GUTS BERSERK ARMOR

 Not too long ago i formed an small Nendroid collection until Good Smile Company started to up the price at crazy jumps and turning them into one of the most overpriced toys in the market, just like Figmas and the way Square Enix did with Play Arts Kai as well. Medicom Toys too soo this is a trend of the japanese market it seems.....but anyway, years ago when Nendroids were sold in a fair price they were pretty cute and fun collectibles, imposible to take serious but with a strong japanese charm.

Sadly, as much as i could resist i could no longer do it and here i am, with Nendroids on my hands thanks to hard to resist characters, like Arthur and Von Lycaon but one of them being Guts from Berserk too. A couple of years ago i got the Guts Nendroid and while i was able to ignore Griffith, i could no longer ignore Guts on his Berserk armor, the newest addition to the collection.

This guy is on the same scale as the rest of the Nendroids tough somehow he is a liiiiiitle bit smaller to normal Guts without the spiky hair and this is one of those Nendroids that can stand on theyr own thanks to his black cape that works like a tripod.

As part of the new style Nendroids, this guy is not fully articulated but most of the possing comes from swaping different static body parts soo, to start he have the traditional ball joint on his neck that lets him move his huge head up and down and to the sides tough this time around the head movement is limited thanks to the helmeth and cape in the back but, just like Arthut, Guts is articulated on the jaw soo he can open up his mouth a whole lot but this also makes it get in the way of the cape.

The cape have a small ball joint that i hope is resistant enough and have a huge range of movement while the shoulders have a basic cut joints that lets the arms rise but not open them up, while the biceps rotate and the wrists too and lastly, the legs have ball joints that lets them move around up and down and open up.  Theres no more movement on his legs and his elbows dont bend at all.

Sculpt here is terrific, with his body shape being bulky and each section of the armor being carefully sculpted, inlcuding the bolts that hold some segments, and the cape looking all shapeless and ragged in a very sinister way. This cape is not articulated like the normal Guts one but is sure is bigger and the texture on it much more elaborate to make it looks almost like smoke or fur.

Head is good, with the geometrical shapes looking good and the long pointy snouth and long ears tough of course theres no face expression or details here, only the wolf helmeth. The jaw opens up and reveales a big amounth of nothing inside, just a wall of darknes with the same etxture as the cape. This really gives the little guy a very inhuman feel since theres no one inside....tough once fully open the black mass inside is shaped like a head.....

The paint here is black....i mean, plain black. The inside of the helmeth as well as the cape and the sections on his upper legs are all dark black while the rest of the figure is metalic black. The paint shines tough not as much as Arthur armor but its enough ti catch the ligth and shines in different greys. The only color here is the red on the eyes, tough for some reason his left eye is brigth red while the rigth one is very very dark. I have no idea why they do this.

The accesorys are very very low tough, just the same as the first Guts: only a pair of open hands and a closed rigth hand to hold his sword and a left hand open to use the arm canon. The open hand is cute and odd, i mean the armor hand is open up while the face hand is open down soo it looks like two hands opening as a flower. All hands can be swaped very easy.

Then theres two bend arms that can be swaped on the biceps area soo Guts can hold his sword on his shoulder (or make it looks like he is doing it because his head wont allow) while having his other arm straigth to shot the canon. I dunno, this is a matter of mix and match but honestly, its very difficult sometimes to discenr wich arm is wich given how similar they are.

They also include two whole extra arms sculpted in a way to join in the chest area, soo he can hold the sword with both hands. This is a great idea because theres no other way h can hold his sword like he should (like Figma....) tough the hands cant rotate, the arms a a whole piece of plastic and that helps to keep the sword steady.

Guts also have a pair of extra legs with the knees bend as well as his rigth feet, soo he can be close to the fround or posed walking, or jumping as well. The little legs are super cute and looks good tough changue them is kind of tricky, each comes with theyr own ball joint and they move nicelly.

