I saw
Gipsy Danger exactly once at retail. It was when I bought Crimson Typhoon and Knifehead
(as well as some Alien figures). I knew Gipsy was the main Jaeger,
but that didn’t really mean anything because the movie hadn’t
come out yet. I thought Typhoon looked much cooler and bought that
one.
I looked
for Gipsy Danger at retail after seeing the movie, but Pacific
Rim toys were very hard to
find. I didn’t want to order one online and pay shipping, and by
the time I realized that was the only way I was going to get one the
prices had gone up way too high. Between the scarcity of the figures
at retail and the fact that I hadn’t yet heard anything about
future waves I sort of gave up on more figures. If more came out, it
would take so long that surely I wouldn’t be interested anymore. I
even thought about eBaying the ones I had. I mean, it wasn’t even a
complete set.
I don’t
remember right now exactly what set the fire under me that caused me
to go to BigBadToyStore and order or preorder one of everything
Pacific Rim they had, but I’m glad that I did. I now have a decent
sized shelf of Kaiju and Jaegers and I know exactly what to expect
from future releases (as in Knifehead, Trespasser, and Scudder all
share a body). All of that is great, but I need
NECA to make an Otachi. A deluxe Otachi with interchangeable arms –
one set with the wings unfurled. I really want NECA to make it happen
that way. I don’t want two separate Otachi figures. Though I’d
buy them if I had to.
Another
reason I need Otachi – beside it being my favorite Kaiju from the
movie – is that it is Leatherback’s tag team partner in the
disastrous battle against Crimson Typhoon and Cherno Alpha. That
battle went down so much like a professional wrestling match. The
only way it could have been more like wrestling was if when Gipsy
Danger showed up she had turned on Striker Eureka and joined the
monsters to lead the Kaiju World Order.
Anyway,
this set was my way to get Gipsy Danger. As I have mentioned before,
I do not generally care for battle damaged variants, but in this case
I was going to take what I could get. Besides, Gipsy spends about
seventy percent of her screen time battle damaged, so it kind of
works.
FIRST
GLANCE
I
don’t know how anybody could see this in a store and resist buying
it. I still maintain that Gipsy Danger is a pretty generic looking
robot (but a well done one), but Leatherback looks brutal. The
combination of the two is just exciting to look at. They’re not
friends. These two were obviously made to fight each other. I wish
more toy lines had such clear conflict. While I get the whole “book
by its cover” thing, I do appreciate when you can tell who the bad
guys are at a glance.
While
I’m thinking about it, that was another thing that was very
refreshing about Pacific
Rim. It
was straight-up Good versus Evil. The monsters weren’t
misunderstood or any bullshit like that. They were monsters.
Their masters were utterly evil aliens who wanted to kill us all and
steal our world. Period. There was no swerve at the end where they
just wanted our help. Those fuckers needed to be murdered.
PACKAGING
There
was no option other than to put these two in a clamshell. A blister
card wouldn’t have done the job and a box would have undermined the
presentation of these two nemeses. As much as I dislike clamshells,
there’s something to be said for picking up that kind of packaging
and thinking, “Crap – this thing is heavy!”
Unlike
other NECA releases, this package has no credits because the figures
are created from digital models.
LOOKS
Leatherback
is a chunky hunk of Kaiju. It’s the one that is the most
recognizable as an existing creature – the gorilla form is hard to
miss. I don’t think that all
of the
Pacific Rim Kaiju are based on existing monsters from Godzilla and
other franchises, but if they are Leatherback is King Kong.
Leatherback’s
head is entirely un-gorilla-like. It is closer to resembling a
dinosaur; maybe a hornless triceratops. It’s covered in ridges and
patterns. The beady eyes are under two ridged plates that sweep to
the back of the head and cover a row of creepy, luminous tendrils.
Well, they’re painted to look luminous like they were in the movie.
The teeth on the jaw seem like exterior growths, almost like a
crustacean.
The jaw opens to reveal a blue tongue. Now that I think
about it, this might be more of a turtle head.
Leatherback’s
shape might be that of a gorilla, but the details are from a variety
of animals. Its skin is covered in wrinkles like an elephant, but
also has thick, knobby protrusions in places. There are also large
plates sticking out of its shoulders and elbows.
All
of the Kaiju have a weird thing on their backs. I don’t know what
the deal is with these, but they almost look like a second creature –
like a lamprey or something – that is permanently attached.
Leatherback’s is colored more similarly than others, but is more
distinctive in its form. It almost looks like a trilobite or
something.
This
monster’s fists are just massive wrecking balls. The fronts are
covered in bony protrusions. The thumbs and fingers are articulated
and are stumpy, pointed, and dangerous looking.
Leatherback’s
legs are thick stumps that taper down to feet with brutal claws at
the end. I love how everything on this creature is tapered – the
legs, the torso, the head, and even the thing on its back. Only the
arms maintain a fairly continuous form and that lends them such a
powerful appearance while providing a nice contrast to the rest of
the monster.
Leatherback’s
paint job is fantastic. The skin is covered in washes and dry
brushing to give it a truly ancient look. The head tendrils and
markings are a brilliant blue to give them the luminous quality that
the Kaiju had in the movie. The accuracy with which the markings were
applied is impressive, as they are not only precise but consistent.
They go across joints and across heavily textured skin while
maintaining their consistency.
This
Gipsy Danger was a brilliant choice to pack in with Leatherback. Its
excellent deco – which I’ll get to – compliments that of the
Kaiju and Gipsy’s slender form provides an interesting contrast.
How could this skinny robot hold its own against such a massive
predator?
Chainsaw
arms. That’s how.
