Welcome to Featured Figures; a blog feature highlighting a handful of figures, my thoughts on them, the dents they'd leave in your wallet and maybe even links to sites you can buy them from. Let me know what you want to see from these blogs and I'll see what I can do.
After getting some good feedback across all the sites I'm keeping this blog feature going, now featuring figures spanning across anime, comics, movies and video games. Something for everyone.
This post is best viewed in blog format.
Chie Satonaka, Figma (Max Factory)
It's my understanding that there are possibly a few Chie fans out there, so here's one for you guys; the Chie Figma by Max Factory.
Chie comes with a variety of different faces and accessories you can swap around to your liking. She's also posable, so other than changing her outfit you can pretty much get her looking exactly how you want. She comes with a standard face, a shouting face and even a Shadow Chie face. Accessories include glasses, joke nose glasses and a swoosh effect piece to attach to her leg for some kicking action. Looks like a nice figure with a lot of options.
As a side note, if you dig some good cosplay there are a couple of different Chie sets in the cosplay thread.
Chie can be pre-ordered for $46.79 (approx £30.41) on YesAsia
Samus Aran, Figma (Max Factory)
Since several people mentioned in the previous blog that they prefer a fully suited-up Samus over Zero Suit Samus, here's another figma by Max Factory of just that; Power Suit Samus from Metroid: Other M.
Like the Chie figure, Samus comes with several bits and pieces to customize her with. Included is a Morph Ball, two different beam effects (single and double-shot), an opened canon tip (as if she's firing missiles) and a few different hands; open, closed and thumbs-up.
As you can tell from the images this figure is very posable, equipped with a figma stand to keep her up so you can recreate just about any of the well-known poses Samus has done over the years.
Samus can be pre-ordered for $55 (approx £35) on Hobbyfan
Iron Man Mark VII, ARTFX Statue, 1/6 scale (Kotobukiya)
Taking the bad-ass award this week is the Avengers Iron Man Mark VII ARTFX Statue by Kotobukiya. Tony's on the seventh version of his Iron Man suit already? Dude works fast.
No articulation or custom pieces here folks, this is just one solid, shiny, high quality statue. I think it's actually kind of harder to get figures like this and Samus wrong in a lot of ways. Faces are hard to get right, especially real faces. Robot-suits like these are more mathematical - make everything the correct shape and size and you're set. Even so, this thing looks amazing. The ripped-up concrete beneath Tony's feet here really completes the package. Makes Iron Man look super-heavy and powerful.
Oh, his chest and eyes also light up, as if the damn thing wasn't cool enough already.
Here's a question: who wins in a fight between Samus and Iron Man? I like Samus as much as anyone else, but I think I'd have to give that one to Iron Man. Maybe they should put him in the next Super Smash Bros. game...
Iron Man can be pre-ordered for $130 (approx £82) on Amazon
Natsu Dragneel, HQF, 1/8 scale (Tsume)
My love for Fairy Tail is no secret. I like to think of it as Bleach and Naruto's cheeky little brother that runs around causing mayhem, it's a fun show to watch with a ton of likeable characters. I was pleasantly surprised to see some good Fairy Tail figures coming out, starting with this Natsu Dragneel HQF (High Quality Figure) by Tsume.
As a Fire Dragon Slayer, the plastic fire engulfing Natsu's hand is a great touch, it could have been a solid red or orange colour, but the mixture of orange and yellow and the red tips make it look really nice. The hair and attention to detail on the scarf look particularly good too.
The detail on the eyes and teeth is something I haven't seen much of before. It looks like someone drew the face with a fine marker pen or something. I usually prefer the sort of stuck-on pre-printed eyes you see on a lot of anime figures over painted ones, but it works pretty well here I think.
Natsu can be pre-ordered for €79.90 (approx $105 or £66) on tsume-art
Yoko Littner, 1/8 scale, Bounty Hunter Ver. (Alter)
The last featured figure this week is the Yoko Littner "Bounty Hunter" figure by Alter. I haven't watched much Gurren Lagann so I don't know if Yoko actually dons this outfit at some point in the anime, but it's a cool figure regardless.
Yoko, being as popular as she is, has been rendered in plastic many times, but this figure is definitely up there as one of the best. Judging be the huge burn-holes in her overcoat she's been having a rough time, though other than a few bandages around her right hand her body is relatively unscathed. Yoko's enemies need some target practice.
Strangely enough the thing that jumps out at me most is Yoko's gun holster. They really nailed the leather look with that, the fake stitching looks great and the strap around her leg is a nice little detail that could have been left out, but wasn't. The sizes of the guns seems a little off though. The pistol looks huge and Yoko's trusty sniper rifle looks a little smaller than usual (it usually looks considerably bigger than her). Maybe it's just too big on other figures, either way these are small complaints in the grand scheme of things.
Yoko is listed at $105 (approx £66) on Hobbyfan but is currently sold out.
What do you think of the selection this week? Would Iron Man beat Samus in a fight? Already ordered a Chie figure of your own?
— Daniel Newton is a moderator for Anime Vice and Screened. Follow him on twitter: @Daniel_Newton and @AnimeVicers
Other posts: • Dragon Ball Z Kinect Game Announced • Featured Figures #01 • Oreimo Season 2 Announced!
