MIXED BAG. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SKYWARD SWORD'S LINK FIGMA FIGURE REVIEW!

I like Skyward Sword.

I think it gets a bad rap in the same way that Super Mario Sunshine gets a bad rap-- it is not a bad game, it just suffers in comparison to the more polished, beloved and innovative titles in the Zelda series in the same way Sunshine is a good platformer but is mediocre compared to 64 or Galaxy.

While the bad controls and some poor level design holds the game back, the production-- from the character & world design to the fantastic soundtrack to the neat little evolution of the Link & Zelda relationship makes this game hold a special place in my heart. Plus...

... it has Groose!

To get my full opinion on Skyward Sword check out the articles from Skyward Sword Week or, if you wanna get straight to the point, the review of the 25th Anniv. Collector's Edition.

Today's subject is a figure from Good Smile's Figma line based on the character model for Skward Sword's Link!

Much like review of the Kill La Kill Nendoroid figures, the format I'm going to use is rating the figures based on packaging, quality, pose-ability/functionality, creativity, and value.

Before we get to the review, check out the unboxing!

Sometimes I wonder if I should ditch the sunglasses? Thoughts?

Now, let's see how the product holds up under the rigors of trial and research!

PACKAGING

Much like the box-art and packaging of the Collector's Edition of Skyward Sword, is a work of Zelda art in it's own right: the colorful pallet, using the blue background with clouds and the repeated use of green, gold, white and red, in a very Zelda way, creates a composition that brings me right back to the gorgeous scenery of Skyloft. And, the inclusion of the Official Nintendo product and Skyward Sword logos make this a nice piece for my...uh...box collection. Well, when I say box collection I sound silly, right?

The boxes, though, seriously, are useful when it comes to figma figures as they give you example poses to work off of on the back of the box (pictured further below) and provide a storage unit for the various pieces and instructions.

Furthermore, the package makes a nice display if you wanna keep your toys mint! All-in-all, Japanese figure packaging beats the crap out of all the boxes I've gotten for figures in the States and figma is the best.

QUALITY

The sculpt and paintjob is a fantastic representation of Skyward Sword Link (pictured below) in all of Skyloft Knight glory.

There are some minor discrepancies to break down before we talk about the level of detail presented in the figure. Instead of chainmail armor, it seems they gave link a brown tunic layer under his classic green tunic. The shield and sword, along with his proportions in general, are slightly more heroicly built. In fact, the big and pleasant improvement on the figure over the game model is that the figure better matches the promotional art and design work of Link for the game that makes for a figure model that is superior to the game model.

As for the paint job, I really like how Link's coloration reads across up close and at a distance (the sign of a good work) and, like the fine work of art he is, he will be proudly displayed alongside my amiibos.

POSE-ABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY

This is where the first problems pop up because, much like the game, this figure doesn't quite work quite like it is supposed to.

Link is quite posable and with a lot of functional accessories/pieces, the figure lacks in execution due to some fundamental limitations of the figure. While the figure has many points of articulation from his ball joint abdomen & neck to the many joins on his limbs, his biggest limitation comes from the sculpt of his tunic. While the sculpt captures the design perfectly, it creates to issues for posing the figure: the tunic's abdoment sculpt makes posing his arms upwards quite difficult and the bottom of the tunic restricts his leg posing quite a bit. This means most of his poses will be difficult to pull off, as opposed to a figure like the Ryuko Matoi figma (pictured above in defeat), and I spent a good bit of time just finding a few poses to pull off. Otherwise, you can pull off several dramatic and amusing poses if you have patience.

The hat joint is plus.

The accessories are a mixed bag ("he said it!"). The Master Sword and Hylian Shield are beautiful pieces of work that, with some trial and error, I discovered could be taken apart in several ways to allow you to pin the items to his back or in his arms in a number of ways.  Some other accessories are a bit of a let down. I'm not sure how to use all of the hands in conjunction with the sword and shield, properly, and it can be difficult to attach them to the wrist ports. The other accessory that fails, hard, is the sword swoosh piece. This blue piece, meant to represent the animation of the Master Sword being swung, is too heavy for the wrists of most hands to handle and it is difficult to pose him with it attached to the blade.

And so, when it comes to what I can do with Link, I am left wanting more (maybe the Windwaker Nenderoid would deliver more).

CREATIVITY

This is where the figure, honestly, is most lacking. None of the accessories included surprised me and it would've been nice to get another face plate. The accessories they could've included would have been game items like hearts, rupies and/or chests or the tools that Link uses like the Grappling Hook or one of the lesser known (and therefore stupid) ones like the digging gloves.

But if there is anything to credit this figure with, creativity wise, is that it tried between the blue swoosh, sword/shield pieces, and the action hair piece.

