Yes, among my archives there are more than a few toys of one sort or another. This December while I was looking up posable models to use for figure drawing reference I stumbled upon the world of 1/6th scale action figures. One thing led to another and in the end I was powerless to resist purchasing a few odd things for myself for Christmas, (Actually it has been hard to stop – collector of the fantastic and obscure that I am.)
In my research it was extremely helpful to find toy reviews on sites
like one sixth warriors. There's lots of great information to be found on the forums there. The following is my humble attempt to pay it forward
by providing review of some of my purchases.
On December 28th a package arrived via Japan Post (EMS). It was my order from amiami.com, and it arrived ahead of items purchased from ebay and Amazon around the same time, much earlier than I expected - gotta recognize professionalism in the shipping department.
 |  | On opening the box I got a little note of thanks and things look well packed. – Oh the anticipation… what in god’s name did I order anyway?
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| Treasure!!! |
First I'll introduce my new Garo action figures.
As most Americans probably won't know, Garo is a Japanese tv series that focused on the life of a dude who battled demonic creatures while in the form of a golden wolf-headed knight in armor. I've only seen a couple of episodes but the series is a superhero/horror mixture and a bit more sinister and gory than one wound expect.
The photos of the action figures from the show look cool as hell online. Looking at them in reality I am really surprised by how small they are. See coffee cup photo for comparison …and they are still in the packaging! Very small indeed.
As most Americans probably won't know, Garo is a Japanese tv series that focused on the life of a dude who battled demonic creatures while in the form of a golden wolf-headed knight in armor. I've only seen a couple of episodes but the series is a superhero/horror mixture and a bit more sinister and gory than one wound expect.
The photos of the action figures from the show look cool as hell online. Looking at them in reality I am really surprised by how small they are. See coffee cup photo for comparison …and they are still in the packaging! Very small indeed.
Mighty Wolf Warriors
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...well, size isn't everything
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The backs of the packages show the images that I saw online when researching these figures. They look rather majestic and quite ...large in the photos don't they? Never underestimate the power of a stilled photographer.
Busting one open I found that yea, they are still pretty cool looking, the size was mildly disappointing though. (I'm trying to get over it.)
The movement in the joints is surprisingly good. There are ball & socket joints everywhere except for the knees and head. The initial stiffness quickly wore out on the sword arm shoulder and it seemed to go a little loose. Pressing the shoulder socket together seemed to help with this.
Changing hands seemed fairly easy and the range of motion was somewhat limited in the shoulders and hips. The upper and lower torsos have a little independent mobility as well. The knees have a a double joint (elbows don’t) and the hands and feet are on ball joints. The head rotates but the neck is stationary.
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| But I Feel LARGE!!! |
The movement in the joints is surprisingly good. There are ball & socket joints everywhere except for the knees and head. The initial stiffness quickly wore out on the sword arm shoulder and it seemed to go a little loose. Pressing the shoulder socket together seemed to help with this.
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| arm surgery - replacing the fist with the sword hand |
Changing hands seemed fairly easy and the range of motion was somewhat limited in the shoulders and hips. The upper and lower torsos have a little independent mobility as well. The knees have a a double joint (elbows don’t) and the hands and feet are on ball joints. The head rotates but the neck is stationary.
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The thing that really attracted me to these in the first place was the sculpting – and though the figure is still relatively short, the sculpt is no less amazing. The face in particular looks really cool and the armor has all kinds of crazy little details.
Overall the figure is still impressive – just not so much by the size. Did I mention they were small? …cool, but small.
Note: Bigger versions are available but they will run you $60 - $120 or more. 'A man's got to know his limitations.'
Links:
- Big Bad Toy Store has them and will get you in trouble - too much fun stuff
- Amazingly, SEARS online stores carry a wide variety of these things...and a lot more for/from international markets than one would expect.
- I bought mine used from amiami.com. But be warned, there is treasure everywhere on their website.
