Bandai is continuing to knock their S.H. Figuarts line out of the ballpark, this time with their release of Luigi! Mario is no longer alone and now has 2-player capabilities in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. With the announcement of Yoshi, Bandai is on their way to some greatness. Luigi was released in Japan this week and mine came in the mail today! This will be more of a first impression and less of full-blown review.
I’m not hugely knowledgeable on the whole Mario Brothers games, I played Super Mario Galaxy and loved it, and I played Mario Bros. to some degree of failure when I was teenager. It was never something that grabbed me and since I was never any good at it and was always stuck being Luigi. Yeah. I was the guy that couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t until years later that I really caught the bug of Mario Kart 64 where my wife and I would spend many a night laughing and being pissed at each other in all-out racing wars.
Luigi, as the latest addition to Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts lineup, isn’t as good as Mario, which is fitting somehow. He’s a great figure with a ton of articulation and great character, but the figure is somewhat limited in its posability. It features all the same joints as Mario, but it seems to lack the range of motion; the bend in the knee isn’t as great, the hips don’t spread as much, the elbows suffer the same as the knees. How much of this is perceived and actual is difficult to know without being uber-anal and actually measuring the difference with tools.
The reason there is a difference is clear. This is an all-new sculpt. For those of you wondering if the figure just had new limbs or swapped parts, I can assure this is a 100 percent new sculpt. And it looks awesome! Seriously, it completely captures Luigi. He looks great standing in the playsets or with Mario just acting all cool. The head sculpt is perfect — it’s the best part. It’s a cartoon come to life on my desktop. His expressionless face carries a thousand expressions; its beautiful to look at. I’ve only had the figure a couple of hours and I can’t stop rolling him over in my hands.
There are extra bits in the box: extra hands, pegs, a beetle, and a red turtle. Combined with the new add-on set, they make a great playset for Luigi. Combine them with the first set from Mario, and you start to build this great world. The new set comes with two red tubes, a carnivorous plant, another turtle, and a coin. A lot of time was spent taking the pictures, mainly due to the playing that had to go on between the shots. Loads of fun.
You should absolutely pick up this set for your Mario Bros. collection, and you should pick up Luigi because he is a great toy. As the end of the year winds down, it’s getting difficult to figure out what the toy of the year will be. Pick him up today at:
