I am an unapologetic fan of Hayao Miyazaki, and it looks like my long-standing action figure fix is starting be (somewhat) quenched as of late thanks to figma. Future Boy Conan has joined the ranks of my toy shelves, and unlike the world war that makes up the backdrop of his story, Conan’s action figure is most welcome.
Future Boy Conan is important to the Miyazaki pantheon because this series marked the master’s directorial debut, and like much of his subsequent work, it was adapted from a literary work, and was given stunning visuals. As this series debuted in the 1970s, it was around before my time, but even still, I did not discover the show until I was well into my twenties, and I must admit, I have only ever seen the first 15-16 episodes. I was hoping to revisit those and rectify the fact that I am still missing the final eight or so prior to this figure being released, but I just could not find the time, but I am definitely going to that now. Regardless, I love the series for what I do know, and the Cold War-era fear it was built on (unfortunately) still plays as relevant today.
Personally, being a big fan of “The Last Boy on Earth,” I always found a kinship between Conan and DC’s Kamandi, just with the former not experiencing the same level of injected fantasy into the story. You can definitely see some resemblance to Kirby’s creation in characterization of central figures like Conan, his grandfather, and Lana, so if you have never seen this series, but like the themes in Kamandi, I would be willing to bet that you will enjoy it, so check it out if you have time as most of, if not all, the episodes are available on YouTube.
This figma joins Sherlock Hound as the second big Miyazaki entrant into the line for me, and with as nicely as these two turned out, I can only hope we will continue to see more characters; not only from these properties, but other Ghibli creations too, especially the feature films. Conan is not as exciting as a Hound was in terms of release (Hound came with a CAR, for Pete’s sake), but the figure itself does match what we have come to expect in our figmas, so if you like the series, you are going to want to pick this one up. While it does not come with many accessories at all, which is a shame, the figure is absolutely iconic, and Conan’s expressive nature really comes out with the multiple face/hands options.
As with all figmas, Conan’s articulation is well placed in terms of scheme, and as silky smooth as we have come to know in this line. In fact, while I collect a LOT of different action figure lines, I find figma to have the best articulation currently on the market, at least at the 1:12 scale. As I said, the joints are very smooth, but strong at the same time, and the range of movement is pretty incredible overall. I know when figures get a lot of points it is not uncommon for at least one joint to become loose and floppy, but figmas rarely, if ever, experience this, at least in the figures I own. Like many animated characters, Conan moves and contorts in a variety of different ways, and the joints on this figure can take you pretty much to all reasonable posing.
The sculpt is, of course, top-notch too, and Conan looks like he stepped right off of the screen — so he is damned adorable. He is little (if you have the Link Between Worlds figma, he is right at about the same size), but that matches his boy-surviving-in-a-post-apocalyptic-world design very well. His three different face plates change out easily by removing the front hair piece, and whether you prefer the happy, bewildered, or assertive expression, you can’t go wrong here. I am drawn to the more happy face, but the serious face is always at the ready to answer the threats Conan’s world offers.
Speaking of, Conan comes with his trusty spear, and he can hold it perfectly in a variety of ways. Along with the stand, the spear is the only true accessory here as the rest are swappable hands, and the aforementioned face plates. This is where I feel this figure takes the biggest hit, especially in light of some of the other figma releases I have added to my collection in recent months. I mean, they went out of there way to include feet that can actually HOLD the spear for Conan’s iconic pose, but he did not even get the fish to finish look, and that is pretty disappointing to me. I get that, aside from the spear, there are no other memorable accessories that they could have reasonably included, but that makes me wish this was a two-pack and included Lana as well. At any rate, that does not stop me from enjoying the fact that figure can hit the “spear leaning” pose perfectly, and can balance to boot, so now I just need to find a good fish for him to hold.
Honestly, I was a little surprised when this figure was quietly announced for release (thanks to Pabs for the heads up), and even though it is lacking in the accessory department, I am glad to have little Conan. As I said above, his series is great, and getting more Miyazaki representation on my shelf is a fantastic thing. I know that what I have thus far in the collection is technically Studio Ghibli in terms of origin, but that I not going to stop me from hoping we get some figure representation of Miyazaki’s feature work. I would love to add Totoro, Satsuki and Mei, Chihiro/Sen, Kiki, Princess Mononoke, and any others to my collection, and it is really is a crying shame we don’t have them yet. Lupin, Hound and Conan are a good start, so let’s build a full collection, shall we? In the meantime, you can pre-order Conan at BBTS!
