GUTS

I lack control with some things like Devilman, Metal Gear Solid or other series that makes me difficult not to spent money on them. One of them is Berserk. I remember years ago i tough "OK i just want a super cool amazing figure of Guts and my collection will be complete" and i got the Art of War statue to later be "I just want a 1/6 scale figre of Guts" and i ended getting the ThreZero figure that i have yet to show in here. Then it was "i want action figures" and spent a fortune on the Figmas, then the Nendroids.....last year i saw the Pop Up Parade L Guts from Good Smile Comapny, something i didt had plans to get, and we....

Now i have another Guts that dosnt fit on any scale of the rest of my Berserk figures aside of the Berserk Armor Pop Up Parade from years ago, soo i guess he is not all alone after all....and i got the Zood too that is too small to display together but is part of the collection....and just like that the train of tough keeps changuing and convince me to buy figures like this but i dont regret it at all.

The Pop Up Parade is the economic line from Good Smile Company tough this "L" branch of it is not as economic as i like and while deffinetly are much bigger than Figma they only are a head taller than a standar action figure but not tall enough to each the 1/6 scale, soo this Guts is in between scales, imposible to match him with other lines, its on its own size universe soo i guess that makes him worth getting.

He cant stand on his own because, for some reason, they decided to put pegs on his feet and cape soo he cant stand on his own without his base but once he is isnatlled on the base the figure have perfect balance. Soo this is a statis sculpture soo theres no articulation in here and no accesory aside of his sword and the already mentioned base.

The pose is extremelly boring. I mean, the Art of War statue is in the same pose soo is the Gecco figure and like many many others too. Even the Berserk Armor Pop Up Parade figure while standing on a rock, it have the Dragon Slayer over his shoulder in exactly the same angle. I know the big ass sword is pretty much the biggest issue to handle while doing a figure of even dragon Guts, but i am susprsed by the lack of creativiy while doing figures of this man, it seems they dont know wath to do with the sword aside or puting it over his shoulder.

Aside of the very basic pose, the sculpt is really amazing. The boots have a pretty nice leather texture and while the pants are clean, you can clearlly see every muscle of Guts legs being huged by the fabric thansks to the wrinkles. It almost looks like the pants are going to burst thanks to those amazing muscle legs!!

Of course this is Guts in the very first two volumes of the manga soo he ave no armor on his legs and not soo mant straps and the pointy shoulder pads, instead he have the knife, the belt in front with the smaller knifes, a few bags on the waist and his very basic black chest armor. The sculpt on each element is extremelly clean and perfect and the chest aror even have some identations as battle damage and you can see a little bit of Guts black thisrt under the armor. 

The musculaure on the arm with the Dragon Slayyer is really good as wella s the bandages on the hand and the mechanical arm looks perfect too even if the sping in the back is just plastic and not a real spring. The cape is flowing to the wind but not much soo the figure dont take too much spcae and while the wrinkles on it flows in a very realistic way, the texture of it is pretty odd....just like with the Berserk Armor version, the cape is covered insculpted lines that make it looks like.....fur? I ma not sure how to describe the cape texture look but it deffinetly make it looks different to the rest of the outfit materials, it almost likes like the cape is a 2D drawing turned into 3D.

I seen many peple complaining about the face but for me he looks perfect. The face expression is stoic like always, but the shape of the facem the size od the ears and the spiky hedgehog hair looks perfect to me. Of course he is not uver realistic but looks more anime, just like the Figmas.

Paint job is very simple but effcetive. The face and exposed arm are cast in a very good looking skin tone color while they have an almost invisible dark brush to high lights the muscles and shapes but its soo soft it looks mor elike a faint shadow. The lips are also painted in a very discrete way and the eye is clean and perfectly painted following the character design and the closed eye and eyebrows are painted in a very anime style. The scar on top of the nose is tehre and on the back of his neck theres the God Hand brand painted in brigth red.

The bandages are painted in bone white with some browns to make them looks used and dirty while the boots are a soft brown but the upper part of them are painted in ligtn brown and have some dark washes on the wrinkles section that almost makes them looks like painted with a color pencil.

The armor and arm are painted in gun metal black while the cape is pitch black, with no other color or brush on it and that makes it looks way too plain, but since the cape is not the focus point of the figure (like the Bsererk Armor version) it dosnt stand too much. The puches and other belts are painted in medium dark brown and that helps to make the texture stand a little bit.

