Musings of an Inkd Geek

 I've started noticing some upcoming S.H. Figuarts Avengers figures are showing up on Instagram. It looks like we'll be getting some more of the characters to help finish making up the team. I was hoping that they would do a Captain Marvel, but now that I'm seeing photos, my excitement has lessened. This figure does NOT look like Brie Larson to me. In classic SHF style, sometimes they get the face sculpt right, other times it's just off. This one looks very off to me:  Looking at the comparison photo with her actual face and the figure, yes, it's definitely off. The eyebrows need to be brought in more, colored darker, the lips seem to have this odd gap in the front, and it could benefit from some shading. That sucks because otherwise, the body looks great!  Ok, next one. Nebula. This one looks GREAT IMO. The face sculpt absolutely looks like Karen Gillan to me. This may be one I'd consider getting. I always liked Nebula, she was a fun an...

 Today I received Evolution Toy Jumborg 9, from the Tsubaraya show Jumborg Ace. 9 was the robot controlled via a transforming car (Ace was through a plane).  This figure comes with 3 pairs of hands (fist, flat and open/grasping), 2 alternate chest pieces, and an extra belt. The extra chest pieces have a higher cut in the middle to allow for more movement of the arms, especially forward. They attach to a small peg on the chest, and smaller one on the back. Once they're in, the can swing up and down a bit as well.  One thing I noticed is that there's a gap between his middle and lower waist due to the articulation. It allows for ab forward and backward crunch, but it is a bit loose. I recall reviews of their Zone Fighter figure that had that as well, but that was so loose the top half seemed to pop off easily.  Other than that, the rest of the joints are decent, though their Fireman is a bit more solid. I do notice that the arm and thigh joint...

 Today I received Ultraman X in the mail. I was surprised because I opted for free shipping so I was expecting it to arrive by Thursday, but it came today, so that was a nice surprise. It's a nice figure with good articulation and paint. The butterfly joints on the shoulders and the thigh swivel give you a little extra when posing, so that's nice.  As for the Gomora armor, it's a nice accessory and quite easy to snap in place. You have to remove the shoulder parts, chest plate and a small part on his back, so be sure not to lose those small pieces. One thing to note is that when you peg the arms into the "claw" armor, be careful when popping it in and removing it as the design of the claw doesn't give you a lot of room to get a good grip on the arm, and if you pulled it off too hard, I'd be wary of the wrist peg snapping. The other minor issue I have is that he only comes with 3 pairs of hands, 1 fist and 2 pair...

My latest purchase was the Bandai Ultimate Structure Set V2. These are originally sold in Japan in those dispenser machines. Each piece comes in a round blue container. I was able to get this as a set so I got all the ones from this series.  The first thing to note is that they're small, more in scale with HG series or Bandai Shodo series figures. However, with creative camera angles, they still go along nicely with my S.H. Figuarts, Monsters and standard Bandai figures.  The sets in this are: 1 damaged building with a small truck, another damaged building with a construction excavator, a small white and blue building, a red and white striped smokestack, a regular building and a white fuel tank. The 2 damaged buildings come in 2 separate pieces that can be pegged together. You can also take apart the buildings to add some small lights to them if you wish. As you can see, they make pretty good backdrops and/or diorama scenes with your kaiju figur...

Today's box day brought me the Dasin Genos figure from the One Punch Man anime and manga. He is Saitama's cyborg disciple and sidekick. I purchased the Saitama figure sone time ago and really liked it, so when I saw they had released Genos I picked him up as well. Both of them I got from China via ebay sellers. Like Saitama, Genos is also affordable  (about $35 to $40). Genos comes with four different face plates (serious, yelling, angry and battle damaged), 3 pairs of hands (closed fists, open and one holding a pen while the other holds a book), pink apron and stand. The head comes in 3 parts. You peg in the face plate to the back of the hair, then peg in the front part of the hair over it and pop the head back in on a joint. On mine the battle damaged face plate was a bit tighter than the others so when I pulled it off the peg came out of the neck, but it can easily pop back in. The articulation is very nice, just like the Saitama. The h...

  My latest purchase was S.H. Figuarts Infinity War Black Widow. I found it at Japantown Collectibles in San Francisco. It was the bigger set which also features 3 explosion effects parts.   The figure is nice and one of the better Avengers Figuarts. The sculpt and paint applications are nice, and the face great, it does look like Scarlett Johansson. There’s been some figures that they’ve done where the face looked good, while others didn’t (their Justice League Wonder Woman looks odd to me). Other than the extra explosion effects parts, this one comes with 4 different pairs of hands, 3 swappable faces, and a few of her baton weapons (one long one that comes in 3 pieces to hold in both hands, 2 smaller ones for each of the hands, and 2 very small ones that can be placed in pegs behind her back).   The articulation is quite good on this one. The head can look slightly up, slightly down, around, as well as good articulation on the shoulders, elbows,...