Well,
that’s how the figure would. She didn’t even have to use the
chainsaws on Leatherback in the movie.
First
off, I want to say that I totally dig the deco on this figure. It’s
not sculpted battle damage and Gipsy isn’t missing any parts, so
this is really just a bunch of wear. It’s very Star Wars-ish.
If
Gipsy reminds me of anything, it’s probably Tetsujin 28. Mostly
because of the big shoulders and tiny head. The head design is
somewhat reminiscent of a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robot. It has a
strong jaw like that and a similar visor design. I would have loved
a vac metal visor on this figure. I realize that’s unrealistic and
not at all necessary, but I think it would have looked great.
The
one real complaint I have about this figure is that it is made out of
a softer plastic and that parts of it ended up warping. The shoulder
plates and lower legs are kind of messed up and the torso doesn’t
quite sit straight on its joint. Aside from the shoulder plates none
of this is terribly noticeable, especially if the figure is posed.
Gipsy
looks skinny only in comparison to Leatherback. On her own, she has
an imposing profile. The large upper torso supports two massive arms
with heavily armored and plated shoulders. All of the plating and
mechanisms on the figure are well defined. Each piece looks like an
assembled part as opposed to being just lines or seams. The
definition really sells not just the mechanical aspect of the figure,
but the scale. And everything
looks functional. A lot of thought went into the design. I can’t
help but wish that the Pacific Rim folks had been the ones working on
Bay’s Transformers. Size differences aside, Gipsy looks like she’d
tear Optimus Prime in half.
Gipsy’s
nuclear reactor core (or whatever they call the thing in her chest)
was handled nicely. The one on the eighteen inch version lights up,
but this one has been painted to resemble the inferno within. It
looks great and is quite effective at representing the movie look. A
combination of deft painting and use of gloss made this feature look
great.
The
best thing about action figures of robots is how good the
articulation looks. It’s all part of the design. NECA used the
elbows, knees, ankles, and wrists and just made the joints work from
those. They all look great to the point where you don’t know if
they’re functional until you move them. They blend that well.
As
I’ve already mentioned, Gipsy Danger’s deco is amazing. The base
deco – under the wear and damage – is a sort of military blue.
Again, somewhat reminiscent of a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robot. This is
all of the armor, while the moving parts are a metallic grey. The
regular markings are extremely precise. They could pass for decals
like you’d see on plastic models. The red trim is evenly applied in
the right spots. The white trim and “34” markings on the
shoulders is symmetrical. The same goes for the “caution”
markings on the knees, which I don’t totally understand but that
add just another level of detail to the robot.
The
wear and damage is a whole other level of impressive. There’s a
layer of black grime over the whole robot. It’s smudgy and real and
random, but evenly applied. There are silver slashes where Gipsy’s
paint has been entirely stripped away. These are so well done that
they almost look sculpted and
that they appear to be the actual bottom layer despite being painted
on.
ACCESSORIES
This
set comes with Gipsy Danger’s retractable arm swords. Just looking
at these pieces is a reminder of the difference between NECA and
other toy companies. If anybody else had made these they wouldn’t
be painted and chances are good the spaces between the individual
links or plates or whatever wouldn’t be there.
Each
sword plugs into a notch in Gipsy’s forearms:
They
look good, but they don’t stay put for shit. A gentle breeze will
knock them out. Also, I have no idea which way they are supposed to
face. If NECA had shaped the notch and the corresponding peg on each
blade that probably would have helped them stay put and definitely
would have helped me figure out which side was supposed to face out.
I think
the flatter side faces out. Which is not what I did in that picture.
FUN
Leatherback
has about as much meaningful articulation as you could expect from a
monster shaped like this. I think NECA might have been able to
squeeze just a little bit more out of the head and arms. But at the
same time, there’s a line between maintaining an accurate profile
and having a huge range of posability. As is Leatherback is solid.
Swivels at the top of the biceps would be nice, but would have added
to the cost and might have been unsightly.
Gipsy
Danger, on the other hand, could have been better. Should
have been better. Most of the joints on this figure feel very
restricted and come up shy of doing what I really wanted them to do.
The shoulders rotate well, but don’t have a lot of up and down
range. The elbow pivots aren’t particularly deep. The hips, knees,
and ankles could all have wider ranges of movement. And while
Leatherback’s limitations get a pass for aesthetic reasons, I can’t
see why Gipsy isn’t a little better.
Still,
Gipsy is reasonably dynamic and there’s a decent amount of fun to
be had posing these two in various fight scenarios. There were a few
things I couldn’t get them to pull off, but I can’t complain too
much about a monster that can German suplex a robot:
These
are pretty fun to play with and wonderful to look at. And something
to keep in mind – these were a part of the Pacific Rim toys that
were being designed to please Walmart. I wouldn’t be at all
surprised to see an upgraded Gipsy Danger at some point.
OVERALL
For
the money – I paid $29.99 plus shipping; though that was spread out
across several figures – this set is a must-have. Not just for fans
of Pacific
Rim,
but for fans of toys. This is such a great monster versus robot set
that I think anybody would enjoy it. And if you’re going to make
just one Pacific Rim toy purchase, this one gives you a Kaiju and a
Jaeger.
The
figures are well-executed and look great on the shelf. I recommend
them.
4
out of 5
At
the time I ordered BigBad had the best price, but you can get them
from Amazon and help out Needless Things!:
I guess I should have just picked this set up when I saw it on clearance at Hastings... oh well, live and learn.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for the Gypsy 2.0 figure to come out though.
I wish I had a Hastings nearby. The site is solid but apparently the stores get stuff in in a pretty timely manner and a lot of it never shows up on the site.
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