No one should act surprised that I am a fan of Dragonball. Casual fan, that is. I enjoyed DBZ in my younger years and I can't deny that it has some influence in some of my fandom. Being a casual fan though does not push me to get Dragonball merchandise even if familiar toy companies like SH Figuarts makes them. Somehow, I ended up getting a statue from a toy company I have never come across before. Was that a wise buy? Let's get right into the review of Banpresto Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta Statue.
The box is pretty good. Simple, protective, and it displays the figure as it is and there is no surprise. The strange thing about this box is that I can't believe that it makes the figurine inside look somewhat more appealing. I'll talk about it as I keep going through the box.
I suppose just from the box alone one should expect to see what is inside. Though a promotional picture's purpose is to oversell a product, and trust me, this one does well.
I'm going to point it out right away: the stand that keeps the Prince of All Saiya-Jins in a dynamic and elevated pose is not very inconspicuous. In other words, it's just plain ugly. While I'm just a collector and I don't make action figures and/or figurines, I do know that there are other ways that they could have gone about the stand. I mean, couldn't they have just not added the stand for his foot? Or... perhaps they could have just put more effort to the stand? Possibly disguise it as a cloud? Energy? Something? I understand that they were trying to keep the cost down but the stand takes away from the figurine.
It's even worse when looking at Vegeta from the back.
Despite the debacle of the stand, the figurine itself is pretty good. I haven't watched Dragonball Super like I used to watch Dragonball Z, but from the looks of things the aesthetics for the characters haven't changed much aside from the various new colorful transformations like the Super Saiyan Blue Super Saiyan. It looks like Vegeta and it has that angry and cocky expression. The details are done pretty well with the armor designs. Can't complain with the sculpted work. The pose is definitely Dragonball-like, though I would have preferred a Big Bang Attack pose or a Final Flash... though that would mean it should have special effects and you know, a better stand.
The color is also pretty accurate. The Super Saiyan Blue in the anime odens't look blue as it should be (though the Brolly movie fixed that), but it is accurate to the anime. Everything else is painted good enough and the shadows and the shades adds something to the overall look. Again, not too bad, not the greatest but it's something I can appreciate.
At the end of the day, I like the statue. It has some serious issues with the stand that really mars the potential. Nevertheless, it looks like Vegeta, it has a posture that does resemble something that would happen in Dragonball, and all in all it's a good looking piece. Hindsight, I probably would have passed had I known it would have looked this awkward though. Can I recommend this? To anyone who is a hardcore Dragonball/Vegeta fan, for the price, yes I could. But for me, I would rather paid extra for something else that has more flare to it. But alas, it's in my collection now!
Until Next Time!
