A wiki says, “Seven Bones, stylized “7bones,” is a group of rogue Tomorrow Kings in the Popbot Universe who are the personal guard of Punk King.” 3A has been slowly releasing them over the course of the past year. So far we’ve seen Wasabi, Kyoku and Queenie. Wasabi has been setting the vibe on our shelves since 2011. Kyoku was next in line sales-wise, but due to a production delay, Queenie was actually shipped out first.

So now that all that intro huffa-puff is out of the way, on to talking about Queenie. Read on to learn more about one of the most exciting figures to come out from 3A this year!

PACKAGING

As you can see, Queenie gets the packaging treatment she deserves with a nice painting of her looking stoic on the front. On the back things get traditionally 3A graphic design-y. It’s a nice contrast, shelf worthy for sure.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Queenie has a tiny array of stuff to fiddle with. Equipped with a staff (a first for any 3A toy!) and a couple of interchangeable hands, she was triple clam shelled together and took a little work to get out. A few spare pegs are included as well.

Also I’m happy to report she comes with a fantastic poster of the cover art with a mini comic on the back. I’m unhappy to report that it appears a blind monkey packed my poster. Instead of neatly folded as they’ve always been in the past, mine came loosely bent together and crinkled. There’s even a few small wear holes where the folds come together. Bummer.

THE BREAKDOWN

The second I got Queenie out of her plastic prison I was sold on her character. As the leader of 7 Bones, she looks appropriately tough in that unrealistic, super slim tough chick way. Her eye patch gives her an air of mystery, while the subtle smirk on her face gives her a sense of confidence. Other than possibly her belt/packs, all her attire is completely new, never used before on any previous 3A figure. The pants in particular set her apart from any other of 3A’s offerings as they’re almost a faux linen material.

Her staff fits into her hands as perfectly as it should. I want to mention that the staff was straight as an arrow. No warping or bends from bad packaging. Huzzah! The second you get her set up with it, you’ll probably lose track of time for a few, putting her in your favorite Donatello pose. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a figure with a bo staff.

Queenie is also the recipient of yet another new female body. Ever since 3A updated the tried and true Tomorrow Queen bodies of old, they’ve been messing around with the formula, trying to get the best balance of asthetics and articulation. The older Tomorrow Queens were kind of a pain to pose. Not only did they wear skin tight latex, but their long legs made them wobbly and the opposite of sure-footed. They had a mid thigh joint you could twist around, a very limited knee joint and an ankle joint with a round twisting ankle peg to allow for rotation in most directions. With a good deal of futzing, you could pull of something dynamic, but it wasn’t a very organic process.

3A updated that body when they released Lolli last Christmas. All new leg joints, much better knees, a new torso and thinner arms. You can check our review of her here. They came so close to getting it right, but dropped the ball by changing out the round ankle joint for a square peg. You basically have a figure with much more generous articulation in the legs that should promise you better and more dynamic poses.. but it’s hacked off at the knee by the inability to move the ankle around to get a solid flat footing.

So now we have Queenie. 3A kept the double jointed knees of Lolli and brought back the ball ankle joint. Ah.. that wasn’t so hard, now was it?

Queenie is the first female figure that’s just about as fun to play with as any of your TKs or Adventure Kartel gang. Yes, the ankles are still pretty finicky. You have to press the shoe together to grip the ankle peg so you can twist it to the desired angle. But it’s not difficult at all to get her into some really fun stances. With the bo staff in both her hands, it’s incredibly easy to shift her from one cool pose to the next.

The other hands she comes with are more neutral/relaxed variations. I like that they’re slightly different from one another and not symmetrical copies. They’re useless for holding the staff, but they do add some nice variety when you feel like changing things up.

Speaking of not symmetrical, I might as well broach the subject here. One of the main “complaints” of the new 3A female body is the supposed wonky-ness of its.. breasts. Boob-gate, we’ll call it. Well, Queenie is not lacking in the chestal region by any means, and yes, you can tell they’re not lined up perfectly. I’m of two schools of thought here: My first is the fact that in real life, women’s breasts are unsymmetrical. Now, whether or not Ash and 3A designed them this way on purpose to reflect that is simply a matter of personal opinion, but even for a stylized character, Queenie is more realistic and less barbie doll this way. My second feeling on it is.. this is a toy and I’m simply not going to spend more time talking about a toy’s boobs.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, check out that thing dangling between her legs!

