Appleseed


Hi all. Icarus here with a review of the 1:10 scale Appleseed Ex Machina action figures by Wave Corporation.

Before I begin, I want to admit upfront that I would not consider myself an Appleseed fan. I was not particularly aware of the property or the characters until pictures of the Hot Toys 1:6 scale Deunan and Briareos models first began to circulate near the end of 2007. But, when I first saw them, I immediately found the character designs to be quite intriguing. Particularly in terms of being a sort of modern day, hi-tech version of "Beauty & the Beast". Though my curiosity had been piqued, it was not until earlier this year, when I had an opportunity to acquire a set of Hot Toys 4" snap kits, that I got my first real exposure to the characters and the property. I was very impressed with those figures and, shortly afterwards, I finally took the opportunity to watch the movie itself to learn about the back story.

Now, as happy as I was with the 4" snap kits, that is not the scale that I typically collect. The majority of my collection is composed of 6-7" action scale figures. This is why, when I recently learned of the 1:10 scale figures by Wave, I had to know more. I was surprised at the lack of information generally available though, which is a key factor in me wanting to do this particular review.

Over the course of the review, I will regularly be referring to the photos displayed below, indicating the corresponding photo number in parenthesis. You will notice a variation in lighting between some shots; particularly those of the packaging and those of the action figures. This was done in an effort to minimize the light reflecting off certain materials.

Packaging:
Both figures come in a display box made of clear plastic and decorated extensively with text and graphics. The top flap identifies the "Appleseed Sage Ex Machina" movie name/logo. The front of each (1,2) begin the display of their names (which carries over to the left-hand side), along with the movie's tagline "The world is filled with uncertainty and chaos. What hope is left for mankind?", and a designation of each being a 1:10 Scale Action Figure.

Along the left-hand side (3,4), each character's bio is given:

Deunan: "Beautiful and highly-skilled warrior. Trained by her late father, a commander and instructor for the Special Forces, she grows up to be a solider. Most of Deunan's life has been on the battlefield, and thus she is not used to ordinary everyday life. Even now, years after leaving that environment for the city-state of Olympus, her behavior can sometimes seem strange, and out of place. Generally she is happy as a member of Olympus ES.W.A.T., with her Cyborg partner and lover, Briareos"

Briareos: "Member of Olympus ES.W.A.T.-partner of Deunan, both at work and in private life. Severely injured in the last global war, his body is now seventy-five percent state-of-the-art mechanical components, making him one of the most highly advanced Cyborgs on the planet. ‘Hechatonchires' is the particular Cyborg design system used on Briareos, and means ‘The giant with a handred arms'. Though very powerful, the Hechantonchires design can also be quite unstable – in fact, Briareos is the last surviving user of this experimental system."

The back of the box itself is blank; allowing for the full-color box insert (5,6) to be clearly seen. This side of the insert shows character-specific scenes from the Appleseed Saga Ex Machina movie as well as multiple images of the package's respective action figure. One thing of note is that, near the larger photo of the action figure, there is a circle in which a bold statement of "Full-Action!" is made.

The right-hand side of the box (7,8) features a stylized grayscale rendition of each of the characters. The bottom of the box is blank again, to show the bottom of the insert, which features the warnings, age designation (looks to be "15 and older"), the company contact information, and the company's slogan "Enjoy your creative hobby life."

The box is constructed using plastic that I'd consider to be slightly thicker that a mass-market figure's clamshell would be. The top and bottom flaps are held closed with basic round tape pieces. While it is designed to allow the figure to be retrieved from or returned to the packaging easily, I have already begun to notice the plastic starting to come undone at some of the seams. So, if you wish to retain the packaging, some care should be exercised to help preserve it.

Once you have opened the packaging, you can retrieve the figure holders (9,10), the inserts (11,12), and the accessory trays (13,14,15). Both figure holders are initially taped closed (2 pieces on each side). But, aside from a small twisty tie around Briareos' neck, once you've removed tape from one side, the figures are free to be removed from their holders.

The main accessory trays fit inside the bottom of the packaging inserts, with the tray for Briareos' sniper rifle being taped to the back of the figure holder. In all cases, both the holders and the trays utilize the standard reusable round "holder pegs" to secure them together.

