DEVILMAN VIOLENCE

 Let start the year with something retro, very retro, from 1998 actually and a subject even more retro: Devilman. Its been a long time since i posted something Devilman related but i already review every single piece i have and in the last years pretty much nothing has come out related to the character. Yes, Devilman Crybaby was very popular but it didnt spark any kind of merchadise at all soo the last time we had new Devilman toys was....probablly 15 years ago.

Good thing tough last century leave us an awfull lot of Devilman merchadise to hunt down soo while this figure is not entirelly new but its just a color variant i think its worth adding it to the collection given how rare it is. From Kaiyodo this is part of theyr "Violence Action Figures" series that consist on nly two figures: Devilman and Devilman Lady.

But while the series was pretty small, the color variations made it much bigger. Back in the 90s for some reason color variations in action figures was extremelly popular ocurrence soo every figure came out in 5 or even more color palettes and that made them extremelly tricky to collect since the original color palette was most of the time pretty difficult to find. Thats something i really dont miss from toy collecting in the 90s and beginign of the 2000s.

Soo of course Kaiyodo was no exception for this soo it released 4 different variations of each Devilman and Devilman Lady. I think i got the original version of both....maybe. But last year i was able to find another Devilman lose but in really good condition. Yes i aready got this guy in my collection but up at this point is a good idea to snatch anything related to the character.

He is in standar scale, justlike NECA or McFarlane or Storm soo he fits nicelly with most figures series and he can stand on his own, partially because the articulations on his knees are very lose and make him fall constantly, specially with the wings on soo you need to find the perfect balance but once done, he stays still perfectly. With no wings he stands much much better.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs and knees and of course, all this articulations are very basic swivels that only let him rotate the waist, head and wrists and the elbows and knees have a basic articulation and given his legs are sculpted very open, moveing them isnt specially usefull or good looking, soo this is a figure fully articulated but with not many options of display.

Sculpt is fantastic, this is Devilman in his most basic shape, just like Go Nagai designed him, with the big smile full of fangs, pointy nose, the anthena and medium size wings on his head and hairy legs, no unnecesary redesign or anything and the muscular buid is really really amazing, he looks like a body builder and he actually have his penis sculpted as well as his nipples.

The paint consist on metalic orange with a black airbursh on his legs and shoulder marks and the wings have the same color aplication. The red inside his mouth dosnt stand too much with all that orange but the yellow eyes looks really nice in contrast with the back section of his head. While the paint on the eyes and fangs is perfectm the whole figure is cast in transluscent plastic soo it catch the light in a pretty weird way mixed along the metalic paint.

The original version is cast on normal plastic and is painted in green, with a lot of details on his muscuature. Here theres no details in the paint at all, just plain orange, but the transparency make his looks more shiny than the original version. There sno accesorys but the wings can be removed but that leave a big hole on his back.

Compared with modertn figures this is abismal. but the articulations and design mixed with the material and the way its painted makes this looks like one of those super expensive vinyl japanese toys and it defifinelty screams "80s-90s". From all the Devilman figures i seen in my life this one is one of the bests to represents the Go Nagai character design and fits nicelly on any anime of horror collection.

I cant remember the last time i got a Deviman figure like this. To a point i think i felt my collection was completelly closed but this guy reminds me it is not, there is a lot still out there related to Devilman and that somehow makes me feel kinda excited.

DEVILMAN

 Its been a long time since the last adition to the Devilman collection because, despite how well known he is now thanks to Netflix, toy companys leave the license completelly a long time ago. But there was a time when Toy R´Us and other places where full of Devilman figures and products and i remember seen them in awe throght the PC screen, when i was a teen.

One of the figures i saw back then was Medicom Real Action Heroes Devilman, a 1/6 scale figure that was considered one of the most expensive merchadise of the characters and after 25 years of seen images of such figure, against all my expectations, i finally was able to get him!!

Its odd to see how simple looking is th box of this figure despite being a limited edition (number 989 from ???) and how this was (or still is??) Medicom more expensive and premium line but i guess this was in line of how this figures looked in last century - 1997 to be more precise.

Like i said, this is a 1/6 scale figure soo he is really big and the same size as modern figures of Hot Toys, Sideshow, Asmus, ThreeZero and he have no base and can stand on his own....sometimes, since his articulations are kinda loose soo its just a matter of find the rigth balance spot and he can stand with no problem tough i dont know for how long, soo its best to use a base with this figure.

He is articulated in the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, legs, knees and ankles and all of them use ball joints soo they have a big range of motion or at leats the head, waist and knees and ankles does, they turn around nicelly and tilt in different directions tough the legs articulations are restricted by the pants and the elbows...for some reason they dont move to the sides too much.

