My latest box day arrival is none other than Absolute Tartarus, from Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute Conspiracy. He was the main antagonist on that show. This figure that Tamashii Nations released of him looks absolutely fantastic and is very accurate to his screen portrayal.
Absolute Tartarus is sculpted with pointed shoulder pads, golden armor on his chest, arms, forearms and waist. He sports 2 garment pieces around his waist that are gold and silver. These are made of soft plastic, so they're very pliable and don't get in the way of the leg movement. On the back of each hand, he has a red gemstone that's surrounded by gold. On his chest there is black armor with a red seal in the middle of it. His appearance is quite menacing, giving him the look of a fierce adversary. Everything about his sculpt is highly detailed.
There is one minor QC issue I came across. On the side of his hands, above his thumb, he sports a spot of golden paint. On his left fist, there's clearly a raised section that was supposed to be painted with gold, but the paint is missing (see above photo). I double checked all the other hands, and none of them had any missing paint on that part of the hand. Oops!
The accessories he comes with include 7 pairs of hands: fists, relaxed, open palm, pointing, thumbs up/self-pointing, one pair with the middle fingers pointed in, and holding hands that are molded together for when he conjures his Absolute Destruction beam. If you raise his arms, he can also look like he's holding his fists up in victory. He also has a small clear stand to hold up a plastic, fiery painted portal known as the Narak, that he uses for inter-dimensional travel. This accessory is particularly nice, and makes a cool background for Tartarus. The only odd thing is that the golden armor with red gemstone on the top of his hands is a separate piece that pegs into each of the additional hands. I'm not sure why they didn't just mold that into each hand, but I suppose it was to save them from having to paint each one individually. This makes it an added chore when swapping out the hands, as you have to remove this piece and peg it into the one you're replacing it with. Luckily, this piece fits snuggly into each of the hands, so you don't have to worry about it accidentally falling off, though you should be extra careful not to drop it and risk it getting lost.
For articulation, he sports the usual joints that are standard for Tamashii Nations' humanoid figures, including head and neck on ball joints, ball joint upper torso, double jointed elbows and knees, etc. One thing to note is that his shoulders don't have a lot of range as far as getting the arms into a T-pose, despite his shoulder pads being on a hinge that allows them to tilt and not get in the way too much. He sports butterfly joints, but due to the thick sculpt of his chest, their range is also limited. The same goes for his thighs, with his thick golden armor impeding the forward leg motion. You have to utilize the upper thigh swivel to turn them outward to enable to legs to kick out further. He won't be able to do many wild, acrobatic postures, but for standing menacingly, he can easily achieve those poses.
In conclusion, S.H. Figuarts Absolute Tartarus looks really good, but the limited range of the joints, as well as having to individually change the top part each time you swap out the hands might be enough to deter fans of this character from purchasing this particular figure. I do appreciate that they gave him plenty of hands to help make him more expressive, and the Narak portal is a sweet addition. I'm happy that I got him, as he really stands out on my shelf due to his arresting color scheme. But with all the advances that they've made in their engineering, they could have made him move better.
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