[Den-O]

Let's Morphin!

TokuNation has slowly but surely been going through it's archive of old galleries and finding those that need updates, where we simply missed the mark with our photos the first time. The subject of today's gallery is one such do-over. Following up on another recent 2.0 gallery of S.H. Figuarts Red Buster, today we take a look back at S.H. Figuarts Blue Buster!

As with the last Go-Busters gallery 2.0 I've got to own up to this series being one of my all time favorite sentai. Plenty of people who hated the show when it was airing, both those who gave it a fair chance and those who didn't. It's a polarizing show. I adore it and everything about it so I'm continuing to show my appreciation for it with this Gallery 2.0.

** As a heads up a majority of this gallery & review will be very similar to my Red Buster review, aside from the helmet these 2 figures are identical.

Busters, ready, GO!

Packaging
Now at the time Go-Busters figuarts featured some really creative packaging. And I still think that holds true. Blue Busters' box featured all the series hallmarks and logos as part of it's design. Right down to the awesome "shades" logo. The metallic reflective cardboard makes it feel premium & stylish, and the stock photos present you with a figure, that while not entirely capable of recreating those poses, can do an admirable job.

Main Figure
Red, Yellow, & Blue Buster of course weren't looked fondly upon. People who hated the show subsequently seemed to dislike the figuarts and felt they were "taking spots" of other sentai that "deserved" release more. You see similar arguments crop up from time to time with MP Transformers. But there was a voracious dislike of that particular season and it's mainline merchandise too. As a show without a collectible gimmick it simply under performed and is most likely what caused Toei to 180 into the goofy silly super gimmick driven stuff we get now year in & out. For me Go-Busters was the last modern show with some true originality to it. I feel the figuarts, while not perfect, do deserve a 2nd glance.

For starters Blue Buster features some really unique detailing you don't often see on figuarts that aren't based on Showa era characters. You can mainly see what I'm talking about on the boots & thighs of the figuart. The show suits were made of leather rather than traditional spandex or lycra. While this meant they showed wear and tear much more easily, they also really popped on screen. The Figuart captures that perfectly down to the excellently molded in thigh and boot details. Little things that are easily overlooked while the suit is in action that can be recreated perfectly at this scale. Sort of like the fabric folds in old Showa Rider suits. Blue Buster also features a number of pretty nice crisp paint apps recreating the 2-tone silver/red costume right down to the "zipper" down the middle of the suit.

Sadly the elbow joints are incorrectly colored black rather than silver & blue. I believe at the time of release it was assumed it's because that plastic wouldn't take to paint very well, the black does draw your eyes' attention but not terribly so, and the elbows function just fine too, perhaps being a tad bit limited. Blue Busters' arms are also one of the last sentai figuarts releases to feature bicep swivels. Nowadays that feature tends to be reserved for more armored characters like Metal Heroes or Kamen Riders. Sadly because of the way the torso sculpt bulges forward at the shoulder the arms cant make much use of the swivels. So no, Blue Buster can not recreate all of his signature poses properly. I've done the best I can to demonstrate what it looks like but this imperfection of the design is probably the one glaring flaw I see in the mold. Red Buster had the same problem.

The helmet is pretty much spot on, though I would have loved to have gotten a nice chrome visor, but I can totally accept the metallic paint we got here. The sculpt is crisp and despite the complaints I often see, the head looks exactly the right size to me relative to the figure. Other details of note include the GB emblem on the belt which is sculpted really nicely, a dark paint wash could have brought out more of that detail though. The left arm features the molded in and near fully painted Morphin Brace as a wonderful scaled counterpart to the real deal. Though non-functioning I always love wrist changers. And to round out the nicer details of the figure we have a really great looking Transpod on the chest straps. (The straps themselves help contribute to the hindered arm articulation)

Overall I still have a good opinion of this figuart. Yes, the arms suck because of a design flaw with the shoulders, you can't recreate some poses that are sorely missed. And perhaps I should mention that possibly because of the material the hands are cast in, they can be really difficult to swap. But barring these issues Blue Buster features all the same great standard articulation that the SHF line has come to be known for. So I don't see what's not to love about this figure, especially considering how reasonably priced this figure can be had on the secondary market.

Accessories

3 - sets of hands. Pretty standard stuff. Just mirrored sets with no unique poses. Identical to Red Buster.

1 - Sougan Blade. The standard bladed weapon of the 3 main Go-Busters. This is a nicely sculpted and accurate piece. Obviously it's not engineered to have it's binocular form as most figuarts weapons at this scale don't work in that way. It would have been nice if that were included separately.

1 - Ichigan Buster. The 2nd standard weapon of the original trio. It's just as nicely sculpted and painted as the Sougan Blade, though with more paint apps over all. I really dont see why this one wasn't molded with transformation joints, it would've been very simple that happen with it. As is though it's one of the more interesting sidearms out there. Really like it.

1 - Ichigan Buster Special Buster Mode. This is the combined form of the Blade & Buster. The 2 weapons themselves were not engineered to combine so this piece is included instead. I actually don't mind that as it allows you to have extra weapons to display. In much the same way that latter figuarts like the Kyoryuger had 2 versions of their special weapons and you could display both simultaneously.

Final Thoughts
I'm a self professed mega-fan of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters. I've always loved it and always will despite the flak it gets. I know that this figure isn't perfect, much like Red Buster. It has trouble moving it's arms up and out because of the chest design flaws, and some of them suffer from weak hips, and the hands can be especially hard to swap. But S.H. Figuarts Blue Buster and his fellow Go-Busters releases are something that I believe are still worthy of a spot in your collection. Blue Buster goes for 3000-4000 yen average which is still very affordable for a figuart, and a Tamashii Web Exclusive none the less. If you want to fill out your sentai display, do yourself a favor and pick him up.

Shutdown, confirmed.

We'll be back in just a few days with another gallery 2.0 to follow this one up with S.H. Figuarts Gorisaki Banana!