One of the most highly anticipated Figma of recent times is Figma 600 Guyver I Ultimate Edition. I am still unsure why it's called Ultimate Edition because there was no Normal edition release, and it doesn't look like it has anymore stuff over the well received 1.0 version back in the day. I read somewhere that one of the Goodsmile Company higher ups was a huge fan of this IP, and so production of this figure was kind of a passion project for them.
Me? Well, the only exposure I've ever had to the franchise, other than looking at Laserdisc covers back in the day, is the first live action movie that featured Mark Hamill. I don't even remember why I ended up renting that from Blockbuster, because it wasn't like I was a huge fan of the IP, nor did I even care that Mark Hamill was in the thing. But the design of the suits did stick with me, so I figured this was a good point in time to get me some merch.
So, as you can see, milestone figure which I guess called for the fancy slip cover. This figure retailed for just under 10,000 Yen. Much like Dread Samus, there's not a whole lot of accessories though in this case there's more. In addition to 8 addition hands and the Base/Stand, you get two extended elbow blade effects, a battle damaged face with hand clutching part (used to recreate iconic poster look) and a G-Unit, which is the suit in its undeployed form.
In comparison, I believe Samus had like 2 extra hands, open barrel effect and that magnetic base thing.
So before I received mine, people all over were calling this the greatest figure that Figma had ever released. Me? Well, I'm skeptical by nature (like with food reviews) but I took that as this figure was at least competent. Lets see how things stacked up.
The overall sculpt on this figure looks very nice. Some aesthetic changes were made over the 1.0, but the overall is that his suit is bulkier and more detailed, which is a good thing. Phenomenal work on the intricate lines of the Guyver I suit. Like with Samus, this is one of those designs where there's an "inner suit" and an "outer suit", with segmented rippled pieces representing this inner layer. I should probably mention that sharp points are functional.
My only concern is that the had appears to be a touch small. But it looks fantastic. Similarly some excellent work on the battle damaged components.
Chest beam emitters have some nice transparent lenses with internals this time, as opposed to the non detailed ones of the 1.0. Door are mounted on hinges so you can replicate the opening action.
G-Unit is nicely sculpted and detailed but ultimately, it just kind of sits there.
The short elbow blades can be replaced with the much longer ones. As mentioned above, functional sharp points.
We've established it's pretty, so the next true test of greatness is the articulation. I normally collect female figures, which admittedly are generally produced to show of the curves. But on larger, bulkier female figures they've done some neat things, and I would presume that these neat things would be prevalent on male figures. At any rate, the comparison is with Dread Samus, whom I felt was probably the recent Figma with some great articulation.
The two generally compare equally, but at the same time there were some strange shortcomings. Getting stuff out of the way, you have excellent double elbows and knees, wrists, ankles complemented by the typical bicep and thigh swivels. The hips on Guyver pull outward to allow for more range of motion. In an interesting development, the figure not only has a waist, but also has a dedicated ab crunch, though the back arch component of that joint is basically non existent.
Now for whatever reason, the shoulders on Guyver aren't as good as on Samus. The hidden swivel joint plus the extended shoulder joint allow the arms on Samus to basically collapse 90 degrees inwards and maybe 45 backwards On Guyver, they barely go 45 forward and due to the design of the suit, there's no collapse backwards. Head articulation is also lacking on Guyver. which has effectively so side tilt function, and requires a neck piece that slides backwards to match the general range of motion offered on Samus. I can understand the need for the moving neck piece, but the lack of tilting is just weird to me.
Having said all that, you're gonna pull off some interesting poses, but unfortunately can't do a proper head tilt from landing pose and you can't really cross the arms.
With regards to Paint Applications, , this is a beautifully painted figure. It's not as varied as other characters, but that's not the fault of Goodsmile. From what I can tell it's all painted, even the black parts as they match the black on the armour pieces perfectly. What might be a bit hard to make out is how much panel lining there is on the figure. It's pretty much everywhere you would expect it to be. There's some sloppy paint on the orb of the main face piece, but in the grand scheme of things that's just a tiny hiccup. Paint work on the face under the battle damaged mask is magnificent.
Build Quality wise, I'm not recalling any issues or stupid decisions made. The functional sharp points have slight give so it won't shatter under the slightest pressure and the crest on the top of the head can actually handle some deformation and be restored to form. Everything is pretty solid on this part.
So ultimately, is it the greatest Figma ever made? Nope.. not at all. It is very good though, mind you, nothing to scoff at. But all things considered, I've had figures that can pose better than Guyver, and posing is kind of the whole point behind an action figure/doll. It's probably the best Guyver figure ever released, though.
For Full Gallery, please visit:
Comments