The front of the inserts contain larger photos of their respective characters, including text featuring the Appleseed Saga Ex Machina story and a repeat of their character bios. While it may initially seem odd that the packaging would feature the character bios twice, I was thankful for the inclusion of the text on the outside of the packaging because the "yellow on white" text on the insert was a pain to try to read. I tried to scan it into a computer, hoping that it could differentiate between the colors better than I could and it could not (i.e., it just saw a "blank" background instead of the text). Given just how much attention-to-detail was paid to everything else, I was quite perplexed by Wave's choice of text color. But, I assume that the yellow text is related to the choice of yellow for the "x" and kanji in the movie name.

Sculpt:
Now we'll begin with the action figures themselves (16-26). For those familiar with the Hot Toys renditions of the character, you will notice a key styling difference right away. Whereas the Hot Toys renditions opt for a realistically-proportioned character design, Waves has chosen a decidedly anime style. This design difference is most obvious when comparing the two renditions of Briareos, simply because of his size and extra bulk. I would describe the overall body build of Hot Toys as "lean", whereas Waves has a more "athletic" or "muscular" build. Some may have a preference towards one or the other. Visually, I don't have a preference one way or the other.

As far as details are concerned, these are the types of figures that you really want to look at closely just to see all of the little details that were included. One such, very subtle detail is the inclusion of belly button (21) to reflect how tight Deunan's uniform is supposed to be. On Briareos, the first example of the detailing can be found on his head and face. The second example would be the subtle crease details on his pants and particularly his "hidden knee caps". To briefly touch on this articulation point, when you bent his lower leg at the knee, rather than reviewing a plain knee cap, a hidden knee cap slides into place and this knee cap also has details of the creased pants.

Paint:
For this category, I'll start by comparing the production figures to the promotional photos of the painted prototypes.

When I first saw the promotional photos, the uniforms were primarily two shades of gray. The "hard armor" pieces were a medium charcoal gray and the body suits were a rather light gray; with all colors being flat. On the production figures, there are still primarily two shades of gray. But, rather than "medium and light", it is "dark and medium". And, rather than being all flat, the darker gray has a sheen. In the initial out-of-package shots I saw, the lighting had really exaggerated the difference between the flat and glossy grays. Photo 21, of Deunan, is probably the best image I took that illustrates the true different between them. Initially I had wondered if it was a difference in materials used for different areas of the figures. But, a closer look at Deunan's lower leg reveals that it is paint instead of colored plastic providing that gloss, since the base plastic is a flat gray. The shift in colors had been an area of concern when I was considering this purchase. But, I did like how the colors worked together better in person.

Now, as to general paint applications, they are very much like the sculpt details. I compared the 1:10 scale figures to the 4" snap kits and only found a few specific areas of the figure where the Hot Toys versions actually had more paint details:

no black paint for the triangle on Deunan's chest armor
Briareos' pants are just one shade of gray instead of two
Briareos' boots are only overall shade of gray instead of having separate colors for the shin guard and back portion of the boot
Briareos' hands/gloves match his gauntlets instead of being black

Otherwise, the paint applications are a near match to the sculpting details since much of the sculpting is highlighted by paint lines. The lines are very crisp and I had no indication of paint slop. On Deunan, I did notice a few "vents" on the gauntlets that weren't completely filled with gold paint. But, that's really all I could find.

They didn't skimp on the paint applications on the weapons either. The pistol, that comes in Deunan's hip holster, has three shades of gray; differentiating the main gun body from the slide, and the eject port. A last area of detail for the paint applications would be the tampo insignias. Each character has their ES.W.A.T. emblem on their left arms. Briareos has the addition of the Hechatonchires emblem on the front and back of his heads. The text is very small, but, does really spell the term out.

Another area of concern I'd had in prior photos was in Deunan's face. Particularly making the hair piece look like a solid shade of "blonde" and plain "flesh-tones" plastic for the face. But, this is not the case. There is a gradual, and good color variation in the hair and the face does have subtle blush make-up along the cheeks and jaw line to give dimension.

Articulation:
I mentioned before that the Wave renditions of the characters have a decidedly more bulky look to them. And, I believe articulation is a key reason for that. Excluding Briareos' chest, both figures are constructed of solid materials. I believe that this solid build is what enabled the level of articulation that both figures have. Being the larger of the two, this is the one category that Briareos took a decided lead in.

