{"id":20111,"date":"2012-08-07T02:48:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T07:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20111"},"modified":"2012-08-07T03:39:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T08:39:35","slug":"vault-review-figma-samus-aran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20111","title":{"rendered":"Vault Review:
Figma Samus Aran"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Well, the wait is finally over and I have one of my most requested characters in action figure form.\u00a0 What\u2019s even better news is that Good Smile has picked up a few more of my favorite Nintendo licenses and Samus won\u2019t be alone on my video game shelf for long! <\/p>\n

Usually in my first few paragraphs I like to talk about the history of the character and why I like them.\u00a0 But what can I say about Samus that I haven\u2019t already stated twice (here <\/a>and here<\/a>)?\u00a0 But if you don\u2019t care to read paragraphs of my verbal gushing, just know that to me she\u2019s the greatest female video game character of all time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the more difficult aspects of toy collecting seems to be finding decent action figures of the characters you love.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit better today with McFarlane\u2019s Halo and NECA\u2019s Player Select lines, but it still seems like Nintendo is as tight fisted as always when it comes to doling out licenses.\u00a0 Until recently it was difficult to even find respectable Mario figures, and while nice, I still wouldn\u2019t refer to the Global Holdings figures as \u201caction\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Good Smile Company has somehow struck a deal with Nintendo.\u00a0 (I\u2019m thinking they used black magic and a possible pact with the Devil, since they\u2019ve also recently turned up a deal with Studio Ghibli!)\u00a0 Whatever dark arts they used was well worth it, because fans finally have the chance to reenact epic battles and or team-ups between Samus, Link and Pit.\u00a0 Hopefully that\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Samus Aran Figma is based on her appearance in the Other M video game.\u00a0 Even though the game play wasn\u2019t too bad, Samus\u2019 personality wasn\u2019t in line with how the character had been previously portrayed.\u00a0 The game kind of left a bad taste in my mouth which was mostly derived from her characterization.\u00a0 But I was fine with her physical depiction and the design of the suit she used in game is a great model for an action figure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To me, the sculpt is damned near perfect.\u00a0 The suit itself has a nice combination of sharp edges and manufactured curves that look more like a robotic soldier than an environmental suit (which has always been an interesting aspect to me).\u00a0 Even if this isn\u2019t your preferred suit design, it still makes for a great looking and unmistakable Samus figure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Most Figma figures are generally in scale with each other, especially characters from the same source material\/anime\/manga.\u00a0 Either way, most of the figures clock in around the five inch mark.\u00a0 But Samus, at nearly six inches, has to be one of the tallest Figma figures created so far.\u00a0 I know she\u2019s the tallest one I own, dwarfing even the svelte Aegis and practically fitting in perfectly with the new Marvel Legends Iron Man.\u00a0 I really like this aspect of the figure.\u00a0 After all, she is wearing a gigantic battle suit.\u00a0 I just wonder how small she\u2019ll make Pit and Link look when they\u2019re all together.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of my favorite things about this figure is her paint apps.\u00a0 From what I can tell, the entire figure was made out of white plastic and then painted with these amazingly vibrant metallic colors.\u00a0 What\u2019s even more interesting is that each color gives off its own distinct look.\u00a0 The yellow is has a very pearlized style, while the red is a bit glittery, and the orange just looks like basic metal.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The blue of her gun also has that same glittery sense.\u00a0 All the blacks and neon greens of her suit are in a matte color and do a really great job of absorbing light and creating contrast.\u00a0 Her visor is probably what stands out most.\u00a0 It seems to have been painted with a metallic green on the inside, giving it a nice translucent yet reflective feel.\u00a0 Continue to page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it came to articulation, the designers went all out.\u00a0 Samus\u2019 head is on a swivel\/hinge joint, while her neck attaches to her body with a ball joint.\u00a0 Her shoulders are on ball joints, while the pauldrons are articulated separately on their own ball joint.\u00a0 Her elbows, knees, ankles, and wrists are all swivel\/hingels, while her mid torso and hips are ball joints.\u00a0 Samus also has a hinged toe joint, which isn\u2019t too common on a Figma.\u00a0 All these joints give you the ability to replicate most poses from the games or art of the series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Samus comes with five alternate left hands: fist, holding, palm flat, splayed fingers, and a thumbs-up.\u00a0 The first four do a great job of portraying most actions or emotions, while the thumbs-up hand is just a perfect little bonus that makes the figure even more fun.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Samus\u2019 gun arm also comes with an alternate piece.\u00a0 You can remove the standard tip of her cannon and replace it with the opened up missile launcher look.\u00a0 This is a really great option, and I\u2019m glad they included it, but I wish they would have also included a missile firing effect for it.