D.Arts: Mega Man X: Armor X version 1
Bandai
Retail 39.99 or higher (shipping NOT included with base price)
October 2011
Bandai
Retail 39.99 or higher (shipping NOT included with base price)
October 2011
A couple of quick sidebar items:
I initially obtained this figure from the good people at Big Bad Toy Store (www.bbts.com) and found my original figure had a problem. The arm arrived broken off and no, glue would not have been advisable to repair the figure as that kills part of the articulation, so the customer service at bbts promptly processed my request for an exchange – kudos to the excellent service!
A little history for those of you who are not familiar with Mega Man X…
The X series incorporated a light amount of RPG in the classic Mega Man formula (aka run, shoot, defeat bad guy, get their weapon , use weapon on next bad guy who had a weakness to previous bad guy’s weapon.) Mega Man X has the option (and later it down right became practically necessary to complete the game) to run around while performing above formula and side tracking to collect various pieces of armor parts/upgrades consisting of a head, body, arm, and leg (Most of these parts/upgrades are usually hidden on different stages…so exploration is a must.). These pieces of armor/upgrades gave X special abilities to either enhance game play or access side areas of different levels.
By the way if you have never played Mega Man X (those of you who have know this little bit) the arm piece of the armor is hidden on a stage and you really have to keep your eyes open to locate the path to obtaining the arm upgrade. But as you progress through the game you will eventually come to a point where you NEED to have the upgrade. But don’t worry the designers of the game made sure you get that last upgrade regardless..ala Zero who sacrifices himself and gives X the upgrade. (Course, Zero sacrifices himself regardless…but they alter it in case you didn’t get the arm upgrade.)
(Also it’s hard to believe this game this figure is based from is over 10 years old now…meaning I was playing this game when I was in grade school.)
Review time!
I initially obtained this figure from the good people at Big Bad Toy Store (www.bbts.com) and found my original figure had a problem. The arm arrived broken off and no, glue would not have been advisable to repair the figure as that kills part of the articulation, so the customer service at bbts promptly processed my request for an exchange – kudos to the excellent service!
A little history for those of you who are not familiar with Mega Man X…
The X series incorporated a light amount of RPG in the classic Mega Man formula (aka run, shoot, defeat bad guy, get their weapon , use weapon on next bad guy who had a weakness to previous bad guy’s weapon.) Mega Man X has the option (and later it down right became practically necessary to complete the game) to run around while performing above formula and side tracking to collect various pieces of armor parts/upgrades consisting of a head, body, arm, and leg (Most of these parts/upgrades are usually hidden on different stages…so exploration is a must.). These pieces of armor/upgrades gave X special abilities to either enhance game play or access side areas of different levels.
By the way if you have never played Mega Man X (those of you who have know this little bit) the arm piece of the armor is hidden on a stage and you really have to keep your eyes open to locate the path to obtaining the arm upgrade. But as you progress through the game you will eventually come to a point where you NEED to have the upgrade. But don’t worry the designers of the game made sure you get that last upgrade regardless..ala Zero who sacrifices himself and gives X the upgrade. (Course, Zero sacrifices himself regardless…but they alter it in case you didn’t get the arm upgrade.)
(Also it’s hard to believe this game this figure is based from is over 10 years old now…meaning I was playing this game when I was in grade school.)
Review time!
Armored X figure
X Buster blast effects:
Giant charged blast
Standard three shot blast
Next Tray:
Additional faces: one with a gritted teeth, one with X’s eyes looking over
Two pair of open hands
one additional fist (as the other fist is already on the figure)
One additional lower arm
One stand
One buster cap to attach the blast effects
Instruction manual ala Japanese, but the pictures are self explanatory
Similar to the previous figures in the D.Arts line the articulation is impressive for a fairly small figure.
There is a neck joint, a join in the head itself, upper torso joint, waist join, leg joints, elbow joints, the upper arms can rotate, upper legs are a ball in hole system allowing for some decent range bending. Color wise it is accurate to the first Mega Man X game, and for some reason the armor makes him appear short. This being not my perception as I compared them again (as I’m writing this) and the armored version of X is a couple of centimeters shorter.
Attention to detail is present in the clear plastic on the forehead area of the helmet for the crystal seen in the game and drawings of this figure. Bottom of the feet actually have clear plastic bubbles (which is only noticeable if you looked at the production art for this game – or own the Mega Man X complete works book.)
