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)

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REVIEW Play Arts Kai Metal Gear Solid Snake

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

Few video game franchises are nearer and dearer to my heart than Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear. I’ve played, if not beaten almost every game in the series including the port of the very first Metal Gear when it was out on the NES back in the 80’s (don’t do the math.. yes I’m at least that old). There’s something about Kojima’s characters and their stories that are so compelling and interesting, I found myself constantly hungry for more. A few years later I found myself scouring comic shops and books stores for the artwork of Yoji Shinkawa. Along with Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy fame, his artwork kicked everything else game art wise in the teeth with how crazy energetic and magnetic it was. I still have game guides from the 90’s simply because it was chock full of his work.

Growing up, Metal Gear and Final Fantasy essentially rented time shares at my house. I’d bounce back and forth between the franchises, squeezing as much gaming juice from them as I could until the next game rolled around. Other than perhaps Final Fantasy 7, few games can compete with how much time and energy I invested into Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. I’ve played through the fantastic Snake Eater at least five times front to back.

All that was written to simply express to you that I am a fan. A big, massive, huge, gigantic (loaded to the gills with redundant adjectives) Metal Gear fan. Now that I finally have in possession my first Metal Gear action figure of one of my favorite video game characters of all time, I came to an incredibly shocking realization. This is my first Metal Gear action figure.

Egad.

PACKAGING

Akin to Play Art Kai’s other figures, Snake comes in a big box with a front panel window to give you a peak at what’s in store. This is Metal Gear’s 25th anniversary and from the decal on the lower right on the front you can see that this figure is an official part of the celebration! The classic Metal Gear Solid Logo stands out the most while the bulk of the text is written in kanji. A few pics of Snake looking dangerous decorates the back of the pack and perhaps aims to inspire you once you break him out of his plastic cage.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Snake’s default getup has him equipped with a little thunder and a little lightning. Also known as closed clinched fists. If you want him to actually HOLD the two guns he comes with, you have to switch them out with the included extra set of hands. One hand can hold the grip of his rifle or holstered side arm, the other hand is used as.. for lack of better term, “cupping”. I think it’s a little weird that they didn’t include a tactical knife in the arsenal since it’s always been a constant companion of Snake’s since day one. It’d also would have been cool if they threw in either the classic cardboard box that Snake used for bypassing baddies or the girlie magazine he used to distract them.

THE BREAKDOWN

I can’t tell you how much I anticipated this figure to arrive. It seemed to take forever since everything I get from 3rd party sources tend to ship to LA before it gets resent back to us here in Hawaii. Things from Japan tend to scoot right past us, touch down in California, then boomerang back our direction. This sometimes adds an extra week to my wait time in getting an order in. Since my wait has been so long, I’m not going to make you wait any longer to get the overall gist of my opinion of Snake. In fact, I’m going to risk electively ruining this whole review for you and cut right to the punchline. I’m really happy and impressed by how well Play Arts Kai rocked Solid Snake.

The moment you take him out of the box you’ll notice how amazingly well sculpted and detailed he is. All the little straps and buckles are perfectly painted,the rivets in his shoulder and knee pads are neatly placed. Snake’s expression is one of thin lipped determination. He’s an impressive site, wholly true to his in game persona. I’ve heard Play Arts Kai mess around with their scales quite a bit on their figs but I have nothing to compare that to other than Batman and Joker. Snake is a pretty big fellah and measures just the tiniest bit taller than his DC buddies.

To continue the comparison of Snake to Play Arts Kai’s Joker or Batman, I’d say he feels more solid that they did. All of Play Art Kai’s figures seem to have significant heft to them, but even the thinner bits like straps and packs feel sturdier on Snake than Bats or J-money. Something else I’m learning about these figures is that they all have a floating midsection that’s not really attached to anything underneath the surface and just sort of sits to cover the tops of the hips/legs. It works pretty well and looks fine for the most part, but on this particular figure, his mid section seems to favor one side quite definitively, over the other leaving a good deal of the top of his right leg exposed. I had to adjust it every time I posed him or it would move itself to one side and look completely out of whack. (I know, I know, double entendres for DAYZ.)

Solid Snake’s face is relatively well done as they captured his in game likeness almost perfectly. He looks stern and ready for anything. However, his eyes are painted to point slightly up. I assume so he appears to be intensely peering up from under his headband. It works fine in most cases, but in some poses he can look a little unfocused. In fact, they might not be painted QUITE as aligned as they should. A bummer considering how “cool” Snake should look. Hard to look cool and cross eyed at the same time. Speaking of the headband, the straps in the back can be rotated left or right which is a cool touch to get that “wind blown” look you’re after. The frown marks sculpted on the band as well as the hair sculpt are also pretty well done.

