Ultimate Muscle
So In this most recent podcast I mentioned that I’m trying
to get back into anime.
Then I got to thinking about my top 10. Now if anyone is interested in that, I'll include that in a separate post.
One of my favorite anime and manga properties is a Shōnen series called Kinnikuman (Japanese: キン肉マン, lit. "Muscleman"). It’s a story about superheroes who wrestle, it's kind of awesome. I mentioned this series a few months back in an IT CAME FROM JAPAN segment on the on the podcast.
The only thing I love more than comics and cartoons are action figures from said comics and cartoons. I, however, have very little Kinnikuman merch at all. The reason for this is when I got into the series was when the Ultimate Muscle anime was on the Fox Box (remember that one kids) and dubbed by 4kids. Bandai of America did have toys for the anime. They brought over the Kinkeshi rubber-mini figures as well as 6 inch hyper-pose-able figures. I had one or two of the 6 inch figures, but they were hard to find in my area. Another reason I didn’t have all the figures was the internet; it was still in its infancy. 'How young?' you ask well, Google had yet to kill all other search engines and the rules of the internet were still be drafted. Over the years I learned that several Japanese toy companies had made many different lines of figures, the most complete was the line by Romando.
Then I got to thinking about my top 10. Now if anyone is interested in that, I'll include that in a separate post.
One of my favorite anime and manga properties is a Shōnen series called Kinnikuman (Japanese: キン肉マン, lit. "Muscleman"). It’s a story about superheroes who wrestle, it's kind of awesome. I mentioned this series a few months back in an IT CAME FROM JAPAN segment on the on the podcast.
The only thing I love more than comics and cartoons are action figures from said comics and cartoons. I, however, have very little Kinnikuman merch at all. The reason for this is when I got into the series was when the Ultimate Muscle anime was on the Fox Box (remember that one kids) and dubbed by 4kids. Bandai of America did have toys for the anime. They brought over the Kinkeshi rubber-mini figures as well as 6 inch hyper-pose-able figures. I had one or two of the 6 inch figures, but they were hard to find in my area. Another reason I didn’t have all the figures was the internet; it was still in its infancy. 'How young?' you ask well, Google had yet to kill all other search engines and the rules of the internet were still be drafted. Over the years I learned that several Japanese toy companies had made many different lines of figures, the most complete was the line by Romando.
You might be asking: "What's the point?" Well the point is: there are new figures coming out from everybody's favorite collectible toy company Tamashii Nations. This month they're releasing S.H. Figuarts Kinnikuman and Warsman. The same figures will be available from importers.
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| Kinnikumann in all his muscled glory. Captions happily provided to you by the Dire Squirrel. |
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| Warsman... he looks like Judge Dredd... without a face... Captions happily provided to you by the Dire Squirrel. |
These figures are awesome they are 6 inch scale and have whole new bodies exclusive to this line. However Warsman’s paint had me wondering what version these figures are coming from. I let that one go, until I went back to the web site and saw the announcement of 2 more figures: RobinMask and Neptuneman.
These two figures confirmed that the Figuarts figures
are using the anime.
While this is not a huge problem there are some inconsistencies with the anime and the manga.
Now if this line goes on to add other character like Asuraman and Kinnikuman Great.
Great may actually prove a problem. You see for Great to hide his identity he used a dark skinned mask and body suit and in the original anime well they made him look like this:
While this is not a huge problem there are some inconsistencies with the anime and the manga.
Now if this line goes on to add other character like Asuraman and Kinnikuman Great.
Great may actually prove a problem. You see for Great to hide his identity he used a dark skinned mask and body suit and in the original anime well they made him look like this:
You can now see where the problem might lie. I hope for him, at lease, they use the manga version.
I am very stoked for the figures and when I have both Kinnikuman and Warsman and the ring corner stage I will do a pictorial review.
hey Ryan if you dig Warsman you might laugh to learn the he is a soviet Cyborg
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