Guts is the main character in the popular anime and manga Berserk. The manga made it’s debut in the later ’80s with the anime breaking ground in the late ’90s. The story is set in a medieval world of knights, kings and demonic creatures. My exposure to Berserk was always on the fringe and it’s only recently that I’ve taken to seeing the whole anime series. I recently read a couple of things on the internet saying that the creators of successful video games Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 love the Berserk series and based armors, NPC’s, characters, enemies and maybe events on Berserk. I don’t know the depth to this truth but I can definitely see similarities, but then much of the manga and video game use traditional medieval armor and weapons it’s tough to know how much the manga influences the game but I’ve decided that the Berserk universe is tied into the The Nexus, Firelink Shrine, and Majula.
Thus my new resolve to collect figma’s Berserk action figures. There are currently 5, Guts Black Soldier version, Guts Berserk Armour version, Casca, Griffith and Guts Band of the Hawk version. I decided to start with Guts Band of the Hawk as this is Guts from the start, he hasn’t become worn down and changed by the world, he’s still looking sharp in his armor and is still “heroic.” Figma’s figure accurately captures the look, it’s a fantastic sculpt and has so much detail I get lost looking at the figure. It’s a tall figure coming with great accessories. If I had to throw out one complaint it might be that the length of the forearms are a bit long, the long legs and long arms give Guts an amazing sense of power!
The armor sculpting is really the ticket on this character, his chest plate and the banded armor on his thighs are really well sculpted. The chest plate is sculpting using a really soft rubber allowing for the ab joints to work unhindered. However there is a bit of an odd configuration as the chest armor is split into 3 parts. The back plate is a part of the chest sculpt which is hollowed in the front, there are no ribs or chest sculpting, with the front plate being made up of 2 flaps of rubber. The flaps meet along the chest strap with one gliding under the other. At first it was a bit odd, but after posing figure quite a bit you aren’t hit with huge eyesore in the engineering of these three pieces, in fact quite the opposite. The pieces move and flow together quite seamlessly despite having seams.
The articulation is figma standard, there’s really no other way of describing it, you have hinged joints at the ankles, knees, ab, elbows, wrists and neck. Additionally there are combo ball and socket hinged joints at the chest and shoulders with thigh swivels and ball and sockets at the hips, waist and neck. All of it functions and you get an amazing amount of motion with all of it, figma doing a great job to manage the sculpt and articulation in a perfect harmony.
The accessories as always are fantastic! Extra hands, cape, base and an ultra greatsword. Yes, I am including the naming convention from the Souls’ games for this sword, it is an ultra greatsword. I’m wondering if I can upgrade it to lightning or fire… Despite the size of the sword, it’s light and the figure is able to hold it and keep poses without much issue. During the recent hours of play I found out that DCUC’s Hawkman and Hawkwoman weapons work well with him.
Guts comes with 2 heads and a helmet. One normal head, one screaming. The helmet fits over the faces, remove the hair and put on the helmet. The face place is a separate piece and snaps on, I’ve yet to have issues with it falling off. I display him with his helmet on, normal faced.
Yes, you need this figure. Whether you are a die hard fan of the manga, anime, the Soul’s games or fantasy, you need this figure. It’s a perfect match for just about every fantasy setting that I have on my shelves and you’d be crazy not to pick him up today.
You can still pick this figure up today at