The default fists Snake is sporting are a little odd simply because they not particularly dynamic or useful. They don’t look aggressive like the sorta fist you’d hit somebody across the jaw with nor can they hold anything. A set of more dramatic hand styles would have been appreciated. The hands also appear a little small, but that could just be my eyes playing tricks on me. The other odd thing is how the hands sit inside the forearm. They’re not centered on the wrist but are substantially offset to one side. I’m not sure why this is. I don’t get the added benefit of this other than making the joint all the more apparent.

Snake comes with a single hand that can hold a weapon. It’s capable of handling the task, though it’s not as tight as I’d like it to be on the pistol grip. It’s also kind of a pain to get him to hold his rifle given the unforgiving plastic of the weapon and the general bulk of Snake’s torso. The open or “cupping” hand is a little more interesting than the tiny fist, but it’s kind of a one trick pony. I’ll restate that I really wish Play Arts Kai would have included another set of more dramatic hand sculpts.

Moving around the figure, I’m really impressed (once again) with all the detail Play Arts Kai managed to squeeze into Solid Snake. I love the details on his boots, particularly the cleats along the sides of the toe. Most impressive of all is the sculpted detail in the various straps, pads and buckles. Even in hand, you may find yourself convinced that some of these are actual cloth and not plastic. The gun strap is a great example of this.

Getting Snake to balance, while not necessarily difficult, can be a little tricky. I’m sure there’s an industry term somewhere I could use but I’ll describe the joints as clicking/segmented joints. What this means is that there are only certain positions around each joint that will allow it to hold in place. Like the ticking of the seconds hand on a timepiece. This gives you a sturdier lock onto a pose, but the trade off is that you lose the ability to finely adjust the particular joint. You have to click the figure into a pose, and then see if he stands. If the weight is off and you need to slide a leg forward a millimeter, you most likely won’t be able to because the joint won’t lock into that increment. Long story short, when you get Snake standing make SURE he’s actually going to remain that way. Sometimes he’ll stand there for a few moments until one of those joints settle into place sending him toppling over.

The articulation on Snake is pretty darn good. I think I’m STILL discovering the seemingly random swivel joint here and there. One thing I really dig in how they handled masking Snake’s joints opposed to the way they engineered Batman and Joker’s. They ingeniously covered up the double knee and elbow joints with knee/elbow pads. It’s so much more natural looking. Even in more extreme poses, Snake doesn’t look ridiculous. Snake has a collar around his neck that, while cool looking does impede his range of movement a little. I don’t mind it too much since I haven’t put him in too many poses that stress the turning of his neck, but you might.

Another touch that puts Snake in the “win” category a little higher than Joker or Bats is that his shoulder joints are hidden from site thanks to his shoulder pads. Joker’s were just absolute eye sores that killed any sense of a cohesiveness in his suit jacket. Batman’s shoulder joints were covered by his cape, but the heavy rubber used there limited his movements pretty substantially. Snake’s solution is probably the best compromise. The shoulder pads do still hinder his movement a little bit, but they looks great and the trade off is well worth it.

I had a problem with Snake’s pistol silencer. Since it’s packed attached to the pistol and holstered at his side, pressure from the packaging caused it to deform and bend. It leans slightly to the left, so to say. I’m sure it’s a pretty easy fix, heating it up a little with a hair dryer then putting something heavy on it to straighten it out should do the trick, but we shouldn’t have to “fix” our new toys the second we get them. Packaging it by itself would have resolved the issue completely.

My current favorite setup for Snake is having it swung over his shoulder while he holds his silenced pistol at the ready. I really like the straps on the assault rifle, both functionally and visually.. but had some trouble getting Snake to actually HOLD his assault rifle. Part of the reason I had such a difficult time getting the assault rifle to fit is because for whatever reason, Snake’s right arm keeps detaching at the elbow. I wouldn’t call it broken since it can be popped back in, but it certainly doesn’t hold in place like it should. This is very similar to what I experienced with The Joker with his shoulder constantly popping off. Throughout the entire photo shoot I had to work around this little issue. It’s a shame because all of the other joints on Snake hold extremely well! I’m beginning to wonder if this is just a “thing” you have to put up with if you collect Square Enix/Play Arts Kai figures or a fluke. I’m tempted to contact the shop I got him from and see what my options are for a swap as it’s become pretty darn annoying at this point.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall I’m impressed with what Play Arts Kai pulled off with Solid Snake. I’m extremely happy to have him on my shelf. That being said, I’m a huge Metal Gear Solid fan and this particular figure is that of my favorite video game character. It’s possible that I may turn a blind eye to some of his faults. Not to the degree in that I didn’t note them, or don’t care about them.. but that I might more easily overlook them. If you were just picking this guy up because you heard of the series or just thought he was a cool looking toy to add to your collection, you might find these or other issue with him more pressing and they may more readily rub you the wrong way. From the lack of fun or interesting accessories (smokes, box, girly mag) and unimaginative hand options to the misaligned eyes and right leaning midriff… or in my case, the freaking arm constantly popping out of socket… Snakes certainly not perfect.

