I have meant to do a photoshot for this 1/8 GSC (Good Smile Company) Black★Rock Shooter -animation version- for quite some time, but due to all sorts of backlogs and procrastination, I've only unboxed this figure recently together with my military shokugans (in fact I've got this figure way back in November ^^;).
As the name of this figure suggests, this figure was part of the Black★Rock Shooter campaign by Good Smile Company, with an OVA to top things off which was greatly hyped at the time. So, is this figure worth the hype as well?
Front view
Side view with the ★Rock Cannon in sight. It's quite a dynamic pose as if she is charging forward.
The other side view showing more skins than the cannon itself.
Rear view
The base has an interesting look with uneven and worn checkered floor, and chains protruding on the sides. The chains are not too easy to put in (and the instruction manual does not really show you where to put them very clearly), and I've actually damaged one of the pegs on the chains slightly while fitting them in.
Face with the blue flame on the left eye. The blue flame is stuck on the hair piece itself, and there is an opaque surface on the underside of the blue flame to cover up the left eye.
The uneven twin tails flow quite nicely along with the body. One of the thinner chains are supposed to be pegged onto the longer tail, but it does not appear to stick in the hair piece well at all. It's not a huge issue though as the peg and the hole are not so obvious.
The ★Rock Cannon is huge; it's as long as the figure itself. The granite feel of the surface and the shadings here and there are quite nice; you can almost display the cannon just by itself.
The long, slender legs are always a plus in my book.
One of the two scars of Black★Rock Shooter can be seen below the waist. I personally think it's a the red colour of the scar does not fit too well with the pale skin of the character, and something along with that of the figma would fit better.
Another scar can be seen just underneath the chest, and yes flat chest is flat.
There is a defect where a white star is missing on the left hand side (our right hand side) of the coat. It's one of the rather embarassing error as all figures were missing this. As a result, the hobby company has supplmented stickers free of charge for compensation.
An alternate hair piece without the blue flame is also available. Both with and without the flame looks good, and while I prefer having no blue flame on my figma, I think having the blue flame works quite well for this figure, especially with the trailing look of the flame to go with the figure's in-motion dynamic pose.
I remember seeing a sample of the figure back in CGM Night event in Tokyo last year. The overall size of the figure is not too big, so I initially thought that the box itself would be quite small too. I was wrong, and my eyes nearly popped when I've realised that the box was more than twice the size of the figure itself on the day I collected the figure from the shop. Heck, the bootleg version has managed to pack the whole thing in a smaller box!
What's worse is that despite the large size of the box I've still managed to have it buried by my 1/144 Gunpla boxes, and have it completely obstructed from view. -_-;
As for the stuff GSC has sent to me for compensation, there is a set of 8 white star stickers as well as 2 postcards - one that follows the pose of the figure using the OVA art style, while the other with Dead Master drawn by the original artist / character designer huke.
The white star is a paper sticker, not one of the decal stickers or anything too fancy, but I guess it does the job. I did consider snatching one of the spares from my military shokugans but they were a bit too small for it ^^;
I have not done a photoshoot like this for a very long time since the Sega Miku figure, and as I'm still very casual on things I hope you don't mind too much on the improvised setup and quality there.
First things first, I do say I like the pose of the figure, not the least to say that I somehow do like the character design a lot too. While I don't have many static PVC figures, this one does seem to take more fiddling to do to set up, especially with the base (they really should show some more pictures as for where to put those pegs clearly). Some people have complained about the fragility of the hair, or how there are minor colour differences with the white colour, but those are not too much of a problem to me.
The missing star is seemingly one of the bad trend this company is having with the declining quality of PVC figures recently, as observed from other figure review blogs in the past. It's also one of the things that seem to cause this figure to be rather unpopular, and there are still many shops have it in stock and are selling it for a price much lower than the official retail price (9800 Yen, which is quite a lot I have to say). The mixed reception of the OVA would likely affect this too, which can kill the hype quite a lot there (I personally think that they really shouldn't bother coming up with an OVA in the first place for something that is originally just a character design and later an FMV sung by Hatsune Miku).
Overall, this B★RS -animation version- figure is a nice figure in my opinion, with a very nice dynamic pose and the big ★Rock Cannon as the strong features. The defect was something of a big gossip at the time of the release, and perhaps was what made the figure rather unpopular, but it's perhaps a figure that is overshadowed by it the and the way the franchise has been overhyped and expected by the fans. It's really not as bad as it is, so for those who really do like this character or the pose, this figure is still worth considering in my opinion.
I didn't think the cannon was so big, I bet it uses up almost as much plastic as BRS herself. I had heard about the missing star a while back, but I didn't know that they were giving out paper stars to anyone who already bought the figure. That was good on the part of the manufacturer.
ReplyDelete@ Nopy:
ReplyDeleteThe ★Rock Cannon is a remarkable feature of the figure with its big size - it's even taller than B★RS length-wise.
The supplement stars were originally available to Japanese residents only, as well as sizeable shops that have imported the figures in the first place. I think there are still people there who haven't got the stickers, but it appears that writing to GSC's customer support does the job too.
Really nice review, and it's perfectly find busting out figures you've had for quite a while and reviewing it. It's good to see figures come back after the initial hype dies down. As for your pictures and explanations I think you did a great job on them. I think what they gave as compensation was actually pretty cool, they really didn't have to do anything at all. Personally I've been having space issues for quite some time so I tend to pass on flashy action poses with static figures for the most part, which is why I only bought the original version. I do like this version though. I wish GSC would make their figure boxes smaller though, since I keep them all and don't crush them, and I have a small and crowded home.
ReplyDeletePersocom:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. It feels different when you review something sometime after the hype or a wave of similar reviews compared to the time when it's still hot. It may not necessarily be unbiased, but it can be a different perspective at least.
It appears that not everybody who has this figures got the stickers from the retailers or distributors, but sending an email to GSC's customer service does the job too, of which they will send you the stickers with courier service. That I have to commend their efforts in ameding the issue to satisfy the collectors' rants. As you have said they could have done nothing at all in the first place.
I remember comparing this figure to the original version in Tokyo CGM Night 8, and they don't differ too much in terms of size, so why the boxes have such large differences still baffle me. Space is always an issue for all collectors and hobbyists unfortunately -_-;