I don't have anything witty to say, so let's just jump into the review! This time, we're taking a look at the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon "Sailor Jupiter" S.H. Figuarts. This figure was released at the end of August--the 27th or 28th, I believe. I had it pre-ordered from Amazon.com for $40.99, and selected the free shipping option. I received it on the 29th, and was really impressed with how quickly it arrived.
I noticed a few things about the box right off the bat. First of all, the box is much slimmer than the boxes for Moon or Venus, width-wise. It appears that Bandai cut down on the excess material of the usual clamshell case. I don't really mind, since the bigger case had a lot of wasted space. Maybe this smaller packaging will save some costs in the long run? Second, I finally took a really good look at the Bluefin Distribution sticker located on the bottom of the box. There are two points there--and they could have been there before, but I don't remember seeing them--that I feel are worth pointing out. The first is that Bandai themselves recommend the figure for ages 15 and up, which pretty much dovetails with what I thought earlier. The second is a really important note which I'll quote here verbatim: "Do not place this product on top of plastic furniture, sofa, sheet, tile or anything made of resin. It may cause color migration." Yuck! I keep mine either in the packaging, or clipped to their stands. But be careful with these Figuarts, guys. Nobody wants random color transferring.
Let's take a more in-depth look at her!
The box color scheme is about the same as I would expect; it's done in various shades of green to match Jupiter's color scheme. It would have been nicer to have had the sidebar done in pink instead of purple, to match Jupiter's bow, though. The poses on the box are cute and dynamic. I was pretty excited to open her up.
...And then I opened her up, started moving her to pose her, and was crushingly disappointed. Jupiter's left arm joint is broken, at the shoulder socket. You can see that there's a ball joint, covered by her shoulder decoration, that is supposed to clip into her arm piece. But the arm wouldn't stay attached for more than a few seconds, and every time I tried moving her arm (even gently), it would fall back out. The hands, faces, and bang pieces are supposed to come apart, not the joints!
This leaves me at an awkward position. All of the Figuarts I've gotten so far have had some type of imperfection: Moon has wobbly hips, Venus had paint and detail smudges, and now this. I simply don't know whether or not I have bad luck with these, or if this is wholly indicative of the quality of this line. I really want to recommend these figures, but it's getting harder and harder to. Since I bought my figure from Amazon, I returned my figure that morning, and requested a replacement.
In my shock and dismay, I didn't do much examination of anything beyond her arm. Hence why I postponed the rest of this review until now, since it would have been silly to post a review without reviewing the item.
Anyway, I sent her back on the morning of the 5th, and received my replacement on the 8th. Say what you want about Amazon, but you have to admit that they're efficient. Let's take a look at Jupiter 2.0:
She's pretty bare-bones compared to her teammates. Jupiter has three extra faces (angry, open-mouthed smile, and frowning) plus five extra sets of hands. Her sole accessory is a separate bang piece that has an antenna/lightning rod attached to her tiara (for her Jupiter Supreme Thunder attack). I don't count the faces and hands as "accessories," they're more of a standard with these figures. My guess is that's why she's a little bit cheaper compared to some of the others, like Venus.
She also comes with a stand. You know the drill with these: her name and planetary symbol in her signature color. Am I the only one who thinks it would be cool if they were all different shapes? Like a diamond for Moon, a circle (bubble) for Mercury, a a flame or star for Mars, heart for Venus, and lightning bolt for Jupiter. THAT would be really cool.
She's actually taller than the other girls! Thank you, Bandai, for remembering that Jupiter is the tallest of the Inner Senshi. :)
Articulation is about the same as other Figuarts. Even her ponytail is articulated, and can be turned 360 degrees. The exception being that I can't get them to pose like they're doing on the box! As you can see above, that is about the extent of Jupiter's arm movement. How on Earth are the photographers at Bandi moving Jupiter's arms up high enough to do the Supreme Thunder pose? I am baffled. and jealous.
I would urge any of you considering a purchase of these to look carefully at the retailer's return policy and see what they will do for you if your figure has a defect. I immediately went to Bluefin Distribution's website to look at their policy; they state that if you buy one of their figures from Amazon, that you must go through them for returns and exchanges. I had kept the shipping box and made sure that all of the figure's pieces were together. I've had good experiences with Amazon customer service, and this was no exception.
My overall recommendation--for the time being--is that if you are interested in purchasing a Sailor Moon figure, you should do one of the following. First, decide if you want a movable, pose-able figure (the Figuarts, which are fairly cheap, especially the earlier releases), or a static figure (the Figuarts ZERO figures, which are a little more expensive). I would hazard a guess that you would not have joint defects with the ZERO figures. Second, to purchase them from a retailer with a generous return and exchange policy; when you get your figure, open it immediately and inspect it carefully for defects and flaws.
I don't know whether it's foolish, but I'm still buying the Figuarts, primarily because I want figures to be bendable and pose-able. I also love Sailor Moon, so I want one of each Sailor Senshi. I will, however, be examining all of my future purchases very carefully. I am hoping that my upcoming Saturn figure will be of much higher quality, and will be examining it as soon as it arrives at my house to make sure I don't need to exchange it.
Miss Scarlett suggests: Sailor Moon fans, approach these cautiously, and keep a sharp eye out for possible defects.