The Dragon Slayer is full of identations and battle marks here and there and a little bit of texture in the center, with the blade painted in metalic silver and the bandages painted in the same tones as Guts bandages. It looks really good and way too much like the sword of the Berserk Armor Pop Up Parade but this one is different since the bandages in the end re flowing in a totally different direction.

The tip of the handle can be removed soo the sword can be intorduced in Guts hand and the blade have a little peg that fits on asmall identation of the cape in Guts shoudler soo the sword can fit there and stay in place with no chance of rotation.

The base is HUGE.....i dont know why is it soo huge but is oval shaped and totally black, pretty simple and generic and with three holes, two to insert the pegs on Guts bots and the other for the peg on a transluscent structure coming out from the cape. This transluscent structure is pretty strange and looks like is coming out directly from the folds of the cape but i guess Good Smile Comapny really needed a third point of balance just for the big ass sword.

I dont like the base, is just way too big for the scale of the figure and makes it difficult to display and also i find the pose very uninspired, but aside of that, i find this fgure pretty perfect as a representation of Guts, specially from the start of the manga. The sculpt is really good and detailed, the pain job is simple and efective and overall the figure have a good presence on the shelves despite not verin very big (tough the sword and base take an awfull lot of space).

I am not sure since theres too many figures of Guts but maybe, if i have to chose one this one is probablly the one that loos as the best representation of the character, dark, simple and elegant. And now i have three of four Pop Up Parade L figures from Berserk with only one missing...Skull Knigth.

ZODD

 I still remember soo many years ago when Good Smile company show for the first time the God Hand prototypes in the Tokyo Toy Fair. I couldnt belive they were going to do something like that and many years of wait later, they release the God Hand as some of the most eclectic and difficult to get Figmas out there. Back then i also had a sort of fantasy form them to release a Figma Zodd, how could they make it? That never happen until now....in some way.

Yes, no Figma Zodd but instead a Pop Up Parde L one!! This was one of my most hyped figures in the last years and in the end, i a glad they release him as a Pop Up Parade since a Figma would have been imposible to get, with the price range of Figmas something like this would be 500$, but as a Pop Up Parde, while expensive, the price is still afordable.

Since this is Pop Up Parade L size, the box is HUGE but thats tricky, since once outside of the box, this guy is not as big as i was expecting, he is actually not that tall but the circunference is the oposite since his pose with the open legs and tail make him pretty big by the sides and also he is EXTREMELLY HEAVY!! This is not a hollow figure, is a big chunck of solid plastic soo he is really heavy and the horns and claws makes him even more dangerous!!!

He can stand on his own perfectly thanks to his tail that acts like a tripod, but he comes with a round plain black base as well just in case. While this base works perfect, it makes the figure evn more space consuming!! I cant find a shelve to fit him at all!!

No accesoryes, no articulations at all, this sculpture is really amazing looking since every single muscle stands out perfectly: the huge bull neck, the big pecs, back muscles, the abs, biceps, the dorsals, this is as beastly as he looks in the manga panels and the fur texture sculpt dont clash with the muscle sculpt either, they bot perfectly match each other while the fur texture is carved enough to stand out.

The claws are extremelly pointy as well as the huge horn and the texture on it is really good looking, with scars and other battle marks. The fierce face expression is perfect as well as the teeth and tongue texture, all the wrinkles around his cute nose as well as the big hoobs full of textures that mix perfectly with the fur of the legs.

Theres not that much paint here tough since he is nude, the whole peice is black but it have some dark blues washes around soo the furt shines with the light and dosnt looks one single plain color, tough of course most of the colors comes on his mouth, eyes, horns, claws and hoobs. The hoobs have a dark brown color with a black wash on top to mix with the fur while the claws are more yellow with some black detailing.

The horn have an spectacular paint work that mixes browns and yellows in a very natural way, lik the horn of a real animal, while the cut horn dosnt have that much of a detailed paint work, it looks really good as well. The mouth is also really spectacular since each fangs is painted perfectly but the gums and isndie of the mouth (tongue included) have a wet look mixed with ll the pinks and reds and gives him an extremelly realistic look.

