ROBOT SPIRITS LADY AVENGER, BRACER PHOENIX & TITAN REDEEMER | FIGURE REVIEW

This review has been edited from its original version. It has been reformatted for culturally sensitive reasons.

It's been about 2 years since the last NECA Pacific Rim figures came out and afterward, the future of articulated figures based on the possible sequel was uncertain.

And then...this happened:

I almost foamed at the mouth seeing that tweet.
Given the quality of work that Tamashii Nations puts into it's figures, I was very excited to see what they would bring to the Pacific Rim table.
One San Diego Comic Con later, it was revealed that we would be getting 6 new Jaeger figures from it's Robot Spirits branch, better known for making articulated Gundam figures and they all looked great. But do they hold up to all that hype? Let's find out by looking at the first 3 Jaegers that have been released.

To start things off, we have Lady Avenger. The Mark V successor to the original Lady Danger, who was my favorite Jaeger from the last movie and Lady Avenger may be my favorite Jaeger from this movie, I'm having a hard time deciding between her and another Jaeger, but I'll talk about it when that figure gets released.

Lady Avenger has a fantastic look to her. It echoes the look of the original GD, but gives it a more streamlined, modern look. It even adds wings to the back, possibly as a tribute to the fallen Jaeger, Striker Eureka.
(Note: The wings come separated from the figure in the box and must be attached to the back)
Having not seen Uprising yet, I don't know how well the figure matches up to the film version, but I think this figure mimics that fantastic look to a T.

Avenger has it's signature bold blue color scheme, complimented with some patches of silver and red lines scattered throughout which looks fantastic. Looking closer, you can see a lot of other small details, including panel lines and insignia's. The one that impresses me the most is on the shoulder pads. You can see the PPDC logo as well as the words "Pan Pacific Defense Corps". For such a small detail, it looks really good and I'm surprised they were able to make it look as good as it does.
Looking at the back, there's much of the same good detail. One thing that stands out to me though, is that the inner workings on the back of the hips are painted blue. Shouldn't they be painted grey?
The visor and the double reactors on the chest are made of translucent plastic and can appear to glow when placed against a light. It makes me wonder if they'll ever release an actual light-up version.

The next Jaeger I'm looking at is Bracer Phoenix. Probably the bulkiest of the new Jaegers, but more than ready for battle.
She looks like a military assault vehicle with arms and legs, with a light tan body, highlighted with silver/gun metal joints, a gold visor and...brown eyebrows? Okay, that's kinda weird.

There are also some decals on Bracer, but not all of them are that discernible as they were on Lady Avenger. I can read the numbers alright but the words all look muddled. 

There's also a lot of interesting stuff about this Jaeger, you can see what look like cannons on the left arm. And a spiked gauntlet on the hand, could those cannons actually be boosters for a punching attack? I'll find out when I see the movie.
There also appear to be ammo packs on the left thigh.

The last Jaeger of this first wave of Robot Spirits figures is Titan Redeemer.
Titan Redeemer certainly looks like a very sturdy Jaeger, her color reminds me of a big tree, but more resembles a tank, with it's dark emerald body with gun metal patches/inner workings and some hints of yellow.
Titan's legs look very intricately detailed. On the front and the back, there's a lot going on with this Jaeger and it looks really impressive.

But let's get to the elephant in the room, or rather the wrecking ball.
Actually, it's known as a "Seismic Morning Star", a mace weapon with rows of spikes that spin individually. This weapon looks like it could cause a lot of damage and I can't wait to see it utilized in the film. 

But what about the one area we all know Tamashii Nations products can nail just as well? The Articulation.
When it comes to these Jaeger figures, The movement on all 3 of these Jaegers are very fluid and easy to move. Sometimes the articulation outshines the NECA figures and sometimes they feature the same limitations.

Their heads can look down, left and right and can tilt side to side. Tilting Bracer's head is kinda hard given the massive collar.

Lady's arms can move out pretty far, even though that movement is limited because of the shoulder pads. But those pads can move up allowing the arms to rotate all the way around.

 Surprisingly, Bracer's massive shoulder pads don't hinder much of the arm movement. The arms can make a nice "T" pose and make a full 360 rotation around the torso. 

Titan's shoulders however are pretty much stiff, making torso rotation impossible. But they can move out thanks to a small flap on the side.

The arms can also rotate below the shoulder.
The arms have double jointed elbows with no rotation.
The hands rotate and wobble around like you'd expect.

Their bodies can bend backwards and tilt side to side. But this presented an issue with Bracer.
Her waist is connected via a ball joint and normally when the joints are separated, it's just a matter of pushing it back in. Sounds simple right? Well for some reason, it took me 30 MINUTES to get my figure back together. So be wary of that.

