Armor Plus - Tekkaman Blade

[xiombarg]

Just got my shipping notice from AE!

[xiombarg]

My Evil Tekkaman should be waiting for me tomorrow!!! Woo hoo!

[Dead-Man]

more of Tekkaman Evil


shishioh.info/armorplus-tekkaman-evil.php

[moleman]

So I read a few reports that Tekkaman Evil while nicely sculpted with sharp paint apps, doesn't have strong enough joints to support all of weight. In fact I've read that Evil's armor is a little looser fitting than Blade's armor and needs a stand for posing. Xiombarg how is Evil compared to Blade? Should I pursue this piece for the extra chunk of change?

[xiombarg]

This is true depending on how you pose him. The extra weight seems to mainly be coming from his shoulders, and its not that they weigh a lot exactly, but the shoulders stick out far enough that it creates a lot of extra leverage and his center of gravity is spread out, so when doing more extreme poses where the knees or ankles are bent, at a certain point there is too much leverage coming from the top and these joint tends to fall out of place.

As far as armor tightness, I think its about the same as Blade's on mine, which isn't super tight. The armor sometimes pops out of place when moving him around, but its not enough to really bother me personally. Now I was only able to mess around with him last night for about an hour so I'm still in the afterglow, and I'm sure I'll come to more defining conclusions today after work at which point I'll post them up. I also plan to do something of a mini-review.

The fanboy in me loves him, but ideally he could much more solid.

[xiombarg]

Ok, so here's my take after having had Evil Tekkaman for a couple days. He is an absolutely beautiful figure and the goods far outweight the bads.

Posing - he is not much of an extreme poser, not unless you have a stand, or at least not for long term display. Joints are all fairly tight except those crucial knees, which need to be tighter for the weight of his armor in order to get more poses. Almost all joints are friction ball joints. You can get some nice action stances out of him without a stand, but it is limited to how all the weight balances out and I probably wouldn't leave him on the shelf doing too much more than an A frame stance.

Articulation - Lots of articulation, but because of armor shapes and such you can't always get a pose you might want because of things getting in the way and bumping against each other.

Armor - Lots of metal armor pieces. Specifically, the gauntlets, the inner shoulder, most of the chest, and all of the ankle area. With my figure I've found that the armor actually stays in place and stays on better than with Tekkaman Blade. With Blade I have problems keeping his feet pieces on, and this is not the case with Tekkaman Evil. Also, the shoulders stay in place better with Tekkaman Evil and without having to prop the shoulders up high like you do with Blade.

A note on the frame - I think the frame of Tekkaman Evil has less metal inside the plastic coating than with with Blade, but this is probably a good thing because of the weight of the armor. I was skeptical at first about this and thought it might just be cutting corners, but now that I have him together I'm convinced that it's for good reasons as the overall figure is not exactly light.

Conclusion - Buy him. If you are on the fence at all I would buy him. He's a beautiful figure and fun to pose even if most of the posing is done in the upper body, although he's totally worth using a stand for as an extra precaution and to get some extra cool poses for.

Tips - You will thank me for these if you follow my instruction as it could save you from breaking your figure or being disappointed.

1) Put the thigh armor on after you have reconnected the lower leg and lower leg armor back to the frame. Just trust me on this. You'll save yourself time and you could accidentally break your thigh armor unless you do it this way.

2) If your shoulder armor pieces are floppy then you haven't attached them correctly, or they aren't on all the way. They will snap into place or feel like a solid connection when put on correctly.

3) This can save you buttloads of time with the hands. TAKE THE FOREARM GAUNTLETS OFF and pick the hands you want to have attached. Now work the hands on and off the ball joint a few times. When the hand seems to fit on a little easier, take it off, put the gauntlet back on and then attach the hands for the final time.

4) In the instructions in shows that you should take apart the chest armor. There's no reason to do this as it just slips over the top of the frame and is held in place with the jetpack piece. Taking it apart is a real pain and a waste of time.

[xiombarg]

Here's a couple of things I should note too about the posability. There is no twist in the waist but it can bend back and forth. Also because of the way the armor fits partially covering the foot, the foot cannot bend very far upwards which limits posing. This was a similar problem with Tekkaman Blade.

[moleman]

Since Tekkaman toys are almost as rare as a blue moon and a frozen hell I think I have to pick this up and quick before he becomes another web exclusive that commands scary prices.

[xiombarg]

He's definitely not perfect, but still a nice figure, and frankly his looks alone would cover for a lot of deficiencies in my book. Even though his joints aren't strong enough to do what we would ideally like him to do, he does the job adequately.

As an excuse to buy him, you make a good point about Tekkaman figures generally. The possibility of another Evil Tekkaman figure ever being made is fairly slim considering the only other figures ever made are those crappy Korean ones that came out when the show was originally aired way back when, unless you count those cheap models. I'm still sort of shocked Bandai made these Armor Plus figures.

[Dead-Man]

Toy-wave now has him for 137$

www.toy-wave.com/eng/detail.php?id=13943&table=88

[moleman]

Here's my review of the Bandai Web shop exclusive Tekkaman Evil armor plus figure.

First of all this figure is an online exclusive that can only be bought from Bandai's website in Japan. In other words, if you happen to know someone in Japan or if you know a good middle man service your going to be need them to purchase this figure. In addition, if your uncomfortable with a middle man service a few normal toy retailers such as anime export and toy wave also have some limited stock of this figure ( for a marked up price of course). Anyways, on to the figure itself!

