Sunday 12 May 2013

Toybox REVIEW: Figma Pit


Max Factory's Figma line is back with another Nintendo franchise character, and unlike Link or Samus this one's a favourite despite having appeared in barely games. Their latest release is Pit from the Kid Icarus franchise, styled on his appearance in the latest game - Kid Icarus Uprising for the 3DS. Released alongside him was Dark Pit, an evil recolour of the character with a different weapon set. Does Pit reach the standard set by his peers? Let's find out!



Figma box is the usual display of colourful front, single picture spine and back featuring action poses and contents (as well as picture of Pit alongside his dark counterpart). This time the front of a lilac dawn style sky, which contrasts quite nicely with Figma Link's bright blue sky box.

While it's not pictured there are actually 2 trays inside the box, with the bottom one housing the weapons and hands. Current versions of Pit also include a first release bonus of 2 3DS AR cards - one of Pit himself and one of the Monoeye. Apparently unless you have a Japanese 3DS though, these will be of little use to you other than being a nifty collectible.



Pit is a little shorted in stature to your average Figma, and rather dumpier in design too with his thick arms and legs. That being said, no articulation has suffered as such other than the left leg which is limited by the robe. The shoulders, elbows, hips and knees all have the usual Figma joints, and Max Factory even went as far as to include articulation in the wings! The entire wings can be rotated up and down thanks to the Figma joints at the base, and then they are also hinged in the middle.



I'm not sure if it's due to the more-cartoonish design of Pit in comparison to the average anime Figma, but Pit sports a different form of hand joint. Rather than the peg being on the hand itself which then slots into the arm, the peg is attached to the wrist itself. While this design change makes the hands a little tighter to fit, once they're on snugly they feel far more secure. Because of this different design and the fact Pit only comes with 7 hands (they are much larger than usual Figma hands after all), he does not include the usual rack to keep them all on.



On top of the already excellent base figure, Pit comes with some fantastic accessories. Included are his signature weapon Palutena's bow (which can be broken down into 3 different components), an arrow, halo rings (2 for the glove, 2 for the bow), a Monoeye enemy and the usual selection of alternate hands. The bow can be split into 2 different swords, or combined into a double blade or bow by removing the blade sections and connecting them to the longer handle included. The only real dud of this figure is the halo rings for the glove - they don't peg in very well and I managed to quite easily snap mine in one place while trying to connect them. Thankfully slotting the ones around the arrow is a much easier job.

The Monoeye is also a excellent bonus, and something Max Factory really went the extra mile to provide. Its a solid piece, and the eyeball can even move from side to side! The bad thing about it is it makes me wish Link had come with a ChuChu or something.



I haven't played Kid Icarus Uprising, so reasoning for buying Pit solely came from his appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I wasn't looking forward to him nearly as much as Link, but I'm very pleased to say Max Factory have completely blown me away with this figure. Pit is packed with great articulation and accessories, and his unique stature (well, in comparison to Link and Samus) has been recreated brilliantly thanks to a little tweaking of the usual Figma formula. It's hard to say whether he'll reach the aftermarket prices Link and Samus command (and hopefully those will drop following the US reissues), but I highly recommend not taking the chance and jumping on Pit while you can. He is unlikely to disappoint.

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