Play Arts Kai Rorschach Review - Watchmen

GUEST REVIEW: I recently met a customizer from our group Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group and he offered to do a guest review for the brand new Play Arts Kai Rorschach figure. He's not expected anytime soon here in the Philippines so this one's rare treat. I'll give the floor to Francis Pañgan (DEVIANT ART Gallery), and oh yeah, *** indicates my comments but seeing that even the captions were provided by him i feel i'm in for a long spell of silence in this review. LOL.

What’s up people?! I is Francis and today I’mma be *guest* reviewing the Play Arts Kai : Watchmen – Rorschach figure!

Rorschach (pronounced roar-shack), alter ego Walter Kovacs - to those of you who aren’t familiar with this character, is from the DC Watchmen comic universe. He doesn’t have any superpowers. Like Batman, he is just a guy fighting crime with a mask. What makes him different from Batman however, are his methods- this guy doesn’t hold back – he will kill if he believes the end justifies the means. I am not really a fan of the movie or the comics but I purchased this guy online for some custom PAKs later.

*** Here's looking at you kid - Rorschach, Casablanca 

Anyway enough of the intro, let’s check out this guy!
Comes with a nice box, as usual, and ye olde Play Arts Kai display base. Packaging is nice, with the actual figure posed and more poses at the back. As with most Play Arts Kai figures, it comes with a Velcro flap so you can view the figure in the box.

Now this PAK is packed with accessories! All in all there are:
1. 2 alternate heads (3 total)
2. 5 alternate hands (7 total)
3. Grappling gun + 2 interchangeable grapple hooks
4. 2 flame on stick thingies
5. Rorschach’s journal
6. A rose  (for the m’ladies!)
7. A bottom trench coat attachment
8. And his removable trademark fedora.

Rory stands almost exactly 9.5 inches tall, so he fits in scale with TDK and MOS figures.  Paint wise, he isn’t too bad… but then he comes in a very muted color scheme. Still, the overall look of Rory is pretty badass. You wouldn’t want to mess with this guy, or make fun of him for wearing a fedora. One interesting thing to note is that the design kind of looks like it could be Joker underneath that mask… they have the same gloves, same purple pants, and similar taste in shoes… hmmm.

there's angry, smug, and neutral 'expressions' *** wait. is that Deadpool with runny eye-shadow?

It’s quite fun to pose him around with so many options to display him with. PAK got away easy with his head sculpt – it’s the exact same sculpt only painted with different patterns. They must’ve felt guilty about this, that’s why they gave us 3 heads. Why not give us an unmasked version instead eh?

you know what they say about guys with big guns!

He has a grappling gun too- you can swap the gun hooks for an open and closed version of the gun. What’s most fun is his spray-paint-hand and flameo combo. Put the hand with the spray paint and equip a flame on the other and you can pose ol’ Rory here like he’s burning up the place.

Moving on to articulation… Rorschach comes with not quite standard Play Arts Kai articulation. You can pull out his abdomen from his waist and replace his bottom trench coat with the hands-in-pockets trench coat version.

turn that effing camera off, i'm not done yet!

oh don't mind me, i'm not suspicious at all. *** just a a pretty nice way to scratch your...

What this means for the figure in general is that his ab crunch is very limited. He can hardly bend down. And forget kneeling- he barely kneel at all. Those pictures at the back of the box where he is kneeling? They are lies! But he can stand around looking menacing with his hands in his pockets.

this is about as far as he goes

Rorschach will set you back around US$120 - $150 (based off ebay prices), so he is a bit costly. I do recommend you get him, especially if you are a Watchmen fan. BUT! If you’re hoping to collect PAK Watchmen figures, don’t hold your breath. There’s been no prototypes of further figures, and the box doesn’t display any other figures in the series.

looks like ol' Rory is a leg man.

'that cape and those pointy ears look stupid!' 'well that trench coat and fedora combo look stupider!'