Also, i got other Medicom figures, Real Action Heroes actually, and the materials used on theyr bodys are really cheap and break pretty easy and given how old is this Devilman, i am really afraid the plastic used on the articulations just turn into dust if i aply too much force to it.

Actually this figure is soo strange i am not sure i can explain how it is build....is basically a base body with big transluscent plastic ball joints on each section and is completelly modular because each section can be removed and dismembered. Is pretty strange but then again, i am afraid soo much removal of sections can damage the plastic pegs.

Then, covering the each section, there is a plastic "skin" with the sculpture of Devilman, soo in reality this feels like....a dummy generic figure with a Devilman costume? I dont know and i really dont know if other Medicom figure worked like this but i got the feeling this was the first try to make a figure like the modern TB League figures: a metalic articulated eskeleton with a soft plastic skin to cover all articulations.

This seems to replicate the basic idea but its not made correctly since the articulations are very much visible and the only nebefit here is the skin texture with the soft plastic. The sculpt is nice tough, despite the material theres a lot of wrinkles and life like details here, like veins on the arms and chest and hair on his abs. The hands are totally made of soft plastic soo they are pretty soft and realistic to the touch tough they are useless to hold any kind of accesory.

The head is the best part deffinetly, the sculpt is on point with Go Nagai art style and character design with his wing structure looking completelly irregular and very organic looking, with the pointy horns, wide eyes and giant mouth full of fangs. The upper fangs are protunding and the way the fangs follow the mouth shape make it looks like a piranha and the tongue is sculpted behind them.

The paint is really good too, with the skin tone looking very solid and the fangs in yellow stand out agains the red of the inside of the mouth. The eyes are yellow too with red veins aroudn them and while the rest of the head is black it does have red airbrush around that makes the wings reflect the ligth very nicelly despite the "all black" image it have.

Sadly,, the skin tone of the rest of the body is ligther than the face color but i am not sure if thats how it was made or if the march of time affected the color of the body thanks to the soft material. The torso is pretty muscly tough it also have in-human features like the protunding ribcage and the opening section on the chest. The hairs sculpted on the back and on his abs is very nice as well as the open scars on his shoulders.

The body have different tones of skin colors, airbrush of softher and lighter tones with darker ones to give volume to the musculature and some artofocial shadow. It looks good in close inspection actually and the part that stands put more are the hairy bits.

The hairy legs tough.....instead of sculpting them, Medicom decided to give him pants, literally, black velvet pants. This limits the legs articulations but while i understand the effect they try to give it, they looks too much, well....like pants. Also they have a tail made with soft plastic in the back but its not articulated and just hand in the back, while the material helpt it flow a little bit to make it looks natural, i wish it was wired.

The only accesory this figure have are his wings but Medicom wanted to be really inventive as well in here and instead give us a set of plastic wings, they made a steel plate covered in back velvet. Put the wings on is really difficult since theres two cuts on Devilman back and the metal plate must be slide on them but the plates are really sharp like a blade!! Not only they cat cut fingers pretty easy, but i am afraid they also cut the soft plastic skin of the figure as well!!

Once instaled the wings plate cna be shaped in different ways and while the idea is pretty good, the wings are actually extremelly small. They looks very "toy-ish" and the black velvet material looks kinda cheap.

Its odd because this figure is full of pretty inovative ideas like plastic skin covering the figure articulations and vendable metalic wings but it seems they didnt had the technology back then to full fill all this ideas. And despite the funny looking pants and small furry wings, the body sculpt is really good and the head looks fantastic as well and in the end, this is pretty much the only Devilman in 1/6 scale to ever exist.

Compared to wath IconiQ Studio is doing rigth now with Street fighter or Tunshi with Samurai Shodown, or Hot Toys and other 1/6 scale brands are doing, this figure looks pretty cheap, rough and rugged, but somehow.....that fits Go Nagai art style and his characters and i got the feeling back in 1997 this figure was incrediblly impresive and advanced for its time.

In the end this figure looks like a pretty old and vintage japanese toy but it really thats wath it is, a product of its time and i am happy that, after seeing images of it for 25 years i finally can touch it and play with it (tough i am afraid to broke it and i am sure those pants and wings will get extremelly dusty pretty fast) and despite its faults, this is one of the cloest representations i ever seen of the core design of Devilman.

