Monk's Toy Review

Review - S.I.C. Vol.50 Kamen Rider Kiva

2014-03-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

Going back to what I know best... Import toys!

This time I am doing an S.I.C figure from Bandai.

History:

S.I.C

"The S.I.C. product line is made up of 1/10-scale action figures (typical height is 7"/18 cm). The line debuted in December 1998 with its first figure, Volume 01: Kikaider. Popularity grew for S.I.C. due to its reimagination of the original comic book character. S.I.C. pays homage to the late Ishinomori Shotaro. The designs of S.I.C. reinterprets the original artwork by Ishinomori. The first ten volumes were only statuettes that were mounted on a stand but Volume 11: Side Machine and Kikaider marked a milestone for S.I.C. The figure was given very articulate joints because this set included a figure and a bike."

Kame Rider Kiva

"Twenty-two years after the disappearance of his father, Wataru Kurenai lives in an infamous "haunted house" where he is destined as Kamen Rider Kiva to fight life-draining monsters called Fangires, the very race his father fought years ago before his disappearance. Wataru must also deal with Kamen Rider Ixa who is part of an organization seeking to destroy the Fangire menace, as well as the Fangires' own Rider, Kamen Rider Saga. The story is split between the actions of Wataru in the present (2008–09) and his father Otoya in the past (1986–87), slowly revealing the link between the Fangire Race and Kiva."

Package:

Nothing special really. I do like the nice big window on the front, displaying everything included. The pictures on the back do the figure justice. Its nice that its not artwork and all images of the figure as well.

Accessories:

A pretty good amount of accessories, but not overwhelming. You have is violin, Bloody Rose, the violin bow, Kiva (the small bat) with no mouth, the full Kiva (to hold), the chrome Kiva, six hands, two wings for his Rider Kick, and six Fuestles, small whistles he uses to change between forms, do his Rider Kick, or call Castle Doran. He can hold all the Fuestles on his belt, each with a small peg. I would of liked to see some of the weapons for his different forms or at least the statuette of them you see through out the show.

Articulation:

This is one of the strong point for this line of figures. You can tell her has double elbow joins but he also has double knee joints, ball joint neck and single joint legs and shoulders, and both ankles are jointed as well. His hands are on hinge join pegs, so they can move up and down as well as left and right. His shoulder pads are the main issue with movement. They don't very much, so you can't get full range of motion with his arms because of them.

Size: This figures is big! He stands at over 7" tall making him about 1/10 scale. I don't mind the size, but I can see why some people may have an issue.

Extra: This figure has some cool features to it. The shoulder pads, bracelets, knees, right leg covering and all the chains you see are all die-cast. This does add some weight, but he stands very well with out any helps. Kivat is able to hold the Fuestles in its mouth to reenact scenes from the show. Kiva can also be posed to preforms his Rider Kick. To be able to do this, you have to remove the covering from his right leg and attach the wings to his leg. He can also hold and pose with his violin, one of the main reasons I wanted this figure for so long.

Overall I am very happy with this figure. It does have its downfalls, but I can get over them. Its such a great looking figure and has just about everything I would hope for. If your a fan of the show or a S.I.C collector, I would recommend picking this up.

Hope you enjoyed this review and it was helpful.

Leave a comment if you have any questions and ill get back to you as soon as I can.

Review - Lego Mixels

2014-03-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

So for my first review back, I thought I would start off with something new and simple. A month or so back, while walking the Lego isle at one of my local stores, I came a cross these little guys. I didn't buy them right away, but after thinking about it some, I picked them up tonight.

I don't really know the back story on this line, but is what Wikipedia has..

"Mixels involves nine different, fun-loving tribes who inhabit a fantasy land of adventure and wonder. They can mix (combining two Mixels of different or same tribes), max (combining all three Mixels of the same tribe), and murp (when a mix goes horribly wrong) in all kinds of situations, using the mysterious cubits. All that stands in their way are the small, evil Nixels."

I do know they are part of a show on Cartoon Network, but that is about it. Anyways, let get to the review for Lego Mixels!

First up, we have a shot of the packaging.

As you can see, no blind pack here, which is really nice! Each bag has the image of the set your buying. Series one includes sets from three of the nine? groups in the show. You have the yellow ones, who I'm guessing is electricity or something like that. Next up is the black/gray one, guessing again, that is stone. And last up is the red and you can tell is fire. Each group consist of three different models and with all three of one group, you can combined them into one large model. Only down side is you have to go to the Lego Mixels website to get the instruction. All the sets come in the same size bag and are all $4.99 SMRP.

