Ashley Wood’s Three A toys is desinger label that is producing a line of toys based on his comic book artwork called WWR, World War Robot. The line conists of a number of robots and some humans. Orignally a 1/6 (12 inch) line, Three A started producing product in 1/12 (6 inch) scale titling it WWRp. Moldie on the fwoosh is the biggest cheerleader for the line infecting many others like a virus. As you know SamuRon and MatthewK are smitten with the line and I decided took the leap ordering the 3×3 Martin deal which included a Blanc de Plume. I ordered the set mainly for Blanc, a 1/12 human.
Blanc de Plume is a 6 inch version of their earlier 12 inch super articulated male figure. As many collectors already know most 12 inch figures are “dolls”, they have a blank base figure underneath cloth clothes, much like a Barbie doll. This isn’t new, GIJOE has had a clothed 12″ figure since… forever (1964). In recent times, these dolls have moved from being ok looking to hyper realistic, Sideshow and Hot Toys being recent pioneers in the scale. Three A replicates this hyper realism for the first time on a 6 inch scale.
Clothed figures at a scale smaller than 1/6 is by no means revolutionary, the Japanese have done 6 inch and 8 inch cloth figures before. Ohtsuka Kikaku has been doing it for years and there have been other companies that attempted to do realistic cloth figures at a small scale. But Three A accomplishes something that I have not seen before, beautifully manufactured clothes at 1/12 scale.
Three A nails it. I have never seen 1/12 scale clothes that looked this good, this detailed and functioned over a figure before. Certainly LEGO came very close with thier SCALA line, but suffered in the end with “toyetic” clothing. Toyetic refering to lack of realism, simple paletted colors, stitching and fabric type looking cheap. Three A makes a leap from toyetic to realistic in not just one single bound, but with hyperjump into the next galaxy.
Yes, I am impressed. Friday night one of our friends and nieghbors came over for a beer and could not stop posing the figure. It was amazing to watch. She remarked on how impressive it was, the clothes aspect grabbed her, but the level of realism was what drew her eye to the figure. Both she and my wife remarked on the realism of the figure. My kids can’t stop playing with the figure.
The 6 inch buck that they use is scaled down version of their 12 inch buck, super articulated and just about to hold pose but side to side ankle. The arms and wrists allow the figure to accurately hold rifles to the shoulder and the forward/backward motion of the shoulders further allows for excellent handgun/rifle poses. This isn’t terribly new to the 1/12 genre, Marvel Legends incorporated these joints a long time ago, but Three A adds a ball and socket joint that swivels at the hand and wrist adding an additional element to posing with weapons.
Yes, I could go on forever about the articulation, it is perfect in my book. The figure is perfect in my book. I put him my Plan-B Jeep and arm him with a M1A1 Thompson, also from Plan-B. I want more. Not just from the fantasy world of World War Robot, but I want to see more 1/12 military figures done with this level of quality.
Quality comes at a price, these are limited run designer toys. They are not cheap, but as with any product that is well done price is not an object. I would gladly pay top dollar for more modern, Vietnam, WWII or movie based figures at this scale with this quality.
I know that the major part of the WWRp line is the robots, this is what the line is about, but the figures were the draw for me. A long time fan of Japanese models and robots, another robot line, is well nothing new. But a cloth figure in 1/12, that could be new. And not just new, but front runner for toy of the year 2010.
If you have the means and time and space, start picking these bad boys up now.
