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.