Monday, February 21, 2011

SIC Kiwami Vs. Marvel Universe

Figured I'd do a little comparison here after being somewhat disappointed with the MU stuff from my previous post. The comparison is between the SIC Kiwami Blade King Form and Marvel Universe Colossus. I chose the Colossus because it seems like it's the most improved figure I have in the MU line.

Side-by-side
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Up close details on Blade King Form, the details on this guy is amazing for a figure this size. Some may not like SIC's take on their visual appearances though, but I love it! Different taste for different folks! He is however just a bit skinny on the torso.
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Colossus on the other hand is not bad either, he is detailed as he should be. The sculpting and paint on his face is really good and even the shading on his chest is really well done.
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Accessories-wise: Blade KF comes with two pairs of hands and two swords.
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Colossus comes with a display stand. I don't know what else he could have came with, but MU in general do seem a bit lacking in accessories. Maybe a pair or two of interchangeable hands would be nice?
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Now time for some Simon says...
Simon says, "Put your hands up."

Due to the shoulder armor on both figures, they cannot raise them arm above their shoulders. Colossus has a single joint on his elbows so what you see here is the most he can "flex" his arms. On the Blade King Form, his elbows has a swivel on the upper arm with a ball joint on the forearm, so this allows his arms to make more of a V-shape.
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Simon says, "Kneel down with one knee up."

Blade King Form with this with ease while Colossus is on the verge of tipping over. His size might have contributed, but it is mostly due to the lack of the range of movement of his joints like on his ankles, hips, and torso which made this pose hard to achieve.
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Simon says, "Sit down and cross your legs."

Both of the figures did this with ease, although Blade looks a bit more natural in this pose, but then again I think this is due to the sheer size of Colossus.
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Simon says, "Balance on one foot."

I had to play with Colossus for a while before I got him to balance on this pose. Again his lack of joint movement range made it hard to play around with weight distribution to balance on one leg. Blade was a breeze to balance, his joints allowed for easy manipulation of the figure.
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To take it a little further, I wanted to see if Blade could balance on one foot in another pose. Unfortunately Colossus couldn't follow, so he lose the game.
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However, it's not to say the SIC Kiwami is not without fault too. The hands that he came with which were suppose to be for holding his blades don't do their job very well. They are too loose to hold any pose. The hand holds the blade like it is holding a weird shaped teapot. It is better on the larger blade though.
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Another issue is the "hip guards or armor" are deformed probably due to the packaging. They are not symmetrical. However, they do not hinder any movement, they just look a bit weird up front.
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Same issue on Wild Chalice. More pics of him in a later post, the few that I took came out blurry.
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So the conclusion is that the Marvel Universe figures are not THAT bad. Their articulation are pretty close to the SIC, the SIC's just feels more refined. The movement of the joints on the SIC are more fluid so to speak, while on the MU, I am afraid something will break if I move it too much (ex. hips). But doing this comparison did give me more confidence in the MU line and I will continue to buy them as long as they show up in stores here. It also reminded me how much I like the SIC Kiwami line and I might just pick up the few I missed out on when I get a chance.
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