The time has come! The final entry for D-Arts week! The reason for this entire theme week is finally here!
Introduction: For years now, D-Arts and Digimon fans have been clamoring for Tamashii Nations to release the second half to Omegamon. Countless posts on official pages, threads asking when it would happen, and a lot of hope went into this figure. Finally, it was announced for release!... as a Tamashii Web Exclusive. With this saddening news, those in North America, and other territories, were forced to use a middleman service to obtain a figure in the making for years now. With the official release happening in June, was MetalGarurumon worth the wait? Read on and find out!
Box (3/5): Unlike some of the box of Dukemon, MetalGarurumon comes with a very plain box that just features the promotional shots we have all seen before. Not overwhelming to any degree, though not bad for what it does. It is just that; a box.
Sculpt and Paint (5/5): Truly breathtaking. MetalGarurumon looks absolutely fantastic. Every panel line on MetalGarurumon looks great, the headsculpt is fantastic, the paint is absolutely marvelous and look very metallic, what with a shimmery effect in the paint. With something like this, one cannot help to hope the Original Designer Edition of Wargreymon looks this great.
Articulation (2/5): Unfortunately, articulation for MetalGarurumon is a bit lacking. Ball joints in the paws, shoulders, "waist" and hips with a hinge for the toes on the paws, the "wings", mouth, and shoulder cannons (which also sport a sort of swivel joint), neck, tail and elbows/knees. While it seems to be a good amount, the articulation is limited.
For example, MetalGarurumon can only move its head up and down with no hope for left or right. Also, the front and back sets of legs are rather limited to a pseudo swivel of a ball joint. Also, the hard plastic used on the figure prevents any sort of give in the sculpt to allow an extra bit of articulation. However, the paws have a fantastic use of ball joints, allowing for interesting poses. Seeing the picture below, the paws have a cutout that allow the paws to be point fully forward.
Accessories (4/5): MetalGarurumon comes with awesome accessories for the figure. It comes with the signature Metal Wolf Claw freeze blase, Garuru Tomahawk chest missile, dashing wings effect parts (which do not slide on to the existing ones, as shown below), and an odd balancing piece to support MetalGarurumon on a stand. If the accessories are so awesome, why the lower score?
The Metal Wolf Claw blast feels fragile and, despite a grove mark in the part to align the teeth, there's a worry of knocking out some teeth on the figure every time this reviewer inserts the blast. Also, it feels like a fragile part. To go along with this, the Gruru Tomahawk looks great, but aside from displaying the figure in an upright position, it is an almost moot accessory. Finally, the piece to display the figure looks unsafe and, given the figure's exclusivity and aftermarket prices, one probably should not risk breaking this figure.
Overall, solid, but a normal Stage ACT claw would be preferred.
Watch Out!: MetalGaurumon is made entirely of a hard plastic that could, potentially, be really, REALLY fragile. A shelf dive or careless handling could mean the end of this figure, so be sure to handle this figure with care, especially when using the effects parts. The Metal Wolf Claw blast feels like a number one contender to do so.
Overall (4/5): MetalGarurumon sports a great sculpt and paint, solid accessories, and acceptable articulation. At the end of the day, this figure will impress those that are fans of the character, though individuals looking for articulation may not have their needs met. At the end of the day, though, this figure is a solid representation of MetalGarurumon
Well, that's it for D-Arts week! Hope everyone enjoyed the reviews and pieces thrown up on the site this past week. Here's to looking forward to the rest of this year and beyond!
We'll see you again!
