My late June pre-order figures have arrived and one of them is Sevenger from Ultraman Z. This is the 3rd articulated version of this robot that I now own, and there are good things about him, and not so good things about him.
He comes with a lot of cool accessories. 4 pairs of hands (fists and 3 different open palms), 3 pairs of eyes (regular that can be turned to mean, crossed and closed), a small plastic tool to pop the eyes out from the back to switch them, an extra low (red) battery pack, a drill hand attachment, and 2 shooting fist attachments, one for his arm, the other that has a hole underneath and can be placed on a stand, and the small plastic stand. Tamashii Nations went all out with his accessories, making him very fun in that department. His paint and details are also very nice. Mostly silver, grey and black, with black wash throughout to bring out the details of the sculpt. On his arms and legs, he has individual pieces to mimic his angle adjustable segments. Sculpt-wise, he looks great.
His articulation, though, is where the issues begin. His head is able to look up, but the side to side range is very limited. He cannot turn his head in a complete circle. His upper torso and waist are on ball joints and have a decent range, able to spin and crunch a lot. His shoulders are on butterfly type ball joints that can move forward a decent amount. His elbows are able to bend in a little less than 90 degrees. His thighs are on drop down ball joints, but their range is a bit odd, only able to kick forward and out to a certain degree. He has more ball joints on his upper legs and knees than can help with moving his legs out a little more, but his knees, like his elbows, are under 90 degree range. And his ankles are on joints and can tilt to the sides and up and down. The big issue is that his torso is heavier than his legs, so it tends to be a challenge standing him up at times, as his body weight needs to be adjusted so he doesn't fall over easily. He can bend on one knee but that takes a bit of work to make sure his torso is centered just right so he doesn't tip to the sides. And when changing the arm pieces for the shooting arm, you have to be careful that his individual segments don't fall out, as the forearm on the ball joint is what holds them in place. They probably should have done his legs differently or made them heavier (such as die cast), so that they could better hold his upper body weight. His articulation is a hell of a lot better than the Bandai Premium version, which basically sucks, but not as good as the Minipla model kit, which can do all sorts of expressive poses with little effort. I'm still able to get him into decent enough poses, but it's not as easy or flawless as the fantastic Minipla.
The figure is in scale with my other 1:12 Ultra figures. He's shorter than the Bandai Premium, a little taller than the Minipla. For those who missed out on the model kit, he's the next best figure as far as articulated versions of him go. You'll just have to be a little more patient and creative when posing him, and I can honestly see others having big issues with his wonky legs and switching out his arm parts. This guy is great for photos, but I can't see him being too fun for doing stop motion. That will definitely be a challenge if you so choose to attempt it.
S.H. Figuarts Sevenger is an ok figure. The sculpt, paint and accessories are really great, but the questionable direction Tamashii went in sculpting his arms and legs brings his rating down to just slightly above average. For him being such a popular, loved character, and being a web exclusive, they should've made more solid choices in the articulation department. This was one of the figures whose release I was really psyched about, but after Minipla gave us such a fantastic, fun figure, it makes the issues with this Figuarts' version much more glaring. A missed opportunity, indeed!
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