Mazinkaiser

Height: 12.5cm to top of head, 14cm to top of Kaiser Scrander.

Articulation: 26 total points of articulation: universal-joint neck; 5 points in each arm- double-jointed shoulder, universal joint elbow, swivel wrists; mid-torso universal joint; 6 points of articulation in each leg- universal joint hip, universal joint knee, universal joint ankle.

Colors: Molded white, gold, and black(stand). Painted black, light grey, red, silver, gold, yellow and light blue.

Accessories: Mazinger Sword, Mazinger Blades x2, Kaiser Scrander, Extra Hands x4, stand.

Release Data: Released in December 2007 at a suggested retail price of US$22.00. This figure is no longer widely available as of this writing.

Gallery:  11 pictures.

Author: RAC
 
Finally, I have a Revoltech figure! Finally, I have a Mazinkaiser figure! The latest incarnation of Go Nagai's original super robot- not to mention the only incarnation to make it to the US in the last 20 years- is finally a figure you can afford. As opposed to the massive, limited-run diecast `Kaisers that have been made up to now, this one is roughly the size and price of an MSiA. But, what about the quality? Not quite MSiA grade, in my opinion- really, what is? -but still pretty darn good.

The Figure

I may as well start with the Revoltech line's defining characteristic, the Revolver Joint.

The Joint is a small, round universal joint which ratchets to hold positions effectively. That is, it's a big round ball that clicks. In practice it behaves roughly the way the hip joints on Marvel Legends do, except that due to the double-peg design almost all the parts of the figure connected by Revolver Joints are capable of swiveling 360 degrees. This makes for total freedom, but of course total freedom can get kind of fidgety in this case. The other issue is that there are no real locking mechanisms on the pegs, meaning that Kaiyodo is counting entirely on friction between the peg and the piece it sockets into to hold the toy together. This doesn't always work. It works 95% of the time, judging from Mazinkaiser, but that still means that in a figure with 10 Joints you'll have one that likes to pop loose on one side. Hasbro, being Hasbro, molded a small ridge into the pegs on the version of the Revolver Joint seen in their Transformers Robot Replicas line, and fixed this problem immediately.

The neck is, of course, a Revolver Joint, and has a good range. Since there's technically two axes and a hinge at play here there's a whole range of possibilities depending on which way you turn what. At this scale, I'm sure it's not a surprise that the "Kaiser Pilder," the aircraft which forms Mazinkaiser's control center, is not removable. The shoulders are the only point of articulation on the figure that aren't Revolver Joints. Before Revoltech, sculptor Katsuhisa Yamaguchi relied on angled swivels which, in combination with each other and the shapes of the sculpt, could assume a variety of poses. It doesn't offer the level of freedom that the Revolver Joints do, but they have a pretty varied range of interesting poses. The elbows function as a more tradtional universal joint, due to the placement of the Revolver Joint as pegged into the back of the arm. A joint cover hides all but the merest glimpse of the Joint, and shows that much only when the elbow is at a 90-degree angle. The wrists are simple swivel-joints, pegs socketing into the forearm. You know, the kind MSiA left behind six or seven years ago for a series of increasingly-effective ball-joint arrangements? Yeah, those.

The midsection joint is- guess what? -a Revolver Joint, which can twist and turn the black part of the torso in a variety of ways- though you might have to pull it apart to get it moving in the direction you want. The hips will be no surprise to a veteran of Marvel Legends, though the right leg keeps wanting to fall off of mine. The knee is a Revolver Joint in gold, to mimic the color of `Kaiser's joint covers- nice touch! The shape pretty much restricts the Joint to a 90-degree range, though. The feet are a touch swept-forward- typical of Yamaguchi's sculpting style- which combined with the little feet make some poses difficult. The feet have a good range, though- the bottom socket is angled, allowing the foot to turn from side-to-side nicely. Overall, the figure is pretty poseable, and the Revolver Joints do allow for more "normal" poses than Yamaguchi's extremely idiosyncratic Robot Museum line ever did.

Sculpt and Deco

The sculpt is good, and the detail is pretty sharp, and the figure is a good representation of Big-O designer Keiichi Sato's modern take on the Mazinger design. The only place the detail seems somewhat soft is the lower legs, where the lines could be sharper, particularly on the back of the calf. The ridges on the forearm and Kaiser Scrander are actually kind of pointy, in fact. Paint is fair- as far as I can tell the figure is almost entirely made of painted resin and is thus very glossy. There's a thin spot on one leg, but otherwise the paint is quite good, especially on the very, very small face.

Articulation gets 8/10
Sculpt and Deco get 8/10

 
Accessories

-Mazinger Sword

In the OAV series, this sword is shown as being formed from the golden "Z" crest in the center of Mazinkaiser's chest. That crest does come loose, but it takes some force to get it out, so be wary of breaking it or launching it across the room. The Sword is a large, two-handed sword which wouldn't look entirely out of place on a Masters of the Universe figure. It's made of brittle, rigid plastic, and the narrowness of the blade at the hilt concerns me a wee bit- it could be fragile. The two "sword" hands have their wrists at entirely different angles, so while Mazinkaiser can get a double-handed grip on this sword it's a little awkward at times.

-Mazinger Blades

In the OAV movie Mazinkaiser vs. The Grand General of Darkness, Mazinkaiser wields a pair of smaller swords which pop out of its shoulders. These are also included here, looking a lot like shorter, less ornate versions of the Mazinger Sword. Because the shape of the blade is more uniform, the Blades are a lot less worrying in the long run. They fit in the appropriate hands just as snugly, too. The physical weapons included with the figure really aren't all that impressive, but since the Mazingers' greatest weapons have always been energy weapons emitted from the eyes, chest fins, mouth grille, etc., that's a bit hard to reproduce in a toy.

-Kaiser Scrander

For some reason the modern versions of Go Nagai robots always end up looking like they'd make good Kiss concert props. I suppose they're going for a certain "horror" kind of look since most of his super robots are supposed to be so powerful it's downright frightening. Here the Scrander- the original version being a jetpack with a pretty simple set of wings for Mazinger-Z- becomes a jetpack with a large stylized pair of batlike wings with large stylized fragile-looking fins. Like the sword, they're sturdy enough so far, but they just don't look it. The Scrander pegs into the back using- SHOCK! -a Revolver Joint, and holds well enough but never feels solid. It won't fall off, but it feels wiggly. In the movie, Mazinkaiser is also seen using the Scrander as a massive boomerang, but good luck getting this figure to balance while you do that, even with a stand.

-Extra Hands

6 hands: fists, sword-gripping hands, and dramatically open hands. They all do well enough, though as I said before, peg-socket hand connections just feel so darned archaic anymore. But that's a problem of my perception and not a problem of the toy. I only wish they'd offered two pair of sword hands, one set at each of the wrist angles they chose. It'd make holding the massive Mazinger Sword a bit easier.

-Stand

A two-part stand. The base plate is V-shaped and has a peg which can hold either the figure or the vertical stand piece, which the figure's foot can then attach to. Angled correctly, it does an okay job of holding Mazinkaiser in a flying pose, and the added stability is a plus when you take the tiny feet into consideration.

Accessories get 9/10

Closing Remarks

One figure does not a toy line make, but if Mazinkaiser is representative of Revoltech as a whole then I give the line a thumbs-up. Articulation is good but a touch fidgety, accessories are well-executed, and the sculpt and paint are good for the size. It's a Very Good figure, a good rendition of an otherwise very pricy robot to own, and it's more than enough that I'll definitely be eyeing future Revoltech figures of characters and mecha I like.

-RAC, 1/01/2008