Threezero’s first collaboration with Bandai and Kunio Okawara finally arrived at my house. As you know, I’ve raved about this figure for a while and I finally have a chance to review it. This thing is awesome! It’s a fully assembled, fully painted, Perfect Grade Robot delivered straight to your home. And the best part!? It’s 1/12 scale and comes with a pilot.
Yeah, this thing is all kinds of cool. I’ve been waiting months for this toy, and I am giddy with excitement that it came. My wife isn’t; it was expensive and more expensive after customs (oof that was a hit). But it was worth it. As I’ve mentioned before, this figure was designed by Kurio Okawara, the man responsible for giving us Mobile Suit Gundam and a number of other classic anime mechs. I missed out on another of his designs hitting 1/12 and I’ll have to settle for eBay prices in the near future for my Scopedog from Armored Trooper Votoms. This time, Fullmetal Ghost is a completely new design and character concept that we’ve never seen before.
And is it worth it! This is a beautiful design and, yes, it has “Gundam” written all over it. I love the navy blue color, channeling one of my favorite Gundam mechs — the Titans version of the RX-178 Mk II Gundam. Fullmetal Ghost is made into toy form by Threezero, who is part of the 3A Toys group and proven robot designer. And they don’t fail here.
Fullmetal Ghost is a pretty simple ‘bot as seen from a Gundam modeling perspective; its construction is pretty straight forward and not complex. There isn’t an endoskeleton that is covered by armor parts. It’s a foot part, a shin part knee part, a leg part, etc etc. It’s more like a classic High Grade kit that’s been scaled up to 18 inches, which is good. Had this been a complex toy, I fear that it would be overly fragile and risk breaking apart or falling over just by my looking at it. The design reminds me of Gundam F-91’s XM-02 Den’an Gei, just with a Gundam-styled face.
There are great details on this figure. A lot of love was put into the design and into the manufacturing. The joints are solid, maybe a little too solid in some areas. I had to silicone spray the hip joints as they are very, very tight, and should be. If these joints weren’t tight, the figure would need a stand to help support him. The weight of the upper body would topple him. But they might be too tight as I am getting a very loud squeeking as the hips move forward, and I fear the barbell-like joint is going to snap in the middle. While the figure can move, there are times when I think it’s really meant to be put on a display shelf and left there. For those of you that want to pose and play, there is plenty of articulation:
hinged toe
ball ankle
double-hinged knees
thigh swivel
hinged thigh
ball hip
double-ball shoulder
bicep swivel
double-hinged elbow
swivel wrist
hinged wrist
posable fingers
hinged head
double-hinged shoulder armor
It’s a ton of articulation and it works for the most part. I’d prefer that the ankles were double-jointed in some way to increase the range of motion. As it is, some poses result in his standing on the insole of his foot with the outer sole sticking up in the air. Also, the fingers are really loose; he can’t hold his sword, but this is a common problem with figures that have articulated figures.
His sword is amazing. It’s beautiful and huge, a great accessory for such a beautiful figure. The sword comes with a sheath and there are some dynamic poses that could be attained. If the figure could hold the sword, the weak finger joints make it nearly impossible for the figure to hold the blade, and I’m relegated to vanilla poses or odd poses to get the sword into the hands.
Finally, the mech comes with a beautiful cloth garb. I’m not certain there is rhyme or reason for a big, giant mech to wear cloth, but it looks cool. The cloth definitely bangs home the samurai feel to the mech, and I really love this look. Playing with the figure while fully clothed is a bit of a challenge; the cloth parts get in the way and you feel like you are either going to rip the cloth or break the figure. However, the cloth adds a huge lift to the display presence in your favorite cabinet.
The mech is 1/12 scale and that means he has a cockpit as well as a pilot. The pilot is very cool and has the whole “samurai warrior meets steampunk” look to it. I’m not a huge fan of the maskless head; I like the concept, but it’s a really small head, especially when you look at the scale of it next to Fighting JC or some of the other 3A Toys figures. The figure is built on the six-inch 3A toys base figure and has the same posability and pitfalls that 3A figures have. The ankles don’t move in the boots, and with this figure they could have done something about by making a 2-part boot. After all, the belt has 3 parts to it. The chest armor is also limiting; you lose that beautiful ab-joint that would make getting the pilot into the cockpit easier.
And that is the best part of this figure and mech — the pilot can fit into the cockpit. And he does fit, but the figure’s armor and the limitation that it puts on the articulation make it tricky to get the figure into the cockpit. I’d rather have removable armor and union suit for the figure that would allow him to fit and sit in the cockpit easier. For some reason I’m thinking the 3A Toys Micronauts would look cool. Hmm… Robotman. The cockpit is a thing of beauty. It’s very simple, but looks great. I need some batteries for the lights in the cockpit as I think this will be a cool part of the display. All the joints in the cockpit move as expected and I haven’t had any “oh shit” moments.
All in all, this is an amazing toy. Anyone that is interested in Gundam, giant robots, 1/12 accessories, and has no issues with dropping some serious cash will love this figure. I can’t recommend it enough. And now that they are making Titanfall mechs and figures?!?!
You can still preorder this figure at:
