Friday, June 03, 2005

Pics: 2 SIC and an SIF

Goodies report!!

Well, I'm in a much better mood after giving UDG a call this morning so here's the latest package in the mail. (For details, talk to FusionAce).

Anyway, so I finally got into the whole "SIC" line-up. I'm both pleased and disappointed at the same time. A little while back I was in a specialty collector's shop and on a whim bought what appears to be an imported robot made of a soft PVC material (kinda rubbery) but with a glossy metallic finish so it actually looked good if not entirely solid. At that point I was turned off from ever buying another PVC figure again.
The PVC figures turned out to be ultimately unplayable or posable due to their construction: bits and pieces kept falling off and their feet, also made of the same soft substance, wouldn't hold up the top-heavy designs.

SIC has one major saving grace: they look damn cool. Paint jobs are awesome and the designs? Slickness - absolutely slickness. I can't get over how badass these guys look...

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
On the left is Kamen Rider Ryuki (a title character from a 2002 Japanese sci-fi show) and on the right is Kamen Rider Faiz (another title character from a 2003 incarnation).

What about the bits falling off? Well, sadly, that still happens. I had a hell of a time with Ryuki keeping that armoured plate on his crotch in place for this photo. Faiz was a little more cooperative (he doesn't have anything that "snaps" into place - all his pieces plug in with pegs-to-holes). On the bright side, both guys are quite hefty and are way more solid than that rubbery 'bot I picked up years ago... Well worth the cost of hunting these babies down.

And here's another figure that arrived today:

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

This is Maria Freed (or Fenicia if you're French Canadian). She was one of the supporting characters from the classic 70's anime UFO Robot Grendizer (or Goldorak, to my Francophone buddies at work). The SIF-EX series is a line of collectable fixed-pose figures - like mini-statues. Made of a very different kind of PVC, these are solid as a rock. Paintwork is amazing. Sculpt is... well, although I'm very happy to meet my sexy new roomie, she has a bit of trouble holding onto her flight-helmet. Yamato was thoughtful enough to build a hidden bit of plastic into the interior of the helmet sculpted to match her empty right hand but for whatever reason, the two pieces, do not balance the helmet at all. A little putty solved the problem for this particular photo... I'm not too sure how to display her permanently tho as I'm not entirely certain what effect putty could have on PVC or acrylic paints...

No comments: