viernes, 14 de febrero de 2020

HEATHER MASON


Back in 2012-13 it was nice to be a fan of Silent Hill, we just had a not soo bad game (Downpour) and figures started to be pruduced, it was like Silent Hill was finally to get popular again but in fact, it was the swan song of the franchise. Gecco was there to produce the very first ever figures of the serires, making expensive statues of the monsters of Silent Hill 2.


But they also worked on Silent Hill 3 producing Heather Morris and Robbie the Rabbit. I dont like Robbie actually, he was a nice background detail in the game but he is not character at all and i still wonder why people like him soo much to the point they even make figures on him, really i would love much more a Claudia figure or a James but i do love Heather Morris.


Heather is the shortest of the figures and the most light as well, tough she is still a big size statue in scale with a Hot Toys or Sideshow figure. She is moving with weapon on hand, full of doubt of wath is waiting for her in the next corner or triying to figure out how to attack her foe, a pretty simple pose yet it says a lot about her.


Her face is beautifull in a not anime style, with amazing sculpt on her eyes and lips, even her teeth are sculpted all thanks to Shin Tanabe. The color is great too, with pretty clean white and grens and brown for her outfit and a very realistic skin tone for her flesh. You can see freckles on her arms and the bags under her eyes or every single detail on her eye ball, theres not a single sloopynes in here, not even in the tiny details on the wrist watch.


Like Red Pyramid Thing, she is attached permanently to her base soo theres no risk to fall. The base is circular and repruduce the other world amousement park with a metalic texture and really brigth intense reds, it looks really hellish and almost iridiscent.


She comes with two extra hands, one to hold her gun and one to hold close quarter weapons. The gun is perfect tough very standar compared to the magnifiscent details on the character, and as hand to hand weapons she got two choiced: a metal pipe and a light saber. The pipe is a shorter version of the one the Nurse uses and the light saber is made with green transparent plastic with a leopard design.


Is really awesome gives us the chance to change theyr statues and how we display them with this kind of accesoryes, something i never seen before and after and my weapon of choice, is always the gun. She also comes of course with a card, including her info as well as a haunting and creepy artwork of her in a wheelchair with a Nurse on the shadows, really awesome stuff.


Compared to the monsters she is a little boring looking, but that dosnt change she is a trully beautifull figure that came out with a very low price (and if anyone is wondering, yes, she is wearing underwear under her skirt).

miércoles, 12 de febrero de 2020

RED PYRAMID THING


I still remmeber when Gecco first apeared 7 or 8 years ago, they were a brand new japanese figure brand that launched theyr name with Silent Hill statues, a very weird and odd decision and people was very vocal about theyr prices as well. They had succes and now the base price of theyr figures is four times higher....well, i am glad i was at the begining i guess and i was able to get theyr first figures.


I rescently got the Bubble Head Nurse in her regular version but after the Masahiro Ito version i got 7 years ago i actually had Red Pyramid Thing. I wasnt expecting to get him really...hes price was too high but it was really worth it!!


And i have to say i LOVE the Masahiro Ito artwork on the box and hos good it fits with the Nurse box, this are expensive statues but they used to be worth the price.


Red Pyramid Thing is taller than the Nurses tough hes back is leaning backwards soo in the end he is only a few inches taller tough he is much more heavyer than the Nurses. The sculpt is fantastic!! With his weird...outfit...i am not sure if its the outfit of a butcher since it looks more like an asylum stuff, having a great deranged texture and his muscles looking bulging and sexy, with veins around.


His helmteh looks like is exploding, almost not able to contain the sea of flesh underneath and with holes and big nails protunding around, this is a weird mixture of the organic and the inorganic and under his helmeth you can take a good look at the organic part: just flesh mixing with the metal and coming out of it.


The paint is great too, with a very clean grey on his muscles, and old looking white on his outift and a vibrant red on his helmeth, really, his head is my favorite part since it almost looks like is on fire.


This figure is a two for one deal since he comes with an extra monster!!! Theres two version sof him, one holding the Liying Figure and one holding a Manequin, and while a like much more the Liying Figure as monster, the Manequin is much more game accurate since the first time we see him he is raping this creatures.


