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S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Taro


Every time I see Ultraman Taro, I hear the opening line of his theme song play in my head. "Taro! Ultraman number 6!" It's a very catchy theme song, for a very goofy show. Taro took the outrageous kaiju designs and some of the comedic storylines from Ace and kicked them up a notch, resulting in a very colorful series.





Ultraman Taro is the son of Ultra Father and Mother of Ultra, and with the more recent series, the father of Ultraman Taiga. Tamashii Nations finally released him. Now we just need Ace to complete the original Ultra Brothers line up. They did a good job with Taro, giving us a figure with a nice sculpt, articulation and a good amount of accessories. In some ways this figure is an improvement over the Ultra Act release.




Taro comes with 4 pairs of hands, including fist, flat, grasping and one open hand and one holding. He comes with alternate color timer, another fist shooting his storium beam, bracelet lancer spear weapon, and three interchangeable right wrist parts, one plain, one with Ultra bracelet and the third with the King bracelet. 




His wrist pieces are similar to Ultraman Jack's, in that they fit snuggly over an elongated section, making it easy to swap out and stay in. This is one way Figuarts improves over the Ultra Act version, which has the wrist pieces plug into a peg that tends to pop off easily when moving the arms. His chest armor plugs into one hole in his chest and two on his back. You can swap out the color timer by taking off the chest armor and pushing it through. The timer also fits very firm in the hole, so it stays in safely. The Ultra Act version had 2 separate chest pieces, one that was bent on the right side to make it easier to move his arm forward for his beam attack. Both of the chest pieces on that release were kind of a pain to swap out. This one clips in nicely and stays secure, and the butterfly joints on his shoulders bend forward far enough that his chest armor won't impede the articulation. 





He has all the standard Ultraman articulation points, including great butterfly jointed shoulders, and double jointed knees and elbows, to get him in many action poses. Nothing is too tight or loose. All the hands are easy to swap out, though his storium ray fist takes a little extra work to align in properly with the peg so the plastic of the beam doesn't get in the way of his wrist. 





S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Taro is a the final Ultra release of 2019, and they end the year on a high note with this figure. Tamashii Nations have announced several upcoming sculpts, including the kaiju Tyrant from this series, so that will be nice to give Taro a companion monster from his show. I would love to see Figuarts versions of Birdon, Valkie Seijin, Samekujira, Mukadendar, Enmargo, and I know this is wishful thinking, but an articulated Cosmo Liquid would be awesome. Highly unlikely, but a fan can dream, right? 





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