I... I really don't like how they keep experimenting like this, particularly on figures that have been in high demand for a while. Now if they were to do some kind of special second production where they incorporated all these weird gimmicks in, that'd be fine, that'd be neat, but only if it came after making a figure that was just cold, hard plastic.

If nothing else saves me a headache, a preorder, and a Madokami-knows-how-big hole in my wallet.

I ended up ordering my self Zeztz, Demons, Geats and Gavv (who I managed to squeeze in after deciding to go with DHL shipping instead of light packet). I'm looking forward to having my first SHFs!

Congrats! I hope you enjoy them! It can be a very slippery slope, since there's 55 years worth of amazing characters to choose from, but you are going to have some excellent toys in your new collection. Post pics when they arrive!

I can imagine! There's definitely a few more I'll probably get if I enjoy these, although I've already got a fairly big FRS collection so I'll likely just stick to stuff not covered by those (outside of a few of my favs). They look really pretty so I'll definitely take some pics, I just hope I manage to post them on this website because I've always found that annoying.

I can recommend this website for uploading photos and getting links for the forum: https://imgbb.com/ . I've been using it for a long time and it has never let me down.

I can say that, if you don't care about scale and simply want a representative of a character or simply the quality of the product is up to your standard, you can save quite a bunch of money with Blokees, FRS, or the action figure line. The recent action figure line of Bandai having releases for new entry are also very good. They save the costs with unpainted back, simpler joint implementation, but they're decent nevertheless. Blokees are also doing kits, so you may as well want to consider that, as SHF can be very pricey.

Blokees is stupidly decent. :rock:
They won my vote since they started with their Transformers and Saint Seiya stuff. Their semi-chibi stuff are hit or miss depending on the IP, but overall decent. And they've gone to do comparatively more high-end stuff aside from Transformers like their Evangelion model kits.

Blokees are cool, but they're too stylised to be the main representations of the characters on my shelf. And I already collect FRS, but it has slowed down so much recently (with there being over a year between the release of Zero-One in Jan 2025 and Ichigo in March 2025) that it's no longer a viable way to grow the collection. I may look into the standard action figure line though, the Zeztz ones look like they're pretty good so maybe I'll get the alternate forms of them if I decide I want them.

I am planning to be price conscious if I decide to go deeper into Figuarts. Just because it's a new line for me to collect doesn't mean I'll jump right into absurdly priced final forms and exclusives. A lot of figures can be found on the secondary market in the ?25-?40 range, which is not a significant price jump compared to western action figures or even FRS at this point, especially given the higher quality of Figuarts.

Blokees recently did Ultimate Kuuga but it's massive. I think 10 inch? Probably a licensing thing so they wouldn't step on Bandai's toes.

The Zeztz figures look great. Roughly same size as SHF I believe, and this years looks like they're doing several forms & characters

Their Kuuga Ultimate is that big!? I've seen photos of it about, but I thought it would be a similar size to the FRS.

But yeah, I'm dipping my toes into Figuarts, and we'll see where it goes from here.