Figuarts picspam!

[akinoame]

So I finally got my Astra Figuarts, and that means I was able to unbox my Leo and pose them together!



Previously, I had bought a CHODO (I think that was it, anyway) Astra, and Zero seemed...surprised at how tiny he was:



This time, though...





Well, suffice to say, Leo would like to have a word with Zero.





So I was very impressed, taking both of the figures out of their boxes for the first time:





The lighting in the first one is terrible, but basically, even in the box I immediately noticed that they made a MASSIVE improvement for the color timers:



Astra's is attached to another part of his chest decoration, making it harder to lose than Leo's, which is just the color timer:



I hope this is a new standard with the color timers, because I honestly think only Orb has something close, but then, Orb's color timer is a whole circle and has a couple of other details that would be harder to connect to without having to attach them all together.

I was also highly impressed with Astra's chain, which is an actual chain, rather than a plastic sculpt like I was expecting:



This, however, does lead to a criticism, though, when I tried to show off the chain by putting Astra in a pose shown on the box:



When I tried to match the pose, I found I couldn't get Astra's leg to lift as high as was shown on the box. And after accidentally breaking his leg (not shown; I managed to get it plugged back in easily), I found out why: the Shinkocchou Seihou standard they changed to was supposed to fix the problem with the hip that the legs would get dislocated. However, in doing so, they reduced the flexibility of the legs by changing the leg-hip joint to a plug-in joint rather than the ball joint. And I looked in comparison to my Faiz and Kuuga Amazing Mighty, which are much older and can do that high leg-lift.

According to the 11/18/22 Tamashii Ultraman live event last night, the new Dyna figure is supposed to be even more of an improvement, with softer parts to better match the flexibility of the original suit actor, so I hope that fixes it. If I'm paying this much for the Figuarts, I should be able to easily do the poses shown on the box.

Among Leo's accessories was a flame effect, intended for his foot for kick poses:



I'm lucky I got that picture, since that flame was really loose when I put it on his hand, so...yeah. Don't recommend. I also decided I didn't want to bother with trying to do a kicking pose with his foot enshrouded in flames, just because I didn't want to deal with the part falling off all the time. I already have enough of a headache with Dragreder's pieces falling off, the fucking capes and wings on so many of my Figuarts, and the legendary "Flaming Assbird."

Astra comes with the Ultra Key, a ridiculously powerful weapon that stabilizes the Star of Ultra's orbit and is completely unguarded in its one appearance:



And because it is a pain to get him to hold it, as much of a pain as it is getting my Faiz Blaster Mode to hold the entire reason he's called Blaster Mode, I elected not to use that for his pose.

I did, however, let him have a momentary upgrade:



Does it show that my Aqua figure is a lot taller and her Keyblades aren't sized for this? Yes. But it's fun.

So, yeah. For all of those reasons, I decided the best pose to make was a back-to-back stance for the brothers, with Astra's left leg in front (and thus, him on the left) to show off his chain. And wouldn't you know it? There's conveniently just enough room left on that stand for a third figure. Regulos, perhaps?



Also maybe Zero gets a little payback of his own.

Bonus! Taiga Tri-Strium Rainbow!



I found where I had all of my stands, and I thought the red was perfect for him. His pose isn't anything spectacular right now, but I can play with him more down the line.