Post by quinjester on Mar 4, 2010 22:59:04 GMT -5
Since I don't think I've seen ANY photos of this guy that weren't stock photos, nor have I heard ANY thoughts on it (which was what prompted me to buy it in the first place, that and its rather striking and odd design), I thought I'd throw out some thoughts on this guy that I picked up on sale at Amiami recently.
The victim: Toys Planning's "Demonbane" figure, from the series from the same name.
As you can see it's a pretty funky design. HUGE Nadesico-esque shinguards, a tiny body, and big chunky limbs are the name of the game here. The figure comes with two alternate heads, one with a flowing energy mane, and one without. They're essentially the same, except for that the one with the mane has a clear plastic faceplate. It's a bit odd looking and I would rather have had the regular face with the mane, but oh well. The energy effect IS really cool, although it makes the head pop off due to the weight.
The joints are all revoltech-style joints, if not actual revoltech joints. It's got them everywhere, and they're all very tight. The figure actually has two waist joints, one at the hip and one at the chest, which gives him a pretty wide range of motion. The one just under the chest appears to be a standard ball joint instead of a ratcheting one, however, so it's a little wobbly.
The figure comes with several weapons:
Two pistols (silver and black, A la Devil May Cry)...
And a ... sword... hatchet... thing.
It's an odd looking weapon, to be sure, but fitting with the overall outlandish look of the figure.
... Unfortunately, the blade is REALLY heavy, much too heavy for the wrist joints, which are standard ball and socket joints (one of the few on the figure), so unless you're very careful, it'll flop around aimlessly. It took quite a lot of work to get him to hold his sword in this shot.
Here, the bottom edge of the sword is wedged under his wrist plates. There's enough random surfaces all over this guy that you can pull this kind of thing off without it looking out of place.
As a side note, the detailing on the back of the figure (and on the figure as a whole) is pretty phenomenal. As you can see on the back of the arms, there's a moving panel that covers the back of the elbow to give the arm the appearance of a lot of shifting plates when it bends. The downside is that this joint also interferes with the frontal movement of the arms, so even though the elbows are double jointed, you can only get 90 degrees of movement - you can basically choose to bend one joint or the other, but never both. Disappointing.
The shoulders are another slightly sore point - the articulation here SHOULD be really good, because of the pseudo revoltech design, but I CANNOT for the life of me get the joint to swivel at both sides of the joint - people familiar with revlos know what I mean - the joint can usually be rotated at either side of the ball, allowing you to reposition what direction the ratchet faces. On nearly ALL of the revlo-style joints on the Demonbane, at least one side of the joint is permanently affixed, preventing this.
Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but as near as I can tell, a sort of awkward looking 45 degree angle is the most I can manage to get the arms to swing out from the body, as shown above.
Overall, it's a pretty neat figure.
PROS:
- Detail: LOTS of sculpted detail and panel line work, no flash or messy molding here.
- Paint: The paint job is excellent, with nice pastel colors highlighting the figure all around.
- Moving bits: There's a ton of moving parts and, unlike its revoltech cousins, its extremely capable of standing on its own two feet without a stand, thanks to a regular ball jointed ankle.
- Stability: The revoltech-style ratchet joints to a good job of keeping it from buckling under its own weight, despite the really odd proportions
- It's Unique: Chances are good there's NOTHING remotely resembling this in your collection. Is that a good thing though? Well, I think so...
CONS:
- Price vs. Value: This things has an original MSRP of 7800 yen, nearly $90, and it's essentially a slightly more detailed revoltech (the same size as one, too), with no stand, one alternate head, and a couple of alternate hands. There's no way in hell this is worth that.
- Annoying joints: The aforementioned fixed revoltech swivels really kill a lot of the potential movement. On the other hand, they probably make it a lot more stable, so maybe it's not exactly a con...
- Lack of recognition: Honestly, how many people even know what the hell this thing is or where it came from? From what I've gathered it's from a hentai game which was made into an OVA and a short TV series, which involves goth-lolis fighting Cthulhu.*
Yeah. So. There it is. The Demonbane. Pretty neat. Way overpriced at full retail.
Fortunately, it's NOT at full retail right now, at Amiami. I'd recommend those who like revos and who find the design appealing check it out - it's currently on sale for 65% off retail, which puts it into a MUCH more reasonable price range that I'd say is worth it for a figure like this. Hell, I don't even like revoltechs but I still think this is a darn cool figure, so that says something.
