SH MONSTERARTS RED-EYES BLACK DRAGON | Figure Review

On June 15, 2023, Tamashii Nations announced a new series would be added to the SHMA line, with a teaser image showing a very distinct background with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Everyone guessed right away, Ancient Egypt + monsters = Yu-Gi-Oh!

Now I am on old school Yu-Gi-Oh fan who fell off the series around the time the first anime ended it's run, I don't know anything about synchro summons or XYZ/pendulum whatchamacallit's...but I do have a fond nostalgia for the classic series, so I was naturally curious about this upcoming figure line. The first figure revealed was the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, a staple monster of the series. Personally though, I was a bigger fan of his counterpart. I even made a post on Facebook that said if they were to announce a Red-Eyes Black Dragon figure, I would pre-order it without question.
Sure enough, only a couple months later, I got my wish!

Being my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh monster, I may have had high expectations for this figure and I'm happy to say that most of them were met!

This figure looks incredible! It's been awhile since I watched the show, but Red-Eyes looks pretty spot on, none of the proportions look off and the sculpt lives up to the reputation of being a ferocious dragon with a deadly attack. 

You know what else if ferocious? Just how spiky this figure is. From the beak, horns, claws and the body in general, there are various pokey bits on this dragon so be mindful of that. 

The only real nitpick I have with the sculpt is regarding the feet. The talon on the back (which I believe would be called a Hallux(?)) is sculpted in a way that makes standing Red-Eyes up without any support stands a bit tricky. It can be done, but that may run the risk of bending the talon too much 

As for the paint? Well, it's black dragon and he does in fact have red eyes, what more do you need?
Well, OK, there is a bit more to it than that. The inside of the mouth along with the teeth and the tongue are painted quite nicely. 

Remember those pokey bits I mentioned? Many of them are coated with a silvery dry brushing from head to tail and it looks great.

So Red-Eyes looks amazing, no question, but how does he move? Well, let me just play my Articulation card. 

His mouth is double jointed allowing it to open pretty wide. The head can rotate and the various neck joints let him look up/down, left/right and tilt side-to-side. 

The arms have unique ball joints that you'll have to fiddle with in order to get their full range of movement. But when you do the arms can rotate and move in/out at the shoulder, bend/rotate at the elbow and the hands can bend/rotate at the wrist.

The body of Red-Eyes doesn't offer a lot of movement, but you can have him tilt side-to-side and only the slightest lean forward/backward. 
Again, the pokey bits may or may not hinder your ability to move this dragon around. 

The wings are able to flap at the back and can rotate slightly. 
They also have a point of rotation and are separated into pieces that can be made to looked spread out wide for flight or folded closed. However you choose to pose your dragon, the wings are going to give it some presence. 

At the waist, the legs have the same hinged ball joints the arms do, some work will need to be done, but once you get a hold of it, the legs can move forward/backward and move in/out. The knees are double jointed, and have a decent bend. The feet can move up/down, rotate/pivot and you even get a bend at the toes and back talon.

But the back talons on Red-Eyes' foot aren't the only things that'll prohibit the dragon from standing, what also doesn't help is how loose the joints are in the legs. They have trouble dealing with the weight of the figure as a whole. 

And finally, the tail. It's everything you want in a SHMA tail, multi-jointed and fluid with tight joints that hold it's pose.

If you can get past the pokey bits, Red-Eyes is quite posable and will look great if you can get creative enough-
OH, look at that! You activated my Accessories card!

Red-Eyes comes with a variety of stands that can be attached to the included base. 

If you ask me though, the wing tip attachments are a bit superfluous at best. I've had my Red-Eyes held up by just the crotch holding piece and it's worked out pretty well so far.

You also get a pair of more open hands if that tickles your fancy.

We even get an effect part meant to emulate the dragon's signature attack: Black Flame Bullet. (or Inferno Fire Blast, in America!)

This is a great effect part to place in Red-Eye's mouth, and the lighting bits are made of a softer plastic so you don't have to worry too much about them breaking unless you're actively trying to do so. 

In the end, while this Red-Eyes Black Dragon may come with it's own unique hindrances, I still love it very much. Tamashii Nations did my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh monster justice and I can't wait to see where this line goes from here. You know they'll have to do the Egyptian God Monsters at some point.

Also, if they consider doing an Exodia figure, I dare them to release it as the individual pieces that you have to buy separately. 

Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...

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