A couple of weeks ago it was Zenless Zone Zero second birthday. Time sure flys and i find hard to belive i been playing it for soo long and is kind of perplexing too it took them soo long to release this Von Lycaon figure. Von Lycaon was one of the reasons why i started playing ZZZ, i remember all the hype around him years before the game came out and how exciting it was to finally meet him in game and he is still one of my main characters to use since i am a sucker for werewolfs and his design really push the rigth buttons on me.
Now, a year ago i review another Lycaon figure but that one wasnt mine, it was a friend´s figure, but this one here is all mine and part of my collection and pretty much the second merch of ZZZ i have in my hands. Crafted by Apex Toys, a pretty classy and high end brand of figures i am not very familiar with, this company has been releasing high quallity statues of the ZZZ characters for the last two years, very expensive statues and eventually, pretty difficult to find too because how limited is theyr distribution.
Soo far they release The Cunning Hares - Anby, Nicole Demara, Billy Kid, Nekomata -, The Criminal Investigation Special Responde Team - Jane Doe -, The Stars of Lyra - Astra Yaoi, Evelyn Chevalier - and Victoria Housekeeping - Alexandrina Sebastiane, Ellen Joe, Corin and finally, Von Lycaon.
This lupin semi-human is 1/6 scale soo is quiet big and fits perfectly with Hot Toys, Sideshow, IconiQ, Tunshi and other brands of high scale figures soo the size really helps to bring all details to life in pretty good quality. Of course, he cant stand on his own since his legs have such an odd design and his tail is super heavy, but he comes with a circular transluscent and very shiny base with metal posts that fits pretty feep n his legs and keeps him standing perfectly. Also as a statue, theres absolutelly no articulation in here but theres no asembly either.
Aside of very tall and very heavy on the back side, this animal is very handsome as well and have a sculpt that perfectly capture Zenless animation style. The pose is very manly and stoic, with Lycaon standing strongly with his legs open while he.....stretch his muscle arms?? At first i didnt understand wath he is doing but it seems to be he is getting ready to figth while tightening the belts around his fist/arms. Its a little strange pose that represents better a boxer character than a fighter than use musclt his legs to fight - like Lycan - but i guess it shows his combatibe nature nicelly.
The scult is fanfastic. The snout have the rigth size (since in some figures sometimes is very short or sometimes too long) and his mouth is actually sculpted. The hair in the front have a very stylish and spectacular sculot with perfectly defined strands that curls in the end and the spiky hair in the back looks soo cool.
The shoulders are really wide while the waist is really thin and the detils like the buttons on his vest or the sticths on it are finelly sculpted, while the metalic plates on his back have a....we.., metalic texture while his best and shirt feels a little more rugged. His ass is very round and again, the metalic plates on his ass and around his hips have a shiny metalic texture while the pants are a little more rugged but not too much, soo the figure looks clean enough to looke like an anaimation.
I got the feeling the left hand that is being stretched is turning a little too much to the front....i mean, i cant turn my hand that moch in that pose but in the end, this is an anime wolfman, i guess he is much more flexible than an average human being. The tail sculpt is really spectacular, heavy like i said, but the way the tail curls around him makes the strands looks more like fire tongues.
Also, all the belts are completelly independant sculted elements puts over Lycan and this makes them stand out and generate theyr own shadow in a very natural way and not only that, they are made of soft plastic oo the belts on his hands feels like soft rubber as well as the belt net around his tail and the end sections can be moved around. If not afraid to damage the paint it could be posible to remove all the belts seen over him.
His prostetic legs have the most complex sculpt of the entire figure with with a very intrincate mechanical design on both the frint and the back side that looks designed by Yoji Shinkawa himself. Seriuslly, the high heels remidns me Raiden way too much and the mechanical inner workings seen behind the knee is really striking.
The paints is also very complex with this sections having nine different colors of black and grey that make each section stand out from the other quiet nicelly ad some sections have a gradient of black that make shadows to each piece as well as some details, like the orange lines in front and the little warning signs at the sides or the golden ring on the ball of the knee, the paint is just brillant.
And while the belts are all plain black with metalic grey buckle in the end, Lycaon suit have the same finish as his legs, with dakr grey on his pants with a darker airbrush on top to generate shadwos and a lighter grey on the vest. The gloves are plain black with the golden knukles and metalic grey bolts and theres actually a crimson red scarf in front but is completelly covered by his arms and thats a shame because this is the only colored section that accentuates his design.
Both the shirt and the fur are completelly white and looks incrediblly clean (i am guessing he is going to atract a lot of dust tough) tough the tail tips have a black airbrush while the cpiky hair on the back of his head have some black tips painted in cell shading style. The bangs on the front also have this black sections as well as the tips of his ears.
The nose is painted in shiny black and his mouth is also painted with a black line and the eye looks almost printed on the plastic with his shiny red pupil, the only element that broke the black and white color palette.
Tough theres no accesorys, his base is more complex that it looks since it comes with a secondary optional section that resembles a giant roll of film. The film windows can be seen on the sides and back while the front reads "WELCOME TO NEW ERIDU WHERE HUMANITY RISES A NEW! on top of a pale blue color while at the other side the film forms a flap with the logo of San-Z Studio. Who is San-Z Studio? Well, inside the game is a toys shop that lets you buy figures to display in your virtual room soo this figure seems to be one of theyr creations tough in real life, San-Z is actually the composer of the soundtrack of ZZZ.
The under side of the film roll have the same logo while the top side have the actuall film sculpted inside the metalic can and the circular transluscent base fits in here pefectly like a glove soo you have Lycan standing on a cristaline cover on top of the film. Looks really good and unique and fits the game perfectly since the films are the actual currency of the game to buy the characters, tough i got the feeling the flap is very delicate and also this seconday base make Lycaon even taller than he actually is.
And lastly, the figures comes with another off items that looks like some kind of acrilyc cookie that is actually.....i am not sure, an acrilyc standee? It pretty much is a pale blue acrilyc square with an second transluscent acrilic square with a corcilar identation in the middle where an acrilyc disc with Lycan artowkr fits perfectly and another pale blue acrilyc swuare with a window in front goes on top like some kind of plastic sandwich with blue bread. To keep all this in place they included transluscent bolts and washer that goes on four points. once secured this looks like....a floppy disk?
Theres arrows and little signales that make this looks like a floppy disk and the dark bottom section have the shadow of Lycan inholografic paint while the window in the center showcase Lycan artowkr with some more holographic details while his name on top shines. They also included a little chain that goes in place of one of the bolts soo it can be used as a keychain maybe but i find this thing way too heby and delicate to use it that way, tough the center disc turns around soo Lycna cab be seen in any angle and reveal some more of his artwork tough never reveals it entirelly.
This thing is elegant, clean and looks very retro futuristic and maybe more importantly; is very interesting to look at since its very difficult to describe or even know wath it is but in the end, is nothing but an acrilyc decoration, a very nice extra to find here.
As much as i like ZZZ i would only buy a handfull of characters in this collection; Banyue, Manato, Pan Yinhu, Ben Biggers, Anton, but i doubt Apex Toys release them and if they do its going to take them ages soo i am in peace at the moment with this collection, if those characters never come out i am happy owning only Lycaon, specially at this level of high quaity.
