Medabots is a show that was a pretty big part of my child hood. It was one of the few things that really got me out of my enthralling pokemon trance and away from my Gameboy every week. I got the chance to sit down and watch how the escapades of Ikki and his Beetle type Medabot, Metabee played out. This show was definitely a diamond in the rough when it came to Anime that wasn’t on Toonami, and it’s definitely an underrated series. When I first saw that Bandai was doing a couple Medabots D-Arts figures I was a little “Meh.” I hadn’t seen the show in around 10 years and at that point Medabots was a pretty old thought. That all changed though a couple months ago when I decided that I’d watch an episode or so of Medabots on Youtube. I immediately hit a nostalgia wall and knew I had to put an order in for both Metabee and Rokusho immediately. I’m extremely happy I did, as both of them are very solid figures with some great backstory to them.
Moving away from my giddy childhood flashback, D-Arts Metabee is a very strong representation of the on screen character. The head looks spot on to the cartoon, and the multiple faces included do a pretty good job of conveying Metabee’s personality. I think a couple better ones could’ve been chose, but I’ll get in to more detail with that in the accessories section. The articulation is good, but he does have a little trouble looking up, as the head and torso clash. Not a huge deal as good articulation is still present. It attaches via the ball joint system that both Metabee and Rokusho use; the actual ball joint is supposed to stick with the head if you take it off so there’s an easier way to swap parts, in this case the head.
The shoulders are articulated via a ball joint and allow for a full range of motion. The grey cylinders on the back of the shoulders are also able to be moved around a bit on a ball joint. The entire elbow joint is made of diecast, which is a great touch. Once again, since Medabots’ parts are meant to be switch frequently, this may have been a move to keep the plastic from degrading from frequent switches, as the arms in the Medabots show were the most often swapped. This does work very well, as I haven’t had any problems with the elbows, and the diecast just adds some extra quality to an already awesome figure.
The hands also take advantage of the “quick swap” joint system, and in themselves are exactly what you’d expect: plastic hands. Metabee comes with a pair of closed hands, as well as a pair of open ones. Nothing out of the ordinary to note here.
Metabee does have waist articulation that allows the top half of him to swivel around, and the front and back part of the “battle dress” are also able to be tilted back and forth to allow for some extra movement with the hips and legs. The legs are connected to the hip via a ball joint, so plenty of movement there, but the back part of the battle dress gets in the way if you want to move the leg directly back. I don’t really count this as a detriment though, as posing Metabee in that way just doesn’t work as this toy isn’t physiologically designed for a running stance like Figuarts are.
The knee joints are also completely diecast like the elbows, and are double jointed. Great job by Bandai there, as that allows for some really dynamic poses out of Metabee that you wouldn’t think are possible by looking at him in a normal stance.
Now everything else about this figure is great, but the feet are where Metabee really freaking shines. Absolutely amazing. Where to start? First off, the foot is split into 2 sections: the larger front part is completely diecast, while the back heel is plastic. The foot in itself also has some awesome articulation as you can bend the front part into position, much like a Figuart, but you can also move the entire front section up and down to allow for some even better articulation. Really great design by Bandai. The foot is also able to be angled to the side, like a rocker joint on a standard figure.
Metabee also comes packed with some great accessories. 3 different face swaps (mean/serious, normal, and closed), 2 pairs of hands (open and fist), a posable explosion effect, and 2 slightly different muzzle flash effects. The explosion effect is especially cool, as each of the circles are able to move moved around one another, as well as being rotated. Nothing really out of the ordinary here. Metabee comes with a good amount of swappable faces, as well as some cool effect parts. The only thing I would’ve liked would have been the missile effect part for the launchers on his head. I know the Kotobukiya version of Metabee came with one, and it really would’ve capped off this awesome representation of this character.
Overall, Bandai’s rendition of Metabee in their D-Arts line is excellent. It sports a great amount of articulation for it’s size, and the aesthetics and design are spot on with how I remembered Metabee in the cartoon 10 years ago. The easily swappable joints and parts is a great idea, and I really hope we got some more Medabots other than Metabee and Rokusho. If you see this toy, I’d pay about 50$ with him if I didn’t have him already, and anything under that is a steal.
Latest posts by The Daytime Ninja (see all)
- Weekly Poll: Improvements on TDN You’d Like to See? - May 23, 2013
- Millenium Era S.H. MonsterArts Mechagodzilla Announced - May 23, 2013
- This Fake D-Arts Storm Eagle Mock-up Saddens Me - May 22, 2013
- S.H. Figuarts Daft Punk Preorders Live! - May 21, 2013
pom..pom..pom..