17 April 2010

Robot Damashii M9D Falke

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My first Robot Damashii (Robot Spirits) action figure - the M9D Falke from Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid. Have been wanting to get this and/or the M9E Gernsback since I saw reviews in forums, but the Gernsbacks are rather pricey so I got myself a Falke instead while I was in Hong Kong 2 weeks ago.

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Robot Damashii is an action figure line under Bandai for various mecha, this includes the Gundam franchise (Gundams and other mobile suits), as well as (but not limited to) mechas from Code Geass (Knightmare Frames) and Full Metal Panic! (Arm Slave). Robot Damashii action figures are designed with the aid of CAD, and use a number of different materials for the external and internal parts for better resistance against wear & tear while highly presentable as a well painted toy.

As mentioned above, the M9D Falke belongs to the second season of Full Metal Panic! i.e. The Second Raid or TSR. According to the lore it was originally developed by the private military organisation Mithril as a testbed for the Lamda Driver unit, which the protagonist unit ARX-7 Arbalest has. However the development was halted, and 2 were made. One was eventually used by Mithril's new Special Response Team leader Belfangan Clouseau as his personal. As one can see, the number of accessories for it is quite small, even for a Robot Damashii toy: Rifle + detachable magazine, monomolecular cutter + scabbard, part swapping rifle rack for the back, and a set of hands.

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M9D Falke comes with 11 hands in total - 6 left hands and 5 left hands as seen in the photo. The only pair of hands that I don't find of much use are actually the "holding hands", as the Falke does not use these to hold the rifle or the blade. Maybe they're there for you to let it hold other things that you may think it is compatible with (random example would be the figma accessories)?

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Part swapping for the rack to hold the rifle at the back. The folded rack not holding the rifle fits snuggly in the hole, but can be a little hard to get out. The rack holding the rifle can be a bit loose though, at least on my Falke.

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Front and back view of the Falke with all accessories equipped (i.e. the rifle and the cutter). Simple colour scheme (perhaps considered dull for some), but the dark colour has given it a slick look to it, which I like~

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The scabbard for the monomolecular cutter has a peg on it, and it can be plugged onto either sideskirts of the Falke.

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Knee armour moves seperately from the legs.

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Due to the shape of the blade itself, the monomolecular cutter stays inside the scabbard quite well and does not fall off easily. A special right hand is needed to hold the blade itself.

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The rifle itself can be held by either trigger hands. Magazine is detachable and one rifle round can be seen painted on top. A special left open palm can be used to support the front of the rifle in firing position, and surprisingly it can hold the magazine quite well.

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Legs have fairly good articulations, and with the seperate knee armour articulation it can kneel down easily.

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As seen in some promotional pictures, the Falke can do quite a high kick there :o

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Size comparison with my 1/144 HGUC Zaku II F2 EFSF colours from previous post. The two are not in the same scale (Falke is much shorter), but here they are pretty much in same height, and that's about the same height with figmas and Revoltechs (excluding Fräulein) too.

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Random pictures to finish things off.


Before I forget, the M9D Falke is sold for 3500 Yen, and is still in stock at Hobby Search and HLJ as at this time when I am writing this post.

For my first Robot Damashii the Falke does not disappoint me in terms of the overall quality. Nice articulations and joints don't feel fragile at all (this is inherited from the Mobile Suit in Action or MSiA line which it has sort of suceeded), nor do I have the worry of breaking the hands like those for figmas. With only a rifle and a blade for accessories there are not too much stuff to play around with, compared to the Arbalest, Kurz's regular Grensback or Melissa Mao's Gernsback (all for the same retail price). The main reason as for why I got the Falke over the Gernsbacks was that I managed to find one in a local shop sold for the price of a typical figma, while the Gernsback are low on stock and the price is going up... But I am still happy with my Falke nonetheless, especially for the price I paid with.

I haven't found an English review for the Falke yet, but for another reference a Japanese review from はっちゃか (Hacchaka) can be found here.

On the other hand, I have not been in top shape ever since I got back to the UK last Sunday, so I ended fairly inactive while trying to recover as much as possible this week. Will try and catch up with things as soon as possible!

4 comments:

  1. This is a pretty good confirmation that RD's stuff are tough to beat.
    Though not a fan of FMP, well since I havent properly seen it, I did like the face,and the gun,and the Aussie knife thing too.

    Btw images are pretty dusty.

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  2. I didnt know that theres another Robot Action figure line besides the Revoltech Yamaguchi Line.

    Its pretty interesting that they use different materials for theior robots.To thhey feel different to the touch aswell?

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  3. Pretty awesome Buddy, I like that they even have the top bullet in the clip, nice detail. I definitely want to pick up one of these, and I've been leaning more toward a Crossbone Gundam, but we'll see, there's a lot to choose from!

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  4. @ GunStray:
    Robot Damashii does have quite a few nice stuff, especially when they are making things that are not usually available in plamo/gunpla forms.

    I quite like the design of Falke. Looking it up I found out that it's designed by Ebikawa Kanetake - the designer who designed Gundam Exia and 00 Gundam in Gundam 00! That would explain why I find the head similar to Gundam Astraea :O

    I only noticed the dust after I took the photos; the macro function picks them up really well surprisingly, even better than my eyes... orz

    @ Blowfish:
    Those who are more familiar with Bandai's stuff will know the Robot Damashii line better. It first came out in autumn 2008 I think with 00 Gundam as their debut item.

    Aside from PVC, Robot Damashii figures use ABS and POM as well. As for how they feel, I suppose they don't feel as "plastic-ly" or fragile. At least they don't smell like a typical PVC figure for sure!

    @ Apt-1B:
    There are some nice details here and there, and the quality does explain the pricing for Robot Damashii.

    The Crossbone X-1 and X-2 bundle looks nice, but I did hear mixed reviews about it from some forums. Don't count my words for it though, since it's been a while since I've heard about it. Well at least there's also X-3 coming up as well, so there are quite a few nice things to choose from indeed!

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