And aside of this extra body parts, the only real item for him to hold is his giant sword. The sword is pretty much the same as the other Guts but this one is spalttered in blood. Tough the blood dont stand out too much against the metalic paint of the blade, it looks really good and the handle can be removed to put the sword on the extra hands holes.

Finally, theres the basic Nendroid base tough this time is missing a hole in the center, soo the arm can be put only on the sides soo Guts its always at the center of the square and i have no idea why they made this changue tough i can see why they changued the arm. This time the arm have its circular shape backwards, twisted to the inside instead the outside, soo the camr can be inserted on the back of Guts without moving the cape up. Very clever and very confortable.

Honestly tough i dont find this Nendroid particulary fun to play with or to look at...while Lycaon is very pasive he have a lot of items to pose with and Arthur also have a lot of weapons to interact and both have a whole lot of details too look at, but this guy have his sword to hold and pretty much nothing more and while the sculpt is detailed its pretty dificult to see them because this is just a black mass of balckness, theres only black hiere with the red eyes and thats cool but dont works too good in such small scale.

Tough all this is not Good Smile Comapany´s fault but Kentao Miura´s faolt for his design. Yes, the Berserk armor looks super cool but its really not specially interesting to look at, honestly i always find the basic Guts much more interesting as a design just because of all the knifes, belts and exposed skin, not to mention the face expression and details.

Now that i skiped Griffith i am sure i will do the same with Femto but i am just collecting the characters i like, after all this things are not cheap at all.

VON LYCAON

 Last time i say the Apex Toys Von Lycan figure was my second Zenless Zone Zero official item, well this is my first one: the Von Lycaon Nendroid. Many years ago, before the pandemic, i used to buy a lot of Nendroids and i formed quiet a collection with my favorite characters but my clumsy sausage fingers had problems adapting to such tiny mini figurines and Good Smile company prices were the last nail on the coffin, making them the most overpriced toys on the market and i stoped buying them completelly.

But for some reason, Good Smile has been doing a ridiculous amount of Zenless Zone Zero characters on Nendroid form (and only the main characters as Pop Up Parade) and eventually they arrive to Lycan and of coure, i had to go back to collect Nendroids thanks to him.

This little guy feel kinda bigger than the rest tough its thanks to a convination of his body looking too bulky and his long ears but he is pretty much the same scale as the rest of the Nendroids and the good news is he can actually stand on his own using his tail as a tripod, something very unusual for this line but that makes him very confortable to play with.

This is a brand new Nendroid released a couple of months ago soo his articulations are...odd. He have the usually big ball joint on his neck that let him moves it around nicelly tough  limited by the hair sculpt and theres also a ball joint on his tail that lates him move it with much more freedom. He have basic cut shoulders that let him move his arms up and down but not open them, a basic cut joint on his biceps that let him rotate his arms and cut articulation on his wrists.

He have ball joints on his legs but they are pretty useless since they barelly move but thats all, theres no knee articulation or elbow or waist articulation soo he cant move his legs or have his arms straigth at all, his arms are perpectually bend and thats very strange given this is a combat character that use a lot his legs just like ChunLi.

Soo this is an action figure with very limited articulations that lets you pose in a few ways but you needs to be creative because all the posing is done by swaping parts and accesorys, not actually moving the character around soo he feels kinda like a 3D puzzle.

Sculpt is very nice, again, the snout have the perfect size and while the bangs on the front are not as stylish as in the Apex version they follow the design perfectly. The ears are huge but round at the tip, just like the spiky hair on his back, everything here is round and cute, theres no edges at all and unlike the Apex version, all the belts are part of the central sculpt.

The body is muscly and bulky in the same way as the Klaus Von Reinherz Nendroid, the buttons on the front of the vest, the scarf, the pocket clock on his chest, all details are there as well as the metalic parts on his hips, ass and back side. The hairy arms looks good as well as the big tail that, while not as impresive as the Apex one, is deffinetly more usefull but the most intrincate sculpt is on the prostetic legs. They are a miniatirized and simplified version but they still looks damn good.

