Tatsunoko Vs Capcom Character Collectin’

Crazy Old me and my fascination for figures from video games.  Sort of going along the lines of attempting to get the characters from the good old Vs. Capcom series of games (X-Men, Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel etc.) I had the rather pleasant opportunity to play Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom on the wii in both it’s original Japanese iteration and the rather changed English release.

Sadly though it also opened up my needs for a whole butt load more characters to add to my growing list of video game toy needs.  Most of which I did not know. I’d never heard of Gold Lightan, Tekkaman, Hurricane Polimar and a bunch of others before from the Tatsunoko side of things.   Luckily there were a couple I did know such as Ken the eagle and Jun the Swan from Gachaman (Battle of the Planets/G-Force) which I have always liked and the Capcom Roster was pretty good with Megaman and Roll added in for good measure as well as Yami from Okami and I always though Ammy was a shoe-in for this game, but she appeared in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (Yay!). I also liked how they adapted for the 3 button attacks and the slight changes to certain character’s move sets, such as Ryu.  But this isn’t a post about the game, this is about this toy.

I hadn’t heard of Tekkaman Blade until that game.  I also hadn’t had much to do with Bandai figures at the time, except for my limited knowledge of Chogokin (which was good), as a result, it was in my brain that this guy was a part of the Chogokin line.  Which he isn’t.  Sadly this affected my view of the toy somewhat as I was expecting some chunky metal awesomeness…

This figure is under the Tamashii Spec line from Bandai.  I’d never heard of it before, but as far as I am aware, it’s the only Tekkaman figure to come with Pegas, which is a giant suit that kind of forms a rather robotty looking attack platform.

It comes in a justifiably large box and was ridiculously expensive at retail price when it first came out.  I was eyeing this off for a couple of years and eventually got one at about half it’s original price.  It was still new too.

I do like the box, it has a panel that can be lifted up to view the mighty Pegas underneath which always impresses me for some reason.  Tekkaman himself is rather small, slightly smaller than a figma (say about 14ish cm) and a bit skinny.  That is however understandable as Tekkaman fits inside Pegas for a some sexy Mech suit action!

He comes with a good amount of accessories, most of which I am now unable to name as I have since sold this toy off.  It was just a bit too large and I felt I’d never get around to giving him the glory he deserved.

The green thing is a stand for him and it is large and strong, which is required to hold Pegas in battle station mode.  Tekkaman can not only fit inside Pegas’ robot mode, he can also ride on Pegas when it’s in battle station mode.  Which is one of Tekkaman’s super moves in Tatsunoko Vs Capcom.  This is the reason I wanted this version of Tekkaman.

Pegas is quite a bit larger than Tekkaman.  Which is great!  I have to admit though that when I first felt the weight of this guy I was disappointed.  I had thought he was a Chogokin, and there is no metal in this dude at all as he is completely plastic.

Tekkaman is simply sculpted and paint applications are minimal essentially limited to the yellow and metallic green hi-lights.  His base colours are from the plastic which does work and it looks fine.  His articulated joints are clear of sculpting and this makes him a very dynamic figure that can hold many poses and he also has quite a few articulated areas.

Tekkaman comes with a bunch of accessories, a spear that can be wielded in a variety of ways, extra hands and a shield.  He also has an extra head that I think is needed for going into Pegas.    What I did like is that he does have a gimmick included in the base figure, and that is his shoulder missile pod things, which are cleverly hidden within the red shoulders. 

The shield doodad is pretty cool as well.  Small and clips onto his forearm, if you don’t want it there, it can be plugged into his back and it doesn’t look obvious either.  I quite like it there as it adds some interest to the rear of the figure.

The feet have a couple of joints in them, so even though they look like heels, they actually provide a great amount of support for him and it’s easy to get a single legged stance from him.

Pegas despite being a shell is still an slightly articulated which is fairly impressive since it is still hollow.

First off, you will have to change Tekkaman’s head to this little black number that lacks pointy bits.  Lift up the red wings bit on his back (which I like because it almost looks like a cape).  Unlike Tekkaman Pegas has some nice sculpted details, even inside the area where Tekkaman sits.  Once he is inside, you can’t see Tekkaman at all.  Pegas still retains his limited articulation.

Hi face is also pretty nice, and he does have a cool little translucent arrow on his chest and some vents on his shoulders that are articulated,  they didn’t really need to be, but that they are is nice.  He also has two types of hands, a fist set and an open set.

This combo is actually pretty fun.  I did quite enjoy posing Pegas and Tekkaman standing in the same(ish) pose and Pegas is strong enough to hold Tekkaman on his arms!

Once you take Tekkaman out of Pegas, Pegas can change into some flying attack platform.  It’s a rather dubious mode, but kind of nifty all things considered.  The stand is designed to hold this mode and does so very well because of that.

Then you can add Tekkaman to Pegas for his Level 3 Super attack.  Tekkaman jumps on Pegas’ back and flies through the opponent for some massive damage.  Hachaa!  What I really like about this mode is that from Pegas, handles pop out for Tekkaman to hold and when you get around to posing Tekkaman on his back, it looks ACE!

As we can see, this dude actually looks pretty damn fine.  Then why did I end up selling him?  Well aside from the lack of space, the one thing that I really hate about toys when it happens is parts that fall off and sadly old Tekkaman had a few.  His knee caps dropped off incredibly easily and were a pain to put back on.  While the figure looked OK, it felt a little cheap and low quality, I suspect this was due to me thinking it was part of the Chogokin line, but considering how expensive this guy was in the first place I expected a lot more. 

He is certainly decent enough, but not quite along the lines of making you open the box and go “Wow, this thing is great!”  I opened the box and thought “Hmm, it’s a bit light and entirely plastic…”  Then once the rather plain look and fairly drab colours met my eyes, I decided that this guy wasn’t really worth the large amount of money that was initially expected for him.  In the end, I thought I would wait until a more snazzier version of Tekkaman comes out

If you could pick them up for say about $80 plus postage, I think that is a fair price,  however I would be hesitant to pay anymore than that.  Sadly my Vs. Capcom collection is still wanting for a good Tekkaman.  I’d rather like to have a Pegas as well as it is cool to have Takkaman riding on Pegas, so it would seem that I must wait.