Hailing from the wonderful world of Pokemon is the subject of today's figure review: the S.H. Figuarts Lucario. For those unfamiliar with Pokemon beyond the first generation, Lucario was first introduced in the fourth generation of the franchise through the games Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum. It is Fighting and Steel type Pokemon. It is currently one of the most popular Pokemon at the moment and appears in the Super Smash Bros. video game series (as of Super Smash Bros. Brawl). In the most recent Pokemon games, Lucario was given a Mega Evolution and plays a sizeable role in those games. Anyways, enough backstory. Let's start this review!
For those familiar with Tamashii Nations, they used to have a figure line called D-Arts that focussed primarily of characters originating from video game franchises (notably Digimon at the very start). However, as of recently, Tamashii Nations decided to merge both the D-Arts line and the S.H. Figuarts line together in light of the release of the S.H. Figuarts Injustice Batman and Joker figures, which are both comic book properties, but based on their video game appearances. With this merging of the two lines, Lucario, which was originally to be part of the D-Arts line has been released as a Figuarts figure instead.
The S.H. Figuarts Lucario stands around five to six inches in height. Since the character is based on its anime appearance, Lucario possesses minimal textures, but just enough to evoke its on-screen appearance faithfully. The paint apps on this figure are pretty flawless. Everything seems to be pretty accurate in regards to the sculpt as a whole.
The range of articulation on Lucario is pretty impressive as well. There are at least 23 points of articulation on this figure, which allows you to create some neat and dynamic poses. Since this is a Pokemon that relies on physical attacks both in the games and anime, it is important that this figure can achieve radical poses.
Lucario is packaged with a decent amount of accessories. Firstly is a circular Tamashii base and stand with a Pokeball outline on it. This base design has become standard for D-Arts/Figuarts' Pokemon figure releases. The stand itself is different than past Pokemon figure releases. It is much shorter to handle Lucario's smaller stature. I was quite greatful for this since the previous D-Arts Pokemon had the normal sized Tamashii Stands.
The figure also comes with an effect piece too for its Aura Sphere attack. A spare Tamashii Stand is packaged to attach the effect to. When displayed with Lucario, it achieves a very neat display. My only complaint about the effect part is that its colored too dark. It would've been better if it was colored with a lighter shade of blue, but it's a very minor personal complaint on my part. It's still a neat effect overall.
The next two accessories that Lucario comes with are two pairs of optional eye parts. Pictured above on the left shows Lucario with a pair of eyes glaring at something (an opponent perhaps) to his left. Pictured on the right is a pair where his eyes are closed while deep in meditation.
The process of switching out the eyes requires some handling of the figure. First you must remove the head and remove the back of it. From there you pull out the pair of eyes already inside the head and replace it with one of the alternate pairs. Just be careful with Lucario's two Aura Sensors though. The ball joints on them are small and can break if too much force is applied to them.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the S.H. Figuarts Lucario. Honestly, I had absolutely no intention of getting it at first. I was quite happy with my D-Arts Mewtwo, Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur. However, being the Pokemon fan that I am, I could NOT pass it up in the end. I came across the figure during my trip to Malaysia a couple of weeks ago and immediately snatched it up! I'm very glad that I did so, because it's a very impressive figure.
Unfortunately Bluefin Distribution do not have the rights to distribute Pokemon figures in the United States. If you wish to acquire this figure you can still purchase it at HobbyLink Japan.
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