His lips are painted in shiny black as well as his cute nose, and his eyes are painted in metalic red soo they reflect light pretty good while surrounded by all tha black fur. A trully spectacular job done here.

I wish he had his wings tough, that would be the only single thing that coud make this figure absolutelly perfect but i guess that would also make the price sky rocket. 

At first my main objective here was to mix him with my Berserk action figures since i tough they would match in scale perfectly, in a second look i was dissapoitning to notice this guy, as big as it is, is still too short for the Figmas. On a thid look tough, examinign the pose of Zodd with the flexed legs and crounched back, i think he actually is on scale with the Figma figures.

I mean, last yera they also released an Ichiban Kuji of Zodd and he was masive!! But he is standing straigth with his back strecthed (and wings), soo if this figure was in a smiliar pose i think the size difference would not be that much!! Soo in the end....i am very happy to add this to my Figma action figures collection since they looks really good together!!

More Berserk figures are coming next year....Zodd in human form as well as Skull Knight, soo i think the display of this serios will be growing pretty soon after soo long of not getting anyithing. But meanwhile this figure is such an amazing piece to display even all by himself, is astonishing sexy and menacing at the same time it would fit on any collection of both horror and anime.

ISAAC CLARKE

 Its been a long time since last entry but it wasnt because of Santa taking his time delivering the christmas toys in time, it is because all the toy brands decided to release all the pre-orders of the year in this months soo now, aside of being completelly broke, i am full of new figures to show in here!!

Lets begin with Dead Space! I love Dead Space way too much tough there never was too much merch related to the series, with the release of the remake two years ago (!!!) Good Smile Comapany released a Figma of Issac Clarke as well as a  Pop Up pParde statue and since the price of the Figma´s is honetly way beyond of any logical thinking, i decided to pick the Pop Up Parade statue since it was almost 1/3 cheaper.

This is a statue soo theres no artoculation at all (tough i am sure the molds are the same of the Figma) and while this guy can stand on his own perfectly, he comes with a black circular base that is very simple and elegant looking but it does the job perfectly fine. 

One think i dislike of this figure is the size....this guy is soo tiny, i mean even comapred to the other Pop Up Parde i have, this Issac looks child size compared to them and i think is exactly the same scale as the Figma. Soo is basically a statis Figma (or FigFIX) and i deffinetly wasnt expecting that...the price dosnt looks that atractive anymore.

Aside of scale issue, the sculpt is really good. The pose is very simple with him walking carefully at front while turning around. The detaiñing on his suit is really fantastic with all the wrinkles and sculpted details on the clothe section and all the metalic sections on top matching those of the game. Tough his knee pads as well as the screen on his chest feels like softich plastic, the whle figure is pretty sturdy.

Even his boots soles are sculpted and painted with a rusty color with a black wash. The boots and the chest plates and back plates, the armor on the arms as well as the helmeth are painted in a golden color with a lot of rust and black effects to make it looks like old ancient metal with the 3 lines of the face painted in bright baby blue to make it stand.

The stasis module on his hand as well as the life meter in the back are painte in baby blue, tough the life meter on his back is just a blue plastic rod and dosnt have any of the zig zag pattern it should have. His clothes under the armor also have a very old looks with a lot o dark wash to give deep to the wrinkles and all details, tough his shirt is painted in grey while in the game is much more darker than this.

In the end the shirt and the metalic parts dosnt mix too much color wise soo this makes it looks like he have more armor than expected, but is just a discrepancy on color. The pants tough have the rigth dark tones of blue and brown soo they looks much better.

His only accesory: his weapon, i removable and while it dosnt have any articulations and is missing the mobile parts, the overall sculpt is good as well as the metalic paint and yellow details, tough it looks a little simplifyed from a closer look.

Theres not much to say about this figure tough, despite having a very good sculpt and mostly a good paint, the size dosnt makes it stand out too much. I think this figure would been perfect as part of a Collectors Edition of the game since is in the perfect scale for that kind of figures.

Good thing tough, this is pretty much the Figma but static, soo that means i dont need the Figma anymore but that dosnt mean i dont want any more Issac Clarke figures! I just dont want figures with that price tag.

