The last piece of BBTS clearance backlog is the least exciting one. I had an idea of what I was getting into when I did some research, so my expectations were tempered. This set really does earn all of its criticisms.
Presenting the Sentinel: Spider-Main Into The Spiderverse - Peni and SP//dr set.
Since I've already spoiled the review, I might as well condense further if possible. The overall set isn't terrible in terms of the final product - it's just terrible for the BBTS asking price of $150 USD, which is admittedly higher than actual MSRP, but being a Sentinel product even the Japanese MSRP is probably in the $100 - $110 USD range. You basically get SP//dr, a fixed pose Peni to scale, two faces for SP//dr (Angry, Happy), batteries, along with Base/Stand for the two pieces.
If you watched the movie, you'll recall that SP//dr features some neat decals on its body. Well, Sentinel hears you loud and clear, and has included some water slide decals for your personalization purposes. Considering my luck with these in the past, I politely declined to actually use any of them.
The face plates are decent, and capture the ones used in the movie nicely. Having said that, it's a bit disappointing that the batteries are used to provide back lighting for these faces as opposed to having an actual LED matrix with built in animations. For the asking price you figure they could sneak it in or, since this is in baller price point anyway, just add $10 for this function.
With regards to SP//dr, the overall construction is light weight, and playing with this figure is like playing with one of the Portal bot Nendoroids. Both feature lightweight, but sturdy materials, but ultimately your main body just serves as a place to plug in the limbs.
There's no true articulation to consider as it's really all about the limbs, which to be fair can effectively fold, flip and so on with little interference, wherever you see the light blue joints, and where it connects to the torso. The torso itself has no articulation. If you look at the faces, you'll notice that in order for the eyes to be pointing in the right direction, the torso needs to be pointed differently.
The hands/feet can also move freely, though the feet feature only ankle articulation whereas the "thumb" on the hands can spread out.
Paint work, for what its worth, is quite nice. Clearly the colours are predominately red and blue, with very clearly defined sections. Edges are sharp, with no overspray. Smaller detail paint apps in white and to a lesser degree, black, are also sharply applied, as are the spider emblem and caution writing decals on the chest.
SP//dr does have a second mode, which is more of a Crawler Mode than a Bipedal Mode. You get this by swapping limbs, which can be accomplished by following the included instructions.
Peni herself is fixed pose and as mentioned, to scale. Sculpting, paint, and production values are quite good, and the pose is very much characteristic for her and basically every single anime schoolgirl that has ever been conceived. What is unfortunate is that in the movie, Peni actually was able to ride on SP//dr, which she clearly cannot do here. So basically, the one thing that the character does to truly interact with SP//dr, well, she can't do in her set.
That's it in a nutshell - the set just doesn't feel like it's worth the asking price, which is a common complaint amongst many releases, but in this case it feels almost like the set can't even do basic things that one would expect. I feel let down at the $50 USD clearance price - I would hate to think how I would feel if I paid full price.
For Full Gallery, please visit:
Comments