Packaging and accessories: Tekkaman Evil's package comes in a box similar to previous armor plus figures with the exception of the opening lid to see the figure's layout. It's a pointless omission and it doesn't hurt the coolness of the packaging. In retrospect, its just a standard box with some neat photo shop work of the armored figure in its entirety. For accessories he comes with five pairs of interchangeable hands, his normal lance, his unarmored head, a four split lance and two blades for this pop off shoulder weapons. You pretty much get everything you need for Tekkaman Evil and the only accessory I think they could of included would be the tekka-crystal, but that will be coming with the Blastor Tekkaman (another web shop exclusive ).

Sculpt and Detail: The sculpt on this figure like the rest of the armor plus figures is really sharp. Thanks to the help of CAD renderings Bandai was really able to capture the look and feel of how Tekkaman Evil appeared in the anime. Proportions look fantastic and I don't see any wonky limbs or heads when fully armored up. Furthermore, the paint job on my sample is very clean with little to no slop. Additionally, in the paint department this figure shines because all of the armor is fully painted and when put together gives the appearance of a professionally completed kit. What's also sweet is the amount of clear blue parts used around the figure's chest and back area to once again achieve a very sharp outlook.

Gimmicks and weaponry: As noted before Tekkaman Evil comes with some badass weaponry and one of his interesting gimmicks is that part of this shoulder armor can be removed and attached to his forearms to make a striking armored blade. Everything fits pretty well together, but getting the blades on can be a little tough so just be a little patient with them until they're nice snug. It's also worth noting that his normal lance doesn't fit as snuggly in the hands as Tekkaman Blade's does. Sure, it's not like the lance will fall out, but it kind of slides around a bit. Anyways, TE also features the same sculpted eyes and face under the helmet and it makes for a pretty wicked effect. . In addition, what's equally sweet is the opening boosters on his back feature multiple levels of spreading armor and looks pretty sharp (both literally and figuratively). Finally, if you want to shed TE into his Pre-Tekkaman mode you can do so, but after looking at the armored mode, why would you? ;D

Articulation: Like the armor plus Blade, Evil is pretty much the same in terms of possibility:( double jointed neck, double jointed hips and elbows, ball jointed and hinged shoulders, bicep swivel, mid torso ball joint, ball jointed waist, double jointed hinged knees, hinged ankles and neat toe joint). Even though the articulation is similar I've noticed that the neck on TE is much more free and pose able for looking up and down. Another difference I found is that the inner hip joint that allows the hip to move down is a bit looser on TE and while it does help with posing the figure in more dynamic poses it also takes away some stability in holding the pose itself . Furthermore, when all of the armor is on some of the articulation gets limited and because TE is so spiky posing him needs to have some care involved so be careful.

Die cast content: TE's feet are metal. The chest, inner shoulders, forearms, crouch, and calve armor is all made out of metal. With all of the metal TE feels very heavy and while it does make posing a little harder it really feels solid.


Durablity and Build: Even though joints are tight now, all of them are friction joints and hinges so they can loosen up over time. The plastic quality feels pretty tough and since most of the armor is made out of metal I don't see too many collectors breaking anything. However, I've noticed that on TE some of the armor parts such as the forearm and leg armor don't attach as snuggly as Blade's. I don't know if that has anything to do with the way Bandai designed the new armor or if there's already mold deterioration on the base figure's mold .

Final Thoughts: When I first discovered that Bandai was making these Tekkaman figures my head exploded and I immediately pre-ordered them as soon as the ordering page came up. Its a true sight to behold that these Tekkaman figures exist and I hope Bandai continues to bring out a few more of the armored suits in this line ( come on Sol Tekkaman come on)! Anyways, bottom line this figure is sweet, it looks great, poses pretty decently, and blows my mind to have one of the very few Tekkaman Evil toys ever made . Despite, a few problems and a jump in price Tekkaman fans won't be disappointed. Tekkaman fans have waited too long for awesome Tekkaman toys and now the wait is finally over so do yourself a favor and buy this toy.

Enjoy some pics!








































IMAGES NOW UP. Flickr is kinda screwing with me.

[chogokinsnake]

thanks for the review.

[moleman]

Pictures are now up. Sorry for the eye candy delay. Enjoy!!!!

[xiombarg]

Good review!

[moleman]

Isn't kneeling for the camera fun? Well its not perfect, but its not too shabby.

[Magmatron]

Pretty cool, I love the stomach face.

[fywdyl]

Is there going to be a Blaster version for Tekkaman Evil as well? Anyone here any news about this?

[gpa]

Wow, Evil actually looks ALOT cooler than Blade in this form.... Sadly, though it looks like Bandai decided to ditch this line up. Took a look at Tamashii Web today and Armor Plus has been ashewed to the Other's section (aka land of no return).

Really sad too, since this line looked like it sold really well and the 4 or 5 releases it did get looked really high end. Just picked up a Ryo of Wildfire which was long over due, and I think I'll get this one if I can.

[Dead-Man]

Package of Tekkaman Blaster Blade





more from
ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2010/09/limited-armor-plus-tekkaman-blaster.html

[moleman]

Gamu's review of Blastor Tekkaman!


gamu-toys.info/gangu/ap/ap03/ap03.html

I'm really digging that pearl finish and the added articulation in the neck. I think I read this release also has much better stability than Evil so I guess that's also a plus!