Made you look! When the teaser pics of Queenie popped up, I thought the cylindrical thing strapped to her belt was a jar of rice wine or something, like an old drunken monkey kung fu legend of old might carry. Turns out, it’s a giant EMP bomb. I suppose this makes sense due to all the robots the gang has to take on. Still, a rice wine jug with some XXX would have been cool.

As a member of 7 Bones, it’s only natural that I’d want to put her up with Wasabi. The two look great together, though the blues aren’t exactly spot on. It makes me even more excited about the idea of having all seven positioned together. Which at this rate should be sometime in 2014.. ugh.

So what do we have so far? The new articulation is a marked improvement over any previous female figures. The new head/hand sculpts, accessories and clothing make you comfy in the knowledge that you’re legitimately getting a brand NEW character and not a bunch of reused bits and pieces. There’s a lot to like about Queenie.

There’s also a few things that aren’t so fabulous. I already mentioned boob-gate, but only because there’s been some discussion amongst the ranks about them. However, they don’t bother me. My first real complaint is the equally discussed misaligned/sized eyepatch strap. If it’s a design choice as some argue, it’s a very odd one that simply doesn’t work. If it’s something 3A somehow missed before finalizing her sculpt, I can only ask the question, “How?”. It’s just a bizarre detail that doesn’t kill the cool factor of the character, but those more OCD than me may have a hard time looking at her from some angles thanks to it.

The other complaint comes back to the articulation in the legs. While they’re vastly improved and easier than ever to play with, once again 3A’s knack for adding while subtracting has somewhat shot themselves in the foot. (So many leg/feet analogies I hardly know what to do with myself!)

When they upgraded the female figure for Lolli, giving her double jointed knees and a more forgiving hip joint, they took away her mid thigh joint and stuck her with a square peg at her ankle. It was an upgrade that was nullified by the downgrades. With Queenie they brought back the round ankle peg, but still left out the mid thigh joint. I feel like this was a bad move, especially for a figure that should be as articulated as possible. Some may argue asthetics, but Queenie’s legs are covered up by pants! I’d start trying to push her into a pose and get about 80% there only to realize that’s as far as it’s going to go. It’s still a jump forward of course, but don’t be surprised when you find yourself thinking, “If only I could twist her leg this way just a tiniest bit, she’d be perfect”.

My last issue falls on the shoulders of 3A QC. Early pics of Queenie revealed some terrible peeling and bubbling of the paint on her chest and stomach. From what I’ve read, it’s pretty rare, like shark bites or plane crashes. My Queenie doesn’t suffer from the same disaster those images portrayed, but she has a few odd paint bumps on her chest that are obviously not meant to go there. My instinct is to scrape them off, but I’m sure that would just start a chain reaction of peeling and heartbreak. I’m waiting to hear back from CS to see what my options are. Issues are bound to pop up from time to time and in my history with 3A, I’ve had next to none, but that doesn’t make the bumps go away.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So yes, Queenie is cool. Despite her unique design, I wasn’t incredibly excited about her arrival after being fairly disappointed with Lolli. Seeing how untouched and neutrally posed I generally keep her on the shelf, the thought of having yet another figure that’s a struggle to balance upright didn’t exactly thrill me. I’m happy to report that she was well worth the wait and in fact exceeded my expectations.

She looks great and is loaded with character. The amount of unique poses you should be able to squeeze out of her should make her a stand out addition to your collection. She balances well, she moves for the most part how you’d expect her to, even her neutral hands add appreciated variety to the package.

Queenie is a positive step forward for 3A. I hope they continue to tweak the female body, refine the articulation some more and do something about the uncertainty of the paint app on their rubber torso. Right now, she’s as good as it gets.

Pros:

An all new unique character that will stand out from the rest of your collection
New female body with enhanced articulation; a big step forward
Tons of character squeezed into her tiny frame

Cons:

Wish they’d bring back the thigh swivel joint as her articulation still feels inhibited
Her eyepatch band, purposeful or not, is mismatched and just looks off
Boob-gate? Nah, but some paint issues.

