ULTRA-ACT RED KING
Up for review is the Tamashii Nations' Ultra-Act Red King that was released on August 31, 2012 in Japan. This figure retails for 5,040 yen (about $65.00 USD).
This figure is based off one of the most popular monsters that has appeared in several different Ultraman series including the original series, Ultraman Max, & Ultraman Mebius just to name a few. Red King is a pretty iconic monster in the Ultra universe, and to see him issued in the Ultra-Act is a welcome addition.
PRESENTATION
Red King comes in a window style box with red, brown, and silver foil graphics. The Red King figure is pictured on the right side of the box with the actual figure displayed in the center window.
While the brighter graphics are eye catching compared to the older black Ultra-Act boxes, I still wish Tamashii would design the boxes differently for the monsters and aliens.
On the back of the box, several more pictures are shown of the figure in action poses with his accessories.
The box is a bit larger too, compared to a standard Ultra-Act box. Given the size, you know you're getting a character with some heft to him.
FIGURE
Once removed from the box, Red King comes in a clear plastic tray with a few accessories including 2 extra interchangeable hands, rock accessory, and rock blast effect. More on those later.
The figure is pretty impressive standing at about 7 inches from head to foot. Like his kaiju predecessors in this line, the plastic is pretty solid, and has some weight to it when you pick him up.
Red King is cast in a solid beige plastic. In early promotional pictures, the beige appeared as slightly lighter in color than what appears in the final product, but the difference is negligible.
SCULPT
Red King has a very distinctive look in the Ultra shows, and the sculptors manage to capture the saurian looking creature with an amazing amount of detail. The sculpt sports Red King's ribbed scales from top to tail giving off a heavy armored or plated look for the monster.
The head details are pretty effective as well, with a subtle amount of scales sculpted underneath the eyes and nose. I'm really fond of the attention to detail that was given to this figure. The sculptors also did a fine job with capturing Red King's toothy mug right down to the larger fangs on the sides of his mouth.
PAINT
Most of the figure was given a light blue wash to help accentuate the sculpted details on Red King's body. The blue paint was also lightly added around the eyes to help bring out those details on the facial scales that I mentioned earlier. Red King's mouth also has various paints apps including red for the inside, pink for the lips, and white for the teeth.
Overall, the paint apps were neatly executed with only a minor blemish or two that I could find on the figure.
ARTICULATION
Red King sports a decent amount of articulation with about 21 points that were counted. Most of the articulation is present in the arms, legs, and tail.
Many of the points are connected through single solid ball joints. This allows a good range of poseability where the articulation is most present on the figure.
One thing I did notice with where some of the larger joints meet. Some may tend to pop off with minimal force due to the weight of the plastic. This happened a couple of times, while posing the tail, however it's no effort to pop it back on to the ball joint.
Red King's arms and shoulders probably have the greatest range when moving them up and down for poses. Also, you can reenact those scenes of Red King slapping himself in the face when he's in pain or frustrated.
The legs have a decent range for posing to the point that you can even place Red King in a sitting position.
Red King also sports 5 points of articulation in the tail and can be positioned in a few different poses.
Where the articulation becomes a bit more restrictive and suffers the most, are the main body and head areas of the figure. The lower waist is designed to turn, however Red King's large thighs prevent this from occurring. The lower neck and upper chest also have a similar issue.
I found that the biggest issue with articulation was the head. Red King's mouth is meant to open and close. However, that ability is limited due to the way the head sits on top the neck. The mouth only opens a bit, because of this. Also, if you try turn Red King's head leftor right, the lower jaw doesn't turn with it, giving Red a bit of a derpy look.
It looks like the designers gave Red King the ability to look up, so the mouth will open wider. Unfortunately with my figure, the head doesn't stay in the looking up position, if I'm not holding it in place.
This was probably my biggest issue with the figure.
The articulation is a little more guilty of breaking up the sculpt on Red King, when comparing to the other monsters, and it could be a bit jarring for some collectors who prefer a more flowing sculpt than what they're use to. Around the knees, might be the biggest offenders to some. Out of the four monsters we received in this line, Red King may stand out the most with these issues. Personally, I don't have a problem with it, as I get these figures for both the sculpt and articulation.
ACCESSORIES
Red King only comes with a few accessories. The first accessory is the second set of interchangeable hands. The hands are spread slightly wider than the regular hands, and the right has a peg sticking out of Red King's palm. What's the peg for? Well, that's for the next accessory.
Red King's second accessory is a rock. Red King is famous for chucking rocks at his opponents whether it's Ultraman, a rival monster, or an annoying Pigmon.
Appropriately, the rock accessory plugs into the peg on Red King's hand to allow him to recreate throwing at or bashing his opponents with it. It's not the most extravagant accessory, but it works for Red King.
The last accessory is, of course, more rocks or smashing rocks effect. The interesting thing about this accessory that it's made up of three parts, which includes a base, lower effect part, and upper effect part. The effect parts connect to the base on a single peg. This allows you to twist the parts in whichever directions you want the rocks positioned, depending on how hard Red King is kicking it that day. Even the accessories are getting articulation now!
Like I said before, they're not the most glamorous of accessories, but they compliment Red King well.
QUALITY CONTROL
Other than the larger part of the tail popping off, or the minor paint blemish or two on Red King's back, I didn't find major issues with the figure. The joints remained relatively tight when posing, and paint issues were minimal. Given the size and uniqueness of the sculpt, I was pretty satisfied with the quality of the figure.
OVERALL
Red King is a welcome addition to the Ultra-Act family. Even with some of the minor design flaws I found with the figure, Red King is too iconic of character to miss out on. The shortage of monsters in this line makes this a “must buyâ€
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