So I recently received a few Dragonball Figuarts figures from my US brother from another mother. A bit slower than most, but at the same time it beats paying for those horrendous middle man fees than online stores like to charge for the privilege of selling P. Bandai exclusives to collectors outside of their usual delivery area. First up, we have Tien and Chiaotzu for no particular reason other than the fact I pulled them out of the shipping box first.
Retailing for $80 USD, you get the fancy brown shipper box that accompanies all P. Bandai exclusives, which holds the art box and its contents.
Content wise, here's what we get:
- 1 x Tien Figure.
- 4 x Tien Expressions/Heads.
- 9 x Tien Posing Hands.
- 1 x Chiaotzu Figure.
- 6 x Chiaotzu Posing Hands.
So naturally, Tien has what you'd expect from a full strength Figuarts release in regards to my usual criteria (articulation, paint and build). Chiaotzu, by comparison, lacks butterfly shoulders, double elbow joints, torso swivel, and any interchangeable face plates/heads. While Chiaotzu cannot pose as well as Tien, he's still a neat little figure to play with, and the additional hands to help to further expand his repertoire.
Tien himself can do all the wonderful poses that your typical Dragonball Figuarts can do, which is unsurprising because by this point, Tamashii Nations has effectively gotten the formula down nicely. The lack of energy attack effects doesn't quite affect this release that much, as while Tien is capable of Ki attacks, I really only associate him with one particular special move, the Solar Flare.
One interesting point about the overall articulation - Tien technically does not have the same range of motion across both shoulders. Due to the single sleeve design of this outfit, his left shoulder actually has slightly less range of motion.
Tamashii Nations DID, however, give Tien the DDP Trifecta hand gesture, which I believe is associated with his signature Tri-Beam attack.
If there is something to grumble about, and I'm really good at finding those, it is that Tien doesn't really come with the proper complement of parts or articulation to pull off a convincing Solar Flare attack.
It can also be said that Tien's head is a bit too round... there's now reason why Tien has a rounder head than Krillin.
Tien ended up being a generally solid Figuarts, which is what was expected. It's actually Chiaotzu I'm most impressed with, as Tamashii Nations did a bang up job giving him a fairly robust body, as well as some hands for posing purposes. For a tiny figure like that, Chiaotzu certain holds together better than my Chibi Moon does. Shame there aren't any extra expressions, at the very least. So that's one down, a few more to go, all of the convention exclusives.
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