Astro Toy

Revoltech Edward and Alphonse Elric

Revoltech Edward and Alphonse Elric
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Maker: Kaiyodo
Price: $40-50

Normal Stuff Month continues here at Astro Toy as we look at Revoltechs of two popular characters! I will pretend that we timed this to coincide with the whole Toonami business...

I took it as a given that we were going to review the Fullmetal Alchemist Revoltechs when they came out, and here they are. Revoltech is a really all-over-the-place line. This time, as usual, the figure is sculpted by Katsuhisa Yamaguchi, an old hand at Kaiyodo who's great at sculpting robots and armor... and not so much with human beings. (See our previous review of the Alucard Revoltech to find out how bad things can get.) Well, what do we have here? A suit of armor and a dude! I predict this double review is going to turn out half-and-half.

Here is Edward...

And so as not to leave you in suspense, here is Alphonse. I think it's kind of cool that Revoltechs come in poses straight out of the box now... but if you're the kind of person who puts the toys back in the box it's really terrible to try and match the pose.

How do you guys feel about Ed's face? I'm not a huge FMA fan so I don't feel as confident as I did about the completely off-model Alucard figure... but I think this sculpt is just kinda weird. The other faces are a little better, but rather than serious and determined Ed just looks cross-eyed here. A closeup such as this one also brings out all the issues with the paint...

Remember what I said about Yamaguchi being better with armor and robots than he is with people? Al is Exhibit A. Great sculpt, a gleaming paint job, a simple subject executed elegantly.

Both the boys- even the bulky Al-- have excellent articulation as is expected from Revoltech. Everything that can move, or that can be made to move, moves on these two figures. Ed's hair even flips open so that you can switch his face without issue. As usual with Yamaguchi's figures of human beings, sacrifices are made in Ed's sculpt for movability. You can see it in the semi-squarish shape of the arms that's so common to Revoltechs, and one other big point.

You will note from that first picture, for example, that Ed doesn't actually have a solid chest. He has this plastic, articulated “panel” that runs from below the neck to above the abs. The idea is simply to give the body more room to move... and yes, that is kind of a radical step to take.

The end of Ed's long coat is in two articulated pieces (and hides the hole in the back for the stand). The joints on both figures are the trademark Revolver Joints. If you're interested in function over form, these are the best in the business: they click, they clack, they're huge, but they're strong, stable and easy to work with.

Ed comes with a replacement automail right arm, of course.

In addition, he gets a blade attachment for said arm.

Ed also has effect parts for the hands. It's for alchemy stuff. I know, like, tons about FMA, alright?

Al, on the other hand, comes with very little but himself: just basic hands and an goofy extra face. (I would have been screwed for an article if I'd bought him by himself, huh?) He's big, alright? He's huge. See that height difference?

The final effect part comes with Ed but both characters are shown on the boxes using it: it's something I don't know enough about FMA to know, but I figure it's something important! On the box, the guys have got their arms way down to the ground. I know these figure can flex, but I could not for the life of me get them so low down that their hands touched the floor. So it just kind of looks like Al is warming his hands here...

The stand and effect parts are the exact same stand and effect parts that have been coming with Revoltechs for years now. The stand is a little flimsy: after some of the stands I've dealt with lately, the Revoltech stand is starting to look a little weak and unstable, mostly when you're trying to hold the figure in the air. Ed is problematic, but Al is just too heavy, he's not going up there.

I'm not sure why exactly they bother with the foot effect part anymore: maybe switch it up a little bit? I think I saw these same parts back when I started on Astro Toy....

These are both quality toys, really, and a far cry from the hideous figures we've seen in the line lately. I'd recommend them to any series fan. However, as we expect from this line, they are geared a lot more towards dynamic posing than they are towards a detailed sculpt. Keep that in mind if you're considering them... but as we found out a long time ago, Play-Arts Ed is kind of terrible too.

We bought both figures together from HLJ for $86 shipped. Expect to pay more like $50 individually. Also, for the FMA fan with money to burn who wants to go all-out: Medicom recently released Real Action Hero figures-- 12” dolls with real minature clothing--  for Ed and Al, each of which will run you around $150-200. I've always wanted an RAH myself...

When he isn't killing time on fighting games and mahjong, David Cabrera gets hype about anime, manga and gaming at Subatomic Brainfreeze. You can follow him on Twitter @sasuraiger.