“What’s a raccoon?
It’s what you are, stupid.”
Ah, Star-Lord and Rocket have had a tumultuous relationship since the latter tried to collect Yondu’s bounty on the former in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Well, even though we have been pummeled by a TON of GotG merchandise lately to support the second movie, I love both movies so much, so I just had to pick up these new S.H. Figuarts offerings. Unlike Star Wars, I generally keep to the Hasbro offerings when it comes to Marvel, but Bandai’s versions of the Guardians are just too hard to pass up since I love those movies so much.
Sure, I have already build the entire GotG team via Legends, and that is an impressive group to be sure, but, as usual, Bandai finds a way to be complementary in what they offer in terms of strengths and weaknesses. For one, and at this point, I really doubt that we will get the rest of the core Guardians (Drax and Gamora) any time soon. Bandai has a funny way of doing stuff like that, and it can get frustrating when you want to complete teams, so I am considering this Quill, Rocket, and Groot to be standalones for now. But that is okay, because, really, these are very nice figures, and right now, they go great on my desk instead of in the collection room.
Between several of us, we have covered a LOT of S.H. Figuarts on this site, so if you are even casually familiar with what that execution offers, you know you are getting some pretty impressive figures here. Sure, you pay for that (and likely a lot in shipping, too), but, in most cases, Bandai delivers on the old cliché of “you get what you pay for.” So, if you are a Bandai and Marvel fan, these are going to be hard to pass up, however, the ML is so strong right now, that I can totally see why many people would not bother with these as the former are worthy of being the only purchases. So I am not going to argue one way or another here and will just focus on these Bandai figures as they are.
Articulation and likeness are paramount for SHF, and most of what Bandai churns out is pretty amazing, and Star-Lord AND Rocket are both examples of this. Quill is more of a traditional offering with the high-tech use of the painting print technology to capture likenesses, but Rocket benefits from this, too. Now, the Hasbro Marvel team has started using similar technology with their cinematic figures, so that takes some of the uniqueness of this away, but damn, my little Chris Pratt looks really good. As I said, even though Rocket is a digital creation, and, you know, not a human, his likeness comes through very strongly as well, and that is particularly apparent in his “smiling” head.
Quill and Rocket both embody the standard SHF protocols when it comes to construction and quality. They are super-articulated, and their joints are all very smooth with admirable range of motion, depending on the joint itself. Bandai figures have a bit of a fragile feel to them as they are definitely targeted at collectors, but the plastic quality is strong, so I do not feel any breakage danger when posing or swapping out parts. This actually extends to Groot as well because the little dickens is semi-posable (Ravager version), and the regular version has swappable heads.
These figures really win in the accessories department, and even if you count the two Groots as figures on their own, there is still a lot. Multiple heads (Star-Lord has two, Rocket has three) and hands are included, and while Rocket’s guns are attached to a set of hands, Pete’s blasters are free standing. Rocket and Groot both include stands for easy arrangement, but I have to say, the former doesn’t really need his at all, unless you are getting into some pretty extreme posing. Please be careful, though, because the Groots, the Groot stands, and Rocket’s hands are VERY small and are just begging to be lost for the ages with one innocent drop. I appreciate the extra hands included with Rocket, but after this feature, he is likely going to get his gun hands for good, and the others will go into a bag, and into the bin.
While I have a lot of Figuarts, Rocket and Star-Lord are only my second and third Marvel figures (I have a Captain America too), and I am really happy with them. If I did not buy them, I probably would have been just fine with my Hasbro versions, but as I said, these guys are begging to be kept on the desk, and I will keep the ML versions on the shelf. I hope that Bandai does get around to making at least Drax and Gamora (but, really, bring me Yondu), but I am not keeping my hopes up. I will recommend these to you, so if you are interested, BBTS has them for pre-order now, so go get your hands on these a-holes.
