[Den-O]

"Reddo Fight!"

A while back you may recall that I had a chance to review the very first figure in Evolution Toy's Hero Action Figure (HAF) line. HAF Redman was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment quality wise. I Had high expectations, maybe too high. With some time I was willing to give the line another chance though. In the interim, the first and now second volume's of the amazing REDMAN comic from Phase 6 and Night Shining we're released. Writer & artist Matthew Frank has crafted a truly compelling reinvention of the Redman story and breathed new life into an otherwise obscure cult character. And it's in no small part thanks to Matt that I'm able to present this gallery.

Today's subject is the incredibly limited Tokyo Comic Con exclusive REDMAN Volume 2 Dark Channel Edition. Not only does this version of volume 2 feature an exclusive limited cover differing from the retail version, but the Dark Channel also came packed with the the even more limited (just 300 pieces!) HAF Redman Dark Version! Thankfully, Matt was kind enough to pick up a Dark Channel Edition for me while he was set up at the Tokyo con, and I massively appreciate it. He was also kind enough to sign inside my copy volume 2 and that means a lot to me.

Main Figure
So after Evolution Toy's first outing with the Redman license, I was pretty disappointed. And that really puts things lightly. I seriously hoped things would turn around with their further efforts into Gridman, but the prototypes shown so far, don't do much to excite me. So I've come back around to the HAF line by way of this exclusive, giving the mold a 2nd chance. Some of my review will be very similar to the last one, so if you want to skip down, feel free.

First, a brief history of Evolution Toy. This company has been around for quite some time, technically. A large chunk of their history comes from their time as the long gone company CM's Corp, which filed for bankruptcy in 2014. The company as it is now is mostly known for it's long running Dynamite Action line, which has made use of a system of magnet's allowing for fluid posing and interchangeability. In the waning days of CM's, quality control had already become somewhat suspect. With time, things have stayed at roughly the same benchmark as well. Macross collectors have experienced this with their less than perfect VF-2SS releases, the more recent Mospeada Legioss is similarly littered with issues. Their older toku hero figures that predate HAF, like Zone Fighter & Iron King were some of the most looked over 6" scale collector figures on the market for their time as well. My point is this company has had a number of misses in it's time and they really need a win.

And my point in going over the troubled production history of this company was meant to preface that first HAF Redman was a bit on the iffy side. My copy specifically had an arm that fell apart at the bicep swivel for pretty much any reason at all, easily my biggest issue with the release. The HAF line essentially borrows it's engineering cues from Bandai's defunct Ultra-Act series of Ultraman releases, but instead focusing on the obscure Tsuburaya heroes that tend to be more often forgotten. Redman is a unique choice because of his cult status. The overall plastic quality of this release feels very, stiff? It's quite hard and inflexible, but much of the inflexibility in the figure comes from the odd placement of articulation cuts.

For starters, Redman Dark actually has some really wide flat feet that can be useful for posing, though they are a bit oversized. The ankles are actually on pretty free moving balljoints that allow the foot to move pretty far up and forward and back. This combined with tight toe bends give Redman a decent bit of stability. The knees are where some of the plastic quality comes into play. They can't quite make a 90 degree bend but are also very very tight, making posing them scary as well. While jointed on both ends of the knee, there just isn't much room before the back of the leg impacts itself. The hips are pretty similar. You can pull the hip down and out a small amount, but even then they don't feel particularly flexible. Redman was a really dynamic fighter and mostly due to the show's low budget, the titular character had to do a ton of hand to hand combat and got very active. The figure still can't quite replicate this and even where it can, the fairly lanky proportions of the legs contrasted against the body, makes him look more than a bit awkward.

While the legs are a mixed bag, the torso just doesn't really do much at all. While clearly two pieces, the lower & upper body hardly move. They may as well be one big chunk of plastic. The lower half can rotate a couple degrees to either side, but push it too far and it simply pops off the wast joint. The upper body works similarly, just be careful as it feels really tight when maneuvering. As with the knees, the upper body makes some scraping/squeaking noises occasionally. A liberal application of shock oil may be the right fix for this. If there was just some room to lean the upper body a little more left or right and give him a more natural bend, then you could get some decent poses out of Redman Dark. As is he's very limited.

My original HAF Redman was plagued by a literal crumbling arm. It simply fell apart straight out the box. Thankfully, that isn't the case here, but unfortunately there's another quality trade off as well. Essentially the arm is held together with one peg in the bicep which gives it a fairly free swivel. The shoulders are a little bit of an eyesore though. The combination of the shoulder pad, and the shoulder joint with cuff, makes it look a bit busy, but they do function. The shoulder pad can impact the cuff around the joint itself as well so just be aware. The elbow joints work just fine, though they have too much play backwards making them look hyper extended sometimes. Finally, in a similar manner as the original HAF, the wrists will pull apart when you change the hands. The wrist joints will literally pull out of the wrist itself. Most of the hands are extremely tight fits on these ball joints so it's next to impossible to remove them without taking the whole joint too. Sadly the wrists are also very floppy making it difficult to hold ether the Red Arrow or Red Knife with any sort of stability.

And that brings us to the head. By far the best looking thing about the figure, the sculpt tries to strike a balance between the original low budget look of it from the show, and the more quality version of the head that exists these days. The incredibly welcome addition this time around is Glow-In-The-Dark paint applications! Something that wasn't really advertised ahead of release, that really goes a long way to making me like this figure, despite it's quality flaws. The GITD paint absorbs light better than just about anything I've seen on a toy and gives off a fantastic glow when the lights are out. Despite these fantastic glowing paint apps on the head, they can't quite save the figure from the mixed bag of articulation choices and plastic qualities.

Accessories

While the figure may lack in a few areas, the accessories provided are pretty nice:

4.5 - sets of hands. 1 flat open hand set for posing, 1 splayed open pair for posing, 1 set for his knife, 1 set for his arrow, and single hand for holding with a thumb up.

1 - extra set of antennae. It was common in the Redman series for the antennae to break during battles and need to be replaced. The figure includes an extra set, I assume for this purpose as well. Though the molding is slightly different on these too, they're just a tad bit thicker.

1 - Dark Knife. Redman's very iconic and brutal weapon of choice. It's definitely not your typical hero's weapon, but it gets the job done when you need to take out a Kaiju. It has an odd square handle that one specific set of hands can accommodate. The paint is a bit thick though so it can be a tight fit, be wary. Regular Redman's is normally called the Red Knife.

1 - Dark Arrow. This javelin like weapon is very similar in fashion to Ultraman Jack's own Ultra Cross, though obviously Redman uses his to much more deadly effect. It stays in a gripped hand thanks mostly to a small ring around one end of it. Regular Redman's is normally called the Red Arrow.

That's a decent number of parts for accessories, really. But I can't help but wonder why there wasn't a Red Thunder effect part packed in. Redman is after all the violent cousin of Ultraman, and Red Thunder is his equivalent of the Specium Ray. It would have also made sense to include the smaller hand-held version of the Red Arrow, since it grew in size for fights. But otherwise this is pretty great.

Final Thoughts
While the original HAF Redman was a pretty big disappointment to me personally, Redman Dark has managed to salvage hope for the line in my eyes. Yes, it's a a difficult to get and very limited run exclusive, but it shows some minor improvement over the original Redman release, mostly thanks to the very nice glow-in-the-dark paint apps. If you felt the first HAF Redman release was a letdown, then maybe give this one a chance. I've honestly had bad luck with QC across a number of toylines over the years, so for all I know my experiences with HAF issue are more limited. And thanks to Night Shining and the small number of units they procured of this release for US distribution, you can actually purchase much more easily than you may have realized.