Each includes a small instruction book that is 24 pages long with an ad for the app but not the show. Kind of surprised about that. Inside each bag, there is another bag with all the parts.

Each set took me about five minutes or so to build with very little problems, but they are aimed for younger kids. With that being said, I can see them enjoying each set but not having to many issues. For collectors or people who just like building original models, I can seem them enjoying it a lot. Each sets has very unique parts centered around the elements of each group.

Each model is a different size, which is nice. Gives each of them more character I think.

Also the models are larger then a regular mini figure.

One of each model from each group comes with a Nixel, the main bad guy thing for the cartoon series. This one only consist of nine parts but still looks nice and fits well with the rest of the sets.

Overall I really liked these. I plan on combining them into some type of my own model but until then, they will hang out on a shelf and get played with by my oldest. I would recommend any of the Mixels and am looking forward to the next two waves coming out.

Hope you enjoyed this review and it was helpful.

Leave a comment if you have any questions and ill get back to you as soon as I can.

Coming back soon!

2014-03-21T00:10:00.001-07:00

Brining the reviews back very soon!

Tired

2011-09-02T21:42:00.001-07:00

This weeks review will be a day late due to me being really tired and not being able to start when I got home.

Revoltech Lupin the Third

2011-08-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Going to change it up a bit this review. NOT going to review a Kamen Rider figure! Instead, ill be review one of my favorite toy lines, Revoltech. On top of it being a revoltech, its one of the coolest characters, in my option, Lupin the Third.

Background: Lupin the Third started as a manga in 1967, written by Kazuhiko Kato under the pen name Monkey Punch. There have been 31 manga (in two series), three anime series, five movies, and 22 TV specials. He was named after the french novelist Maurice Leblanc fictional gentlemen thief Arsène Lupin. Due to Japan not enforcing copyright laws in the 60's, Kazuhiko Kato was able to use the name. Since other countries did enforce copyright laws, the name had to be changed once it became popular. Since the copyright on Maurice Leblanc estate has ran out, the name in now allowed to be used outside of Japan.

Packaging: Revoltech always had large boxes, and this is no exception. There is only one small picture, on the back of the box, that isn't of the figure. So you get a lot of poses and an idea of how well this figure is made. As you can see, there is a #097 on the front of the box. This is the 97th figure in the Revoltech Yamaguchi line.

Accessories: Where do I begin! There are five sets of hands, three heads, five bullet blast, one hand attached to a grappling hook, a chair, a side table, a safe that doubles as a box, two stands and a glass. This has always been one of the better points of any revoltech figure. I do wish the glass was attached to one of the hands. It is very small and could get lost pretty fast. This is where the storage box comes in handy. Revoltech started to come with small orange boxes to store all the small parts in. They painted Lupin's silver and made it look like a safe, to fit with the burglar theme.

Articulation: The articulation is pretty good, again, like most revoltechs, but they kinda cheated a bit. The shoulder is in two parts. One is a joint, but the other is just a peg. The arms tend to fall off a lot if your not careful. The legs are like this as well. The top of the leg has a joint, but the knee is just a peg. Other then that, all the other joints are revoltech joints, you can move them, and they click into place.

Paint: The paint is great on this figure! They got a lot of the small details right, the face, the hands, the jacket even the belt. I don't really have anything negative to say about it.

In all, this is a great figure. It super articulated, comes with all the accessories you would need and even a box for the small parts.You should be able to find this pretty easy online. You can get it from Amazon for about 35 dollars. Well worth it to me.

Kamen Rider OOO - TaToBa Combo Change Series

2011-08-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

Alright, here we are, my second review. Still a Kamen Rider, but not a Figuarts.
This is Bandai's cheaper figure line called Change Series. This figure line will ONLY be for Kamen Rider OOO. The line features a gimmick from the show as its selling point. With out any more rambling, here is my review for Kamen Rider OOO - TaToBa Combo Change Series.

