GUTS BERSERK ARMOR

 I still remember 23 years ago when i started to read Berserk and tough "woooww...i really wish i had just one of those Art of War statues, i would be happy just with one". Fastforward to 2023 and now i even have plushies aside of an Art of War statue and the entire action figures line from Figma, tough after the death of Kentaro Miura, i wasnt expecting no more merchadise.

That changed last year with Good Smile company releasing a Guts on Berserk Armor on theyr PopUp Parade, that line of ultra cheap statues and i am glad they did it, since with the price tag Figmas have i cant no longer afford them.Tough this guy was stuck on the customs office of my country for two months and a half to a point i almost tough mi lose him....but here he is, escaped from burocratic cautivity.

This figure is just one inch shorter than a Play Arts Kai or Gecco statue soo he is not small by any means, but he is not huge either, just have the perfect size to have enough presence on the shelves while still fit on small places. He is deffinetly taller than the other PopUp Parade figure i have - Lancer from Fate - because in the boox it says is a PopUp Parade L....Large?? I havent seen too many of this figure in Large size but despite that the price is still very good.

He have the same base Lancer have, an hexagon base but instead of electroic blue this one is black. Extremelly simple but it does the job perfectly and fits on most shelves. The figure is conected to the base with two pages under it soo it wont fall by any mean since is not that heavy either.

No articulations at all, just a cmpletelly static statue of Guts on top of a rocky pillar, posing as a wild animal with his sword on his shoulder and his cape flowing with the wind, replicating an extremelly popular illustration of Kentaro Miura.

The anatomy, shapes and body language is perfect since i seen another figure of this same illustration from another brand and Guts have a huge head....but Good Smile Company managed to make a perfect scupt of such an iconic image. The rocky pillar have such a nice texture on it, pretty soft like velveth and the Berserk Armor looks very different than the Figma version.

While the Figma version have this clean metal texture with some grey paint to give it a metal look, this guy have the armor full of small lines following each metal plate giving it a weird texture....it looks really busy and catchs the ligth nicelly but it also give it a looks like if this is hand drawn and have shadows made with a pencil and the entire figure is covered in this texture from toes to the helmeth.

I love the cape soo much, it flows soo nicelly like tentacles around him and its soo thin in the top and gets wider and wider, huging Guts back and with the same "pencil" texture, it deffinetly looks like fur in the back of a wolf instead of a cape. Tough its made of very hard plastic soo the pointy ends of it seems to me the most easy to brake sections.

He is holding his Dragon Slayer sword on his hand and it rest on his shpulder where he have a cut for it. The sword is really good looking and easy to install and i specially like a lot the rags on the grip. Is this an accesory? I dunno tough its perfectly removable but extremelly necesary for the display.

The paint is black...like pitch black....this is like a big mass of blackness to the point i had to use my cell phone camera since my digital camera could not take any descent picture of it. The rocky pillar have some soft greys that make it looks like a very realistic rock while the armour ir just gun metal black soo the black shines with ligh. The cape is dark brown mixed with blacks soo that enhance even more the fur texture out of it.

The sword is nicelly painted but soo clean....very clean, and i seen many people complaignin that theres no blood on it, wich makes sence since the Figma version have a lot of blood spalttered on it. Maybe the lack of blood is because of the low price?? While i would have liked some red on here, i dont think is necesary for the overall look.

The reason this Guts was two months and a half stuck on customs office was because of his action feature. Yes he have an action feature, wich is pretty odd for anything of Good Smile or a statue at this point. He have led ligths on his eyes.

The basic looks have his eyes painted in metalic red wich looks really fantastic (this eyes are the only parts that arent black, soo they stand out a lot), but the top half of his helmeth can be removed for another one with a little hole inside. Put the led ligths inside and put the head back and you have Guts with his eyes burning intense red and you can see the ligth coming out from his mouth as well!!!

Its looks fanfastic!! But the mechanism is not wath i was expecting...theres no button at all or anything, if you want to turn it on or off you need to remove the helmeth and remove the ligth itself and the ligth.....is just an indepdnetn entity, a little blister with a tiny tiny tube and the ligth on top. Push the ligth and its turned on, pull it up and it turns off but given its small size ir turns on and off just by looking at it.

Also no battery changes...the ligth battery ran out and goes directly to the trash and you need to buy another one, a Hiromi Miraito 316R. Where? A fishing store at Hokaido or Kyoto it seems or buy another one on Ebay for a fortune.....and it seems the battery only last for 7 hours soo.....

Overall, the price i pay for this Guts was an insult, the quality of the material is soo high as well as the paint and sculpt and he is not small at all. I am astonished this was much cheaper than a damn Nendroid or Figma toygh at the same time i am really bafled by the ligth feature, it looks fantastic and i can live with the constant helmeth removal but where i am going to buy another Miraito 316R?? I feel sad to not be able to have his eyes ligth on all the time, i am even anxious to turn them on a minute....