The best part about doing reviews of older figures is that I have to go look them up on the Internet and try and find the information. Some googling revealed that this figure was released in 1999 or 2000 or sometime around there. Sounds about right.
Devilman is Go Nagai’s fantastic creation that is timeless whether it is found in animated or manga form. It’s your basic superhero story: kid goes to a disco, becomes possessed by a demon, gains super powers, gets involved with harpies and all kinds of monsters. Lots of blood and slaughter. Exactly what you expect from 1972 … or not. I’ve never read the full series or have seen all the full original animation, but I did see the 1990 OVA and enjoyed the hell out of it.
When Fewture starting making figures I was extremely excited based on my like of the OVA and the concept. Now this is where my memory might fail a bit, and I apologize, but the Fewture Devilman figures were not based on Go Nagai’s designs, but were based on Yasushi Nirasawa. Nirasawa took the design and really grossed them out, making them horrific creatures. Really, really lovely. The detail on this sculpt is simply amazing, and when you consider this is a figure from 1999, it’s even more impressive since the figure is on par with modern sculpts.
This figure stands around nine inches tall and has a twelve-inch wingspan. The wings are pretty brittle and the ABS plastic will snap if dropped. The overall figure is made from PVC and glows in the dark. The glow-in-the-dark aspect is hit or miss depending on your like or dislike of the effect. I like the sickly green of the figure, and it really adds to the overall creepy feel of the whole work.
The figure has a good portion of articulation, but not enough to get any good poses. The main issues are with the hips, which are a standard t-crotch, and the shoulders, which are standard cut/swivels. The rest of the articulation is decent, but you can’t really establish dramatic poses. The hinged ankles are a nice touch, but they lack a good deal of forward movement. The breakdown is as follows:
- hinged ankles
- hinged knees
- t-crotch
- swivel shoulders
- hinged elbows
- swivel wrists
- swivel neck
I haven’t seen this figure anywhere and searching Bbay and Amazon.com today came up empty. But you can find some of the figures from the line on Amazon.com.
This is a great display piece and I can’t recommend it enough for spooky posing in diorama settings. If you get the chance, pick one up.
You can discuss this further on The Fwoosh Forums.
