Tag Archives: kaiyodo

Nov 1 2013

Transformers: Revoltech Megatron by Kaiyodo

Hello and welcome to Transformers Thursday on a Friday. Today we’re doing something a little different as it is neither a Hasbro product, nor is it an actual transforming robot. I have some social commitments tonight, which involves having a pastie and getting drunk at The Pub, so I was looking for something rather quick and dirty, thus I decided to pull Revoltech Megatron off the shelf. I don’t collect Revoltech figures, and I’m not terribly big on Transformers that don’t transform, but I got this guy as part of a Lot of figures and I’ll confess that I do dig him. He came to me without any packaging and missing all of his extra bits, so keep that in mind as we take a quick look at him today.

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And there he is… Lord Megatron in Revoltech form. The Revoltech line centers around Kaiyodo’s proprietary system of articulation which is supposed to offer up a degree of super articulation. I actually featured a Revoltech figure about this time last year and while I liked the design and sculpt, I was not overly impressed with the articulation or quality. The jointing looked rather ugly and they had a habit of falling apart if I looked at them funny. That and this one are still the only Revoltech figures I own, but in my travels I’ve had the opportunity to play around with some others and I still find the line to be a mixed bag. Megatron, here, is actually a lot better about staying together than other figures I’ve fiddled about with.

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From the neck down, the sculpt here is pretty good, although the ball joints do mar the character design a bit at the hips and shoulders. Megatron continues to be that one frustrating character in Transformers that is yet to get a suitable animated style update. Takara screwed the pooch with their Masterpiece version with some third-party attempts hitting closer to the mark. And while not perfect, this Revoltech figure may be the closest I’ve seen to a proper Sunbow style figure. Granted, it’s a lot easier to make him show accurate when he doesn’t have to transform.

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In addition to the exposed ball joints, I think the figure’s head is severely undersized and the face sculpt is a big departure from show accuracy. Sadly, it’s enough to make the figure look severely off. On the other hand, they really nailed everything else quite well and I’m particularly happy with his fusion cannon. The metallic silver finish on this guy looks really nice, and while he could have used some red in his lower torso, the deco works very nicely for me right down to the Decepticon insignia stamped on his chest.

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Probably the most frustrating thing about this figure is his size. At a little over 4-inches tall, he’s not much bigger than your average Star Wars or GI JOE figure. That means he won’t scale properly with any of my Deluxe Transformers. That means that unless you’re going to pick up the other Revoltech Transformers, he’s pretty much a stand-alone figure, and the Optimus Prime that goes with him is one ugly figure. That’s just my opinion, your mileage may vary. He does, however scale fairly well with Fansproject’s Causality figures. While you could argue that Megatron should be taller than the Stunticons, he still displays nicely with them at about the same height.

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Prices on this guy tend to be all over the place. I’ve seen him sell from $20 up to $50. He’s a cool little figure, if you can pick him up at the lower end of that spectrum, but I don’t think he’s worth hunting down. I seem to recall him coming with extra hands and an extra head, none of which is essential, so he’s still worth buying loose at a deep discount. He’s just one of those odd-ball figures in my collection that doesn’t fit anywhere and yet I dig him just a little too much to let him go.

Nov 16 2012

Revoltech Fraulein: Pocco (Series #004) by Kaiyodo

It’s been a little while since a friend of mine sent me a box of import figures to try to get me hooked into blowing a lot of money on them to feature some of them here. When the package first arrived, I looked at the Play Arts Kai Vanille figure, but since I’ve had a lot of stuff coming in lately, I haven’t had the time to get back to the others. Well, after getting a few scolding emails about my procrastination, I decided to dip into the box once more. Today we’re going to check out Pocco from Kaiyodo’s Fraulein Revoltech series. I’ve only owned one Revoltech figure before, and that was Megatron. I wasn’t terribly impressed with him, so let’s see if this release can win me over. Keep in mind; I’m really out of my element here, so if you’re readily familiar with these figures and you don’t want to read the writings of a drunken noob stumbling around about them, you may want to sit this one out. Ok, I’m going to take an extra belt of Jameson and I’m going in…

Pocco comes in a compact box with a cut out window to show the figure. One side panel has an image of the figure; the other explains the Revoltech jointing system. The back shows the figure in various poses and contains a whole lot of kanji that I can’t read. As near as I can tell, Pocco is based on original character artwork by Shunya Yamashita, which appeared in the book Sweet Dreams. Despite being out of my element here, I am familiar with Shunya Yamashita’s work and I’m very much a fan of what he’s done for Koto’s Bishoujo line. Granted, it’s a line that I collect only sporadically, but I do happen to have another one coming in next week.

Open the box, and the figure and accessories slide out in a clear plastic tray, with the figure stand concealed behind it all. The figure rests beside her sword, with four extra hands in little compartments below. Mine seems to be missing one hand, but she was free, so I can’t complain. All in all, I like the packaging here. It’s simple, compact, and serviceable and it’s totally collector friendly.