The manequin also have an awesome sculpt and paint, a mixture of organic and inorganic since is imposible to say if this thing is an static object or a spider like creature. He have a wound with blood on his back or front...i dunno, something Red Pyramid did.


There is also a big sword weapon that gets in the way a lot since is too big and Pyramid is just dragging it and a very solid and elegant base imitating the floor of a kitchen. Non of this are removable tough, nor the Manequin or the base or sword, soo they dont count as accesory. This is a big and solid piece.


His only accesory is the card they included, with his description and an artwork. Sadlly, they didnt added the Masahiro Ito artowkr from the box and instead they used a game screenshot, a very poor decision in my opinion.


Theres not too much to say about this figure since is trully perfect, really haunting, weird and beautifull, with a great flow between the two creatures and a fantastic sculpt and paint, it almost look like a piece of art for a museum. This is for me the very best Silent Hill figure to date and one of the best productions from Gecco.

lunes, 10 de febrero de 2020

BUBBLE HEAD NURSE ~ MASAHIRO ITO VERSION ~



The Bubble Head Nurse Comicon Limtied Edition or "Masahiro Ito version"!!! I got this one...8 years ago!! And it was the very first Silent Hill figure i got (not that theres a lot of figures of the characters) and it was my first Gecco statue and it was expensive, tough for now day standars, it was really cheap, 1/4 of the price Gecco ask for theyr figures now...


The difference it have with the “regular” figure is the red socks/high heels boots thingys and the extra head with the….red….thing.


I am not pretty sure wath to think about the red thing on her head tough, i like her a lot more without it but i guess it adds an extra “wtf” factor to an already disturbing and surrealistic creature like her. Also is game accurate since some nurses have this same red element on the game.


Unlike the regular version, her head have a glossy/weet texture and the.....i dont know how to call them...the sides of her head looks more like flaps or fins and theres a white cort stroking her neck. The creatures of Silent Hill are soo crazy interesting to the point is even hard to discent theyr details in close up.


Those are the only unique elements, since the rest is the same as the regular version, the body and dress, the base, the shambling pose, the pipe weapon, the hands....no, the hands are different as well, since they have five fingers instead of 3 and the card that comes with the figure have also a different description but the same art the regular version had.


Is interestinf how at first both figures look the same, but they have many different spall details aside of the boots, not only the hands are different and the shape of her head, but the color of her skin is also more pink and less purple.


The paint is fantastic really, with the dress looking all dusty and old and her skin having a disturbing realistic look, with veins and texture and even the skin on her neck where she is being strangled is torn appart and the gloves and head looks plastic and swollen.


I dont know wich Nurse i like the most, the original one of this one since i like this one head shape better but the red boots are really awkard. Gecco did an amazing job with this figures and i am really happy to get them before they started boosting theyr price like crazy.


miércoles, 5 de febrero de 2020

DANTE


Its amazing how time flys and how theres very little merchadise of Devil May Cry over the years. In the last entry i talked about the 1/6 scale Devil May Cry 4 Dante figure from Asmus soo i guess its fitting to talk about the only other figure of the character i won. This one is ancient actually, it from 2010 or 2011 and was one of the very first no-Final Fantasy figures SquareEnix produced.

Back then the Play Arts Kai line was surrounded by hype and it boasted some really amazing details, articulations and big scale. Aside of the Resident Evil 5 and Bayonetta lines, Square also pick Devil May Cry 4 (wich wasnt new at all even back then...) to produce Nero and Dante. I wish i got Nero since he was really really good looking, but he has never been my priority soo i only pick up Dante.


One problem of the Play Arts Kai line is that the figures started to shrink for some reason and at one point they started to gre bigger and bigger (touh the price only grew constantly) soo as one of the very first PAK´s, Dante is smaller than the last figures of the line and fits in the same scale as RE5 and Final Fantasy XIII. He is a little bit bigger than Chris and is as tall as Snow Villiers.


He can stand on his own perfectly tough he also had a really horrible and useless base that was better to discard and is articulated on the neck, chest, waist, whoulders, niceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes, ankles, middle of the feet and have an extra articulation on the back of his jacket. All this articulations works perfectly good and are strong enough to keep the poses and is in here were he probes to be more fun than the Asmus figure. There is very little chance of breakeg and is a lot of fun to play with him tough i still dont want to force the articulations.


