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.

DEVILMAN VS SIREN ~ SHI NO MA

 

A couple of years ago (time sure flys fast!!) i posted the reviews of my Devilman action figures collection in here, but truth is there is a lot much more about Devilman than that, i still got plenty of figures about the Go Nagai character and i am still missing an awfull lot in my collection. The 80s and the 90s were like a magic fountain for Devilman and sometimes wonder if we will see another influx of popularity like that ever again.

Even Kaiyodo participate on the Devilman fever back then, at the begining of the century, with a collection of four statues made in polystone, showcasing famous scenes from the Devilman manga with a hihg quality sculpt, paint and price too. Out of the fours i got only one, the one tittled "SHI NO MA"

Like i said, this statue is made with polystone soo its really really heavy but sadly.....its quiet tiny as well. Really, with the price i pay back then i was expecting something much much bigger, but this statue is smaller than an average action figure, actually is the same size a Funko Pop (tough is still pretty heavy).

It stands perfectly tough is delicate....it fall once from my shelf on an earthquake and ended with a couple of cracks, mostly due to the incrediblly amount of detail and the small scale, the sculpt is really intrincate.

The figure shows Devilman and Siren battling, Devilman is half underwater with Siren fliying on top of him, holding his arm with her claws soo the base of the statue is water tough is not trabsluscent thanks to the stone material, the paint makes all the trick to make it looks like the water on an illustration.

Again, the sculpt is incrediblly intrincate, with the bodys contorning and twisting around each other as well as the water and wings, the wings of Siren must be my favorite part, the detailsing on the feathers is astoninshing!!!The wings and the waves in the water looks really beautifull.

The body proportions are a little extreme and grotesque looking, but i guess thats thanks to the small scale, you must exagerate proportions to give it moving motion to the piece. 

The paint is also really good, while the faces are kinda hidden, the eyes, mouth and other details are clearlly painted as well as the shadowing and washing on the bodys to highlight the muscles of both demons. Also the paint have a strange pearly quality that makes it shyne. This is specially evident on the water and Siren wings.

The only downside for me was the scale. Most of the time is pretty difficult to discenr wath is happening until you get pretty close and notice all the intrincate sculpting and paint, and even soo, some part are really difficult to see without a magnifiying glass. Its even pretty damn difficult to take pictures of this actually as can be seen in here.

The other statues show Devilman´s ripping of Siren´s wings as well as Devil navigating a logs sea and fusing with Akira, pretty nice and gothic but the scale kill them for me. The price was very high back then and now they must cost a fortune soo this collection will be incomplete for me.

SIREN

 Turning back in time, to the last years of the 20th century, was when Final Fantasy reach its glory point as well as it was born on the action figures industry too. It wasnt FF VII the one that started selling figures tough, but it was Final Fantasy VIII in the hands of Bandai and Kotobukiya. Bandai released figures of the main characters while Kotobukiya put the "creatures" of the game on the shelves. The coolest part is that both companies used the same scale soo the "creatures" are taller than the human characters.

Sadlly, i sold all my collection and a couple of the creatures too but i keep a few and now i been triying to get again those misisng monsters in my collection. The serires focused on the Guardian Force and the very first one i got was as well the very first Guardian Force of the game: Siren. The scale is not as big as i rememberded tough since she is a a little smaller to the average modern action figure scale.

She cant stand at all thanks to the odd shape of her legs but she comes with a plane plate base with an arm to help her stand. Sadlly, i lose her base soo i had to use a generic one that works perfectly for her. As an action figure from that time, she is not very articulated: shoulders, elbows, legs, knes and wings and all this segments use cut joints, soo they only move on one direction.

There is not too much logic on moving her legs since she could not stand at all and the arms movement is soo limited, the most helpfull articulations are on her wings. The sculpt is nice, pretty faitthfull to Tetsuya Nomura design, she is almost like a statue and her legs are sculpted leaning to her side. Is a nice touch to not give her a totally generic pose.

Most of the details are on the feathers and face and still those details have a very soflt scultpting. Color is the same, the body is cast on flesh tone soo most of it is on her wings tough the colors are pretty nice and vibrant, blue, greens and purples, i specially love her metalic purple claws as well as her lips and eyes.

She have two accesoryes, one is her harp. Is nicelly sculpted and painted in green with gold and even the cords are metalic, tough is very difficult for her to hold it thanks to the shape of her hands, a reall strugle! The second accesory is a completelly different Guardian Force: Cactuar!!

Cactuar is tiny, perfectly sculpted and perfectly painted. The only downside is that he cant stand at all, but he match with any other FF figures line no matter the scale.

Despite the details could be better and the useless articulations, this figure was soo impresive back then... she looked soo pixelated and blurry on the Playstation game, it was such a luxury see this character in HD and this is also probablly the best design this monster ever had.

SIREN KUBRIK

Medicom Toy released in 1980 (yes, this figures are 40 years old!!!!) a Kubrik collection about Devilman, wich are some of the most fun and cute toys based on the character since they have all the charm and amusement toys from back then had.

