As I'm writing this I had to save the whole post as to make sure I don't have to re-type everything all over again.
I finally got the chance to snap some pics of this latest product from Enterbay. As you guys already knew, Enterbay (EB) can be considered as the closest rival to Hot Toys. EB is famous mainly for their Bruce Lee figures. Samanosuke Akechi is their first action figure based on a video game character, so I got intrigued and excited when they announced it. I had high expectations for this figure as their previously released Bruce Lee figures were like a guarantee that this one will be as awesome.
Then, let's take a look inside the box. Once opened, you can see the figure, two Japanese swords, three additional hands, two fists and one relaxed pose, a base and a figure holder, placed neatly inside a styrofoam container. The base is a nice accessory but I personally think it's a bit too simple. For a really expensive figure, I wish they could have made a better looking base. When I took the base out for the first time, I was surprised, it was made from solid hard steel. It felt heavy in my hands, both the base and the holder. So I think maybe, for the base, being made from steel, I can let EB off the hook for this one. But what do you guys think?? Is the made from steel base enough to justify their lack of creativity?
As for the katanas, just by looking at them without holding them in hands, I couldn't tell they were also made from metal, so that also came as quite a surprise for me as they do look plastic-ky. Both katanas are removable from their scabbards and once you took them out then you can feel that they're made from metal. What kind of metal? I can't say for sure but judging from the weight I believe it's the same one they used for the base.
Close up on the figure's face now.....
Some say he looks nothing like the character or the actor who portrayed him, Takeshi Kaneshiro. You be the judge. But if you ask me I'm all okay with the facesculpt, since he's based on a video game character that's based on a real life actor.... So just imagine which one EB had to choose before they settled with this. I reckon it's not the latter.:D
The problem with the head is that it was sculpted along with the neck with his face looking up a bit higher than normal. I really don't like it when I receive a figure and the head is stuck to the neck because later I can't do the looking down all bad@$$ "You-don't-mess-with-me" pose.
This set also comes with the weapons used by Samanosuke in the game, which are, the dual swords of the Light element, Tenso, the blade of the Air element, Kuga, the axe of the Earth element, Chigo and last but not least, the super ultimate sword, Bishamon. These weapons are placed underneath the styrofoam box and unlike the upper container, the container for the additional weapons is the usual plastic container, with a cut out stencil like cover just to add some presentation.
The weapons are well made and unlike the katanas, they're made from plastics, with nice paintjob and sculpts.
The figure...
All in all I consider all the problems I mentioned earlier as minor. I still love the figure and have been waiting for some company to make a decent looking Onimusha figure since I missed the train on the Dragon Models version which now looks far inferior to the one produced recently.
My super newbie mediocre photography skill, plus a four years old digital camera, didn't do justice for this figure. Sure it has a few minor problems but this is still a pretty neat figure and I give it a 3.5 out of 5 score.
P/S: I tried my best to write this simple review as best as I could and if I do have some term wrong or something I said didn't make any sense, since English is my second language and I don't use it often, please let me know and I'll edit this as soon as I can.