Garo Kiwami Damashii Garo Part 3 [Final]

Finally, some bad things about the figure
A look at Garo Kiwami Damashii Garo's articulation design after the previous posting. ^^



Horizontal tilt is not a problem at all for the head.


Tilting the head forward and backward is pretty easy as well. Bending the head downward can be done (right image), but that pose is not clear at all when the figure is viewed from the front.


The segment of armor beneath the jaw that is molded together with the helmet makes it rather difficult to detect if the head has been bent downward. ^^;


Even though the shoulder joints are of ball-type, their upward rotation is severely restricted by the upper arms' armor.


Swinging the entire arm forward or backward is no problem at all, since there's no collision between the upper arm and shoulder area at all in these poses.


Rotating the upper arm around, the entire arm can be bent upward as well.
As it turns all, the more normal upward bend is not possible for the shoulder joints, but irregular poses featuring much wider angle of rotation is fine. ^^;


Rather standard 90-degree bend for the elbow joint.


The forearms can be turned, which would hopefully be useful to compensate some of the articulation capabilities lost due to the restrictive upper arm. ^^



Side-to-side and backward bends are possible with the upper body.


The block-like design of the hip joint puts a huge restriction on how much the legs can be expanded. ^^;


The entire leg can be bent forward for a wide degree, but not so much to the back due to the hip design.


Double joint for the knee allows it to have a full 180-degree bend. ^^




Pretty good kneeling pose I would say, thanks to the wide forward bend of the hip and flexible knee joint. ^^



Side-to-side and upward-downward bends are very easy for the ankle joint.
While looks and details are great for this figure as shown in the previous posting, articulation is just a minimal pass I think. ^^; If not for the upper body's and knee joints' flexible movement, I probably put the figure in the "poor" category when it comes to articulation, with the upper arms' and hip joints' restrictive design being the main source of disappointment. Then again, this might just be one of those products that face dilemma in balancing look and articulation. To give more room for the shoulder joint to move, the upper arm might have to be made smaller, which would affect the overall look. Same can be said for the hip joint as well. Giving more room to the hip joint to move might expose the ball-type joint incorporated there even more, which would affect the overall look again. I'm not sure how the designer considered between those factors when planning this figure, so I'm just speculating here, but for such a small figure, it's true that the room for flexible design is limited.

When it comes to details, size doesn't really matter for this figure, but the answer is just the opposite when articulation is involved. ^^;

Some action poses of Garo Kiwami Damashii Garo after the introduction on its articulation design:























With just a sword and three option hand units, there's really not much to do with this figure. ^^ As limited as they are, some of the poses are actually pretty awesome-looking. ^^ Given its small size, the figure can be displayed on your workstation easily, just to be fiddled with every once in a while. ^^; That's pretty much the case for my recently reviewed Transformers Prime's Legion Class Cyberverse Arcee. ^^ I love to transform her back and forth between robot and vehicle modes when the Internet connection slowed down, or when I just happen to run out of idea for whatever I'm doing at that point. XD Maybe this figure of Garo would replace Arcee for her role one day. ^^

Speaking of Arcee, a comparison between this figure and a few others to wrap up this review series will give you a clearer idea of its "compact" size. ^^


With Transformers Prime's Legion Class Cyberverse Arcee


With Figma Kamen Rider Thrust.


With HGUC Gundam RX-78-2.
Done with the review on this action figure, a bit of work on a new model kit will be next. ^^

All reviews on Garo Kiwami Damashii Garo:
Part 1: Size doesn't matter
Part 2: Details, details and more details
Part 3: [Final]: Finally, some bad things about the figure

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Garo Kiwami Damashii Garo