Play Arts Kai Batman - Guide to the BEST Batman figures

As another boredom deterrent, i conducted a survey @ Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group regarding the BEST Play Arts Kai Batman and...errr...what was that? Why Batman? Well, to date, Batman is the most "Represented" figure in Play Arts Kai, he's got a lot of versions to rival or even surpass Play Arts Kai Raiden or the old Play Arts Sora figures. What's more impressive about that is that Recolors are strictly optional novelties in the Play Arts Kai Batman's gallery. Every new releases are, mostly, unique versions of the fabled Dark Knight. And of course, HE'S THE GODDAMN BATMAN! That's why...

Excluding the Black and White SDCC Arkham Asylum Batman, Arkham City Batman and the TDKR Metallic Baleman which didn't get any votes, here's how the Play Arts Kai Batman versions fared according to the local PAK fans.

Play Arts Kai Bootlegs : Guide to Serial Numbers

Remember when the absence of serial numbers at the bottom of the box is a clear indication of a bootleg/knock-off/overrun figure for Play Arts Kai? Well, I DO, after all, i first brought it up here when i was an unfortunate victim of a local bootlegger HERE and also during another unfortunate close brush with the infamous "Zombie Snake" HERE. After those incidents i dedicated a portion of my time to guarding fellow collectors from bootlegs, establishing a database of tell-tale signs with the help of my PAK comrades. I got a happy ending though somehow since i was refunded by those 2 sellers and the vigilance never stopped from that point onwards...

AUTHENTIC SOLID SNAKE - Similar to Cyborg Ninja, Fakes either don't have those serials or they are a lot bigger.

Battle Dress Snake from Peacewalker. Fakes don't have those serials.

We are aware that for quite some time the bootleggers have upped their game; they now do their own engravings on their cheap bootleg boxes to dupe buyers relying on the serials to check figure authenticity. However, with a sharp eye and thorough familiarization with how the serials should look like you can avoid being a victim. With the help of a good friend, Uzi Enriquez and additional help from Mik Gawaran and Jerome Lim - my comrades from Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group - i came up with a guide on the serials of the more popular PAK lines and figures. We'll include samples of the fake serials also for reference, please feel free to refer to the list anytime. P.S. The Final Fantasy 13 figures are exempted from serials since their serials are located inside the box and it's printed in blue/black ink.

Play Arts Kai: The TOP 5 Most UNDERRATED Figures of All Time

A couple of posts downstairs i presented a list of the TOP Overrated Play Arts Kai Figures as perceived by Yours Truly and by the collective opinions of my comrades @ Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group. Since the article is pretty much what a niche blogger would consider a success, i decided to do it again, but this time i'm trying to point out those PAKs that nobody really give much heed or attention to though they are, actually, really, really good figures. I'm not going to define UNDERRATED, seems like everybody got the term right for this one. I'm trying to win one for the "little guys" this time, so, without further ado, let's get the ball rolling...

Play Arts Kai Raiden Review - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

As if we haven't had enough of Play Arts Kai Raiden figures last year... Anyway, the human Jack arrived hot on the trail of Liquid Snake and of course, as expected, me and my fellow MGS fans snapped up one for our respective collections as soon as he's out, giving little or no heed at all whether he's a good figure or not. Because of that, this review's pretty much useless already IMO. But then i feel i owe the local PAK community this review of Jack...whether they and YOU like it or not.

The Play Arts Kai Raiden from MGS2: SOL is the 2nd character in this particular MGS storyline and he's got massive shoes to fill in the form of Solidus Snake, one of the best PAK's ever produced.  To be quite frank, i feel i've had enough of Raiden last year so this particular figure wasn't exactly a favorite of mine. I'm not expecting much anyway since i don't think he can match the intensity of the MGRR Raiden figure. In reality, only very few PAKs actually can...

Play Arts Kai: The Top 5 Most Overrated Figures of All Time

I recently did a survey in our group - Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group, regarding what my comrades there believe as the 5 MOST OVERRATED PAKs ever released. I have my personal take actually but i wish to get input from them to be fair. I certainly received a lot of picks and, though i may disagree on some, there are inputs that actually changed my personal take.
First let me define Overrate (general term), courtesy of Webster's Learner Dictionary:
over·rate /ˈoʊvɚˌreɪt/ verb
over·rates; over·rat·ed; over·rat·ing

[+ obj] : to rate, value, or praise (someone or something) too highly
▪ The coach tends to overrate the players on his own team.

