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.