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REVIEW 3A RVHK Tomorrow King

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

It’s been awhile since I’ve been so excited about getting a figure dropped on my doorstep. 3A’s ReVenture Hong Kong 2012 show held host of quite a few exclusives that only those lucky enough to attend the show could get their greedy little mits on. That is, until the remaining tiny allotment was released on bambaland.com about a week after the show wrapped. I was at a friends house, enjoying a cold beverage and some freshly made salsa when the sale went live. I logged into bamba and waited for the first tid bits to load. I knew it was going to be chaos trying to score ANYTHING and that most likely the thing I wanted most (an Old Guard) would also be the most impossibel to get. Exclusives began to trickle onto bambaland.. so far, no Old Gaurd. Each hit of f5 was another spinning beach ball of 5 minute limbo. Finally, the TK box art popped up. I speedily clicked “add to cart” only to be forced into pumping my brakes hard, treated with yet another loading screen some 8 minutes in length. “Come on, come on, come on.. big money.. BIG money.” I’m sure I was muttering something along those lines. Suddenly the message on the screen caused my heart to sink into my shoes. A “server error, server too busy try again later” screen popped up. Knowing how crazy people would be to score one oof these excluves, I knew it was over, that I’d lost out. I failed to score a Tomorrow King.

Just before I closed my screen, I noticed the URL address still read as if it was on my cart page. I decided to hit refresh instead of the back button to see what would happen. After what seemed yet another eternity of waiting, my cart screen loaded up with the stubborn TK still inside! Stunned, I quickly hit the pay/checkout button and watched with delight as my order processed.

Now he’s finally here, my Old Guard. My Tomorrow King.

PACKAGING

What TK worth his salt hasn’t come in a lovely illustrated box? OG is no different. The front is splashed with a dynamic AW painting with a color coded dot on the top to indicate whether you received the blue, black, red or yellow TK. I got red. On the back has something ripped from Ash’s sketchbook with kitty purring the word “Exclusive” in bold letters! Yup, it’s legit!

WHAT’S INCLUDED

I was hoping for a poster, but I’ll settle on just getting the figure. Sigh. 😉

Brass tax. You get your TK and his single trusty sword.

THE BREAKDOWN

3A’s Tomorrow King isn’t anything new. Many 3A collectors have at least one in their collection tucked away somewhere. There’s the Oyabun, Heavy TK, 7 Bones and Interloper to name the few. There hasn’t been much description of exactly how the Old Guard truly fit into Popbot lore (the storyline Tomorrow Kings originate from). The original Tomorrow Kings are often referred to as the “OGs” (Original Gangsta’s), so it’s fitting that “OG” in this case stands for Old Guard. It’s a nod to the original Tomorrow Kings that are so cherished and desired by 3A collectors the world over. Given the relative difficulty scoring these guys, that desire is likely not to diminish despite their new car smell.

There’s a definitive simple elegance that’s just shy perfection in the design of the Tomorrow King figures. It’s something most people who don’t collect or own one won’t pick up on. Heck, I didn’t really get it until earlier last year when 3A released (and shipped) the first of their 7 Bones TKs, Wasabi. With their clean, not overly fussy design and punk rock meets japanese ninja ethos, I don’t find it all that shocking that many think the TK is THE perfect action figure.

So while I assume the Old Guard is a return to that simple elegance of the original Tomorrow Kings, 3A didn’t simply sew up a new batch of shirts and send these guys on their way. The Old Guard actually has an all new body (One shared by the forthcoming/currently landing on doorsteps, Rothchild). Most noticeable is his slimmer silhouette with narrow shoulders. I’ve read some refer to it as the kid or teenager body. One even called it the Bieber body. I laughed at that. Here you can see standing side by side with Wasabi just how much of a visual difference it makes.

You can also see from the same pic that Old Guard’s tee is much more fitted than Wasabi’s. I can’t say which I prefer as they both work well for the characters. I may give a slight edge to the new body as it seems to work better visually with the lean, mean fighting machines that TKs are suppose to be. But I like the look of variety between them!

The tee shirt itself is what some may feel is a smidge “porny” while others will claim it simply “art”.. whatever you want to call it.. it’s an image of some sort of visually decapitated women in panties and bandages with her boob hanging out. Honestly, of the four Old Guards it’s not my favorite. I like the red color a lot, but find the design on the black and yellow to be much more in tune with my personal style.