Background: This is the 2010/2011 Kamen Rider produced by Toei Company. It stares Shu Watanabe as Eiji Hino. Out of some luck, with nothing but tomorrows underwear, he gets caught up in a war over Medals. An evil, known as Greeds, is awakens after 800 years looking for there Core Medals to make them whole again and take over the world. He is befriended by a floating arm of a Greed know as Ankh. He makes a deal with him to protect the people in exchange to gather the other Core Medals for himself. The name, OOO, represents the kamen riders ability to use three medals to fight the Greeds and there Yummy monsters. This form, TaToBa, is the form based on the Taka (hawk), Tora (tiger), and Batta (grasshopper) Core Medals.

Packaging: A bit different from the S.H.Figuarts box. There is no photos from the show on the box at all. On the bottom of the from, you get images of the "special" abilities of this form. Next to that, you get the image of the figure it self. On the back, you have images of how to assemble the figure, holding his weapons, and other items you can buy and use with this figure. As you can see, this is figure 01 in this series. Right now, I believe there are three or four other figures out.

Accessories: There isn't much to talk about here. No extra hands. No extra heads, Not even a stand. What he DOES come with tho is his O Scanner, the item used to activate his forms and special movies, and his Medajaribur, his sword, only used in this form. As you can see, there isn't much detail on ether item. It would of been nice if they added more then one color paint to the accessories. Its also odd that on his side there is another O Scanner that doesn't come off and the other doesn't fit over it or anything like that. Not really sure what they were thinking on that one.

Articulation: This is one of the better parts of this figure. The head turns, but does not have a ball join, so it cant look up or down, just side to side. The arms have a shoulder joint, bicep swivel, elbow joint, wrist swivel and the hand is split into two parts. This lets the figure hold the the accessories better. The legs have a joints at the top, thigh swivel, single knee joint and ball joint feet. Over all, more then enough to pose any way you want.

Gimmick: As I said before, this lines selling point is the gimmick. The figures from the Change Series break apart into three parts, head, torso, and legs. The torso and legs both have special things they can do. The torso, Tora (tiger) has claws that can flip over the hands and the legs, Batta (grasshopper) can extend and mimic grasshopper legs. The idea behind this is that in the show, OOO can change form with the use of different Core Medals. You can buy the other figure, exchange parts, and make your favorite form. Its a fun gimmick and is the main reason why I picked this one up.

Paint: This may be the low point of this figure. Over all, its not that bad, but there are spots here and there that have chips or fading paint. They really fell short on the detail work with the paint on this line. The belt should be a given. Each medal is a specific color. In this case, Red, Yellow, and Green. They left the spots for the medals black. Even a little spot of paint would be better then just leaving it. The chest and head do look good and stands out very well. So in all, not bad, but the belt bothers me.

I really liked this figure over all. Its not as detailed or as high quality as the S.H. Figuarts version, but its a fun figure to pose and play around with. They don't run much, around 2,500 yen (about 32 dollars) new, but I was able to pick this up for 1,500 yen (less then 20 dollars). I hope to get more from this line down the road, if I can find them.

Working on the site.

2011-08-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ive done a bit of tweaking on the blog. Had some feedback and tried to fix some of the problems people had. Should have the next review up tonight or tomorrow.

S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Skull

2011-08-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Alright, for my first review, ill be reviewing S.H. Figuarts Kamen Rider Skull.

Packaging: Nothing to special here, just the normal SHF box. This one has a logo next to the photo denoting that it is a Tamashii Web exclusive. The other logo below that one shows he is from the Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010.

Accessories: Comes with everything he would need to come with: Five sets of hands, Two hats (one damaged and one not), Two scarves (one laying down and one flowing out) and his gun. If you want to count his belt, you could, it does come off his waist. Removing his hands and head are pretty easy, getting them back on can be a bit tricky. They are both on small ball-joints, so they move back and forth when trying to replace the head or hands. After a few times tho, you get the hang of it.

Articulation: As with all the Figuarts, they have GREAT articulation. You can pose him in just about any pose you can imagine. The knees are double jointed, the elbows and shoulders are single jointed. The shoulder is also set on a larger ball-joint providing even more movement. The feet are die-cast, providing more balance.

Paint: With his color schemes, there isn't much there. This biggest problem is the head. If you remove the hat to many times, it will rub off the paint on the forehead.

If you liked Kamen Rider W then I would look into getting this figure. With it being a exclusive, he is hard to get tho, so if your not wanting to hunt for it, try for the Crystal Skull version. The only difference in the two is the head. I believe they fixed the paint issue with the head on the Crystal version

Coming soon!

2011-08-11T21:58:00.000-07:00