14 replies to this topic

[Undrave]

I happened by Target earlier this week and they had these little guys on super liquidation (like 2$ each basically) so I decided 'Why not?'.

 

I'm a Digimon fan, and even watched some episodes of Digimon Xros Wars but for some reason hadn't given these little guy much thought (I did get the bigger fusion figures, just so I could have a tall Shoutmon X4 toy), but now I'm thinking of trying to pick up a few more if I can find the other models. I'm also dissapointed Bandai didn't make more!

 

 

They're all roughly the same height, very cute and chunky in look with a surprising ammount of painted details. They are made of a soft flexible plastic, somewhat like the Beast Saga figures, altough the main body part feels more rigid than the limbs. They're all articulated at the limbs and the head, mostly because they're just pegged in.

 

 

And the Star Sword can sorta fit in a 3 mm hand hole. The fact they come apart though sadly doesn't add any new playability, which is dissapointing, because almost every peg and hole is completely unique. In fact, the figures are assymetrical in this manner, having bigger pegs on one side than the other!

 

Still for the price I'm not dissapointed at all! Altough it's always a little sad to see a good quality product floundering. Doubly so when it comes from Bandai of America, who usually produces some of the worse merchandise on toy store shelves.

[ironmask]

I picked up one of the two packs when they first came out. The joints were super loose, right out of the package, and for as large as they are, I expected a little more detail (either sculpted or painted).

[Acidonia]

I picked up one of the two packs when they first came out. The joints were super loose, right out of the package, and for as large as they are, I expected a little more detail (either sculpted or painted).

Bandai seem to be stingy on paint jobs these days. I think that's almost the entire fusion line and I read somewhere bandai gave up on the digimon toy line and are focusing on video games instead. 

[ironmask]

The old Digimon minis were epic. These things? I just don't even know, man. "Let's do the opposite of what has worked before."

[Undrave]

I picked up one of the two packs when they first came out. The joints were super loose, right out of the package, and for as large as they are, I expected a little more detail (either sculpted or painted).

 

None of mine are loose. And I don't know what kind of added sculpted detail you might want, everything is pretty much there. Some isn't picked out in paint though.

[ironmask]

None of mine are loose. And I don't know what kind of added sculpted detail you might want, everything is pretty much there. Some isn't picked out in paint though.

I mean, when you put the new stuff against the older minis, the older sculpts are head and shoulders above these newer ones.

[Undrave]

I mean, when you put the new stuff against the older minis, the older sculpts are head and shoulders above these newer ones.

 

I think that might just be the nature of the designs they were using. The older toys were mostly based off the more complicated card art. Lots of lines, lots of tiny details, wheras the new one are based off the streamlined animation models. If you look at some sequence of the anime that Shoutmon X4 has pretty much all its detail.

 

Though to be fair I don't exactly have a whole lot of the old minis...

[ironmask]

I mean, whether I dislike the toys, or the designs the toys came from, either way the result is the same: The old stuff is better. If you don't have any of the old stuff, I would definitely suggest it, because even most of the "bad" sculpts are still pretty damned charming.

[Acidonia]

The designs in Digimon changed over the years most evolve into Knights or Robots armed to the teeth with guns now. The older ones all had a sorta rat think style to the art though some digimon lost it a bit when they was animated. 

 

And some of the best digimon like Parasimon or Raremon never got any toys there not even in the later video games at all.

[ironmask]

Raremon was probably my favorite one to never get made.

[Undrave]

It's true that a lot of Digimon nowadays don't seem to reference stuff enough. A lot of generic Dragons and armored guys. Not that armored dudes aren't cool (I got D-Arts Omegamon, Dukemon and SHFiguart Imperialdramon Fighter Mode after all), but I still like the old Yokai inspired designs and the simple animals ya know?

 

I don't think we'll ever get more minis sadly :/ video games just sell more than toys. And even if we did toy companies are just not into exploiting their mythos anymore, just repeating the same five to ten guys in as many price point as possible ad-nauseum.

 

I wish Bandai would extend the Tamashii Buddies line to the Digimon franchise. There's so many characters (especially the humans) would don't really need a full one Figuart release, but would be great as static toys. They also need a Proplica Digivice with screen accurate colors. Outrageously overpriced remakes of the first Digivice pendulum toy sold only through Premium Bandai ain't gonna cut it.

[ironmask]

I looked into those, and... Well, I don't get it. How big are they?

[Undrave]

I looked into those, and... Well, I don't get it. How big are they?

 

You don't have any Rise of the Beasts figures? I used the scorpion as size comparaison in the first picture. They can roughly fit into a 2 by 2 by 1 inche block of plastic really, with bits poking out here and there.

[ironmask]

I don't see any Tamashii Buddies in that first picture. I suppose I probably could have been more specific.

[Undrave]

I don't see any Tamashii Buddies in that first picture. I suppose I probably could have been more specific.

 

Oh, sorry I got confused about what you meant... Tamashii Buddies... I'm not sure exactly how tall they are either... I think somewhere between 4 and 5 inches or so?

 

Hmmm according to this one listing I found, 9 cm. Not sure if that's the box or figure.

Edited by Undrave, 15 January 2015 - 09:44 PM.