Visually, my RVHK score is a slam dunk. I love the orange hair and red shirt. The paint is nice, clothes run or snag free. The new slim profile looks fantastic. Head to toe, I’m digging the orange headed Bieber. So what else do we have here to mess with? Ah yes, articulation!

At first blush, it’d be easy to believe that the articulation is the same as it’s ever been. Knees and elbows are double jointed, wrist spin and twist (a little loosely for my taste). His torso bends in various places and his ankles have those love them or hate them double ball joints. The hands are the same sculpts we’ve seen for years on Tomorrow Kings. One hand molded for gripping the sheath, the other a little tighter to handle the hilt of the sword. Nothing new there.

Or is there? As much as I think the new slim bodies really enhance the overall look of the Old Guard TKs, I did find one little hiccup in it’s execution. I’d even call it a step backwards. Due to the decrease in torso real-estate, the head/neck has less room to wiggle. The head/neck of the OG’s are not redesigned to compensate for the smaller area at the neck joint. What this has done is prevent as full of a range of movement side to side (ear to shoulder) as previously possible.

In the picture above I’ve pushed both heads sideways as far as they’ll go and I think it’s pretty clear how much of a difference that extra space makes. It was probably not worth the effort/expense to 3A to develop an entirely new neck post just for the Old Guards, but it IS kind of a shame it’s even an issue. I guess we’re to believe these guys are warrior ninja’s capable of all sorts of insane giant robot crushing acrobatics and limber twisty turny ninja skill.. as long as they don’t have to crane their necks too far.

Maybe they are much older than they look?

Other than that, I only have a few small nagging complaints here and there. The first, I mentioned before is the incredibly loose wrist joints. My Wasabi has had the same helicopter wrists since day one, so it’s not exclusive to the Old Guard. I’m sure some will have a lucky die roll and get perfectly taught wrists that can manage whatever pose you twist them in. My OG needs physical therapy. The other “ugh” I muttered came when I first put his sword in his hand. I realized that the blue wash used to get into the creases of his gloves was still wet! The paint wiped off the sword fine and there was no noticeable smudging on the gloves themselves, but it’s still a nuisance. This isn’t baked goods, we’re don’t need our toys piping hot still smelling of the oven.. the paint should be dry/cured before it hits our hands. Kyuuketsuki anyone?

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m all about Tomorrow Kings and am thrilled to have one from 3A’s Hong Kong ReVenture in my possession. Though not my first pick, (that would have gone to blue or black) red looks just fantastic. In fact, amongst the blue and neutral tones of my other TKs, he really stands out.

Posing and snapping shots of Tomorrow Kings is always a lot of fun. The strength of their character really blooms when you find the right light, angle and pose. Their faces are practically without expression but sculpted in such a way that they lend themselves to whatever type of mood it is within your imagery that you’re trying to capture.

I wish I could say, “Everyone should go out and buy one of these guys right now at your local Toy Store!” But you and everyone else knows that’s impossible. The ebay prices are silly.. stupid even. I’ve seen more than one of these OGs up for almost a grand. I find that hard to stomach, not only because it’s a freaking toy!! BUT some of the ACTUAL OG Tomorrow Kings aren’t fetching those kind of prices. Unfortunately, the flip factor for these guys is pretty high and ebay is evidence of that. Douche-McGee’s came out by the truckloads to Hong Kong to buy these guys just to flip for extortion level prices. Instead of supporting these layman of the avid toy collector’s bile ducts, reach out to your favorite toy community. Be patient. Something will come up eventually. I doubt you’ll get a hand out and I’m sure you’ll end up paying a good deal more than the 90 stones or whatever these guys were at retail, but I can almost promise you’ll get better results dealing with collectors community than the sultans of ass-hattery on ebay.

The more I’ve played with this guy the more I realize I’ll probably be right there with you, holding my breath, abiding my time and waiting for that WTS post. Daddy needs a black and blue. 🙂

Pros:

Classic Tomorrow King design.
Fantastic toy to play with and shoot photos of.
Great quality and care throughout
New slimmer body/silhouette looks fantastic
Box Art

Cons:

Slim body lessens neck articulation substantially
Loose wrists
Do to exclusive status, they’re being flipped like there’s no Tomorrow… King. (whamp whamp)