Tonight we take a look at another new figure from the Revoltech line by Kaiyodo. This time around it’s Dante, as he was portrayed in Devil May Cry 3, prequel to the popular game series by Capcom.
Packaging
If you’re looking for info, let’s hope you can read japanese. As an Import figure this packaging contains little to no english text. Mainly only the title of the line and name of the figure. There’s tons of other text here, but in a foreign language.
Its a decent sized box, a little oversized considering what’s packed in it, but nonetheless it doesn’t get too big. Side opening flaps and an enclosed plastic tray with clear plastic cover to hold the figure and main weapons in, his extra accessories are loosely stored in a plastic bag taped to the back. Not that great woulda preferred a tray to hold these as they are numerous and he can’t hold them all, but oh well. Overall the design is pretty bland, theres some nice action shots of the figure on the back, but no pictures of the other figures in the line, funny considering one of the few english statements on the packaging says "Let’s Collect all REVOLTECH!" well sorry I don’t see any others.
Sculpt
This is what one would call a fairly "Anime" style sculpt. Knowing the games natural design leans towards an anime style, this is a good bit beyond that. Featuring a slightly feminine face for dante, and slightly odd proportions in the way of small head, big hands/feet. But that aside the details and the look are there. He’s spot on to the games design, and looks great, even capturing his playful nature with the smirk face. I would have preferred maybe a stern head, either as the main one or an extra but alas none to be found. His alternate head is an open mouthed yelling head, which is still quite happy go lucky and is best used with him playing his wicked guitare, but more on that later.
For this scale, and it is an odd one, being around 5 inches and not fitting in with basically any other figure line out there (much to the chagrin of many collectors) he’s nicely detailed. THe coat and pants have some clean lines and great little tid bits like buckles and zippers and buttons. The weapons are also wonderfully sculpted and accurate to the game. They are probably by far the best part of the figure. One ugly feature is a large peg on his back for his sword and guitar, sticking out obvious if neither are on his back it will be a bit noticable.
Paint
This is a fairly nice paintjob for a figure like this. He has a wash/airbrush look to his chest that brings out the details of his sculpt, and this type of thing continues on the jacket and pants in certain areas, giving a nice look all around. His hair is a bit grey for my tastes, its given a somewhat pearlescant lavander finish almost, and isn’t quite as white as I’m used to.
Again his weapons get the best treatment, with wonderful paint jobs. Nicely detailed, and some clean metallics all around. THe guitar is most interesting with its purple/blue airbrushing mixture to give a nice look emulating the games design.
Articulation
Here’s the most divided area. On the one hand you have the new Revoltech joint, which is in itself ok, but nothing I’d call as revolutionary as they are saying. On the other hand you have some serious overuse of cut joints to preserve sculpt, and thereby limit movement, in the end you’re given a figure thats "almost" great. The revoltech joints, are nice what few he has in his Knees and ankles. Though the knee joint is straight black while his pants are a dark brown and bending the knee breaks and shows the joint underneath glaringly different from the rest of the figure.
The best joints on him are his neck, knees, and ankles all revoltech joints, and the torso ball which may be one to, though I can’t see it to be sure. The torso joint also has the added bonus of being hidden well under his chest strap so it not only works great but looks great. Now as far as cut joints go, he has quite a few, two in the shoulder area, one connecting the shoulder to the chest, another connecting the shoulder to the arm, this allows an almost ball range of movement, but very limited. It’s a popular style of joint in figures like this so its no suprise to see it. The same design is done with his hips, and again its limited. These both are done to preserve the sculpt of his jacket and pants, and are ok for that, but otherwise rather annoying. With the clickiness of the revoltech joint not allowing smooth positioning of the knees and ankles and the odd hips it can sometime be a challenge to get him to stand, but its manageable.
Lastly he also features somewhat ball like joints in his wrists, they are odd, and have limited movement around and up and down, I haven’t quite figured out just how they work but they don’t seem to be the standard revoltech joint. And he also has a rather obvious and somewhat ugly hinge on his back where the lower half of his coat connects. Despite its lack of beauty it’s actually very useful in giving him those flowing coat poses for flying and jumping action he’s so famous for.
Accessories
This is more the area where this figure shines, both in amount and quality of the accessories this is what makes the figure itself better. He comes in total with 2 heads closed mouth smirk, and open mouth grin, his father’s sword Rebellion, his classic pistols Ebony & Ivory, his shotgun, and one of the more popular weapons from the game, the guitar/scythe Nevan. He also has a basic black stand with seperate revoltech joint thats plugged into the head of the stand and a hole in his back for arial action poses.
First off, the stand is by far the worst accessory he comes with. Mostly because it is to small to accomplish much, any poses with him on it have to be done with him leaning back just so he doesn’t touch the ground, it’s just not tall enough to do much. Also the revoltech joint that works with it tends to stick in his coat more than in the stand and is a pain to get back out of his coat if you get it in to far.
His sword is nicely detailed, well painted, and he can grip it well in either hand or both at the same time. It also features a hole in one of the mouth’s to plug onto the peg on his back. The guitar is probably the best accessory. It has a wonderful paint job, sharp clean sculpt, and features the transforming ability to change from guitar to scythe weapon by unfolding the inner section and rotating it. Very nice and he can easily weild it in either mode to put down electrifying guitar riff’s to decimate the enemy or slice and dice them with the large sharp blade.
His guns are simple but well done. The pistols especially, they fit into a holster on his back though a tad loose for my tastes. They look and work best in his hands, he’s able to pull off all those lovely gun poses you know him for. The shotgun is pretty decently done, a bit large but ok. It only really works in his right hand as thats the one I managed to get to move in a way that allowed him to hold it outstretched and with straight aim.
The head’s are simple, he has a revoltech joint in his neck and they simply slide off the long peg and you replace them fairly easily. They stay on snugly enough for posing but aren’t to hard to pop on or off. Fairly well done in the design I must say.
Playability
His slightly wonky articulation with the cuts in the shoulders and hips limits him a bit, but getting him into good poses isn’t impossible. Once in those poses he can look really cool. Hes also fun just for his accessories and in the end is really the only good Dante figure out there. Not nessecarily an amazing figure, but good enough to enjoy if your a serious fan of the series.
Value
At 20 bucks I can’t say I would willingly buy this figure unless I REALLY wanted a Dante figure because this one is basically the only option. He has nice accessories, but the scale and poseability problems will throw alot of people off. Though for an import 20 dollars isn’t to bad, though that can be attributed to these figures getting direct market release in the US unlike many other import figures. The cost probably could have been knocked down a bit if they had went with a more classic cardback or clamshell design with the packaging instead of the large box but at least the box offers a sturdy design.
Overall
As I’ve said, being that this is basically the only good Dante figure out there with the previously released one so impossible to find and lacking in articulation, big fans of the series will get this. TOY fans will be dissapointed, as this isn’t up to the standards of most great toys, or even some of the other toys in this line such as the Eva’s. He really is kind of the low end of the spectrum within this new Revoltech Line but theres always gotta be a loser. But with that said I can’t completely condemn the figure, it is fun in ways and has great accessories so for that it’s a fairly decent toy, just not great.