*which actually sounds pretty sweet, when I think about it.
The victim: Toys Planning's "Demonbane" figure, from the series from the same name.
As you can see it's a pretty funky design. HUGE Nadesico-esque shinguards, a tiny body, and big chunky limbs are the name of the game here. The figure comes with two alternate heads, one with a flowing energy mane, and one without. They're essentially the same, except for that the one with the mane has a clear plastic faceplate. It's a bit odd looking and I would rather have had the regular face with the mane, but oh well. The energy effect IS really cool, although it makes the head pop off due to the weight.
The joints are all revoltech-style joints, if not actual revoltech joints. It's got them everywhere, and they're all very tight. The figure actually has two waist joints, one at the hip and one at the chest, which gives him a pretty wide range of motion. The one just under the chest appears to be a standard ball joint instead of a ratcheting one, however, so it's a little wobbly.
The figure comes with several weapons:
Two pistols (silver and black, A la Devil May Cry)...
And a ... sword... hatchet... thing.
It's an odd looking weapon, to be sure, but fitting with the overall outlandish look of the figure.
... Unfortunately, the blade is REALLY heavy, much too heavy for the wrist joints, which are standard ball and socket joints (one of the few on the figure), so unless you're very careful, it'll flop around aimlessly. It took quite a lot of work to get him to hold his sword in this shot.
Here, the bottom edge of the sword is wedged under his wrist plates. There's enough random surfaces all over this guy that you can pull this kind of thing off without it looking out of place.
As a side note, the detailing on the back of the figure (and on the figure as a whole) is pretty phenomenal. As you can see on the back of the arms, there's a moving panel that covers the back of the elbow to give the arm the appearance of a lot of shifting plates when it bends. The downside is that this joint also interferes with the frontal movement of the arms, so even though the elbows are double jointed, you can only get 90 degrees of movement - you can basically choose to bend one joint or the other, but never both. Disappointing.
The shoulders are another slightly sore point - the articulation here SHOULD be really good, because of the pseudo revoltech design, but I CANNOT for the life of me get the joint to swivel at both sides of the joint - people familiar with revlos know what I mean - the joint can usually be rotated at either side of the ball, allowing you to reposition what direction the ratchet faces. On nearly ALL of the revlo-style joints on the Demonbane, at least one side of the joint is permanently affixed, preventing this.
Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, but as near as I can tell, a sort of awkward looking 45 degree angle is the most I can manage to get the arms to swing out from the body, as shown above.
Overall, it's a pretty neat figure.
PROS:
- Detail: LOTS of sculpted detail and panel line work, no flash or messy molding here.
- Paint: The paint job is excellent, with nice pastel colors highlighting the figure all around.
- Moving bits: There's a ton of moving parts and, unlike its revoltech cousins, its extremely capable of standing on its own two feet without a stand, thanks to a regular ball jointed ankle.
- Stability: The revoltech-style ratchet joints to a good job of keeping it from buckling under its own weight, despite the really odd proportions
- It's Unique: Chances are good there's NOTHING remotely resembling this in your collection. Is that a good thing though? Well, I think so...
CONS:
- Price vs. Value: This things has an original MSRP of 7800 yen, nearly $90, and it's essentially a slightly more detailed revoltech (the same size as one, too), with no stand, one alternate head, and a couple of alternate hands. There's no way in hell this is worth that.
- Annoying joints: The aforementioned fixed revoltech swivels really kill a lot of the potential movement. On the other hand, they probably make it a lot more stable, so maybe it's not exactly a con...
- Lack of recognition: Honestly, how many people even know what the hell this thing is or where it came from? From what I've gathered it's from a hentai game which was made into an OVA and a short TV series, which involves goth-lolis fighting Cthulhu.*
Yeah. So. There it is. The Demonbane. Pretty neat. Way overpriced at full retail.
Fortunately, it's NOT at full retail right now, at Amiami. I'd recommend those who like revos and who find the design appealing check it out - it's currently on sale for 65% off retail, which puts it into a MUCH more reasonable price range that I'd say is worth it for a figure like this. Hell, I don't even like revoltechs but I still think this is a darn cool figure, so that says something.
*which actually sounds pretty sweet, when I think about it.