Deunan:
Head-to-neck – ball-joint
Neck-to-body – left-right pivot or up-down swivel (sculpt doesn't allow both at the same time)
Shoulder-to-body – ball-joint
Shoulder-to-upper arm – swivel-joint
Elbow – double-joint
Wrist – ball-joint
Torso – ball-joint
Hip – ball-joint
Knee – double-joint
Ankle – ball-joint

Briareos:
"Ears" – ball-joint
Head-to-neck – ball-joint
Neck-to-body -- left-right pivot or up-down swivel (bare minimum movement though due to sculpt)
Shoulder-to-body – ball-joint
Shoulder pad (around arm) – swivel
"Rib armor" – swivel
Elbow – ball-joint
Wrist – ball-joint
Torso – ball-joint
Hip – ball-joint
Knee – swivel (think it's intended to be a ball-joint, but, the "hidden knee-cap" blocks that movement)
Ankle – ball-joint
"Ankle armor piece" – ball-joint
Toe -- swivel

All the joints, with the exception of Briareos' right "Rib armor" joint, are nice and tight. Now, inside the packaging, there was an extra insert (27,28) pertaining to two key articulation points. Since I don't read Japanese, I'm not entirely sure what either insert says. But, based on the visuals, I believe that the inserts are intended to warn purchasers of two areas of potential breakage. For Deunan, the insert concerns her hip joints. For Briareos, it concerns his arm and shoulder pad. Both joints are very tight to begin with, so, at first, I thought the movement was limited there. But, I think it just requires some caution to get them to loosen up. I know that, for Briareos, since the shoulder and the shoulder pad each have joints, for full movement of the arm, the shoulder pad must be swiveled as well.

Accessories:
As expected from an import figure, Deunan and Briareos have no shortage of accessories (29-33); continuing the theme of "attention to detail". Total Accessories for each, counting the body itself:

Deunan:
two heads
"eye piece"
sheath w/ removable sword
semi-auto pistol
bullpup rifle
four right hands – straight hand, sword hand, pistol hand, rifle hand
two right hands – straight hand and slightly bent fingers
two shoulder pads

I list the shoulder pads as "accessories" because they are the one part of the armor that is not attached to the figure itself. Also, if the pads are not secured to the shoulder properly, they will pop off. I don't list her belt as an accessory because it's not removable.

The two heads are essentially identical (only the subtlest paint difference; likely hand-done). The eye piece does have a tab which allows it to be secured on the face itself with surprising ease (just slip a tab underneath the strand of hair on her forehead). However, due to the small size of the eye piece, I suspect that Wave provided the second head so that purchases could glue the eye piece in place if they wanted to.

Briareos:
two "ear" sensors
BFG sniper rifle
two submachine guns with sculpted holsters
two submachine guns with removable, soft material holsters
four right hands – slightly bent fingers, closed fist, gun hands, rifle hand
three right hands – slightly bent fingers, closed fist, gun hands
seven removable belt pouches

Like Deunan's shoulder pads, I list Briareos "ear" sensors as accessories because they're not attached to the figure and will fall off. Also, similar to how Wave seems to have provided customers options for a temporarily or permanently attached eye piece, they provided lots of options for how you want Briareos to look with his submachine guns. They could have just opted to include submachine guns with detachable holsters, but they instead chose to include guns sculpted with the holsters. Not only does it provide options for the overall "look' of the figure, but is also a practical option for those who wish to remove the guns on a regular basis and don't want to have to worry about tearing the soft material holsters. Visually, there's not really an obvious difference between them either. I had to compare the two sets of guns closely to realize that the soft area was actually removable as the holsters.

Concerning the accessories, here were some fragile points to be careful with: gun holsters – as already mentioned, I wouldn't recommend putting on and removing the soft material holsters a lot. Submachine guns with removable holsters – they have an additional, and thin plastic "hook" on the side sword – since it's in-scale to the figure, the blade is thin and should be handled with care sniper rifle – there's a "carrying handle" on the side that's thin; particularly important to keep in mind when laying the rifle down eye piece – it's small and easy to drop. If you like that look, gluing it onto the extra head is the best option

Cost & Conclusion:
These two figures will run $200 or more, depending on where you find them. Compared to most mass-market 6-7" action figures, that's the equivalent of a couple of cases of figures. Obviously, these aren't aimed at a casual toy consumer.

Are they worth it? To me, they are. Particularly because, as advertised on the front of the package, these are indeed action figures. Outside a few accessories that require some caution, these are very much toys that can be played with. And, they fit right in with other figures in the 6-7" scale (34,35). That's something I personally look for.

If any of the attached photos are not clear enough, or if you would like additional shots, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. Until then, see you on the Shelf! (36)