“The power of the Guyver” yes Sho Fukamachi, you have the power the of Guyver. Ah yeah, what a great piece of anime from the late ’80s. Guyver was originally a serialized manga from 1985 that eventually hit an Original Video Animation that recently saw a new anime series. There was even a 1991 and 1994 live action movies! Great pulp fiction if you ever get the chance to read or view any of the material released. It’s a great story about a teen getting super powered armor and having to fight in an insanely violent bloody world, the perfect coming of age of story for any teenage kid.
Over the years there have been plenty of Guyver figures, originally there were the Max Factory prepainted vinyl kits. I remember collecting these and loved them, even going so far as to articulate them with Spider-man Classics joints. Wow. Memories. In time Max Factory would release some high end super articulated Guyver figures that received high praise from collectors. Somehow I missed out them and never bought them but they are available for a pretty penny on eBay! CollectionDX reviewed them back in the day, check out their review here.
The Guyver figure from figma is a much anticipated action figure and one that collectors are anxiously waiting to get their hands on. Except after reading this review they might hold off. I hate being negative towards any toy, it makes me feel badly and like some second level hack out to get hits on his articles for being edgy. But I have to come out swinging, Guyver out of the box standing in a vanilla pose kills me. One leg is shorter than the other. And not just in a passing I vanilla pose him out of it, no one leg is shorter. I’m not certain if it’s the whole leg, part of the leg, or what, but one leg is shorter than the other. Maybe a peg hole isn’t drilled enough, maybe it’s a bad pull of the mold, maybe it’s something else all together. I don’t know for certain and over the next few days I’ll hair dryer and test it a bit to figure it out, but one leg is shorter. And kills me.
The craftsmanship on this figure is top notch. It’s beautiful, but the difference in leg length just killed the experience for me. Without a doubt he poses well, all the articulation works and he is definitely hand candy; but this huge defect in the produced figure is a huge distraction. And it’s not a sexy distraction like Cindy Crawford’s mole, it’s more of a Cindy just ate a crab salad and has crab meat and juice covering the sexy mole killing the whole I want to take you on this table right here right now thing. Guyver is a figure that I want out in the open at the front of my display but that leg…
And here’s the killer. The sculpt on this figure is beautiful! Granted Max Factory has years of experience producing Guyver figures, this is nothing new for them, and they knocked this one out of the ball park. Every nook and cranny is sharp and beautifully produced, it’s a great figure. I was curious about the incorporation of the joints and how they would fit with the sculpt but figma did great job of making things as seamless as possible.
The scale of the figure might have people on the fence, it does round out the six scaling, which is ok, Sho was a smaller human kid and the Bio Booster Armor put some inches on him. Compared to other figma teen scaling I think he looks great. His head might be on the small size, I can’t remember and would have to go back and watch the anime, read the manga to confirm that.
The articulation is standard figma, but what amazes me the most is that they were able to incorporate all their joint system and points of articulation into this figure. Not one point of articulation is compromised. The only articulation point that’s given any kind of frustration is the foot, the armor around the ankle makes it a challenge to pose. The best part is the articulation on the chest, yeah, the chest. The pectoral pieces open up for the bio booster chest blast, take that Tony Stark! There are little hinged balls that the pec pieces rotate on.
Guyver comes with the usual figma swag, extra parts, hands, blades, chest piece for hame hame positioning, a stand and a baggy for holding it all.
Do I recommend this figure? Yes. Even with my faulty leg I still recommend this figure its a beautiful figure and a much needed addition to my collection. You can pick him up today at:
