Happy Monday.. Happy Monday.
Well folks, I've achieved another milestone.. I've managed to "complete" another line as it were. Took like three weeks of planning, but I finally found one of these at a good price - presenting the S.H. Figuarts Wonder Woman figure, purchased off a Kijiji seller in Oshawa for $40.
If you've been following my page, you'll recall that my vendetta against Mezco started with none other than Wonder Woman herself, who was well painted and sculpted (except for the face) but a woefully bad body for something considered high end. Since that time, I've slowly been gathering the only other "high end" 1/12-ish releases - first there was the Mafex Justice League Wonder Woman, and now there's this one.
So before I get into the inevitable comparison, I figure it would be prudent to given the Figuarts release it's own write up first.
According to the blurb on pretty much every sales page I've read, this IS the Tamashii Nations Wonder Woman entry into the Justice League property, so this is as current as you get (as of this article), with no future releases noted. Diana comes with an average number of accessories. There's the figure, two total expressions (neutral, angry, coiled Lasso of Truth, uncoiled Lasso of Truth, shield, sword, three total pairs of hands (closed fist, gripping, open palm). Colours and textures on the main costume parts seem to reflect the movie character closely, as do the overall proportions of the figure itself though sadly, not quite the bust line (which to be fair, is almost never quiet a match unless you go high end scale statues). I wish that Tamashii Nations had given the figure a bit more muscle definition in the arms, but it was nice to see they at least gave her some relatively meaty thighs.
The elephant in the room is of course the sculpt. Lets be completely honest here.. it looks nothing like Gal Gadot. At all. She's about as accurate as their Captain Marvel figure. The sculpt reminds me more of Emily Browning or Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Change my mind.
Articulation is what should have sold me on this figure (because again, the face isn't going to do it) but alas, it didn't quite do that. Like with most Figuarts, the base body is packing some impressive articulation. There's toe, ankle, hip, waist, mid torso, shoulders with some bicep swivel, chest collapse, single jointed elbows, wrists, neck, and head. Sounds pretty impressive, right? Well, unlike other figures, the hips don't have the drop down option to improve the range of motion. It's not bad per se, just that without the floating waist piece the dress and crotch areas do limit what the figure can actually do. The upper body however is where I cry. Cuts on the elbow area allow for a very impressive arm curl range, which is complemented by the shoulder and chest joints... sort of. If it wasn't apparent, the guy who designed the head itself was an idiot. As the hair on the figure is not flexible, effectively the part that drapes over the right shoulder impedes the range of motion in this area meaning, making all these fancy joints pointless. Furthermore, the hair is designed in a way to reduce visible gaps, but due to its restrictive design, the actual face has a highly restricted range of motion as well.
Tamashii Nations basically took something that worked perfectly well, and introduced factors to it that limited it. Good job, guys.
With regard to paint, Wonder Woman is exceptionally well done (except for the face) and rivals the exceptional paint work on the Mezco version (again, not including the face). Paint applications are precise and sharp, with no obvious masking issues. All paint applications were found to be smooth and even. The aforementioned applies to the figure itself, as well as the various accessories utilized by the figure. Flesh tones appear to be more the natural colour of the plastic rather than paint. Furthermore, even as per the instructions there are known areas of paint rubbing, and on my figure I could see some of those already.
Build quality is as expected. The body is complemented by a soft rubber skirt, a combination that is across all of the high end Wonder Woman figures, including even the Hot Toys verion. All parts seem to fit together well with no QC issues, there are no issues with rigidity, and the joints hold the poses firmly. Limb lengths do not vary between the various pieces. There are some issues with regards to the quality of the finish on the plastic itself, though these require close inspection. The uncoiled Lasso of Truth.. well.. I'm not entirely certain but I think there are sections that are slighly slimmer to allow for flexing. I'm not entirely sure because I have a tendency to break things, and even if it was meant to flex I still personally wouldn't screw around with the accessories.
So in conclusion, it isn't the face that disappoints me the most, it's the neutered articulation that is the result of a poorly implemented head, all in the name of hiding gaps. Otherwise, she's not bad - nicely painted with a more screen accurate colour scheme, capable of handling most general action poses. As always, buyer beware - if you care about what I care about, then you've been given a heads up.
On to the comparison!