S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Tregear

Yesterday I received the rest of my June pre-orders, via FedEx & DSL. It was a total of 5 figures. This is Figuarts' Ultraman Tregear.

Tregear was the main villain in the Ultraman Taiga series. Tamashii Nations brought him to life in a very nicely detailed and painted figure. I love the blue and black color combo, with gold highlight here and there. I also like his sinister face with red eyes and the top of his head a lighter shade of blue. He comes with 5 pairs of hands (fists, pointing, relaxed, open flat and neutral flat), an additional pair that have his energy attack effects, and an Ultra ray for the standard Ultraman Taiga figure. Both his effects and the Ultra ray are a nice translucent with colored highlights. And each set of hands have gold pointed claws.

His articulation is kind of hit and miss. While he sports all the ball joints and hinges that are standards in Ultra figures, certain body parts have limited range. His shoulders are the most limited. While he can turn his arm all the way around, they can't be moved too far out to the side due to the sculpt and shoulder pads that hinder it. You can't get him in a perfect T pose. There are slight butterfly joints on the shoulders that help it with forward movement, and they do drop down, but the range is still not a lot. His upper torso cannot crunch forward much, but can move further out to the sides and back. His legs, however, have a lot of range, with great upper thigh swivel, double jointed knees and hinged, rocking ankles. He's also hard to balance on one leg. I tried for several minutes but couldn't get him to stay in place without falling. You can still get him in all villainous poses from the series, just no intricate arm gymnastics.

I like that they included the beam effect for Ultraman Taiga since that figure didn't come with one. It's nicely shaded with hues of blue and yellow. And Tregear's effects are also really cool, alternating between light and dark shades. His shoulder pads are very pointy and sharp, so be careful when handling it.

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Tregear is worth getting for the wonderfully detailed and painted sculpt and the effect pieces. Otherwise, you may just want to stick with the Ultra Action version, which has less paint but is still pretty nice. The choice is yours.

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