Takara Animated Hands On and Review
Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 4:44 amI just picked up some Takara Animated figures: namely the Starscream Vs. Bumblebee Onsoku no Taiketsu (Confrontation at the Speed of Sound) set since I didn't already own either of the figures.
The packaging is really sweet with very modernised graphics and a nice segue from red to purple in a way that's both up-to-date and G1-ish. Both the figures are held together in a "confrontational" pose. Opening the package reveals a mini-poster/catalogue with an advert for the cartoon on the upper half and wave 1 of the figures on the bottom. The back features wave 2 of the figures and of N.E.S.T. The package also includes a datacard for each of the figures with Tech Specs and a minimalist profile on the back and a barcode on the side for use with the forthcoming Sega arcade games. The figures each have a seperate instruction sheet. Oddly Starscream's is printed as transforming from robot to jet, though the seperate Starscream is packaged in jet mode. Did they print two seperate sets of instructions? Classy.
As for the figures themselves, they are two of the most controversially-redecorated figures. Bee is yellow plastic covered in gold paint. The paint is very well applied with no issues although in the long run I might worry about chipping. Whether the figure is worth it for you depends on whether you want to pay the expensive import prices (haha, you have to pay expensive import costs this time!) to get a shiny, less screen-accurate version of a figure that you can buy for probably pretty cheap now.
Starscream is a far more altered prospect with the minimalist American paint scheme of grey and red replaced with what appears to be the same grey but with the red on his nosecone and cockpit area now shiny (the red on his tailfins and arms is still a non-shiny, darker shade) and a very shiny blue on his wings and cockpit. Again, the colouration is less screen-accurate and G1-accurate but in my opinion the blue breaks up the dull grey and makes for a more vibrant figure. The figure does have a head that easily falls off during transformation but I understand that's not peculiar to Takara.
Again, it's up to you whether you want to pay heavily for a slightly altered version of a figure you can get for cheap.
I did get a look at some of the other figures and they all look classy in a shiny tacky way.
The packaging is really sweet with very modernised graphics and a nice segue from red to purple in a way that's both up-to-date and G1-ish. Both the figures are held together in a "confrontational" pose. Opening the package reveals a mini-poster/catalogue with an advert for the cartoon on the upper half and wave 1 of the figures on the bottom. The back features wave 2 of the figures and of N.E.S.T. The package also includes a datacard for each of the figures with Tech Specs and a minimalist profile on the back and a barcode on the side for use with the forthcoming Sega arcade games. The figures each have a seperate instruction sheet. Oddly Starscream's is printed as transforming from robot to jet, though the seperate Starscream is packaged in jet mode. Did they print two seperate sets of instructions? Classy.
As for the figures themselves, they are two of the most controversially-redecorated figures. Bee is yellow plastic covered in gold paint. The paint is very well applied with no issues although in the long run I might worry about chipping. Whether the figure is worth it for you depends on whether you want to pay the expensive import prices (haha, you have to pay expensive import costs this time!) to get a shiny, less screen-accurate version of a figure that you can buy for probably pretty cheap now.
Starscream is a far more altered prospect with the minimalist American paint scheme of grey and red replaced with what appears to be the same grey but with the red on his nosecone and cockpit area now shiny (the red on his tailfins and arms is still a non-shiny, darker shade) and a very shiny blue on his wings and cockpit. Again, the colouration is less screen-accurate and G1-accurate but in my opinion the blue breaks up the dull grey and makes for a more vibrant figure. The figure does have a head that easily falls off during transformation but I understand that's not peculiar to Takara.
Again, it's up to you whether you want to pay heavily for a slightly altered version of a figure you can get for cheap.
I did get a look at some of the other figures and they all look classy in a shiny tacky way.
I like it
bumblebee looks very nice but im not really liking starscream i might get them anyway 
