Kaiyodo: Amazing Yamaguchi Deadpool

Sometimes you just have to realize that your way of thinking may be wrong. And before you assume that I’m going for some deep discussion here, know that I’m talking about action figures. Specifically, the Deadpool from Kaiyodo using the Revoltech joint system. Whew, philosophical discussion averted…

I have long held the belief that the Revoltech joint system is terrible. Fiddly, frustrating, ugly, worthless. But I’m a convert, my friends. The Amazing Yamaguchi Deadpool has shown me the light. I now believe that Revoltech joint system is fiddly, frustrating, ugly, but absolutely fantastic when it comes to posing an action figure.

Basically, it’s far from perfect but I’ll be damned if the end results aren’t downright satisfying.

First off, let’s get the package out of the way. To continue the trend, it’s ugly. Chaotic. Like someone clipped a bunch of images and fonts and sneezed them into box form. So really, the perfect encasement for Deadpool.

Upon releasing the plastic Merc with a Mouth your first reflex is to put it into a neutral stance, standing straight up to get a sense of the figure. Don’t do this. Well, you can do it once, but it will be the last time you do it. Truthfully, the traditional turnaround pose is about the hardest pose to do with this figure. It just wasn’t made for it. It wasn’t even made to look good in that position. No, this figure was made for the action pose. But for the sake of comprehensiveness let’s take a look at it.

Okay, it’s not terrible, but the neck ends up looking long and it’s bow-legged. The shoulders sit low. The arms don’t want to go down at the sides. The hands are large. Various parts are hard to straighten out. But these pics are to show the sculpt, which is nice for what it is. Stylized, maybe a little soft, but it’s meant to be that way. I don’t like that the holstered weapons are not removable. There is a sheen to the whole figure, with clean paints and some shading to the red.

The biggest thing is the ugly articulation. The balls brazenly sitting outside of the shoulder. The back of the knees and the front of the elbows all looking like someone embedded racquetballs into his joints. And again, the neck. But to reiterate, it wasn’t meant to pose this way, and the joints look that way in order to do poses like this.

At least for me, achieving these poses and the ones later in this review, the joints just kind of fade into the beautiful cacophony of plastic figure bending into unfamiliar yet amazing shapes. Right out of the box I was still thinking “Oh, I’m going to hate this figure, I can already tell.” I had been thinking it weeks before even receiving this Deadpool. But after losing several hours to posing, just seeing what the figure could do, I was blown away. And I do mean losing hours. I was halfway through my video review and ended up having to go to bed before finishing.

Yes, the joints are still frustrating. There is definitely a learning curve. You have to put more thought into it than most other figures. If you’re setting up for a photograph you have to lay out your composition well beforehand, mapping all the angles and understanding what parts of the figure will be seen and what parts won’t. So yes, frustrating, but worth it.

For accessories this Deadpool comes with four sets of hands. Fists, open, thumbs up, and weapon grip. There are trigger fingers on that last set even though they also hold the swords, but they aren’t as noticeable as you might think.

It comes with two pistols. Big, bulky, almost oversized, they look a bit cartoony which fits with the figure’s stylized look.

The two swords are pretty basic. A little sculpting to the hilts, silver on the blades. But they do the job.

The scabbards have a nice glossy finish on both the black and then the Deadpool logo. For some reason Kaiyodo opted to use fake hilts that plug into the sheathes. To further complicate that process, the pegs on the fake hilts can only be inserted one way, the pegs being an odd shape.

The stand has multiple points of articulation that have screws which I’m assuming can be used for tightening. At least that’s what I’m hoping since mine doesn’t support the weight of the figure in a lot of positions.

You can use the clamp to pinch around the figure or you can remove the clamp and plug directly into Deadpool’s back. He has multiple holes in which to insert the peg.

I can’t think of less innuendo-like phrases here.

There are three across the shoulder blades and one in the belt. The upper ones are so you can use the stand and sheathes at the same time, just off-center.

Staying on the stand front, there is also a kind of sliding effect that sports a foot peg. It’s a translucent material that fades into a frosted look. It’s a nifty little piece that actually had me stumped for a minute. When I first removed it from the package I had no clue what it was.

And then there are the eyes. It wasn’t until I started reviewing this that I realized that I’ve gotten two Deadpool figures this month, both with interchangeable eyes. The other is Hot Toys Deadpool, which I will be reviewing soon. But the eyes give you a lot of choices, especially for a character who sports a mask. To go one further, there is even an extra head that has kind of a sculpted frown/pouty/angry mouth behind the mask.

In no particular order: Wide-eyed, slightly more closed for a normal look, slightly more closed than that for angry, slightly more closed even still for squinting, and big ol’ hearts. Guess which one is my favorite.

A plastic tray with a lid was provided to store the extra eyes when not in use. Thanks, Kaiyodo!

Size-wise, this Deadpool is comparable to the latest Hasbro Marvel Legends version that came in the X-Men wave. Not so much so in style though.

And then with the Hot Toys Deadpool.

I made myself laugh when I took that pic so I added it to both the video and written reviews. I probably shouldn’t have though, even though I still snicker.

Now here’s where I could keep gushing about this figure but I’m not going to do it. You get that I love the figure. I didn’t want to love it but I do. What I can say is that this figure isn’t for everyone. I’ve devised an easy way to separate the people who may like it from the people who will probably hate it.

Focus on these words. Don’t scroll back to the pics. Stay right here with me but think about the pics. Think about the poses. Think about how they made you feel. Try to picture in your mind how far the arms were bent, how the legs were positioned. How crouched Deadpool was.

3….2….1

Now when you did that test did you see the pose or did you remember the joints themselves? If you saw the pose, go pre-order this figure. If all you could focus on was the joints, walk away. This isn’t for you. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just like I said, this isn’t for everyone. And that’s okay. There are still the multiple Marvel Legends figures, and figma has hinted at a comic version in the past.

I will say that this figure has changed my way of thinking, at least in terms of displaying my figures. When this was first solicited my first thought was “Will this replace my Deadpool on the shelf?” That’s my thought with any announced figure that looks better than my current displayed figure. Can everyone say Star Wars? But with this, while some of the appeal is the character itself, I find myself marveling at the engineering and the presentation, the poseabilty and the presence among my other figures. This Deadpool isn’t replacing my current Deadpool, it’s the start of a whole new display of Revoltech Marvel figures. A shelf that will hopefully soon be filled with stylized figures in the craziest poses I can imagine.

And that’s alright. Change is good. My hobby evolves and continues to bring me joy. Bring on Spider-Man, then Venom and any other Marvel character Yamaguchi wants to use.