GUTS

 I cant belive its been six years since the last time i get a Nendroid from Good Smile Company. There was a time when my collection of Nendroids grew pretty steady until Good Smile Comapany decided to follow SquareEnix road and started to sky rocket the price of theyr products to the point they had to create Pop Up Parade to get some money from collectors again. I miss a lot of Nendroids in the last years because i wasnt going to pay 3 times the price they had before the pandemic.

But i finally fall back at theyr graps, why? Berserk. I am actually surprised they took soo long to start release Nendroids of Berserk actually, and they start in the same point all other Berserk collections start: Black Swordman Guts.

This little Guts is the same scale as other Nendroids: pretty pretty small and he fits with the rest perfectly but wath surprise me the most is that he can stand on his own perfectly, for the first time, he dont need a base. Why? Because of his cloack that works like a tripod and keep his balance perfectly.

He is not specially articulated tough, only the head, the shoulders, wrists and legs and nothing more. The head have a ball joint as well as the legs but they dont have too much room to move, specially the head since the clack keep the head kind of static. The shoulders and wrists are cut joints soo he can rise his arms up but thats it, he has no way to open his arms at all.

He have a couple of extra articulations tough on his cloack, it is a 3 pieces construction with the main piece in the center keeping Gts standing and the two extra flaps at the side can open up an move around a little bit to give the impression the cloack is moving around. Open them too much and they look like insect wings soo its better to just move them a little to give them a discret pose effect.

The sculpt is very nice. Of course his face is extremelly simple with the cute little nose and giant proportions tough his chin is square too make him look more manly. His spiky hair is very nice but looks like a challengue to dust off. The details on the shoulder and legs armor is pretty incredible as well as the little mechanical arm.

But the best part is deffinetly the knifes on hi chest and the one on his belt, the puches on his waist and....it seems he have more on his back but i cant see them thanks to the hard plastic cloack. I can see chains and even his crossbow but they are completelly hidden under the cloack.

Theres no exture here, nothing at all. He is completelly clean of any texture and his cape looks specially simple thansk to this but i guess it helps to make him look like a little anime chibi.

The paint is good but keept as minimum since each part is cast in the dominant color of that section. His skin looks really nice as well as the hair and the brown belts with the knifes, tough the metalic armor part have black silverish paint that makes them looks, well....metalic (and this includes the mechanical arm, is actually darker than the rest of the outfit and the cloack).

The mouth is both sculpted and painted tough the scar on his nose and entire eyes section is only paint. Looks crispy and pretty clean and still amaze me that, despite the simplicity of the "anime" design, his eyes are totally different to the eyes of the other Nendroids, and the thick eye brows too. He have one black aye and his gaze is as serious and cold as Venom Snake.

He dosnt have too many extras tough. To begin with he comes with two extra face plates that fits into his head once the front hair part is removed. Is prettye asy to exchange them and one have an mischevious smile and the other is shouting. The screaming one is my favorite and fits him perfectly tough the addition of the smiling one is good, i think he looks way too much like an anoying breat in here, even his pupil lose all ligth to make it looks like he is in madness mode but it dosnt works for me.

His most important accesory is the Dragon Slayer tough, his giant sword that is,like always, taller than him. The metalic paint is good and i like a lot the bandages flapping at the wind in soft grey color. Of coruse the sword looks way too clean but it matches perfecty the extra clean look of Guts.

He comes with an extra left hand and an extra pair of hands to hold the sword. The hads are soo tiny and at times soo easy to lose but they are of coruse very important, specially the left one since is itself a weapon: his little mechanical hand is bend down and revealing his arm canon, just like the Figma (and just like with the Figma it makes me wonder why they just didnt articulated the hand....).

Since his arms are not articulated he also comes with a pair of extra arms with the elbows bend. The scult is nice as well as the paint and they can be exchanged by the bicep section, conects with the rest of the arm with a peg. And same way, since his legs are not articulated he also comes with a bend knee left leg. To my surprise is pretry easy to swap legs and this one helps for the more actiony posing.

He also comes with another pair of extra arms witout the bicep section. The missing biceps let him join the arms up front soo he can hold his sword with both arms at the same time. This is a pretty smart soluction since most figures cant join theyr hands up front to hold a gun or a sword (Not even the increedible expensive IconicQ Ryu can do it) and i even wish the Figma version had this arms.

