Remember my review of the Blanc de Plume that came as part of a 3×3 pack from ThreeA toys? Well the 3×3 finally arrived. After spending 14 days in customs and me having to pay an additonal 135 dollars (import fee) I have my Martins.
The set as mentioned contains 9 robots in all (3 Large Martins, 3 Damn Large Martins, and 3 Brambles) and in this edition of the review I am going to keep my focus on the Martin as a general figure. I will not be discussing the different colorways (ThreeA Toys nomenclature for paint variants). There are some kick ass paint variants in this set and I’ll tackle that part later. I’m also skipping the Brambles, there are 3 colorways toting RPG’s and I’ll get to the Brambles as individual robots and include the colorways in the Colorway review.
Let me say, this is my first exposure to ThreeA Toys robots so I’m a ThreeA robot virgin. The 3×3 set is made up of 3 Large Martins, 3 Damn Large Martins and 3 Brambles. The Martins are the largest of the robots and they have one large cannon attached to their “neck”. They also have no hands, rather stubs with fingers like a meat tenderizer; imagine the physical damage these guys can do to a human on the battlefield. The Large Martins and Damn Large Martins differ in the number of cannons attached, Large Martins have one and Damn Large Martins have two.
Martins have articulation at the following points:
Head – Swivel
Neck – Swivel
Shoulders – Double Ball and Socket
Biceps – Swivel
Elbows – Hinged
Wrists – Swivel
Fingers – Hinged
Thumb – Ball and Socket
Hips – Ball and Socket
Knees – Hinged
Ankles – Ball and Socket
The cannons are attached to the neck and are swiveled to move up or down.
As a an articulated robot there is not much in the way of revolutionary, most Gundam/Bandai enthusiasts have seen this type of articulation for years. Bandai’s earlies releases of Gundams had robots with hinge joints and swivels. Eventually Bandai incorporated poly caps to make ball and socket joints. Articulated fingers in Master Grade and Perfect Grade kits have existed since 1998 when the Perfect Grade line was released.
But these robots are not models that have to be assembled and painted yourself. They are toys, ready to be played with out of the package. Ok well not ready, each joint needs to be carefully checked and then maybe you can play. I had a broken Bramble thumb on removal from the plastic and the Mod Chip Martin’s ankle broke off on the first joint check. Once you’ve checked them as ok they are a pleasure to pose.
Experienced ThreeA collectors have complained that the Martins are not as posable as the other models, Armstrongs, Berties and Brambles. And they are correct. The Martin compared to the Bramble has less flexibity but then I never expected it to be as flexible. The Martin is a large unit with a big ass cannon mounted on it’s shoulder and designed with stability, it needs to be able to shoot a monster shell or two from it’s shoulders. The design reflects this. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t get some decent posing from it. The legs are A-OK in my book, but I would like to see more 90 degree flexibility in the elbow hinge.
Another point to make is that these robots are articulated vinyl figures. Again not revolutionary, Toy Biz, Marvel Toys, NECA and the Urban/Collectible Vinyl companies have made articulated figures before. But unlike maybe NECA’s Balrog, these are way beyond anything the others have made to-date. The design, based on Ashley Wood’s art is fantastic. I’m not certain if they call it steam punk, world war 1 – 2, or some kind of post modern apocalypse; no matter they make the design realistic and it works.
Pouches. I love the pouches, but with no hands, what is a Martin doing with pouches? Are these for the Berties, Brambles and Armstrongs? Or are they for the humans? You know what would make them cool? If they had shoulder straps for the de Plume’s or a generic soldier… Each Martin comes with 2 pouches.
The paint is amazing. As mentioned I’ll hit the colorways another time, but the paint apps have to be mentioned. The paint makes the robot pop. Multiple layering of paint that results in a realistic application changing a mere robotic piece of white vinyl into a killing machine waiting to take me out. There is nothing new in the paint apps, military modellers have been painting this way for years, I started making tanks from Testors/Italeria, Tamiya and Verlinden models in the 80’s. But I’ve never seen toys with this level of paint and “decaling”. The base coat to the layers of wash and dry brush make these robot pop off the shelf. And, for once, I don’t have to spend the time and effort of painting this detail onto the figure and the quality and cost of these figures make it worth it.
I mentioned in the Blanc de Plume article that my wife and her friend loved Blanc de Plume, I got the same reaction from my wife on the ‘bots. She loves them. And my kids are patiently waiting for me to say “you can play with them”. At an irreplaceable 40 bucks a pop I have my reservations about letting them go nuts. We’ll see.
These robots are phenomenal they are fun, as I am writing this my youngest is sitting in the living room playing with them (guess the decision is made…). I love looking at them and playing with them with my Plan-B toys military figures or Winter Soldier. Forum member moldie recently complained about the lack of human’s in the WWRP line and I agree, while Nom, Blanc and Noir de Plume are available, they really aren’t. Blanc was part of the 3×3 package, Noir and Blanc had limited sales windows. You can find them on the evilbay market but they are otherwise difficult and expensive to come by. ThreeA needs to launch a “mass produced” grunt that customers can “army build”.
For any collector wanting a big ass killer robot to add to their 1/12 or 6″ action figure lines then I strongly recommend they hit the after market and pick these up!
More information about the set can be found following the link below. In addtion there are several links to the ThreeA wiki where you can find more information about the robots.
http://www.threeaonline.com/blog/?p=532
3×3 Blue
http://threeawiki.com/Marine_JEA_Large_Martin
http://www.threeawiki.com/Martian_Dam_Buster_Damn_Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Phobos_Defense_RPG_Bramble_Mk_2
3×3 Red
http://threeawiki.com/Norge_Defense_Large_Martin
http://www.threeawiki.com/Iron_Panda_Damn_Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Pink_Dazzle_RPG_Bramble_Mk_2
3×3 Orange
http://threeawiki.com/Mod_Chip_Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Sand_Devil_Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Grave_Digger_RPG_Bramble_Mk_2
More Links
http://threeawiki.com/Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Damn_Large_Martin
http://threeawiki.com/Bramble_Mk_2
http://threeawiki.com/Blanc_de_Plume
http://threeawiki.com/Nom_de_Plume
http://threeawiki.com/Colorways
Author’s Note! My lightbulbs busted before this shoot and I had to scrounge replacements, rather than taking the time to make the camera adjustments I took the pics straight up.
