{"id":11246,"date":"2011-01-18T13:07:13","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11246"},"modified":"2011-01-18T13:07:13","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T19:07:13","slug":"vault-review-skeleton-army-sci-fi-revoltech-020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11246","title":{"rendered":"Vault Review: Skeleton Army
(Sci-Fi Revoltech #020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> I was surprised when Kaiyodo announced number twenty in their Sci-Fi Revoltech line was going to be a skeleton warrior from the film Jason and the Argonauts<\/em>. The works of Ray Harryhausen are perfect for this line, and there\u2019s no better figure to illustrate this point than the reanimated skeleton warrior. <\/p>\n

Ray Harryhausen is one of the greatest special effects artists of all time. Before computers and CGI even existed, he was using stop-motion animation to incorporate the actions of people with fantastic and bizarre creatures on screen. One of the most memorable of these scenes for me is the battle with the skeleton army in Jason and the Argonauts<\/em>. As a kid, seeing what looked like real skeletons battling with swords and spears was amazing. Even looking back at that scene I\u2019m surprised at how well it holds up. The animation is so seamless with the actors\u2019 choreography that you\u2019d never guess the skeletons were miniature puppets that were added in later. The love and attention to detail Ray put into his work is evident while watching this five minute fight scene with the knowledge that it took four and a half months to animate.<\/p>\n

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I bought this figure for two reasons. First is my love of Harryhausen\u2019s creations. I never considered Kaiyodo would use his creations for their Sci-Fi Revoltech line, but I\u2019m extremely happy they did. I can only hope that we see more of his work in the future of this line.<\/p>\n

Second, this skeleton is so masterfully sculpted by Kawada Hideaki that it doesn\u2019t matter what the source material was. Even with the slight embellishments here and there, this skeleton still looks and moves so realistically that you can use it as an artistic reference.<\/p>\n

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Besides the perfectly sculpted form of this figure, there are also tons of tiny details. The major plates of the skull are all separated by slight cracks. While the individual teeth and even the palate has raised ridges and texture. The bones of the spine have their own sculpting and have been glued to the back of the ribs. Even the tiny textures between the bones of the hands and feet are given detail.<\/p>\n

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Each skeleton is molded in a light gray plastic and then given a dry wash of dark gray. Since the dry wash is random with where and how heavy it sticks to the figure, each skeleton has its own unique look. This is great if you\u2019re buying more than one figure. One of mine even ended up with a dark smudge on one of his teeth. It makes him look like he has a missing tooth, giving him a different personality from the other two.<\/p>\n

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The skeleton is probably one of the best articulated Revoltech figures I own, which is saying a lot considering how well Revoltech figures are usually articulated. His head, base of his neck, shoulders, elbows, mid torso, waist, hips, knees, and ankles are all revolver joints. His wrists are swivel\/hinge joints, while his jaw is a hinge. This gives him the full range of human anatomy without those pesky constraints of muscles or clothing that most figures have. Continue to Page Two…<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Just one skeleton comes with two gladius swords, a spear, and two shields with different decorations. This is enough to arm a small army of skeletons. He also comes with four alternate hands (six all together) and an alternate arm\/hand designed to hold a shield. Lastly, there is the name placard that all the Sci-Fi Revoltechs come with.<\/p>\n

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As if the skeleton wasn\u2019t cool enough on its own, they also included a detailed base. A worn and crumbling pillar surrounded by broken earth with more undead skeletons digging their way out. The partially emerged skeleton isn\u2019t just for looks, he\u2019s articulated with a revolver joint in his shoulder, swivel\/hinge wrist, a swivel neck, and a hinged jaw. This is way more than you would expect out of a normal base, but it doesn\u2019t end there. The reverse side of the base also doubles as storage for all those extra accessories.<\/p>\n

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With as great as this figure is, there\u2019s one drawback. Some of the joints are extremely tight. Since he has such small revolver joints, and his limbs aren\u2019t that big either, you\u2019ll want to be very careful adjusting and posing him at first. After playing with him for a while, the joints eventually loosened up enough to move comfortably. If you do accidentally break a joint, keep in mind you can always replace it with the shoulder joint in the base\u2019s skeleton since they\u2019re the same size.<\/p>\n

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Yeah, I love this figure. He\u2019s one of the coolest toys I\u2019ve ever owned and I can\u2019t recommend him enough. I bought three of this guy, and I still want a couple more. But for $25 a figure, I needed to show a little restraint. Sadly, not for long though. Kaiyodo\u2019s already announced the release of a second edition of this figure with two different looking shields. Guess I should start saving my money now\u2026<\/p>\n

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I was surprised when Kaiyodo announced number twenty in their Sci-Fi Revoltech line was going to be a skeleton warrior from the film Jason and the Argonauts<\/em>. The works of Ray Harryhausen are perfect for this line, and there\u2019s no better figure to illustrate this point than the reanimated skeleton warrior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[34,10],"tags":[859,485,559,860],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/skelTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-2Vo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11602,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11602","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":0},"title":"Wonder Festival Winter 2011 Questions & Answers","date":"February 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Just before Winter Wonder Festival 2011, we put out an open call for questions to ask the various companies that attended the show. Our own Robert Baldwin caught up with many of the company representatives and got a few interesting answers and some big news concerning the future of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Event Coverage"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25179,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=25179","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":1},"title":"Vault Review: Revoltech Takeya Gundari Myoo","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/gumy8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6116,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=6116","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":2},"title":"Vault Review: Jack Skellington (Sci-Fi Revoltech #005)","date":"June 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In 1993, Tim Burton\u2019s The Nightmare Before Christmas hit theatres. Since then, NBX fans have been able to buy multiple DVDs, video games, t-shirts, bath towels, gum - an endless variety of products adorned with images of Halloween Town. If you\u2019ve ever been to a Hot Topic, you\u2019ve probably wondered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11731,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11731","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":3},"title":"Vault Review: Gigan (Sci-Fi Revoltech #023)","date":"February 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I was really looking forward to the twenty-third figure in the Sci-Fi Revoltech line. Not only is Gigan one of Godzilla\u2019s main enemies, but he\u2019s a fairly prominent kaiju. Surely his solicitation signified that the Sci-Fi line was moving on to the more prominent and popular members of the Godzilla-verse,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16182,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=16182","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":4},"title":"Vault Review: Revoltech\u2019s Pixar Figure Collection #02, WALL-E","date":"January 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At the end of last year Revoltech introduced a spinoff line from their Sci-Fi series based only on Pixar characters.\u00a0 Naturally I had to pick up the main character from my favorite Pixar movie, WALL-E.\u00a0 Unfortunately the results were a bit disappointing. My first thought when hearing about this new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/wall12.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15608,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=15608","url_meta":{"origin":11246,"position":5},"title":"Vault Review: S.H. MonsterArts’ Godzilla","date":"November 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been pretty interested in Bandai\u2019s SH MonsterArts line ever since it was announced earlier this year.\u00a0 Not only would it deliver our first super articulated Godzilla figure, but it would have to keep the same quality we were accustomed to from the Sci-Fi Revoltech line. I was originally surprised\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/godz11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11246"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11250,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11246\/revisions\/11250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}