For years i been filling the Good Smile Company survey asking them for one of my favorite Berserk characters in Figma shape: Zodd. And for years they have been ignoring me and they even clsoe theyr Berserk line long time ago but somehow, Bandai listened to me and finally added Zodd to theyr S.H. Figuarts line, a line that i have been ignoring for years. For years S.H.Figuarts has been avoiding all the series i like and been focused on Dragon Ball, Naruto, Avengers and overall mainstream shounen and comics until last year when they took the Berserk licence.
More Guts and Grffith variations in the same scale as the Figma´s and the little kids Schierke and Isidro, this last two tempt me since they are new characters but not my favorite and then then release Nosferatu Zodd on his human form!! I dont know waths the deal with this, it seems this figure is exclusive of the Premium Tamashi site, but this guy was way too expensive, almost twice as the rest of the S.H.Figuarts but i just bit the bullet and got him.
It is true his box is much bigger than the rest of the figures but he is not that huge at all since its perfecly in scale 1/12 soo he is a whole head taller than Guts and much more bulky but he fits perfectly with the Figma figures as well but unlike those, Zodd dont have a base but he dosnt need it since his balance is perfect and can stand on hiw own.
He is articulated on the head, neck, absi, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, thights, knes, ankles and half feet. Both the ehad and neck are ball jointed soo they have a HUGE range of movement to the sides and up and down and hair dosnt get in the way but the abs articulation barelly moves up and down soo it can be moved only to the sides, despite the belts and torso pieces being a totally independent sculpt, they are made with hard plastic.
The shoulders have two ball joints!! I never seen soo many before. Once conects with the torso and another ones conects with the biceps, with the shoulders covering them like some kind of cups.....but they leave a HUGE gap in top that makes the ball joints visible but not only that, the shoulder cups thingys are made with soft plastic, soo while they kinda move up and down around the ball joint, they dont let him move his shulders up too much. Very dissapointing.
Biceps rotate and elbows have double articulation, tough the inside of the elbows is sculpted following the arm shape and color and texture, soo this elbows not only bend pretty good but they are really well hiden. Totally different to those hideous whoulders. Wrists ball joints are big and move perfectly tough the ball dosnt fit too deep inside the hands and they tend to fall constantly but i guess thats much better than not be able to remove the hands at all.
The furry loincloth is made with soft plastic soo the legs have a lot of movement freedom as well as the thighs can rortate pretty good but the cut in here is extremelly evident and sometimes it leaves a gap betwen the muscles and the innder leg structure. Despite that this is much more eye pleasing than the shoulders.
Knes have double joints and the inside part is aslo sculpted followinf the same textre and color of the body, soo they articulations is etremelly well hidden. The feet ball joints works perfect and helps him balance himself perfectly and the half feet articulation is simple but works pretty good. Overall this Zodd have a big range of movement except on the torso and the shulders.
Pretty much every single thing Bandai has done is anime based soo there was some worry about the sculpt of a character like this but they did a greay job with Zodd in-human face features, from his thick nose to his small eyes with bumps instead of eyebrows, his wide jaw and pointy ear. The spiky hair looks and feels really good and even the scar on his forehead is sculpted.
The musculature build is perfect for him with some veins on his legs and arms to give him a natural look tough theres not much of a texture on his skin tough or the texture is extremelly low. His chest is really huge and have no nipples, just like Miura draws him and the hairy bits on his boots as well as his loincloth looks pretty good, tough i have my doubts if the loinclothe was this small...its barelly covering him.
The straps around his chest asnd belts looks nice but they have no texture at all but the best part is the demon head at the center, with the pointy horns. This peice is painted in silver paint as well as the metalic bits of spikes on his belts and straps and the red metalic eyes on the demon head stand out soo nicelly!!!
And while the troso underpiece is painted in metalic grey, the hairy sections as well as the belts have no paint at all soo they are cast just in dark and ligth brown. This makes them looks kinda cheap....i mean, giving a nice was of dakr colors could make the belts looks more like leather and the hairy loincloth and boots looks jost too clean. Actually his boots are just plain brown and looks unfinished.
Gladlly, the body paint is much better and detailed since his skin tone not only is correct, but it have a very soft wash that gives the muscles pretty natural shadows that makes them stand out, also areas like the knukles have a little bit of redish too that meks them looks very realistic. The hair is plain black tough the hair line is perfectly painted as well as the tusks coming out from his mouth and red vibrant eyes that have some black painted around them to make them stands out even more. The scar on his forehead is painted in ligth brown.