DEVILMAN

 Speaking of definitive editions of certain character. When i die i would love to be buried with all my collection tough i know is imposible soo i would take with me just my favorite peices and this one will be deffinetly there. Released by Taito 10 years ago and titled "High-Grade Real Figure Shonen Magazine 50th", this statue was a conmemorative even for the Kodansha Magazine. 

I have no idea if they made more caracters based on this concept but i would love to see it since this statue is trully spectacular. The material is a pretty sturdy and high class plastic that dosnt feel cheap (like the Banpresto figures) and is quiet heavy and HUGE, really huge!! This guy is larger than the Fewture figures, same size of Zennon.

Based on a Go Nagai illustration where Devilman is launching himself towards Siren, this figure shows him at midflight, with open wings and his hands stretched at front, something totally unique for wath i seen over the years, aside of the Volks garage kits, i never saw Devilman in such a dynamic pose before.

Of course, he is not standing soo he comes with a square and sinple base with the logo of Devilman carved in front. The base is totally black and have a rod in the middle that enters into Devilman´s belly suspending him n the air perfectly.

The wings can be removed completelly as well as the tiny tail.

The sculpt is fantastic. The musculature is soo astonishing and perfect its imposible to find and issue here. I mean, even his ass is spectacular and they even gives him a bulgue....he have the small and hairy balls sack that cats have....

The claws on his feet and hands are sharp, actually everything is pretty sharp in here sculpt wise; the antena, the smile full of tiny fangs, the leathery texture on his wings, the sculptor did an amazing job in here.

The paint too is the same quality with the yellow eyes and each tiny fangs painted independently. The body tough have no paint at all but is cast in his skin tone and i should say, the color is perfect. A little bit grey mixed with flesh color gives him the perfect in-human tone but keeps close to Go Nagi´s design.

If i should find an issue in here would be the rod that keeps him standing. Its black and its on a pretty obvious place, i wish it was transluscent and was a claw instead of a peg but i guess that would make it more delicate. I mean, its been years and this guy hasnt fallen over not once or lean by any side, it was build to stand time.

I really dont know wath can i say about this, this figure is my all time favorite Devilman collectible soo far and he looks fantastic on every single angle and on every single place you put him and thats impresive because i never ever saw any other figure with the brand of Taito and i been looking around but theres nothing. Its a shame they didnt do a Siren as a companion piece for a great battle scene, but this Devilman dont need her at all to looks terrific and sexy.

DEVILMAN

 Devilman have an incrediblle amount of figures around, over the years lots of companies have redesigned him and produced in different scales and variations but very few manage to reproduce faithfully Go Nagai original design with the spirit and style it was born. Unifive did it and Fewture also did some definitive versions (tough not being Go Nagai´s version) but the other company that did it was Banpresto.

They small mini statues with Devilman and Satan were very good, but they also realease bigger statues based on Devilman from the manga and the TV anime, and while i dont own the TV version, the manga version is terrific even if it comes in a pretty cheap plastic box with a cardboard and staple.

The figure is big as a Fewture figure (or Play Arts Kai) and comes with a circular and simple black base tough the figure needs some help to stand on the base itself given of the pose, it tends to lean to his left side. But thats just a little detail compred with the figure itself.

Devilman is walking while twist his torso and looks directly at front. I am not sure wath he is doing really, the more i think about the pose, the less an explanation i got but while being a little pasive, is really dynamic and have a lot of movement. And i got the feeling he is based on a Go Nagai illustration, i think were Devilman is green colored...maybe thats why i dont recognize the pose.

The sculpt is great, the muscles are impresive as well as the face, the sculpt is pretty sharp specially on his fangs and bulguing yellow eyes. The anatomi is perfect, the size and shape of the wings on his head is perfect as well as the wings on his back. The wings are half closed but still they have a considerable size and makes me think they would be huge open. They are made of soft plastic and have a pretty nice leather texture thanks to the lack of color on them and the shiny plastic.

Paint work is great too, while extremelly simple is applied perfectly on the eyes, the red on his mouth and forehead, the black strips on his shoulders and legs. There is no shading or shadow application but i dont think it need it since natural ligth takecare of it thanks to the impresive and dramatic sculpt.

If i could find an issue in here, aside of his lack of balance (i fixed that with a piece of black paper under his feet) i think it would be his claws, they are too flat and almost looks like normal human fingers.

Aside of that he is trully perfect. If i had to sell my collection this one would be one of the lucky ones to stay wth me because it represents the character perfectly and he was....soo cheap, a bargain...like all Banpresto figures, his price was pretty low last century and thats amazing considering the quality, tough of course now he is pretty expensive.