Over all this is your standard D.Arts figure from Bandai and aside from my snafu with the figure, quality is definitely there.
Now this is interesting, as the previous instructions on the other figures of this line never mentioned you could do this, but all three figures can basically be disassembled and reassembled with relative ease.
Why would you want to disassemble these figures? As a premium toy, to recreate the stages of which armor upgrades one has obtained! Personally I did this only for the review after examining and the fact my Zero figure’s leg tends to fall off randomly, I can only imagine prolong repetition of disassembling and assembling each figure will lead to wear and finally breakage. Especially in the lower arms, and legs area, as it is a peg-in-hole system…continued pulling/pushing will wear out both peg and hole I’d like to hold on to these figures. The legs especially have a weird forward facing square hole for the peg, which (without breaking the lower leg apart) is parallel to the horizon…and it does not sit securely regardless…i.e. my Zero figure’s leg falling off randomly.
Also after examining the other arm for this figure the peg that fits into the arm for the hand is also very, very loose. Looks like quality department had a little slip – or maybe the design and engineering department.
Pictures below is just an example of the possibilities you can do if you own both the X figure and armored X version 1 figure.
Also after examining the other arm for this figure the peg that fits into the arm for the hand is also very, very loose. Looks like quality department had a little slip – or maybe the design and engineering department.
Pictures below is just an example of the possibilities you can do if you own both the X figure and armored X version 1 figure.
 |
| I was trying to recreate the wall grip...I failed >< |
 |
| Various stage(s) of collected Armor upgrades, just like the game |
Now if you notice the lack of the stand in all of the pictures I mentioned in the contents list above, which really could be used for different aerial poses instead of these boring shots right? Wrong. The stand has one real purpose: support the enormous charged shot came with this figure. The weight of the shot is enough to topple any of the figures…regardless of the pose.
 |
| ...the weight alone would kill my enemy. |
 |
| If I could THROW this... |
This just comes off as a bad decision on Bandai’s part…the previous X figure had a smaller buster effect which already was hefty – why make another one? Also the charged shot for this armor should be pink to a neon red (Image below courtesy…of a sprite sheet from the SNES version of the game – from where I do not remember...I saved this from a website years ago.)
Another thing I didn’t agree with about this figure is the inclusion of another 3 bullet shot effect. Why not include the above shot, or something similar to it…the 3 bullet shot effect and the giant shot feel like after thoughts to a decent figure.
But at least they had the brains to include a stand support the weight of the shot affect…
After looking at the sprite image up there, the buster looks almost gray when compared to the rest of the armor for X. But who knows? Only way to know would be to look at coding of the game and check to see if the individual pixels for that part of the armor on X is colored white or gray like Zero’s buster (seeing as it is Zero’s buster to begin with, hah.)
Outside of the waste of plastic on the buster effects, and maybe the incorrect color on the buster, this figure is not a disappointment. It just could’ve been done a little bit better, but for a piece from childhood that is not even well known anymore…I would say this is a nice little figure to anyone’s collection.
Enjoy some extra pics…Yes, I did include the easter egg Street Fighter move you can obtain in the poses.
But at least they had the brains to include a stand support the weight of the shot affect…
After looking at the sprite image up there, the buster looks almost gray when compared to the rest of the armor for X. But who knows? Only way to know would be to look at coding of the game and check to see if the individual pixels for that part of the armor on X is colored white or gray like Zero’s buster (seeing as it is Zero’s buster to begin with, hah.)
Outside of the waste of plastic on the buster effects, and maybe the incorrect color on the buster, this figure is not a disappointment. It just could’ve been done a little bit better, but for a piece from childhood that is not even well known anymore…I would say this is a nice little figure to anyone’s collection.
Enjoy some extra pics…Yes, I did include the easter egg Street Fighter move you can obtain in the poses.
 |
| Zero: X...I'm dying - take my buster part as an upgrade, if you didn't find it before reaching this point..Wait..you found it? Ok well I'm still dying! |
 |
| Zero: BTW...I'll see you in the NEXT game. |
 |
| Zero: X...Kill 'em all... |
 |
| When a charged Buster Shot or Special Weapon can't defeat the enemy... |
 |
| Hadoken! |
 |
| Hadoken! |
 |
| Armored X & X: Thanks for reading the review! Zero: I don't bow for Anyone. X: (Whisper) Do you think he knows...about the hair... Armored X: (Whisper) Better hope not... Zero: WHAT about my HAIR? |
No comments:
Post a Comment