Aside of closed fists he comes with hands to hold his weapons and open hands shaped like claws. While the sculpt and paint is consistent on all of them and all of them are a little bit tricky to swap, the hands that hold items looks pretty toyish since they are the closed fists but with a big hole carved in the center.
Zodd also have two extra face plates: one with an angry look and another one screaming and while his standar neutral face plate looks angry enough, the second face expression have a very nice sculpt around the nosee and mouth to give him a more scary look, with many more teeth in sight but my favorite is the sreaming face expression. The open mouth with pink gum and tongue and all those white fangs is just way too beautifully savage!! All face plates can be swaped pretty easy.
He also comes with two different sheaths for his machete/hatchet/monster sword thingy. One sheath have the weapon inside and anotehr is empty, of course for the moment when the figure actually have the weapon in hand. This could have been solved giving him an actual sheath for the weapon but i guess this is effective as well. Both have a very good leatherish texture but they have no paint at all and looks incrediblly clean. Both can be attached pretty easy to a side belt than hangs close to his leg and both are pretty anoying while posing him.
This apostle also comes with his only two weapons: and actual axe and a giant machete/hatchet/monster sword thingy....i am not sure wath the name of thsi weapon because is huge, pretty brutal and oddly shaped with spikes on one side and a hook at the other but the blade is soo incredible wide. I dont remeber if the manga mention its name tough but i have to check that out later.
The little ball at the end of the handle can be removed soo the weapon fits on Zodd hands while the head of the axe con be completelly removed for the stick to fit on the hand pretty easy. While the sculpt is very good on both of them (the odd looking blade have a lot of scratches, identations and marks of being used) the pain is just EXTREMELLY simple...the handle have yellowish bandgaes while the blade have only silver paint and nothing more. The axe is the same, silver paint with brown on the hanle and looks way too cheap, almost like a Kenner or Hasbro weapon accesory. Even if this is based on an anime, a little rust or dirt or even dry blood would helped to make this weapons much more credible.
Then its his worst concibable accesory: an extra set of crossed arms. Remove the normal articulated arms and put the crossed arms in place, inserting the two ball joint pegs into the holes on the arms and you are done. The sculpt of the arms is really good as well as the paint and the end result is very good looking (tough llimiting deffinetly) but while this works in theory, in practice it dosnt. The removal of the arms is not as easy as it sounds and insert the two pegs in the crossed arms is just imposible since the ball joints keep moving around soo in the end the arms are just inserted in only one peg. Put back the articulated arms without breaking the shoulder cups is HELLISH!!! Very very difficult and tricky and in the end, the ball joints gote more lose after changing the arms once. Not only this proces is time consuming, but i feelt the price to do it and the resk are way too high just to have Zodd with his arms crossed.
And to compensate, his very best accesory ever: his furry cape!! This little cape is the skin of a wolf soo its made with real hair and have tiny paws hanging in front!! This little paws are soo damn cute!! The brown hair is short and very soft and the cape is wired soo you cna pose the little arms around as well as the cape part in the back. In order to use it the head of Zodd mist be removed but the proces is pretty easy, tough the fluffy hair cover his entire neck and sometimes his face as well, a price worth paying for such a cute accesory.
Lastly, i am not sure if this is an accesory or not, but the back of the blister have a kinf os carboard poster with Miura´s artowkr on it mixed with manga panels. It feels like some kind of background, like the Storm figures, but it deffinetly is not since it canot stand. I feel its more like something that cna be framed in hang the wall.
I am not sure if my love for Zodd makes me too forgiving of the flaws of this figure or if it makes me too picky and see mistakes that are not very important. I find some of the paint lacking and looking too cartoony but truth be told, the Figma figures dosnt have oto much textur eor paint details aside of the God Hand.
The engineering of the arms is terrible!!! but soo is the heavy and huge cape of Berserk armor Guts that hold onto a small peg, the stiff wings of Femto or the transformation of Void from a statue to an action figure. It seems Berserk figures always have some kind of design issue thath makes them not very fun to play with. But still.....i cant forget those ugly looking and not working shoulders.
This guy dosnt feel as premium as Figma somehow but in the end, he pretty much fits into ther quality style and scale perfectly and i guess thats the most important part for me. He should be more than perfect with the price i pay for him tough.....but i would never regret getting the only existing action figure of Zodd to pair him with his apostle version. I dont know if i will get Schierke or Isidro tough but i will deffinetly get any other apostle from Bandai.