Legs are all metalic black and only have the orange lines in front while his suit is plain grey and the shirt, tail and entire hairy bits are plain white, theres no airbrush or shadows here, every thing is a single color clean but i guess thats good in this tiny scale tough all details are clean painted, like the golden chain of the clock on his chest, his carimson scarf, the little sitches on hhis vest as well as the golden knockles on his gloves.

The black tips on the hair and the ears are still here and the mouth is both sculpted and painted with a black line and the red anime eye stands out a lot thanks to its big size.

He comes with 3 pairs of hands as well as a single extra left hand: a "relaxed" pair of hands, another pair with fingers possed to hold a cup and a plate, another pair with a left hand with a hole on the palm to hold a portait and a rigth hand pointing and a single open left hand with a square shaped peg in the center. Of course all htis little hands are easy to swap and are designed to hold extremelly specific items.

He also have 3 face plates; one with his basic stoic face expression, another one with a very subtle smile and another one with a perplexed face expression (his eyes wide open and his mouth smaller). All this face plates are very easy to swap once the front hair is removed and is quiet tricky find the differences with each other but it cant be helped, Von Lycaon is not a very expressive character.

Aside of the extra parts he comes with a dinner plate with a silver cover. I am not sure how to call this item but somehow it resembles a hotel bell, but its a plate with the dinner inside. Its painted on silver and shines a lot and includes a square shapped hole under it to use it with the specific hand and once on it, not power can mae this item to fall from his hand.

Theres also a cup of tea and a plate. They are very elegant, very cimple and the cup have actually brown tea inside and while theres specific hands to hold bot items, they are much more delicate and easy to lose than the dinner plate.

The second best accesory here is Corin´s borthday gift, a Von Lycaon postrait painted by her. The artwork is really adorable with a cartoony and super cute Lycaon with his tongue out. The print is super clean and and it have a long peg that fits on the left hand with a hole on the palm. This item is designed to be used with the pointing finger hand as well as the perplexed face plate to recreate a scene we only hear in the game.

And lastly, the best accesory is by far, Eus, the little Bangboo that works as main control drone of the proxys. This character is essential in the game and here is soo soo incrediblly tiny and yet, the sculot is spot on and the perfect too, with his orange scarf with the 01 printed on it, its green eyes and tail and the big pointy rabbit ears, as small as he is this count as a character of its own in this package.

Little Eus have a hole on his back as well as an articulated circular arm with a ball on its end side to fit him. Once there he can be adjusted to the sides and eigth soo he can be jumping around Lycaon or even sit on his shoulders, or even sit on the floor without the base.

Also the figure includes the same base as all Nendroids, the transluscent square shaped plataform full of holes and an articulated arm with a peg to fit on Lycaon back. Its kinda anoying but i guess it does its job nicelly.

Given the character nature it puzzles me they didnt included anything combat related, like effect or fierce face expressions of ice effects but instead only gives Lycaon pasive pose options but aside of that this is deffinetly one of my favorite Nendroids given how different he looks to the rest and how sturdy he is, that along side the inclusion of Eus make this guy the oonly ZZZ Nendroid i am interested to get until they release Ben Biggers of course.

VON LYCAON

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.

KING

 Last entry was about the most expensive item in my collection, one that i waited for years to own, now lets see one of the cheapest and - the irony - about the same character: King from Tekken. For years i wanted more Tekken figures after the Epoch Tekken 3 line. It took 15 years for Play Arts Kai to continue the line followed by Storm Collectibles, Funky and later on Bandai with the S.H. Figuarts line but to my surprise, Bandai also produced much more cheaper version of the Tekken figures in theyr Game Dimensions line.

I dont now if theres more characters in this line aside of Tekken, it came out of nowhere and, i must say, the figures are posed very cool in the box in theyr battle stance but still, i felt i didnt need them since i have the far superior and more expensive Storm Collectibles versions. I can ski the Mishimas and Jin pretty easy, but then again, they release King and they got me.