The legs can be a bit funny in terms of articulation. The inner waist joints aren't glued into the figure itself and that can make Lady look really awkward.
The legs can move forward and backward and there is rotation at the hips.
The Knees are also double jointed and the feet can move up, turn and pivot nicely.
Below Bracer's knees, the lower leg has this extra bend similar to Crimson Typhoon's legs, although Bracer's are considerably smaller.

The Jaegers come with a fair amount of accessories

There's the usual pair of open hands. The hole is positioned in an odd way that you don't normally see on many action figures. Titan Redeemer obviously only has one open hand.

At least you can make Lady do that famous pose.

Unlike the NECA figures which had Lady's Chain Sword piece attach to the wrist, the Robot Spirits figure comes with the Chain Sword attached to the arm on a separate piece. That doesn't make it feel any less fragile though.

Lastly, there is what looks like a Plasma Cannon, but it's actually referred to as a Gravity Sling. They look to serve both functions and the piece itself does look great.

Bracer Phoenix comes with a pair of Vortex Cannon pieces. 

Both attach to Bracer's chest and back, the pictured pieces have to be removed to be replaced by the cannons. They can be a bit tricky to wiggle out, especially the back one, so it might be a good idea to take it slow.

Once removed, the cannons fit on nicely and make Bracer even more war ready then usual.

Titan Redeemer has one of the more interesting accessories. A mini 1 1/2 inch figure based on the smaller, single pilot Jaeger: Scrapper

Scrapper isn't as highly detailed as it's -- inch counterparts, but it still looks very nice. It is a little disappointing that it's just painted silver and there wasn't more color to it. And there is no articulation. It makes me wonder if a larger, more detailed Scrapper figure will be released in the future.

The Robot Spirit Jaegers stand a little over 6 1/2 inches, nearly 1 inch shorter than the NECA Jaeger figures.
I personally think they fit well in scale with the NECA Kaiju figures and even standard 6 inch Godzilla figures.

I think all 3 of these figures are fantastic! All have great articulation, wonderful detailing and I cannot wait get ahold of the next figures from Tamashii Nations and to see all of them in action on the big screen.
Lady Avenger retails for about $19.99, while Bracer Phoenix and Titan Redeemer retail for $29.99 each. For those price points, I'd say these Jaeger figures are more than worth adding to the shelves of any Kaiju collector.
I highly recommend them.

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!

https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/

PACIFIC RIM | Movie Review

This review has been edited from its original version. It has been reformatted for culturally sensitive reasons.

In 2012, I had been checking the internet everyday for news on the Legendary Pictures Godzilla film, only to be disappointed that it in fact would not come out in 2012 as rumors had suggested.
As the year drew to a close, it looked like another year would go by until I could see giant monsters on the big screen. And then the trailer for this film came out and it made me as happy as a schoolboy to know that the wait wouldn't be so bad after all.

Pacific Rim was set to hit theaters on July 12, 2013. But I actually got to see it 10 days before that!
Apparently a member of a Godzilla Facebook group managed to get a few passes to an advance screening at a theater in Dallas, had no use for them and was offering them to anyone in the group who happened to live in that area. Me, who just so happened to live less than an hour from Dallas leaped at the chance to obtain them. As soon as I got them, I invited a few of my friends, but only one was able to attend and she was just as excited as I was to see the movie.

At the time, I don't think I had ever wanted to see a movie again immediately after my first viewing more than this one.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I. FREAKING. ADORE. PACIFIC RIM!

How do I love it? Let me count the ways.

THE STORY
Gigantic alien creatures called "Kaiju" emerge from another dimension from a portal beneath the Pacific Ocean and begin to destroy the major cities of the world. Mankind retaliates by building enormous war machines called "Jaegers."

It kinda sounds like someone got that idea by watching a kid playing with their toys. (And if you read the 'Tales From Year Zero' tie-in comic, that's exactly the case!)
But it still sounds like an epic idea.
Normally, giant robots would be operated via a series of control panels. But the Jaegers have the distinction of having 2 pilots melding their minds. Allowing them to work together to control the actions of the colossal sized Mech.

The story was conceived by Screenwriter Travis Beacham. As the story goes, he was walking along the Santa Monica Beach on a foggy day and happened to look over to the famous pier where he imagined a giant robot fighting a giant monster. An idea formed in his head, an idea he would spend the next couple of years figuring out.
This story actually shares parallels with how the idea for the original Godzilla film came into being. But that's a review for another time.