Aesthetically, I really love this figure. The sculpting is excellent and she’s brimming with detail. She’s got a steam punk vibe going on, what with the goggles and the mechanical wings, and her outfit is made up of scraps here and there. She’s probably got more covering her arms and legs than any other part of her body. Oh yeah… BOOBS! Pocco is very much in line with what I love about the artist’s Bishoujo statue designs and that makes this figure’s aesthetics a win in my book.

The coloring on this figure is another major coup. Obviously, she’s showing off a lot of flesh, which is clean and uses a good flesh tone. The colorful nature of the outfit contrasts beautifully with her skin, adding a lot of purple and red to the mix. The silver on her wings and arm armor is just the right level of matte, and there’s some fine paintwork on her face and on the decos for the scarf tied around her waist. The intricate and precise paint works well to bring out the various little details in the sculpt. It seems like every time I study the figure, I find another impressive little something about her outfit that I didn’t notice before.

And then there’s the articulation. I’ve played around with a couple Revoltech figures before, and I didn’t like the jointing system. Pocco here exhibits every reason why I don’t like it. Until you’ve spent time with the figure, it’s tough to gauge the range of motion of each joint. In some cases, like the shoulders, you’ve got quite a bit of movement. In other cases, like the hips, you have hardly any. Take any joint even a hair past its intended range of motion and it’ll pop right out on you. Granted, that’s better than breaking, but it’s damn annoying to have the limbs constantly coming off in your hands when you’re trying to pose the figure. And while we’re on the subject, Pocco’s left elbow will come off just by looking at her. The design of the joint looks like it can be fixed with a dab of glue, but unless it’s a surgically precise repair, it will cripple the whole joint, and I don’t want to take that chance. I realize that this is an older figure, but I can think of loads of articulation styles that give you a better range of motion with less fragility to the joints. On the plus side, Revoltech’s system does allow for a decent amount of movement without adversely affecting the sculpt.

Besides her sword and extra hands, Pocco comes with a black figure stand, with a post and a clear clip to go around the figure’s torso. It’s a cool stand, but the clip is situated just a hair too high for comfort. In truth, Pocco stands remarkably well on her own, but the figure stand comes in handy for capturing some of those really dynamic action poses.

Apart from being guilted into taking the time to write about her, Pocco was free to me, so I can’t really complain about the value. A little research tells me that she’s still readily available for around $20-25. It seems like a pretty good deal for an import figure of this quality. Most Revoltech figures seem to be more in the $40-55 range nowadays, but they’ve also overhauled a number of their joints since then, so it’s probably not fair to make comparisons. I like Pocco well enough that I’m willing to give the line another chance. My friend sent me some recommendations, and maybe the next time I’m a little slow on acquisitions, I’ll heed her advice and order another.

Aug 6 2010

Trigun: Vash the Stampede by Kaiyodo

I’ve never been a huge follower of anime, but there have been a few series that I enjoyed enough to own, and one of these is Trigun. If you haven’t seen them yet, there are some new Revoltech figures coming out now based on the Trigun series, and while I haven’t picked any up yet, and possibly never will, its as good excuse as any to take a look at the one Trigun figure I already own.


I don’t remember exactly when and where I picked up this figure. It could have been Ebay, it could have been at a local comic shop. I just know it was back when the series was still coming out on DVD and I was still into it enough to want to buy a Vash figure. Honestly, the series started to wear thin for me toward the end when it gave up its fun and flippant nature for the usual tiresome anime melodrama. Either way, I don’t have an in-package shot of this guy, but I do remember that Vash came in a standard blister card, and the figure was titled, “The Planet Gunsmoke.” I also remember that I would have so bought the Insurance Ladies if they had been offered as figures as well, but sadly they were not.

Out of the package, Vash looks really nice. There’s decent detail in his long coat, which has a nice high gloss red finish. His head and hair are spot on, although an alternate head with those ridiculous hippie glasses would have been cool. Vash also drums up that age old debate: Figure or statue? There are points for each column, so I’m not going to get into it. I will say he has pretty good articulation in the arms, which includes universal joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivel cuts at the elbow and wrists. He also has a ball jointed head, and a swivel in his chest. From the waist down, bupkis!

As for accessories, Vash comes with a really nice display stand that includes a signpost complete with a sculpted wanted poster offering the infamous 60 billion double-dollar reward, a handcuff with a real chain connecting his left arm to the signpost, and his famous gun. He also came with the little black cat and a soup can, both of which I have rattling around in the bottom of a box somewhere. The display base itself is made to look like a wooden floor and its littered with empty shell casings.

I have no idea how much I paid for this thing back in the day, but he’s still easy enough to find brand new in the package for around $20 and sometimes even less. Granted, if you are a fan of Trigun and are looking for a Vash figure, you may want to investigate the new Revoltech figure first, as it is a true action figure with a ridulous amount of articulation. On the other hand, if you’re just looking for a cool looking Vash to stand up in the corner of your desk, you really can’t go wrong with this one.