I am not sure what scale is this since its actually taller than the S.H.Figuarts (ironic given the price...) but is also smaller than the Strom Collectibles one soo its traped in bewteen two scales and i dont have a figure that matches his size soo no wrestle photos! But the size is not that bad, i mean, like i said, is bigger than the S.H.Figuarts soo his presence is quiet good.

He can stand on his own pretty good and is artitculated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knees, ankles and tail. The head can rotate to the sides while the neck base can move up and down, a pretty original way to avoid ball joints on the head. The shoulders and legs have ball joints and the work really really good with a huge range of movement and nothing to block them and the waist also have a big range of motion and the chest articulation bends pretty deeply. Tough given the chest area and hips are made of hard plastic, this keeps kinda low the deep of the shoulders and legs bending.

The elbows and knees have a double joint soo they bent really good and of course, the ankles and wrists ball joints works fantastic, my only dissapointing here is the tail since it only rotates soo theres not option to display it but the rest of the body works really really good and given the material, it seems they are not only well designed but they seems very sturdy.

The aesthetic tough is extremelly basic. The mask is actually very well good sculpted and it even have a fur texture on it. The ear shape and fangs looks really good tough i am not sure if the head is way too high or the elbows are way too low (probablly both) but the silhouette is not really good and i feel his legs should be a little longer, soo his body shape is kinda "generic". 

The muscles are OK looking but they have no texture at all, they are sqeacky clean plastic while his left arm glove is actually textured the same way the pants are. The boots are very nicelly detailed with the long lace in front. The chest articulation is extremelly evident and ugly looking while the waist one leaves a huge gap in between his torso and his pants that is terrible looking.

Most of the pieces are cast in the main color of each section soo his arm are cast in dark blue plastic while his torso and another arm are cast in flesh color while one of the boots is yellow and another dark blue. This gives him an extremelly clean almost cartoon look that leaves most of the paint work to the pants and head. Even one of his rigth hands wrists bands are flesh colored....

The pants paint is the most complex with his name painted in yellow on top of a black section while the other legs have a mix of grey, yellow and black but always leaving details to the minimum tough the jaguar mask looks really really good...the black dots, the soft mix between white and yellow on top, the black lips, red tongue, white fangs and green eyes are really really good painted and the quality on it dont match the rest of the figure.

Theres not much accesorys tough, only a pair of extra hands with a finger pointing that can kinda work for a wrestle move since most of the fingers are open. Swap the hands is kinda tricky since the ball joint is very small and the hands are made with hard plastic, but having only this pair of hands and the closed fist dont give too much options for display and he cant be posed in his basic ready stance or grabing an oponent thanks to the lack of hands gesture.

His other accesory is an effect that looks very similar to the one included in the Storm Collectibles version, a kind of energy blast that fits on his closed fists. The little thingy is made with very soft plastic and fits perfectly on both his hands and is made in transluscent plastic and almost looks like a spirit or will o wisp tough for some reason it have a hole on the center.

And lastly theres the FIGHT text cast on pinkish translucent plastic. This text includes a base with an arm cast in trasnsluscent plastic as well and is pretty much the best accesory since no other figure had this kind of items based on the text on screen before and after battle. It seems the rest of the line have the READY, ROUND 1 and ROUND 2 text and it would be very cool to have them for a complete dispay that mimics the on screen battles.

And thats it, theres no cape at all here or other items making this the most basic and simple King figure i seen. Given the material and the design this figure is pretty much a kids toy and the worst King figure in therms of quaity but i am not sure i can complaing given how incrediblly cheap it was and his musculature is sexy enough. This is a toy to be played with, to be thrown around and to play with on the mud and it seems is going to rest all that and more and the articulations are actually more fun than that of the S.H. Figuarts.

They released Heihachi as well, Kazuya and Jin but those looks even more cheap than this guy because they dont have the good looking mask to hide the poor paint job and basic sculpting but then again, i think is very good they are selling Tekken toys at such a low price tough i wish they are as good looking as Jada´s Street Fighter line.