Del Toro and Beacham 

But it would take a director with a larger than life imagination to bring his idea to life and there was no better choice than the acclaimed Guillermo Del Toro.
The Mexico born filmmaker grew up watching Tokusatsu series, Anime and Kaiju films, so that already makes him an ideal choice. He's also a very visual storyteller, even the smallest details sprinkled throughout the film tell a big story.
If you love this movie like I do, I highly recommend watching it along with his Audio Commentary. Then you'll get to hear how he structured the story not like a typical war, action or even another monster movie, but another film genre I bet you never even made a connection to.

When I heard that Gareth Edwards was no longer directing "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", Del Toro was my choice to take over for the job. Obviously, that's not happening. Regardless, I still have no doubts that Michael Dougherty will knock it out of the park.

THE CHARACTERS
There's an unfortunate stigma put upon monster movies, where only the monsters matter and the human characters don't mean anything. A monster movie needs a good human cast to drive the story and make it entertaining when the monsters aren't on screen, and Pacific Rim has a great bunch of characters.
I enjoy seeing pretty much everyone of them and how work off one another.

I do think a lot of unnecessary hate is hurled at Charlie Hunnam's character. Many say his performance is stilted and emotionless. I think many people missed what he was going for. Hunnam described the character of Raleigh Becket saying: "He's lost so much, and I think it makes him a little bit cold on the outside. He's one of the most ethically righteous and disciplined, dedicated, loyal, honest guys you could ever meet..." Whenever I watch Raleigh, I definitely get that impression. It's made even better when you see him work off Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). Both characters have experienced loss and tragedy in their lives and only together do they learn to overcome their fears and ultimately, save the world from destruction.

THE JAEGERS/KAIJU

Not surprisingly, the best parts of the movie are the battles between the Jaegers and the Kaiju. All of which are uniquely designed and pretty much flawlessly animated. My favorite Jaeger is Lady Danger and my favorite Kaiju is Otachi. 

You really get a sense of how massive these things are. All of the fight scenes use elements such as intense rainstorms and bright, colorful lighting to epic effect, but in my opinion the best battle and the one that uses those elements the best is the Hong Kong Brawl. The action, tension and surprises all come together to create an experience that begs to be seen on a gigantic theater screen. 
As an interesting piece of trivia, all the Kaiju in the film were made with the mindset of designing a monster suit to be worn by a human.

THE MUSIC
OHMYGAWD! The music in this movie is so FREAKIN' gooood! Ramin Djawadi did an amazing job composing a score that captures the tragic, beautiful, quirky and epic mood of the film. And the main theme can be used to make just about anything awesome.

A NEARLY FLAWLESS FILM?
I'm really trying hard to find something that legitimately bothers me about the movie and the closest thing I can think of is a strange edit in the film.
Its in the scene where Newt goes to Hannibal Chau. After Chau explains where he got his name from he says: "Now tell me what you want before I gut you like a pig and feed you to the skin louse". Scene ends.
Several more scenes pass
Then when it cuts back to them he asks again "What do you want?", and only now does Newt answer him. I feel like there should have been an extra line or two before their first meeting scene ended. Maybe Newt could've said that it needed to be discussed in private and that would give them a reason to go to the balcony over looking the Kaiju Worshipers. But really, while it's an odd edit, it's basically that piece of lettuce included on the side of a burger and fries plate at a restaurant, you wonder why it's there for a bit before brushing it aside and moving on to enjoy the main meal.

Basically, Pacific Rim has everything I could ever want in a movie. Great characters, a good story and fantastic action. It surpassed all my expectations.
I'm not sure if Uprising will be able to capture the same feelings I have when watching the first one, but it still looks awesome in its own right and I'm pretty sure I'll love it regardless.

On my way to see Pacific Rim, I mentioned how I hoped both Pacific Rim and Godzilla 2014 would help lead the way to a new renaissance of giant monster movies. And that's exactly what happened. Toho would make a few new Godzilla films. The success of Godzilla 2014 led to Legendary acquiring the rights to King Kong and creating the MonsterVerse, one of the few Cinematic Universes besides Marvel, that actually knows what it's doing.
Even though it didn't quite make its money back in the states, the international gross more than made up for that, ensuring that we would see more Jaeger/Kaiju battles in the future.
I think I speak for most Kaiju fans when I say that this is an amazing time to be alive!

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon

and I hope you've enjoyed your time here in my lair.

So long...

If you would like to see more from The Gryphon's Lair, Be sure to give my Facebook page a 'LIKE' to see updates and other related stuff. Thanks for reading!
https://www.facebook.com/TheGryphonsLair/