They released 3 sets: one based on the OVAs and titled "Devilman The Original" and 2 based on the animation series called "Devilman The Nimation A" and "Devilman The Animation B". The Animation A had Devilman on his TV series version, blue with red wings, Miki Makimura and Zannin but sadly, i dont have it.

But i do own The Animation B, that includes Akira Fudo from the TV series, Diren and Kain. All have the same size except for Kain that is much more smaller to the already thiny scale and they can stand on theyr own, but like The Original set, they have a 3 panel base that conect with each other and a cardboard background with cartoony electric designs. Only for display porpuse tough.

Akira looks extremelly different to the other one, that was pure blackness, this is pure color with brown hair and yellow shirt and he even have an accesory, a little belt that is extremelly tricky to put on his hand. Tough he is the less impresive from the set.

Siren was the main interest for me on this set. Her wings are a little bit too small but they are OK given the lego style and i dont mind the censoring on her. Tough she is not the TV series version since she is white, she is the OVA version. Same for Kain since he never appeare on the TV series.

Kain is soo incrediblly cute and is the only one that have no articulation at all. Tough he head can be removed and can be fused with Siren, to make her final form. This is why this toys are soo much fun and soo charming, you can remove and mix theyr parts to make hybrids. Also this is pretty much the only figure of Kain ever released wich make this set the more valuable.

While i want the A set with Zannin and Devilman, i think this is much much better and a must for the display and i am very happy to own this one and The Original too. And with this i end my Devilman figure reviews!!! I write a lot about this characters already and i need a rest and probablly, my ghost readers too. That dosnt mean i ran out of Devilman figures, i have many more, but i will keep them for later.

DEVILMAN, SIREN & DEVILMAN LADY TORUTORU ITEM

Now this are actually my very first Devilman figures i ever had. When i meet Devilman for the first time on the Playstation videogame i didnt had the confidence to buy those huge and expensive Fewture Models figures, but i sure get in no time this tiny little figures from the line Toru Toru Item, by Banpresto.

This figures where not very spectacular actually, but they are the seed of my collection.

They are very small, like the Microman, but unlike them they can stand on theyr own and theyr articulations are extremelly limited: only the neck, shoulders and legs (and wings on Siren and Devilman) soo the posability is almost no existent, just like the 90s toys.

The details are OK i guess, given theyr small size (again), Devilman have brigth yellow eyes and red and withe mouth with fangs and Siren looks a lot like the character design of the OVAs, and the sculpt is also descent with Devilman having big and sexy muscles with veins and the girls having the misil boobs Go Nagai love soo much.

I have to say i think i was 14 or 15 years old back then? I dont remember, but i do remember how unconfortable was to have this little toys of nude women....

They didnt have any accesory except for Devilman Lady that comes with a chibi version of Asuka Ran, an extremelly weird detail i must say and there was a 4th figure on the collection; Devilman anime version, but i didnt get him because i tough he looked silly.

Also, many years ago, before i moved out from my old house, Devilman fall from my desk and lose one of his wings and it didnt matter how much i searched (i even moved), i never found his wing again. Its a weird experience and is anoying to have him incomplete (specially since i think they are very tircky to get by now) but i cant say much about this figures aside of that.

DEVILMAN & SIREN MICROMAN

The Microman series of figures from Takara has been one of the most classic toys from Japan, i think they been around since the 70s, long before Takara started theyr maine series of Transformers soo this series has een a lot of popular characters from the sentai era (like Ultraman or the Kaijus) and super heros from DC and such, and of course, Devilman appeare in this series and it fits on it pretty well.

I think there is two different version of the figures: the anime version with blue and red Devilman and the manga version, that comes with two characters; Devilman and Siren. Of course i get the later and it wasnt expensive back then when i get it (the beggining of the 2000s) tough by now i ma not sure if this figures are rare or not.

This figures are micro size, really small, smaller than a Nendroid soo its very tricky to take pictures of them soo excuse the strange quality of the images. Devilman and Siren are the same size tough despite theyr small size, they cant stand on theyr own thanks to theyr articulations and heavy wings.

Aside of the tiny scale, the second draw point for this figures is the articulations. They are extremelly articulated and can achive almost any pose you can think and they interact nicelly. Is fun to put this two fighting each other.

The details tough are OK i guess. The paint is minimum (mustly only on the heads) but they are good for theyr small size, i mean each one have fangs and the eyes perfectly painted, lack the realism of bigger figures but at this size they looks really good. Tough wath i find anoying is the really intrusive articulations, they are extremelly evident and there is not way to hide them with this size and nude level.

Also, while is nice they have articulation on the wings, i feel like the articulations could be broke in any minute, thanks to the plastic used and theyr small size.

Theyr accesoryes are a pair or circular bases with the awesome Microman logo on it. This bases helps them a lot to stand but i wish they also added bases with an arm soo they can be posed floying around. Theyr other accesoryes are an awfull LOT of little hands.

This hands helps a lot for the posses, but they are made with softish and squishy plastic, soo theyr colors is different to thatof the bidy and also, thanks to the material, is extremelly difficult to change them. The little sift peg can be broke and get stuck on theyr wrists soo i decided to just leave the hands alone and dont use it.