I hope I never need an action hair piece.

VALUE

Usually this figure retails somewhere between $50 to $75 (plus shipping) on the legitimate suppliers I found online, with the less scrupulous websites and stores probably trying to sell something like this for as much as $100 (yikes), but I got lucky and picked it up on Amazon with free shipping for $35.

And for $35? That's a fantastic value.

Personally, I would never have paid $50 or more for this figure and I wouldn't recommend spending your dough like that. Then again I paid $25 for a King Dedede Amiibo that doesn't pose and only functions with Smash Bros. & Kirby's newest game.

So, I guess the value is pretty decent.

CONCLUSION?

I feel more meh or should I say "myeah!" about the figure then when I took it out of the box and played with it. Figma and Nenderoid figures I've picked up have blown me away with their creativity and quality, but this Link figure, while being a beautiful sculpt, fails to live up to the rest of the figures I've purchased in the line. But that doesn't mean I don't like the figure!

If you're a big fan of Skyward Sword or just want a high quality Link figure, I still feel that this Figma figure is best bet and makes a nice addition to any Nintendo fan's collection.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/2/15! (MINI SATSUKI KIRYUIN NENDOROID REVIEW)!

fascism [fash-iz-uhm]
noun
1. A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

EX. In my opinion, the intellectual impetus for the relationship between people & clothing, in the world of Kill La Kill, is the conceptualization of fashion as fascism.

The anime begins with a teacher expounding upon the history of Nazi Germany. This is interrupted by a student trying to steal a "Goku Uniform" which is a literal and figurative symbol of authority as it grants power and prestige in this world. He is quickly subjugated by the school's disciplinary chief, Gamagoori, and, later that episode, we see the student prostrated above the entrance of the school as a symbol to all that resistance to the status quo is, indeed, futile. 

The show follows up this introduction by establishing the structure of the society built around the Honnouji Academy; on the island, the closer to the school at the top, the better you're standing and wealth. Your family's standing and wealth are directly proportional to the Goku school uniforms worn by the children of the household with most having no stars and therefore being the bottom rung of this society. Above them are one star uniforms, which belong to anyone who conforms to the school's regimentation of clubs. Above them are the club captains who wear two star uniforms that are custom attuned to accent their natural abilities for combat from the gardening club to the tennis club. Above them are the three stars, which are the Elite Four of the school and oversee the four branches of clubs/activities/etc. And above even them is Satsuki Kiryuin the School President and fearless, ambitious, and seemingly cruel leader of this little dictatorship. Power is everything in this society and no one has more power than Satsuki.

The messed up part? Honnouji Academy is a microcosm of the effects of the Kiryuin's textile brand, which clothes the majority of the world, and plans to cover the world in their fascism. I mean fashion! I mean, seriously, Honnouji Academy even goes to war and conquers other schools as part of their ultimate plan. What is their final plan? Well...

At least that sounds clever, right? Right? Nudge nudge? Wut wut. The point, I suppose, is that for an anime that might turn away many viewers with the revealing outfits and over-the-top style is actually worth a few moments of consideration thanks to some deeper themes. Anywho...

...without further ado, let's get to the figure review!

If you wanna check out my other Kill la Kill Nendoroid review, CLICK HERE. I will be keeping things short and sweet since most things I said in that review remain true for this delightful figure.

PACKAGING

Sparkling, in white and blue, with those judgmental eyes looking up at you is this fantastic piece of packaging that somehow manages to surpass the packaging for my Mako and Ryuko figurines. Just like the other boxes, I will probably keep these around for display alongside the figures, since the boxes have such a high level of detail. They even have portholes in the sides!

The only downside is that the banner piece with her name that comes with the figure might be missed as it is hidden between a flap and the back of the box.

QUALITY

Much like the Ryuko and Mako figures, the sculpt for Satsuki is top notch and, due to the detail required to captures the intricacies of her junketsu, the paint is an even higher standard. It helps that the character has such a contrasting design to her heroic counterpart but her uniform, with the pauldrons on her shoulders and the zig zag details on her hips, you can really appreciate the amount of attention that went into capturing this dynamic character.

POSE-ABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY

This, unfortunately, is where the figure loses some points against the others in this trio; Satsuki, in theory, has all of the same functionality as Mako and Ryuko but falls short thanks to a creative decision and a limitation of the design.

She comes with less pieces than he counterparts and this means it feels like she can't do a lot of the same poses. The trade-off, which comes in creativity, is she comes with some really fun set pieces that I'll talk about in the next section.

