The second main protagonist of the Dragonball Super: Super Hero movie is Piccolo, so to the surprise of nobody, Bandai released a Piccolo figure to go with the first wave of the line. I guess for me, it was kind of a shock to hear about this because we went YEARS without an updated Piccolo, then within the span of I think 3 years, maybe less, we got two brand new figures.
Sort of. They're never really completely brand new, at least when they can avoid it.
Here he is, the Super Hero version of Piccolo. I don't remember the exact price it was before, but as of the writing of this entry, BBTS has the reissue for $38 USD, so it's basically priced, at this point, like your typical entry level Goku figure.
Contents include:
- 1 x Main Figure
- 3 x Head Sculpts (Smirking, Gritted Teeth, Shouting)
- 7 x Posing Hand, including dedicated Special Beam Cannon Hand
Calling the Super Hero set Proud Namekian Lite would be about right. There are fewer parts, which makes sense, given that this set is priced lower than its predecessor. I would say in terms of being iconic, clearly his look Dragonball Z, complete with head wrapping and cape, would be the clear winner.
To the surprise of nobody, the Super Hero body is basically the same as the Proud Namekian one, at least from an articulation perspective. The Super Hero one lacks the connection points for the cape, and is aesthetically different to match his appearance in the movie (yellow versus pink spots, slightly more yellow tinted green, different shoes, red belt, short sleeves). Yes. these are the same sleeves that have plagued . for years.
The head sculpts are also slightly different than Proud Namekian. I'll be completely transparent here - I'm to lazy to actually dig up my other figure, but from the photos I've taken, it appears that pretty much all of these heads are new - I do wish that the Handsome Squidward head could have made another appearance here. The open mouth one looks very similar to the one in the previous release, but at the same it it's not the same. The newer one has a mouth that is open larger, which might explain the different jaw shape But the heads overall appear to have ears that are pitched higher, and the brow line doesn't seem as exaggerated. Accuracy, sadly, is still kind of off as the eyes are still too small as compared to the on screen counterpart.
The articulation itself is solid. You've got all your typical points of movement on this type of body, including the double jointed knees and elbows, and those funny looking hips. Neck can tilt forward but sadly cannot tilt backwards. One fun carry over from the previous iteration is the butterfly joints in the shoulder, which do add more articulation by allowing the arms to bypass the bulk of the chest and actually cross. However, this looks pretty bad (just like those sleeves when the arms are raised) and were really meant so you could attach the crossed arm effect piece on the older figure..
The mid torso joint, however, has exceptional range of motion due to the large cavity within as well as ample spacing provided by the chest section. You can actually actually get a very good range of motion, so Piccolo can lean forward or if you're me, arch his back to emphasize his ass.
Piccolo trains hard and it's about time that he gets the recognition for it.
Paint and Build Quality are well done, as always. As is typical for this line, most of the heavy lifting for paint is carried by the base plastic itself, so the degree of actual paint work isn't extensive. But at least what's there looks good. No rough edges, poor assembly, or weak joints to write about.
PIccolo was expensive for the longest time, so it's nice that there's now two good options to get him into your Dragonball collection, Both are solid choices in terms of display options, but the one you get is going to depend whether or not you wish to recreate his most iconic look - of course, I have no idea if Proud Namekian has gone up in price. If it has, I'd just get this one and use the extra cash towards Orange Piccolo and celebrate him FINALLY getting a much deserved power up.
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