Very few anime fans have not heard of Dragonball, and even fewer have never watched at least part of an episode. Along with Sailor Moon, Dragonball (specifically Z) lead the exposure of Anime to the Western World. So, it's no surprise that I have nostalgic feelings about the franchise.
S.H. Figuarts is of course the defacto maker of THE Dragonball figures to get, and while I'd go broke getting them all, I will readily admit they do their fair share of damage to my bank account. The reason you haven't seen anything on here about their figures is because apparently it's easier to ask a collector friend in the US to hoard them all for you, and ship some to you as a batch, 9 months later, then it is to order from literally your local store in Toronto. Because when you place a preorder in June 2020 for a figure that was released literally across the planet in November - December 2020, has gone on clearance from most places, and you still don't have it in late September 2021 well, maybe your store shouldn't be selling the things.
It also doesn't help that the store gets offended when people ask about where there stuff is, including me, who asked twice, December 2020 and February 2021.
I mean, it doesn't make sense for it to be so difficult to get a regular release figure like Piccolo.
Then, complicating matters are the fact that P Bandai exclusives, like Kid Gohan, do not ship to Canada directly, and I refuse to pay the BBTS premium. So I'm glad that my hook up is still willing to put up with my bullshit.
First up, Piccolo. As mentioned, he was a regular release, and as such didn't come with the fancy cardboard shipper. The contents of the set are very similar to that of the 1.0 release.
- 1 X Main Figure
- 1 X Removable Mantle/Cape
- 2 X Faceplates with Turbaned Head (Netural, Angry)
- 3 X Heads without Turban (Neutral, Angry, "Special Beam Cannon" Expression from the fight with Raditz)
- 7 X Hands, including dedicated Special Beam Cannon hand
- 1 X Crossed Arm effect
- 1 X Arm Stump effect
Piccolo also comes with two clips that fit on his back to allow for use of a stand for floating/flying poses, as well as a rear collar piece to fill in the hole when the Mantle is taken off.
As typical for Dragonball figures, there are no energy effects or a stand. Strangely, there's still no extended arms for the poor guy. I don't even know if anyone remembers he has that power anymore.
This particular Gohan is suppose to represent his forms during his Kid years, which include the bowl cut every Chinese kid in the 90s had, and his mullet. I was hoping that we'd get his full Namekian battle armour in this set, but I guess that's something else for Tamashii Nations to get my money for. I'm also curious about his Chinese Vampire outfit with the fancy hat.
Contents of this set include:
- 1 X Main Figure
- 2 X Head/Hairstyles (Bowl Cut, Mullet)
- 4 X Faceplates (Neutral, Angry, Surprised, Yelling)
- 11 X Hands, including dedicated Dragon Radar hand
- 1 X Dragon Radar
- 1 X One Star Dragonball
Again, no energy effects or stand.
I'm not entire certain about the Dragon Ball itself. I know there were figure effect sized Dragon Balls that came with various characters, kind of like a BAF incentive to buy certain ones. But this is much larger than those... maybe this is yet another line to collect?
To shorten things a bit, I just want to summarize my usual stuff by saying everything is what you'd hoped for with the usual minor quibbles here and there..
Articulation of the 2.0 bodies has always been pretty good and capable of mimicking most iconic poses, even on the much smaller Gohan. The biggest criticism being that the waist area looks kind of weird, which is true but only relevant if you stand your figures in a neutral position.
Piccolo also has a hidden joint at the shoulders that allows him to cross his arms. Also, naturally range of motion on Piccolo improves when the Mantle is off, though it's more subtle than you'd think.
Paint and Build Quality wise, nothing exceptionally bad to report. Everything looks good, holds/fits as it should, and there are no real design issues I can see, other than I wish that Piccolo's cape wasn't just some hinged piece of plastic, which only looks good when not posed dynamically.
Having said all that, here's some quick high level overview of the two figures.
I don't have a Gohan 1.0, but I do have a Piccolo 1.0, pictured on the right hand side in the photo above. The colours are different, but there might have been some con exclusive that made them more similar. What's more important is to note the overall improvements with regards to proportions, the way the hip the designed, and while you can't really make it out the completely new shoulder design. The new version also has updated portraits, which are more accurate to the show... well mostly.
The neutral face for both the Turbaned and bare head are just... ugh. Looks like a relative of Handsome Squidward.
Gohan, on the other hand, has effectively perfect heads, both hair and face plate, and it's fantastic they can be interchanged amongst the two hair styles. The mullet even comes with an additional hinge to move the hair on the back of his head, increasing range of motion. The head joint is double jointed, which increases the range of motion of the head.
The greatest areas of weakness on the Gohan figure, IMO, are the lack of Piccolo styled shoulders (which to be fair is pretty much most of the figures) but also it feels to me that the body is slightly oversized for Gohan, and doesn't really have kid proportions, which really ought to be a pudgier body and shorter limbs. His torso also appears to be extraordinarily tall, and isn't as well proportioned as the Battle Damaged Teen Gohan (which I have, but was too lazy to photograph).
After all the trial and tribulations, I'm happy to be able to add these to my collection, and they really do represent my first exposure to Dragonball Z, and to be completely honest, probably the only real functional father/son relationship that Gohan ever had, until the future timeline where he serves as the father figure to a Future Trunks.
Between the two of them, I'd have to say that Piccolo was the better made figure, thanks to the shoulder joint, but I could be somewhat biased as Piccolo is my second favourite character after Vegeta. However, it cannot be stated enough that both figures are very solid releases, and really are no brainers if you're a Dragonball Z collector.
While that's it for now, I've got quite a few more Dragonball figures to go through, so stay tuned!
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