Monday, October 31, 2005

Bubblegum Crisis Hard Suit Action Figure Review

There is something very sexy about women in cybernetic armor. I think it has something to do with their form-fitting, skin-tight "hard suits". How do you get into one of those things? When I first got a glance at the new Bubblegum Crisis (BGC to the fans) Hard Suit Action Figures, I knew immediately that I had to have them.

They are made by Yamato in a limited run of only 250 sets of the four ladies: Priss, Sylvia, Linna and Nene. They each come with multiple hands, and a human-looking head. They can't really stand on their own since they have these really dainty, high-heel boots, but each figure does come with a stand with arms that can attach to various points of the body to help you pose them in those "in-flight" positions.

While I was very excited about these figures as they sport 22-points of articulation, I was a bit disappointed when I pulled them out of the box. They are indeed beautiful with very nice, metallic paint jobs and intricate, detailed sculpting with a clever knee and elbow racheted joint system that allows you to pose them in cool positions securely. My biggest complaints deal with the fragility of the figures themselves. It's ironic that Yamato spent so much time on the engineering of the knees and elbows that they couldn't spend a bit more time on securing other extremities like the hands. The hands slip off like they are greased lightning. Priss has these shoulder pads that come off if you sneeze in that general direction. And the stand, don't get me started on the stand! I can see how having a stand is useful for posing the BGC figures like they are in mid-flight, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to use all of the stand attachments. There seems to be only one main pole from which the weight of the entire figure seems to hang. This makes the plastic pole droop unless you have some of the weight of the figure supported by one of its high heeled feet. A sturdy display, this does not make. More than once, my dear heroines have come crashing down on my desk with hands and accessories a-flutter!

At $59 each, these are pretty damn expensive action figures and one would expect some pretty high-quality merchandise at that price, but unfortunately, this is not to be the case. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but I feel slightly cheated- like the feeling you get after an evening in a Las Vegas strip club: broke, smelling like coconut oil, and just not satisfied.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've gotta agree with you about the stands; some instructions there would have been damned helpful.
On the other hand, I only had one appendage that flew off with any degree of regularity (that being Linna's right hand.) They stayed together pretty well for me otherwise.
And they are damned sexy,, aren't they? :)

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you about the quality of the figures not being worth what you pay for them. I purchased my Nene figure for around $80 (including shipping) and I was very disappointed by the quality of the paint job. There is a very visible defect on the face of her helmet where the paint was applied sloppily, leaving globs of white paint on the lip instead of a smooth finish. Normally I can overlook defects like these, but being on the face of the figure, it is very noticeable while she is on display. I definitely did not expect such poor quality after paying such an exorbitant price.

Atelier-Sei charged this ridiculous amount knowing that there is a very devoted fan following to the original BGC. They know that fans devoted to a 10-year-old series are devoted enough to pay this kind of money for any figure based on it at this point.

The sad part is that if figures based on the original hardsuits were announced tomorrow, I would probably still buy them. Fandumb disease is killing my wallet. =(

toybot studios said...

hi Waychel,

wow, thanks for bringing this old post back to my attention! I totally agree with you of course. I'm actually displaying these guys on 1/12 race cycles so they look pretty cool.

like you, if someone else wanted to release these figures again, I would buy them. I think Kaiyodo should adopt them as part of their revoltech line-up...!

Anonymous said...

Seeing these released by Kaiyodo with Revoltech joints would definitely make me a happy camper. =D After seeing the VF-1S Strike Valkyrie figure it really seems to me that they can do no wrong.

Aoimizu said...

Wow.... GREAT!!! Really love it.

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