The limitation of her design, on the other hand, is more damning; her long hair and bust get in the way of posing her. In fact, it is a much bigger pain to get her into a pose due to the fact that her arms pop off easier than the other figures, her head has less movement due to the hair, and the piece holding her up is difficult to pose as it gets pinned between her back and hair.

So, in this way, she loses out to the simpler and more flexible designs of her counterparts.

CREATIVITY

In the Ryuko and Mako designs they capture Ryuko by giving her a ton of flexibility and pieces to help create a ton of action packed poses and, in Mako, they give her a lot of goofy accessories to give her the rubbery animation comedic hijinks she deserves. Satsuki, on the other hand, is only silly in just how serious she can be.

So, to accent her serious and over the top dramatic flair, they gave her a few special accessories: she got her sword and her sword's sheath, a banner to display behind her with her name in kanji, and lastly they actually gave her the steps that come down from her tower at the school. This allows you to create an adorable version of some of the more dramatic moments of the show and sets her apart from the other two figures in a clever way. I only feel they might've sacrificed some other attention to detail for this addition.

VALUE

Lemme just quote the other article.

"At about $50 a pop these figures are a big step in price and quality over my other figures that usually are in the line of $10-20 but they look better than just about any anime figure I've ever seen in a Hot Topic or at my local otaku shop (and some of the otaku shop figures are hundreds of dollars).

Nendoroid is a fantastic line for a fan of the chibi and small figures, like myself, and I plan to purchase more in the future. I'm definitely getting the Satsuki Kiryuin figure to complete this set but I would flip my lid if they made a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure style Mako figure or something from FLCL."

And really I followed through with what I said!

CONCLUSION?

The Satsuki Kiryuin figure was worth the wait, even if I feel like posing her as much (or as little as some see it) as the other figures is a bit of a pain, and I feel like she completes my desk by sitting a top my computer tower.

I can't think of a better way to cap off Kill la Kill since it has easily become one of my favorite anime series of all time. (Maybe with another figure review in the future?)

And so, with a soft and bittersweet sigh, I say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015. I feel like there will be a lot of anime and figures on the horizon. Thank you.

MUSIC MON! THANK YOU. GRACIAS. どうもありがとうございます。(2013-2014)

ADHD: THANKSGIVING CAROL!

What am I especially thankful for this year?

Let me count of the things that have made my life especially good.

First, of course, I am thankful for my family. Most people are surprised by how well me and my sister get along; we work at the same place, we drive to and from work together, and we live with our parents. We don't really have serious disagreements that often and we try to watch out for each other at work and home. My parents are so supportive: my mother volunteers her time to the base but still makes time to listen to my problems and my father works hard to provide for our family but also helps ensure the upkeep of our property. I also can't forget to be thankful for my grandparents who have helped me and my sister with our college loans. Together, we all volunteer our time, support, and love to each other. And for that, I am thankful.

Then, there are my friends. While the rest of my week can be somewhat monotonous, I always can look forward to any time spent with my friends. Every Sunday we meet up to play video and tabletop games as members of the Action Society and the rest of the week we try to play video games together as the NuFu clan. Throughout the week, I usually meet up at least once with my best friend Zach. I am glad we can all share our interests (anime, role-playing games, video games, science fiction, etc.). I am also glad for their girlfriends, fiances, and wives that allow us to spend time together and are fun to spend time with; after all, some of my favorite memories of this year have been going to see movies together and I hope we can continue that trend next year. All in all, I hope we can continue to spend as much time together next year as we did last year because I am very thankful for it.

And now that we got the important stuff out of the way, let's move onto the other stuff.

Nintendo has dominated my hangout experience this year since I got a Wii-U last December. Between Nintendo Land, Super Mario 3D World, Wii Party U, various Mario Parties, Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors and the just released Super Smash Bros for 3DS & Wii-U. The amount of fun we've managed to get out of Mario Kart and the new Smash might just be my Game of the Year. Nintendo provides a shared screen experience that you simply can't experience on the other consoles and, for that, I am very thankful.

I'm also thankful for my other nerd hobbies but want to pay a special tribute to anime and figures. I felt like I used to be a big otaku, but other hobbies have taken precedence over me watching dubbed anime or read manga. This year I decided to revisit the hobby and even started buying some figures from my current anime obsession, Kill La Kill (expect a very special review of my newest Ryuko figure soon). I got into buying figures to decorate my desk starting last July and have slowly accrued a small collection that, with the help of Loot Crate, Amiibos, and my own new compulsion will grow larger and create new opportunities in the coming year.

I wanna finish by thanking you guys for reading as Dumbledore Shot First always aims forward and upward and into the exciting world of tomorrow. In the next year you can expect the blog to continue and evolve as I further tune the format and take advantage of new opportunities. So, here is to another year of nerding it up.