D-Arts, Reviews

Review: D-Arts – Charizard (Lizardon)

D-Arts – Charizard (Lizardon)
Retail Release – April, 2013 – ¥3,800

DArtsCharizard

Gotta Catch ‘Em All! Grab Charizard from CSToys International!

Bandai, in a move to completely win me over, choose Charizard as their second release in the D-Arts Pokémon line! He was released in April, 2013 for ¥3,800 and has a box that is simply huge. While there was certainly ways to pack him in a smaller box (remove the wings and tail), the end result is a pretty nice looking box with a great drawing of Charizard on the front. Charizard’s accessory count is pretty abysmal, only coming with a fireball effect and a Poké Ball Tamashii Stage. Unfortunately the stage can’t really hold up Charizard all that well without a secondary post to get him in a flying position. The stage can be used to attach the fireball so it looks like Charizard is shooting fire in the air. Charizard himself has a ton of detail, and I have no problems with the sculpt at all. I absolutely adore the way it looks. Being a Charizard fanatic, It’s certainly a favorite. Despite being a fanboy, I have to point out the figure’s very obvious flaws. His wings have awful articulation. Given the fact Tamashii has done wings before, it’s a shame there isn’t a hinge somewhere near the base of his back, since the figure can’t make a convincing  flapping position. There is a hinge further into the wing, but it just doesn’t really do it for me. His tail is also structured the best it can be, but it unfortunately can’t move too much on the horizontal axis, so his tail can’t swing around toward his front or anything like that. FInally the legs have no knees, which isn’t a deal breaker or anything, jus something I felt needed to be point out. Given his structure, he doesn’t particularly need them that much. Charizard is fantastic release for Pokémon fans, even if Mewtwo is probably an overall better release. Being one of my favorites, it is certainly a favorite figure of mine, even with his articulation flaws. If you can look past that, he’s a pretty solid figure. Recommended, especially if you can get it cheaper than retail price.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s