S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Ace

Tamashii Nations have finally released the last of the original 6 Ultra brothers in their Figuarts line, 1972's Ultraman Ace. He looks good and comes with a decent amount of accessories.

He comes with a red color timer, a hand shooting his Metallium Beam, 2 hands to fire his Ultra Guillotine, and 6 pairs of hands (fists, karate chop, peace sign, and 3 various sets of relaxed hands). His Metallium Beam is translucent with light blue and pink hues, and the Ultra Guillotine is a milky white with blue highlights on the inside. The jagged edges are quite sharp, so be careful when handling it. These are good accessories that are reflective of Ace, though he has a lot of beams and powers to choose from.

The articulation is about the same as his original 5 brothers, with head and neck on a ball joint, swivel and slight butterfly jointed shoulders, double jointed knees and elbows, hands on pegs, ball jointed waist & torso, thighs that move forward, out to the sides a bit, upper leg swivel, and hinged ankles that pivot a bit, with toe hinge. Ace can balance well on one foot and can be placed in all the action poses. The older Ultras are not as flexible as newer Generation figures such as X or Ginga, but their engineering is good enough.

Ace is in scale with the other 1:12 figures in the line, though I have noticed that Taro is slightly taller than his brothers. I really like how Ace turned out, considering he's one of my favorite of the original Ultra brothers. I also love his series, which featured truly bizarre looking kaiju, some of Tsuburaya's more outlandish designs. Taro would go on to add more wacky monsters to the Ultra canyon, but it was with Ace where they really began to look as if they were dreamt up under the influence of acid.

I'm excited to see which of Ace's kaiju will be released under the Figuarts line. Alien Hipporito has already been shown at a show last year, though no actual release has been scheduled. But as for Ace, he looks great, has a good amount of accessories, and is not a pricier Web exclusive, so he's worth getting. All the other brothers were recently re-released as well, so now is your chance to get all 6 Ultra brothers. Being a big fan of the Showa Era Ultra shows, I'm happy to add Ace to my collection and complete the original line up.

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Ace is another fun release from Tamashii Nations. I'm having a lot of fun posing him with his brothers Ultraman, Zoffy, Ultraseven, Jack & Taro. Shuwatch!!!!

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