When Gladio was released i had aother stuff to pay soo i didnt preorder it and didnt expect to find him at all after than thanks to all the bootleg wave of Play Arts Kai that flood the market since then (dear god...they are really hiddeous bootleg) soo i get Gladio without second toughs and i dont regret it.
Gladiolus Amicitia is one of the biggest and heavyest play Arts Kai, matching in size Nyx Ulric and the MGSV characters (isnt Gladio supposed to be taler than Nyx??) and he have troubles standing on his own....despite his big feet and strong frame, he tends to fall, maybe because of the shape of his feet?? Nyx have military boots and can stand much better. Tough Gladio comes with the standar weird shaped PAKs trademark base, i didnt consider using it most of the time.
He is articulated on the head, neck, chest, wrists, shoulders, elbows, waist, legs, knes and ankles, all articulations works fantastic since his outfit is extremelly simple, nothing gets in the way of his movement, except on the ankles; the pants dont let his feet move too much but thats all, everything else works fantastic and his ball joints are actually....huge.
Sculpt is really good, his mohawk hair, beard, the shape of his face, is extremelly close to the in game model. His outfit while simplistic, it have different textures; like his pants and jacket have this rugged leatherish texture while they have some soft and silky lines here and there, or the "snake" skin like boots.
The paint, again, is really simple on his costume, the pieces are cast on gun metal black with some darker tones here and there and the skull bottons. His flesh have just one single skin tone (thanks good) and have the eagle tatto printed on his arms and chest tough i dont like how the ball joints cut the tatto, i guess it cant be helped.
The beard is painted on a very natural way as well as his thick and plump lips and his brown eyes are painted perfectly and very detailed (Play Arts Kai always did a perfect job with the eyes of all theyr figures). This is the kind of figure that makes you question reality and ask youself hows possible a piece of plastic can be this handsome?
My favorite part is his hair, since is made with different strands of soft plastic, not only they dont stop his neck movement, but they also flows on his back in a very cool and seamless way. This and the soft plastic jacket makes me wish they use this same aproach with Nyx Ulric.
Gladio dosnt have too much accesoryes actually wich is no surprise given he dosnt use anything on the game either. He have just a pair of hands for gripping a sweord and a open pair that can be exchanged pretty easy thanks to his huge ball joints.
And lastly, he have his HUGE sword. I wonder if the sword have some kind of history behind or a name? The game dosnt mention anything, but this sword if the same size as Gladio (why are japanese soo obessed with giant swords anyway???) and the scult is really amazing. Not only it had a weird square shape on the end, but it also have a pretty awesome skull at the center with wings on the sides., an extremelly cool and beautifull design that wont work at all on real life.
The paint is also very effective, black at the center, silver at the sides and metalic gold on the skull and details, this is really an impresive weapon that is actually impossible to apreciate in game. The grip of the sword can be removed soo it can be inserted on the gripping hands and later the rest of the sword can be put on place for easyer posing.
I am actually in awe that such huge accesory is soo easy to handle and used, again, i wish Nyx Kukris had this same system and not only that.....but this HUGE sword actually helps Gladio to stand since it keeps his balance....he cant stand on his own but once he have the sword on his hands, nothing can make him fall. That is a first time for me after soo many figures.
In the end this is an extremelly solid and almost perfect Play Arts Kai figure, proof that close to end the serires, Square really found its way to perfection for action figures. My only issue is the lack of accesoryes, is weird theres no extra head in here or an extra shirtless torso just like Man on Fire from MGSV but that would be ask too much maybe??
I dont regret this guy open my PAK collection if just brieflly, he is one of the best figures of the serires as well as the best part of the entire game.