DEVILMAN

Most of the time (if not always) i remember the time lapse of the figures i got or specific memories about it, like how much i wanted back then or the troubles i had getting it, how expensive of cheap it was or where i got it. But this time is quiet the opposite; i dont have any recolection about where and when i get this figure and the most alarming thing is that i dont even know wath brand it is.

Is a Devilman statue that came in a big box with a lot of Go Nagai artwork around it and the title "Devilman Real Big Wing Version" and thats it....it had no brand or logo on any side of the box and i am not sure waths the meaning behind the "real" on the title, or the "big wings version" since as far as i know, there is no wingless version.

The figure have a considerable scale since its bigger than an action figure and comes with a round stand in black plastic with the logo of Devilman carved on it. We got Devilman kind of advancing with his hand rised, perhaps talking with someone in front of him. the pose is very casual and discret tough have enough personality to be interesting.

The sculpt is really good, he have pretty sharp face features and a stoic expression and the musculature of his body is really impresive. The wings on his back and head have pretty sharp shapes as well as spikes that gives them the impression to be a chapitel of a church or somekind of building, giving him a very "garogylesque" style.

The paint is the most interesting part of this statue since he is red...like...crimson red. The black soft shadows on his body to high ligth the muscles as well as the black on his claws and legs gives him the look of burning coal.

His wings, tail and head are cast on transluscent plastic soo the light go trough them pretty nicelly but this also mean the red on his face is a different tone too giving him a pretty odd look. This small detail really make him look a little cheap wich is a shame given how good looking is the statue.

While the color gives him a pretty unique look, is still easy to see who this character is and it dosnt deviat that much from Go Nagai´s original design and i like that. There is also a green transluscent version of this statue but aside of that, i dont know from where this guy comes from!!

DEVILMAN LADY

 Unifive was a japanese toy company from the 90s that develope a lot of strange and unusual toys, mistery surround it since we didnt see too much about it outside of Japana before it was swallow by Banpresto, but the most popular serires of figures from them was the Devilman "Detial Fgures", a serires of small size statues with some really impresive sculpting and painting as well as glow in the dark variants.

They released both version of Devilman and a Siren, but the other character that was incrediblly popular back then and had a lot of figures (desite not appear in Devilman) was Devilman Lady, she was everywere back then (no surprise since her anime was on air). She share the same size with Siren tough unlike the demon bird, Lady is not in a scaling pose and is missing wings, soo she is the smallest figure of the collection.

She share the same base tough as the rest, a square red simple base with a silver sticker with her name. Her pose....i am not sure if it comes from one of Go Nagai illustrations, i feelt like i seen it before but i cant point out from wath image it is but looks pretty classic for the character. The body proportions with huge boobs and the super cute face with fangs is also the brand of Go Nagai.

The sculpt is good, with most of the detailing being in the furry parts on her anatomy and the paint is good too, while keep at minimum. Her skin tone is a little more dark than Siren and they did a great job on her face, painting her red eyes and fangs perfesctly in such smal scale.

Overall she is a good little statue, tough she is my least favorite of the group, maybe a pair of big wings would change my mind but she still match the rest of the collection perfectly.

SIREN

 

In the 90s Devilman had such a mistery aura around it, it was soo difficult to gte info about Go Nagai´s work and still we got a lot or merchadise around to tease us. Aside of the amazing Fewture action figures, the very first toys about the character we seen around here was the Uni Five "Detail Figure", a series of statues that looked oustanding for back then standars.

The most spectacular characters are of course the two Devilman and theyr variants, specially the glow in the dark ones, but UniFive also released Siren, a basic addition to any collection. Actually she is on every single figure serires but this is one of the very first times i saw her.

She is a tiny bit smaller than the Devilman and comes with the same red square base with a silver sticker in front with her name. Her wings are folded behind her back soo while they have a nice size, they are not as spectacular loking as Devilman´s, still tough the pose is very nice, with a feet on a rock, it looks like she is about to jump or triying to scare someone.

Her foierce expression is more cute than menacing tough since the sculpt is very anime, pretty close to Go Nagai´s original design, with the big eyes and small mouth (tough full of fangs). The body proportions are also the clasic Go Nagi body; really curvy with specially huge boobs.

The paint i good, with her body being very pale and her wings and feathers are totally white with some soft grey brushes to add some shadows, the biggest paint work is on her face, the long leashes, the small fangs, even her tongue is painted in red soo the paint aplication is really aoutstanding for the small scale.

I wish she had her wings totally open for a more dramatic display, but she is really good looking and represents the basic visual representation of Siren perfectly soo i lace her as the second best figure of the Unifive run after Devilman.