[ryan]

This figure was kind of a pain to shoot for this gallery. Like all of the Greeed Figuarts, I've had it for a year or more, and when I started posing it (for the Uva gallery actually), one side of the cape broke off. The sides of the cape are two pieces, connected by a small plastic hinge, which disintegrated, so there's no chance of repairing it.

I was pretty upset for a few minutes, then I got on Mandarake and saw that it's current price was almost half of what I originally paid. So I ordered a replacement for 2500 yen plus shipping, and about month later, I received the replacement figure, so I started packing up the original Mezool, in case somebody wanted to buy a broken figure. And the other side of her cape broke off! The hinge just up and broke, same as the first side had done. And the new one didn't quite make me happy either, the upper torso kept popping off, when I was posing it. It doesn't just fall off at the drop of a hat, but it kinda feels like if you move the joint at all, it slowly works its way off the ball. Not exactly a problem, but definitely enough to be irritating when posing her a lot for a gallery. So I swapped top halves with the broken Mezool, and that one stays on better. The new one also was put in the tray wrong at some point (I'd guess at the factory), one of the tails on her cape wasn't in the right place, and got sandwiched around a corner of the tray, so it's got a funny squiggle in it now, which you can see in the pictures.

Since I started with problems, I might as well finish them. She is a bit of a pain to balance. It shouldn't be a surprise, since she has thin, lithe legs (which I think look really good) and high heels, with a big funny shaped head and a cape, she's very top heavy. But, you may notice, I didn't have to use the stand for any of the standing poses. It took a few tries, but I could get her to stand with her feet close together, it was just kind of a hassle, and would have been easier had I used the stand. I will definitely use the stand for long term display, but I wanted to show that she could stand on her own.

The other issue is that, of course, the cape restricts her arm movement. It's a decent design, made of 5 pieces, so there is room for movement, but they do get in the way, and since I broke the first one, I was somewhat hesitant to try and wrestle with the new one to much. Looking back at the pictures, I don't have one showing how far forward the arms can go with the cape on, because I never tried it. I seem to recall not being disappointed with the articulation when I first got the figure, so I imagine the joints/separations in the cape let her move her arms forward sufficiently, I just didn't do it this time around. Oh, and the belt, it tends to ride up the more you pose her, revealing the separation between the stomach piece and the crotch piece. I was always having to push it down (and I'm sure there are pictures where I didn't notice it had moved.)

Alright, enough complaining about the figure, what do I like about SHF Mezool? Quite a lot. The paint is great, as expected. Like Kazari, she has a bunch of silver rings up and down her legs, and silver studs on her arms, and the paint is quite crisp and clean, and really stands out on the matte black of her body. It's hard to see, but her nails, the backs of her hands, and a little of the palms are a really dark, yet glossy blue, it's rather subtle, but looks pretty good.

The sculpt is very good. The design is weird, I mean, she's got an orca for a head, an octopus body just hanging off her back, and a purple eel wrapping around her neck and coming to rest between her breasts. It's really rather strange, but I've always kinda liked it, and the figure pulls it off. The legs are nice and shapely. High heels make the leg muscles go a certain way, and the sculpt of Mezool's legs looks right. The cape has lots of folds and ridges and other details that make it look interesting.

The articulation of the body underneath the cape is great. With the cape on she can extend her arms all the way out horizontally, though the cape starts looking pretty unnatural, but once both sides had broken off my original figure, I removed the back part of it as well, and just played with the figure like that. The shoulders look kinda crappy, since they have no covering (that was part of the cape's job), but I found the figure to be rather fun to play with, there's nothing to restrict any of the joints, and I've added capeless Mezool to my display shelf, alongside regular Mezool, since she's more free to be put in interesting poses. For example, she can it in chairs without her cape, and I did get caped Mezool into a pretty good sitting pose, with her legs crossed, if I had a stool for her to sit on, she'd look pretty natural.

I liked the Greeed as characters, but beyond that, their designs are very interesting, that's one of the driving reasons I wanted the Figuarts, and they do not disappoint, despite all the complaining I did earlier about Mezool.

As with Uva and Kazari, Mezool also has clear plastic for the eyes, but unlike them, hers doesn't really catch the light, so it's not particularly interesting looking.

She comes with the same cell medal piles as Uva and Kazari, as well as a Tamashii Stage Act 4, 3 pairs of hands, gropey hands for reaching for things, hands that are hard to describe, open palms but closed figures for gesturing at things I guess? Or Karate poses? Or maybe it's for parade waving, I don't know. The last pair isn't quite fists, but kind of angled, with the thumb up like she wants to hold medals between the thumb and forefinger. I really wish I could find the SHF RideVendor so I had some individual cell medals, but it hasn't shown up on Mandarake that I've seen in the last 5 or 6 weeks. Finally, and this is sorta stretching to call it an accessory, because it's an integral part of the character design, she has a cape. It's made out of 3 pieces, back and two sides, and the two sides are comprised of two different cape pieces that are permanently attached to each other via a small plastic hinge that is apparently breakable.

Anyway, clearly I talk too much in these reviews so let's wrap it up. I like the figure, it's pretty cheap right now (especially considering she was originally a Tamashii Web exclusive release), but I do caution you to be careful with the cape. The balls that attach the sides to the back are bigger enough than the holes they go in to require some force to push them in, and if you slip you could maybe break the hinges off, like I did (though on the first I wasn't pushing hard, it just fell off on its own).

Mezool looks great with the rest of the Greeed, and I recommend her.