EDIT: I wrote this review on the 22nd of May 2011 and it was published on my first blog.
Sorry it took me so long to post pictures of the figure out of its box as I got preoccupied with normal life stuffs, plus the super slow, lagging and sometimes automatically cut off internet connection.
As I'm writing this I had to save the whole post as to make sure I don't have to re-type everything all over again.
I finally got the chance to snap some pics of this latest product from Enterbay. As you guys already knew, Enterbay (EB) can be considered as the closest rival to Hot Toys. EB is famous mainly for their Bruce Lee figures. Samanosuke Akechi is their first action figure based on a video game character, so I got intrigued and excited when they announced it. I had high expectations for this figure as their previously released Bruce Lee figures were like a guarantee that this one will be as awesome.
First I would like to comment on the box design. It's pretty simple with just a picture of the main character printed on the front, and I personally like it. The flap side where you flip to open the box is similar to the one made by Hot Toys for their first Iron Man movie line, before they switched to the lift-open-shoe-box design, they used small magnets inside it to hold the cover. But the bummer is only this, the paper material used to cover the box feels like it was made out of recycled paper! When I came to the shop where I pre-ordered it I was surprised to see that one of them had a really big torn on the flap side. So I asked the toyshop owner if I can choose the best looking one and fortunately he allowed me to. I had a hard time choosing which one because all of them had torn on the cover, some were too big, some were acceptable. The toyshop owner later told me that this is a common problem with this particular figure as the paper used was of low quality. Now, this is my first Enterbay figure so I don't know if they use this on every single figure they've produced. Anybody here who owns any EB Bruce Lee, or Godfather?? Please share with us.:)
Then, let's take a look inside the box. Once opened, you can see the figure, two Japanese swords, three additional hands, two fists and one relaxed pose, a base and a figure holder, placed neatly inside a styrofoam container. The base is a nice accessory but I personally think it's a bit too simple. For a really expensive figure, I wish they could have made a better looking base. When I took the base out for the first time, I was surprised, it was made from solid hard steel. It felt heavy in my hands, both the base and the holder. So I think maybe, for the base, being made from steel, I can let EB off the hook for this one. But what do you guys think?? Is the made from steel base enough to justify their lack of creativity?
As for the katanas, just by looking at them without holding them in hands, I couldn't tell they were also made from metal, so that also came as quite a surprise for me as they do look plastic-ky. Both katanas are removable from their scabbards and once you took them out then you can feel that they're made from metal. What kind of metal? I can't say for sure but judging from the weight I believe it's the same one they used for the base.
Close up on the figure's face now.....
Some say he looks nothing like the character or the actor who portrayed him, Takeshi Kaneshiro. You be the judge. But if you ask me I'm all okay with the facesculpt, since he's based on a video game character that's based on a real life actor.... So just imagine which one EB had to choose before they settled with this. I reckon it's not the latter.:D
The problem with the head is that it was sculpted along with the neck with his face looking up a bit higher than normal. I really don't like it when I receive a figure and the head is stuck to the neck because later I can't do the looking down all bad@$$ "You-don't-mess-with-me" pose.
This set also comes with the weapons used by Samanosuke in the game, which are, the dual swords of the Light element, Tenso, the blade of the Air element, Kuga, the axe of the Earth element, Chigo and last but not least, the super ultimate sword, Bishamon. These weapons were placed underneath the styrofoam box and unlike the upper container, the container for the additional weapons is the usual plastic container, with a cut out stencil like cover just to add some presentation.
The weapons are well made and unlike the katanas, they're made from plastics, with nice paintjob and sculpts.
The figure...
Now this is a matter of personal preferences. Some fans got frustrated by the fact that EB just simply sculpt the armor along with the "thread" that's holding them. These frustrated fans had preferred that EB sculpted the armor piece by piece and then had them hold together by real thread so that it'll look more detailed and realistic. Being a simple and easily satisfied customer that I am, I really have no problem with it.
All in all I consider all the problems I mentioned earlier as minor. I still love the figure and have been waiting for some company to make a decent looking Onimusha figure since I missed the train on the Dragon Models version which now looks far inferior to the one produced recently.
My super newbie mediocre photography skill, plus a four years old digital camera, didn't do justice for this figure. Sure it has a few minor problems but this is still a pretty neat figure and I give it a 3.5 out of 5 score.
Cheers!
