S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Arc

With the release of Tsuburaya's new Ultra series that premiered some weeks ago, we now have a figure of the its from Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line. Upon seeing the promos for the series, I initially thought it would be rather silly and I wasn't expecting much. To my surprise, I'm really enjoying this show. I find it well written, the characters are likable, and Arc has a lot of personality. I haven't enjoyed a new Ultra series this much since Z. So I went ahead and purchased the figure of Arc. It was pretty cheap, and was delivered from AmiAmi earlier this last week.

I opted for the plain figure. They also have two other versions of him wearing his armor up for pre-order. The orange Solis Armor version, which is due in October, and the blue Luna Armor, which is due in November. Anyway, Arc resembles Ultraman Orb, especially the shape of his head. He's primarily red and silver, with black on his shoulders, upper chest and neck. He sports a blue crystal in the middle of his forehead. Per usual, Bandai did a good job of accurately capturing his look in figure form.

For accessories, I was pleased to see that he wasn't a bare bones release, as has been the case with some of the initial first releases of new Ultraman figures in the past, such as Z, Trigger and Decker. He comes with a total of 6 pairs of hands, including fists, flat, open fingers, relaxed, and holding. They didn't include his signature beam, but he did get his Arc Eye Sword, which fits nicely in those holding hands. It has a solid black base, with translucent yellow "eyes", and ending in a blade with blue and red highlights. And finally, a low energy color timer, which is a translucent orange, a nice change from the usual red/pink ones that the other Ultras have when they're running out of juice.

Despite not having his beam attack (I'm sure it will be included as an extra in a future release), if you own any other Ultra figures, which I do, then some of those can easily be used for Arc. The beams for Orb, Z and Trigger fit perfectly into his wrist peg.

The articulation is the usual high standard that we've come to expect from S.H. Figuarts' modern Ultra warriors, including butterfly shoulder joints, double jointed elbows and knees, drop down thighs and various ball joints throughout the body. The neck sports a double ball joint that can pulled out quite far, allowing the head to have a very good range. This comes in handy for looking up, flying poses, and head tilts, helping to give Arc a little more personality when posing him.

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Arc turned out to be another quality release from the new show. With a good amount of interchangeable hands and a blade weapon, he's worth getting if you're a fan of this new Generation Ultra, especially for the low price he's going for. In addition to his other variations that are yet to come, I'm hoping they eventually make an articulated figure of the goofy robot YouPi. I’ll happily wait to see what surprises Bandai has in store for figures from this series.