Do I have to explain BeastBox again? Righty, mechanical beasts that compress into boxes? Very collectable? 15+ age bracket? No? Oh, click here then. OK, let’s have a quick chat about my latest BeastBox.
My first impression, mainly because I collected this from the post office on my way to work and I couldn't really play with it there, was the packaging design. It was in many ways an inverse of the style I'd seen so far, with a smaller, portrait-oriented affair, with JoJo having pride of place in the upper half, in box mode. It's more minimalist packaging than the others I've seen up close, but still attractive in its way Speaking of boxes, JoJo's box form and general engineering is on the simpler side for a BeastBox, not surprising given its relative age. The cube is dominated by his big three-fingerer fists, with his eyes peering out of a little slot. There is in fairness more going on than you may think, and it does have an interesting conversion scheme. JoJo's transformation is aligned to one of the cube edges, a diamond shape when viewed from the front. I think there's a stand available so you can display him like that, but this chap only has the standard translucent storage case. So, fairly simple on the box front, but that’s not the same as saying its bad.
If the box mode seems a bit uncomplicated, JoJo's ape mode screams character by comparison. It's the face, it's grumpy and perfect. I love that head sculpt, and its on a great neck joint. The package art depicts JoJo in a roaring and chest-beating pose, but the actual face is more of a sullen glare. It's also articulated in such a way as to enable him to walk on his knuckles, so the overall vibe is of somebody who is basically not a bad guy, but is a bad day waiting to happen to somebody. I'm also very fond of the colours on this one, putting me in mind of the bayverse Optimus Prime. Is this a deliberate homage? Possibly, 52Toys has form in this area, but it's not a smoking gun. It is an attractive look, regardless, cartoony with simple but effective techno greebling. Articulation isn't bad either, if favouring monkey poses more than humanoid motion. It's possible to get him standing on two legs only, no trivial matter as he is approximately 10% legs and 40% arms by volume. You might almost say its no small feat, on those small feet. Heh. That said, he has no knees, and his arms aren't super posable or anything, the joints there being more for transformation. Nothing to apologise for, mind you, but you hit limitations.
In addition to being something that exists, I really like Flame JoJo. He's about on the same tier as KarmaKuma, doing slightly less, but not using any translucent plastics in his construction. Aside from some minor sprue-marks, he's great. Simple, but great. And very characterful.
I wonder if there’s a version of this in Beast Wars colours...
No comments:
Post a Comment