Sonova bitch. This is gonna be trouble.
If I were a designer, or an artist, or did something more creative than, say, carve up little plastic people and write about it, I would love to create an artist-driven toy line. Something that played to my soft spots, like good old analog war machines, WWII aesthetics, wood and steel — that sort of thing. I might even create a fiction to go along with it, maybe building along that WWII theme, following it to a darker, more apocalyptic conclusion.
And I’d do it all in 6-inch scale, of course.
Kit Lau has done all that and more with his Acid Rain line, in ways that I could only wish I’d thought of . . . save one little detail.
1/18 Scale. My old nemesis, we meet again.
I’ve been admiring this line since last year, and while I was tempted many times, the scale was my safety switch — I could always talk myself back down from the standpoint of scale.
Ultimately, though, it was a weak argument and I gave in. And I’m glad that I did!
The first box to make it to my house was the mid-size mech suit known as the Laurel. I chose the 303rd Marine deco, to match up with some following purchases, and I figured this slightly less expensive, non-transforming mech would be a good tester for the line, especially as it included a pilot.
The Laurel has a good amount of lore to go with it, but for this review I decided to draw my observations from the toy itself, rather than the reading. I would think this mech is probably best used in recon for tough terrain or for supporting infantry, like a light tank or IFV. Given the caustic environment of the Acid Rain universe, it’s interesting that the pilot’s cabin is unsealed and his head is exposed, but there again, in a scout role that could be useful.
Armament consists of a large drum fed cannon that the mech carries by hand, and a belt-fed autoloader that can be mounted on his shoulder a la a Predator plasma caster. Both offer a lot of options for carry and deployment, and the articulation on the shoulder mount is excellent. I also appreciate the swivel on the “chainsaw” mount on the hand-held.
The articulation is really well laid out, and offers just the right amount of poseability to keep it interesting, while not betraying its ‘bot-like handling. The rubbery hands were an unexpected choice, but they work really well for holding the cannon, as well as any manual labor odd-jobs you might have for it.
The paintwork is truly what sets this apart, though. It goes without saying that Acid Rain banks its mark on realistic texture and paint wear, and this is an excellent example of what they do for a noob like me. The unit markings, the two-tone colors, and all the scuff and wear marks make this feel like a true piece of hardware.
Another surprise was the Pilot himself. Having some familiarity with the Anniversary Joes’ very good articulation, I was impressed with how Acid Rain punched it up a notch by adding thigh swivels, “modern” ankle swivels, and a double-jointed neck. All of this gets put to good use fitting him in the cockpit. The paint is excellent here as well, combined with really well-done sculpting, and that makes individual pieces like the skull-painted visor and the balaclava-covered head underneath really impressive, especially for this scale.
And that brings me to that ugly word. Yeah, this is pretty out of my wheelhouse these days. I have owned Joes in various stages of my collecting career and have fallen down that rabbit hole enough times to have found it wanting. For me, anyway. But this line, scaled as it is (around the 4-inch scale of the Anniversary figures), seems a man apart from its 1/18 brethren. With a focus on mechs and vehicles, I can understand why 1/18 was he most practical choice, and yet, the style and detail make these feel more like a small 3A figure than a Hasbro contemporary.
For the moment, that’s safe. I’ll just get a few here and there; it’s not like Oritoy’s gonna pick up licenses for other properties or something like tha–
Sonova bitch. I’m in big trouble.
