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...

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