This issue extend to the entire figures actually, thanks to theyr small size and flimsy plastic, i feel they are going to broke in any minute, add theyr lack of balance and you have the most frustrating Devilman figures i ever had.

 Is really difficult to pose them and they dont looks fantastic thanks to the articulations, soo they are not very fun to watch but not too fun to play with either. Is weird how cool this little pair is but how they are not very functional at all.

SIREN

The strange and misteryous Marmit company released a set of Dynamic Action Figures based on Devilman in the 80s-90s. Theres not much information about this series or the company itself and the figures are actually very rare tough theres some exceptions, somehow i seen Siren a lot over the years wich is pretty strange given how popular she is, one would expect she to be the first to sold out.

And i actually have a speciall memorie about this figure since it was a gift from my parents for succesfully aprove the collecgue entrance exam (yes, my parents give me a toy of a nude woman, i know how strange it sounds) and i consider her one of the high points of the series as well thanks to her exquisite sculpt and paint.

She is only articulated on her legs, shoulders and head, wich mare her pretty limited like any good and respectable 90s figure tough she stands in a pretty proud and femenine way. Her sculpt is really good since every hair on her feathers is sculpted and the paint is up to the same level of detail.

She have a pretty natural and good looking skine tone with soft washes and i love his her claws are painted in orange with brown washes. Here face is extremelly pretty tough she dosnt have the usual evil smile she shows on the manga, her fangs can still been seen coming out of her pink lips and her eyes with eyelashes are the typical Go Nagai style.

She have trobles with balance tough, since her head is really heavy and his feet have tiny bird fingers in front, she tends to fal frewuently tough once she get the rigth balance she can stand perfectly.

This is one of the prettyest Siren figure i ever seen and i am too happy with her and one extra cute detail! On her blister she had a sticker of Go Nagai's mascot over her breast! I guess it wasnt very normal to see toys with nude boobs back in the past century tough it seems they didnt have any issue with her feathery pubes.

SIREN

The Devilman toy line from Fewture Model was one of my obssesions many years ago. I had great 90s memories from them and they are as big as a Play Arts Kai ye they were 1/5 the price, designed by Yasushi Nirasawa, they are the most popular Devilman figures soo far.

The third figures of the series was a pretty rare piece and one of the most importants; Siren, the demon bird. This figure is one of the rarest mostly because ToyR´Us didnst wanted to seel a nude woman, soo Fewture had to re-sculpt and re-design Siren to fit western morality.

There are two Sirens, the original (and HARD to find) japanese one and a much more common censored USA version, both with a totally different color scheme and re-sculpted breast.

Nirasawa´s Siren is a pretty odd design. While he keep all her female beauty features intact and the bird arms and feet, the wings are extraordinary small. I didnt knew if i had to feel dissapointed with this wmall wings or not… this are not wings to fly but they looks more like decorative wings.

I sometimes wondered how spectacular could Siren look with this big scale if she had huge wings. Then again, this design dosnt looks bad at all and Nirasawa not only play with her wings span, but with the color as well.

Siren body have a beautyfull pearl color, a white tone that make her looks like a ceramic doll, with pretty sift pink and purples in specific spots to give her body an angelic look. Yet her wings have a deep purple/blue that gives her a lot of elegance and darken the look of her eyes.

Her face expressions, with a soft smirk on her black lips and her bright eyes stansing out of the dark purple color of her feathers give her a pretty eerie and enchanting looks.

Her sculpt is beautyfull for sure, with amazing details on her bird claws and each feather on her head and tail being sharply designed, but her color is wath makes her stand out: the vibrant yelow on her forehead and pubic area, her marmolic body and dark look of her eyes make her looks like a gothic goodess.

The much more common USA censored version is not as lucy tough, with a completelly plain “skin tone”, white wings and golden claws, she looks much more close to all other Siren figures on the market but looks soo simple as well. Her face is really nice tough, with some nice beauty make up on her eyes and bright red lips, she also have sparks on her wings that give him a pretty look.

The feathers on her chest also sparks, but i cant stop thinking she is inferior to the japanese original Nirasawa design.

Both figures have the same base; a dark rocky area with blue metalic and white skulls scatered around and both have the same issues to stand. Being soo lean and tall and thanks to the wonly and weird shape of her bird feet, the thing fingered claws cant resist her weight and i also had to use black paper  under theyr feet to get them to balance.

Articulation wise they are a little better than Devilman and Amon; they have cut legs, shoulders, elbows, wrists and neck and this gives them a little bit more display chances (tough the articulation on theyr legs is usless if you want them to stand). They also have an extra articulation on each wing soo they can open and close them and theyr anthena is made with soft plastic.

At first, Siren wasnt one of my favorites of the line until many years later, when i manage to get the original japanese release that made me change my mind. She is trully hypnotic.

The USA censored Siren and the original Siren, both being exactly the same figures and looking totally different thanks to they color. A like a lot the USA version with the original Go Nagai colors, but the japanese version is much more detailed and memorable.