3rd Party Figure and Accessory

From the same seller who produced the Baraba figure that I enjoyed so much, I went ahead and purchased this new custom of the Ultraman Ace kaiju Vakishim that he did. This order has turned to be a bit of a fiasco.

The figure comes in a mock S.H. Figuarts box he printed himself. It includes photos of the figure, as well as a pic of the star kaiju. I paid for the figure at the end of March, and he sent it out on April 1st, from Glasgow, UK. After over 2 weeks of checking the tracking number, and it continuing to come up as LABEL CREATED, NOT YET IN SYSTEM, I contacted him to see when he had mailed it, as the last figure I bought from him came within a week. After confirming that he sent it out on 4/1, he contacted his local postal office to inquire about the parcel's status, and they gave him a useless answer that rivals the rubbish responses that our local USPS gives when asking about missing packages. Others whom he had shipped the figure to also reported similar issues of very slow delivery and non-working tracking numbers. I was beginning to think that it had gotten lost in the mail and I’d probably never see it. Especially after the tracking number suddenly came up as NOT TRACKABLE. To my surprise, it showed up on Monday. I was psyched to finally get this figure after waiting so long.

I initially noticed that his head horn wasn’t in the box. I looked all over, but couldn’t find it. Eventually I did find it, buried in a pocket amid the styrofoam. So that was a relief.

Anyway, I put on the head, neck and tail, and started to mess around with it. The jaw hinge was so loose that the mouth couldn’t stay closed, and the right arm was super loose and flimsy, barely able to hold any pose without dropping down to the side. The left arm was loose as well, but not as bad. I applied some Kiki solution to these parts, and it helped with the jaw, but not with that right arm, which is still as weak as cooked pasta. When that arm popped off and I looked at the joint, I saw why it was so loose. The joint system, if you can call it that, does not have a decent grip on the peg. A more traditional ball joint would have worked better.

And then, as I moved some of the other joints, I noticed the claw end of that right hand came off easily, requiring more Kiki solution. A plastic tube that’s in the leg seemed to come out as well, but I was able to push it back into place. And then I noticed how easily the paint chipped, around the shoulders and thighs when moving them. There was also some paint chipping on the spikes of one of the claws.

The sculpt is nice, but the easily peeling paint is a bummer. The articulation is also limited. His head can move up and down and side to side, the jaw opens and closes, the shoulders move out and around (but have trouble holding any poses besides down), the claws curve in at 2 places, the thighs move a bit, there’s slight knee bend, and some ankle movement. Because his tail end is so heavy, he has trouble standing on just his legs. The kaiju himself wasn't very expressive, so the limited articulated isn’t that big a deal, but it would just be nice if the joints weren’t as flimsy as spaghetti. See below....

I'm not sure if I'll buy any future custom Ultra kaiju from this dude. I love the Baraba figure he made, but this Vakishim , after waiting so long for it, is a bit of a letdown. It does look nice, though.

The other delivery I got was a 3rd party torso for the S. H. Figuarts Ultraman Tiga figure, that comes with 2 batteries that give him light up eyes and color timer. I purchased it from SHF Upgrade, and it was delivered from Hong Kong within 1 week.

The first thing that’s noticeable is the shade of silver on his face is darker than usual. Also, the lines on his chest are black instead of gold. Perhaps this was done so that the light up effect would stand out more?

You insert a small battery (included) into the head panel, and another one into the torso. Using a magnetic stick, you touch the forehead and chest to activate the lights. The chest has several settings, to mimic when his color timer is full, and when he’s running out of energy. Check out the video demonstration.

This accessory is fun for taking night-time photographs, or simply giving your Tiga figure some fun light features. I especially like the color timer light variations.