To help him move better, his entire jacket is made with soft plastic as well as his chaps. The jacket comes in two pieces, one from the upper body and a long "tail" that can be moved with a joint on his back, tough since its kinda tricky to keep it still.

The sculpt is good, his build is muscly and athletic, just like he is on the game and the articulations are arguablly hidden with the sculpt of the outfit, the only noying ones are the ones on the shoulders. Somehow it gives the impression his arms are too away from his torso. The level of details is good and theres different textures for different materials, both his chaps and jacket have a rugged texture to mimic leather tough they looks kinda odd once you see the great outfit of the Asmus Dante.


His face is good too tough i got the feeling his jaw should be bigger tough theres a descent liknes to Dante in here but the obnoxious part is the paint. Square always triyed to mimic real life skin with paint with pretty odd results: his blue eyes are perfectly painted but he somehow have redish bags under his eyes and sometimes they are pretty evident. Also his beard dosnt looks very natural at all.

This paint applications works better for the costume tough since it highlight all details like the burrons or the zippers. They even painted the design on his chaps and his boots, something Asmus didnt do.


He dosnt have too many accesories tough, only a pair of closed fists that i wish had Gilgamesh installed and a pair of holding hands with pegs on the palm. The weapons have little holes soo the pegs stick in there and the items dosnt fall. Thsi system is really....weird....is kinda difficult to put the weapons in between his fingers and the peg in the hole at the same time, i feel this peg could broke aytime.


His weapons of course consist on Ebony and Ivory and Rebelion. All of the works great for him and have a descent sculpt and paint as well tough compared to Asmus....they are lacking detail. The guns dosnt have the portraits for example, and the pointy details on Rebelion are very soft and round (like the crown or the horns). Also theres no holster for the guns, tough Rebelion can be attached to Dantes back with the help of a peg on his jacket.


I know is unffair to compared him to Asmus Dante, this guy was 1/5 the price of Asmus Dante and deffnetly is more standar quality, tough in articulations he wins and compared to the other Play Arts Kai of the time, he is really good looking. Years later Square released a DMC3 Dante that looked hiddeous and awkard soo this one is, after 10 years, the very best Dante action figure if you dont want to bother with all the issues of a 1/6 scale figure and one of the best and more fun Play Arts Kai.

lunes, 3 de febrero de 2020

DANTE


The 1/6 scale action figures are trully amazing and beautifull but incredible troublesome and needs a lot of care. They are not specially fun and theyr price is sky rooketing to the point i cant afford them anymore. Tough a year ago i was surprised to find one of my husbandos in this scale and i culd not ignore it despite its high price, this guy was more expensive than the Red of the Death Mask Phantom, placing himself as the second most expensive figure in my collection.


Asmus toys is the brand who took the Devil May Cry license from Capcom and in the last couple of years it has produced five figures: Dante, Vergil and Lady from Devil May Vry 3, Dante from Devil May Cry 4 and Nero from Devil May Cry 5 and in the next months they will release Dante from Devil May Cry 5. A lot of figures with pretty high price, i wonder if theres someone who get all of them??


Dante is very tall, the usual scale Hit Toys and Sideshow use and can stand on his own perfectly. His body is fully articulated on every section and i am not sure if its generic or not since the skin tone and texture matches perfectly for him and under the clothes he have abs and nice manly details.

The face sculpt is the most important part of course and he looks good tough he is not really perfect. He is disturbingly realistic to the point if you see him from certain distance of in a photo, he looks like a living human being. This is the very first time i got a figure from Asmus soo i am impressed with the level of detail on his sculpt and paint.


At first i tugh his nose was too big, but comparing him with the in game model, the nose is perfect, as well as his sexy half smile and his blue eyes are beautifull, tough they are a little bit small. His lips are a little bit too thin as well and i think thats wath bugs me. The characters in DMC4 are anime designed of course and it seems Asmus wanted to give him a more realistic aproach. This guy is a very solid sculpt of Dante if he was in real life i guess.