And finally he have his base, the slasic Nendroid base made with trabsluscent plastic and an articulated arm thingy that conect to his back with  apeg, tough this time around the base is completelly inecesary except if you want to pose him jumping around.

And thats all, not much really and while i looooooove the look of this little Guts, he is pretty limited. Even with the extra leg and arms, he can only achive 4 or 5 poses and thats it, not only his design hinders his movement (he cant be pused with his sword over his shoulders because of his gigantic head), but the static nature of the figure as well. Is really not very fun pay with him to be honest, this is a figure once posed is best to let it rest on the shelve and thats it.

Or maybe i am just bitter for the price i pay....this guy is like 1/4 the size of a Gargoyle or a Pop Up Parade and i had to pay for him a little bit more that those. I still dont understand why this little figures are soo expensive since they are now basically statues, i even find it hard to call this an action figure at all.

Truth is i had this same issues even 10 years ago when i started collecting Nendroides with Metal Gear Solid, but the price they have now make things feel even worse. I am not sure if i will buy more Nendroids tough, despite how cute and cool looking they are, maybe i stop after Endeavor.

JET BLACK

I kind of miss anime, its been such a long time since i stoped watching anime because it got more and more difficult to watch thanks to the monotonus or senlses projects or just bare loli they offer now day. I remember the excitment that was watching not only the magnificent japanese animation, but theyr storys as well: Blue Submarine No.6, Vampire Hunter D, Bubblegum Crisis and one of the most perfect examples of wath is anime: Cowboy Bebop.

Strangelly there wasnt too much merch about Cowboy Bebop. We got a few Spike action figures and some Faye statues but thats it and of course, the character with less stuff on the market is my favorite character from the series: Jet Black. Not long about tugh, God Smile Company released the whole main characters cast as Pop Up Parade statues; those super cheap but really nice looking figures that rest over the giant shadow of the overpirced Nendroids.

While i like all the cast of Cowboy Bebop and i would love to have the entire collection, my main focus was of course Jet Black since this is perhaps the only figure of him to ever be made? I am not sure...maybe theres a statue somewhere but never seen it before soo this is the only way i have for now to have this husbando of mine in 3D shape.

The figure have the base scale of an average action figure soo while is not too big, it have a descent size to have a presence on the shelve and like the rest of the Pop Up Parades, he can only stand with his designated base, an hexagon shaped black base made in transluscent plastic. Is pretty discrete and elegant base that works great and match the rest of the collection.

The pose of Jet is good, with his weapon between his hands in front and a serious expression. Is very manly and sexy pose and unlike Lancer ot the Bubble Head Nurse, he has no protunding giant weapon soo is pretty easy to display.

The sculpt is very very nice, with his beard and the hair on the back of his head being a separate piece , the small details like the metalic part under his eye of the scare are perfectly sculpted and his body shape is perfect. He is very very curvy....very curvy, with a thin waist, a big round ass (and thats a big surprise) and big pecs but not only that, but he have a bukgue as well eveb if its covered under his gun (!!)!!

I know its a weird thing to read but yes, his body looks really really good despite it being totally covered by his suit, btu the suits hug his muscles soo good and the wrinkles in the perfect palce makes wonder!! Theres scartches on his legs and shoulder pads and protection and the eagle on his back is sharply sculpted as well.

Each part is cast in color plastic soo theres not a whole lot of painting in here and each section have a pretty brigth and clean color, matching perfectly the animated look of the characters, from the dark blue of his outfit to the redish shirt under it to the cilver paint on his shoulder pads and leg armour, each section have the figth color to not miss any detail of the sculting.

His pale skin looks good and most of the paint is on the yellow eaglye on his backa s well as on his face: his mouth and little tiny blue eyes as well and scar are finelly painted for such small scale tough my only issue here is that his head skin color is a little bit darker than the rest of his body. I only noticed this on the photos since in hand is pretty difficult to see this difference in color.

This is pretty much the only problem of this figure since the rest of the color, sculpt, material and design are really perfect, and even more perfect than that is the prie since this guy was super super cheap and comes with a transluscent plastic box to dsplay him without dust.

I am not sure if i will get the rest of the cast since my main point of interest is Jet Black but i am sure gonna get more Pop Up Parade since they are deffinetly much better than theyr price point and thats very rare now day.