But for me, Solid Snake rocks, warts and all. I love the classic MGS story and characters and really hope Play Arts Kai plans to release each and every one of them. I honestly can’t wait to have a shelf full of them. We’ve already seen a few teases of Meryl Silverburgh, Solidus Snake and Raiden. Based off what I’ve gathered so far, they’re going to be worthy additions to any fans collection!

Pros:

Faithful likeness to the in game character based off Yoji Shinkawa’s character designs
Some really impressive sculpted details
Great articulation throughout
Really nice solution to the otherwise ugly double jointed knees and elbows
The beginning of a classic line of Metal Gear figures

Cons:

Arm popped off at elbow right out the box.
Crazy bent silencer. Had to straighten it with hot water. Shouldn’t have had to do that.
Eyes are painted slightly off
Unexciting hands and accessories.. where’s the box, smokes, magazine?
Can be a little difficult to balance

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Miller talks “Thoughts on Earth’s most Mightiest Heroes: The Avengers”

Posted on May 20, 2012 by reallytimemachines

It’s best not to think too much about The Avengers and just enjoy it. However, if you do start mulling the Marvel movie melange of mighty men and woman, try to think back to the early nineties. The late eighties/ early nineties was a heyday of comic book glory. Chris Claremont was writing X-Men and X-Men spinoffs. Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, and [that bastard] Rob Liefeld were wowing us with highly stylized versions of our favorite characters. Infinity Gauntlets were being formed, Atlantis was attacking, and there were Acts of Vengeance being carried out. It was the dawning of the Age of Apocalypse. We were young, hungry, and eagerly anticipating every new issue as they sold in record numbers.

But alas, where were our young minds to turn for such quality entertainment and stimulation outside of the comic page? On TV we could satiate our rabid desire with “X-Men: The Animated Series,” but if we wanted a super hero fix on the big screen we were stuck with DC, and let’s be honest DC just isn’t Marvel. I’m not knocking Tim Burton’s “Batman.” It is an underrated classic that changed super hero movies forever, but it just wasn’t Marvel. We needed Spiderman. We needed Wolverine. We needed Steve frickin’ Rogers on the big screen and quite honestly, the handful of Marvel movies made by that point were wretched. If you did convince your Mom to rent that one dusty VHS of the Captain America movie that starred J.D. Salinger’s son, you were kindly rewinding that sucker just feeling ashamed for ever having loved Cap to begin with. It was a sad state of affairs.

So, we gave up. We grew up. We drank our first beers, tried smoking, got laid (Well, some of us anyway. I almost forgot what website I was writing this for). We stopped worrying about Wolverine on the big screen and started worrying about college, and how to make a gravity bong. Then it happened. Out of nowhere somebody turned a third tier Marvel character into a hit action movie and even though it wasn’t Spidey or Daredevil it was still a Marvel character and it was actually a decent movie. Blade, who’d a thunk it, right?

Next, came the mind-blowing cinemagasm of Bryan Singer glory called X-Men and everything just got awesome. Sure, you were at least 20, but don’t you see? Our generation never grew up for a reason. Those dum dum baby boomers came back from Nam with one mission left, coddle the crap out of your children and trip balls until you design the coolest toys, cartoons, comics, and video games the world has ever known. They still make our toys. Transformers, Care Bears, Star Wars action figures, and 80’s style G.I. Joe are still rocking the toy shelves, because they were the apex of childhood indulgence. Our generation of men keep reading comics, watching cartoons, and playing video games on our parents’ basement couches because the generation before us perfected the art of spoiling their kids, and thank the heavens for that.

Our development was just arrested enough for us to enjoy the crap out of Sam Raimi’s Spiderman, Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, Bryan Singer’s X-Men, Kenneth Brannagh’s Thor, and now Joss Whedon’s Avengers. Marvel and whatever studios they are affiliated with decided to hire REAL film makers who brought us “Evil Dead,” “Swingers,” “The Usual Suspects,” a bunch of Shakespeare movies, and “Firefly” to make real good movies using what we already knew were real good characters and real good stories.

Sure, Ang Lee’s Hulk movie was a misfire, but he bounced back with a couple of amorous cowboys and Mark Ruffalo is a great Bruce Banner. No harm no foul. Even the steaming pile that was the Daredevil movie was just a speed-bump to what is now paying off as the investment in entertainment magic beans called comic books of the late eighties and nineties that paid off with at least five genius superhero movies in the aughts and teens.

Avengers is a really fun movie, but even if you don’t like it (and you are a sad little person if you don’t), just think back to those days of the super hero cinema depression and kick yourself for not realizing just how lucky you are.

–

Miller still has his entire comic book collection from when he was an 8 year bifocal sporting youngster. That was over 70 years ago. If he’d sold them 15 years ago, he could of retired a rich man. Instead, he held onto them like a scrooge. With the comic book boom well behind us, those same comics are practically worthless. Instead of retiring rich, fat and happy.. he writes for us.