The skin tone is pale and his bangs cover one of his eyes. The hair is nicely sculpted tough is a little bit too dark...again, totally white would be a little strange but i wish they used a softer grey. His entire neck and shoulders section have a fake soft plastic skin covering soo the articulation on the neck is well hidden, he can tilt his head on all direction and his clevage looks really good with no visible articulations.


His outfit is amazing, with soo many tiny belts and tiny zipper that actually works, this figure is really good to find out how his outfit works. the bucklet on his belts as well as the round buckles on the front chest belts are metalic and his pants and jacket are made with a "PREMIUM LEATHER" (even the box have the logo on the top).


I investigate and aparently Asmus was able to make a special plastic fabric that looks like leather and is super durable and strong, different to other brands clothes. Actually, the leather is very thin and light, almost like paper but it does really looks like leather with all the tones and wear marks. His incredibly sexy chaps are made with this same material and they are really good looking tough i still wonder for how long and if this Premium Leather really works....only time will tell.


The jacket have wire on the inside soo the it can be posed in many ways and thats a fantastic detail and helps a lot to bost the fun factor of the figure tough the wire dosnt runs up to the zipper section, soo its very difficult to pose the jacket in a correct relaxed flow.


As extremelly good looking as his outfit is, it have a bad side effect: restrict articulations. His neck, elbows and wrists and frrt are totally free, but Dante´s shoulders are really restricted by the black shirt and the jacket on top since the fabric get stuck under his arm pits. His tigth pants also prevent his legs to spread too much and his knes, well, i dont want to put presure on the premium leather. 


And in a character like this, having limited movement is trully tragic, he can be posed mostly on natural but pasive poses, anything too extreme would damage the leather or break the articulations. And speaking of body movement, i am really dissapointed with the build he have....he is supposed to be extremelly bulky and muscled, but this figure have a very thin physich, thats specially evident with his arms and chest to the point i even consider buying another body for him, a Pichen one.....tough maybe that would ruin his outfit?


His accesoryes are a bunch of hands, to hold Rebelion, his guns and closed fist. The hands swap can be done pretty easy and the hands can hold the accesoryes perfectly since they are made with very soft plastic, tough the black paint on his gloves is peeling away and i dont like that...


He also comes with Ebony and Evory, his two guns. The details on the weapons are really good, they even have the "Tony Redgraves" mark on them and the portraits and if not in use, they fit perfectly inside holsters under Dante´s jacket. The presence of the guns under his arms open his jacket too much, but is good to see this kind of details that arent too clear on the game.


His other weapon is his sword Rebelion. The sword is big and heavy and has only one single metalic color, tough the sculpt is extremelly good and clean and is full of sharp points to the point even the instructions said it need to be handle with care. Despite his size and weigth, Dante´s arms are strong enough to keep the sword on balance and if not in use the sword can be put on his back. 


How? Well, with a magnet attached to the inside of his jacket and another one inside Rebelion, this way you put the sword on his back and it just attach there, with nothing at all holding it. This is my favorite detail on the entire figure and is really brillant, its the first time i got a figure with a magnet.

He also have his base with a round shape and carvings on the side and a section of Fortuna´s floor on the center. I am not sure if this section is just a sticker, but looks strong and have a very nice soft texture. The base is simple but elegant and works really good.


And thats it, I really wish they give him more of his weapon´s, like Coyote of Gilgamesh....maybe Gilgamesh is too much to ask but adding Lucifer would be extremelly easy with the back magnet, tough they released another version called the "LUXURY EDITION" that includes a huge diorama base with a death Blitz. The looks is amazing but i dont have room for such item nor the money to buy it, this standar edition was expensive enough already.


This figure is really confusing, i mean is really elegant and have many amazing details and loks crazy good, but it have all the issues this kind of figures have: limited articulations, very delicate details and a body that dosnt fully convince me, i dont regret owning him i really like him, but the price is already too high, not in this one, but on all figures in this scale: Sideshow, Asmus, Hot Toys, Medicom....

I hate his DMC3 version and his DMC5 version hasnt grown on me yet tough i have to admit, Vergil is very tempting, i would love to have both brothers together tough i doubt i spent this much money again on a figure soo i am very happy having this particular version of Dante, my favorite. Tough i am still tempted to change that body...