\u00a0 It seems a little lackluster without one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of effects pieces, Samus does come with two.\u00a0 Both are energy beams that can be attached to the end of her cannon.\u00a0 One has a single burst of translucent red energy, while the other has a double burst.\u00a0 These are nice looking effects, but I don\u2019t really know why two are necessary.\u00a0 I would have gladly given up one for a missile effect instead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last, but not least, Samus comes with her Morph Ball mode.\u00a0 This cool sphere is colored the same way as her costume and can be attached to a Figma stand for motion effects.\u00a0 I really love the center translucent-like green stripe, and I\u2019m really glad they added this as an accessory since it\u2019s a major part of her character.\u00a0 The only thing that would have made it better is if they also included a couple of bomb accessories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All around this is the Samus Aran figure that fans have been waiting so long for.\u00a0 That\u2019s not saying I wouldn\u2019t mind getting her in a couple of other suit designs, including a Zero Suit.\u00a0 But if I were to only have one figure, I would be entirely happy with this Figma.\u00a0 I\u2019ll probably buy just about any Nintendo character that Good Smile makes, and if they all turn out this well then we\u2019re in for an amazing line of figures.<\/p>\n

-Vault<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, the wait is finally over and I have one of my most requested characters in action figure form.\u00a0 What\u2019s even better news is that Good Smile has picked up a few more of my favorite Nintendo licenses and Samus won\u2019t be alone on my video game shelf for long!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20113,"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":[1617,104,1118,453,1618,452],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/samuTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-5en","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14767,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=14767","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":0},"title":"Vault Review: Metroid’s Samus Aran, A Dimension Diver Kit","date":"October 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Any of you have a Holy Grail?\u00a0 A toy that you covet so much that it becomes an obsession in your hunting?\u00a0 That\u2019s what this Samus Aran figure is for me.\u00a0 After years of searching I was finally able to acquire one for a reasonable trade.\u00a0 Definitely feels good. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/DSC01857.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23535,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=23535","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":1},"title":"Vault Review: Figma Pit (Kid Icarus)","date":"May 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I hope everyone had a good long Memorial Day weekend.\u00a0 I\u2019m kicking off this week with another recently arrived import figure.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at Figma Pit, the angelic protagonist from Nintendo\u2019s Kid Icarus franchise. I remember playing the original Kid Icarus game back in the 80\u2019s, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/pit7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22314,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=22314","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":2},"title":"Vault Review: Figma Link","date":"January 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.\u00a0 While Noisy gets his new house of boxes organized, I\u2019m back with my regular Tuesday review.\u00a0 So bear with me as I get back into the swing of things with a look at Figma\u2019s Skyward Sword Link. This is actually a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/link7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4068,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4068","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":3},"title":"Most Requested Figures: Metroid’s Samus","date":"February 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20290,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20290","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":4},"title":"Wonder Festival Summer 2012 (Part 2)","date":"August 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s Day Two of our 2012 Summer Wonder Fest coverage! Today we\u2019ll be featuring images from companies like Kotobukiya, Alter, Griffon, Medicos, and more! And perhaps even more exciting is that Robert has some answers to reader suggested questions posted on the forum! First up is the Q&A! I'd like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Event Coverage"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23169,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=23169","url_meta":{"origin":20111,"position":5},"title":"Vault Review: D-Arts Pok\u00e9mon Mewtwo","date":"April 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems like Noisy and I could do a month of Transformers reviews if we combined our purchases, but that would get pretty boring for everyone.\u00a0 So today I\u2019m taking a break from my growing pile of TFs to take a look at my newest Japanese import, D-Arts Mewtwo. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/mwtw8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20111"}],"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=20111"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20138,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20111\/revisions\/20138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}