— overrated adjective [more overrated; most overrated] 
▪ (disapproving) That movie was disappointing and highly/very overrated.

Applying that to the context of Toy/Action Figure Collecting: Overrated figures are those figures who get more attention or praise than what they actually deserve and/or figures that everyone's looking for/and will pay insane amount of money to acquire even though, in reality, they are simply not that good (discounting all the PAKs that are generally panned by fans). Most of the time these figures are way too overpriced though i want to point out that being overpriced isn't exactly a sign of being overrated. Also, it is also different from being just a terrible figure(like Superman) or those with lots of QC issues. I'm afraid some missed the meaning of my query...

Soooooo...with that out of the way, let's get started. (In NO particular order...)

Play Arts Kai Liquid Snake Review - Metal Gear Solid

One of the most anticipated figure on my hitlist for 2013 barely made it in 2013. Yeah, that's the bad-@$$ Evil half of the Twin Snakes, product of Les Enfants Terribles, the dominant clone with inferiority complex and daddy issues: Liquid "goddamn" Snake! And oh, he really hated his twin brother, believing he's got all of Big Boss' recessive traits. Well, I'll be reviewing this figure a bit late...AGAIN, and i'm gonna blame it on the Holiday Season...AGAIN.

If you are an MGS fan and you are reading this i don't think i still need to convince you to get him, i am 99% sure you got him already. If you have Solid Snake you simply need to have his brother and even if you are collecting MGS on a budget Liquid Snake is still an important piece together with Solid, Solidus and of course, one of the many incarnations of Big Boss.

Play Arts Kai: The Best & Worst of 2013

It's that time of the year again Boys and Girls where we rank the BEST Play Arts Kai releases (for last year, of course) and as an added twist, since i'm feeling kinda like Sid the Sloth (goddamn holidays!) i'll be including the absolutely HORRIBLE and disappointing ones from the depths of the PAK hierarchy - residing beside the Commander Sheps and Sheva Alomars in the bottomless pit. Majority of the entries are personal picks (yeah, so what? write your own article if you disagree, LOL) though i did get some opinions from my comrades @ Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group. You'll be surprise that the turnout is pretty much unanimous...minus some which are obviously written down by damn fanboys.

5. BEST - Play Arts Kai Liquid Snake - Metal Gear Solid & Captain Harlock

"Did you like my sunglasses?"

Photo courtesy of Edzy Santiago

It's about goddamn time! The "superior" Twin from the Les Enfants Terribles Project barely made the 2013 deadline but what a photo finish it was. His likeness and details are awesome, typical PAK Metal Gear figure. Do i need to elaborate further or do you want his Stinger to do the talking?

TOP 5 Events: Angels & Summer Year-end Round Up 2013

As the flames of the year die-down to mere embers, let's take a look back at significant events for Angels & Summer blog and the local Play Arts Kai scene in general.

#5. Arigatoys Collectibles Inc. Sponsorship (Revoltech Philippines) & Christmas Toy Fair

Photo courtesy of Arigatoys Collectibles Inc.

Photo Courtesy of Arigatoys Collectibles Inc.

Hot Toys The Boss Review

I've been slacking lately, especially after those three Play Arts Kai reviews for November. I expect to round up the year though with Metal Gear Solid figures, the only Play Arts Kai i'm keeping and the most recent Hot Toys line i'm collecting. Anyway, for my 3rd to the last review for the year, before hibernating indefinitely, i would like to share with you the person whose "ideology" was enough to fuel the whole Metal Gear universe, the "Mother" of the Special Forces, the founder of the Cobra Unit (a.ka. The Joy), the master who mentored goddamn Naked Snake (and therefore responsible for teaching him about 50% of his badassery, not to mention indirectly influencing all his descendants - Les Enfants Terribles), co-developer of CQC, pioneer of the "Bandanna" trend in MGS, the last child of the Patriots and the biological mother of that triple-crossing gun-slinger, goddamn Ocelot! Whew! Her credentials read like a goddamn "SO, You Think You're a Badass?!" list.

She's not really included in my hit list but since i'm a sucker for 1/8 and 1/6 MGS figs i gave her a shot. I was pretty happy i did, she's an iconic figure in MGS universe though her role lasted only one game: Snake Eater. You still can't deny the fact that she's an integral character in the series and all the other complicated twists and turn are, in one way or another, indirectly connected to her.

Play Arts Kai Vincent Review - Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children

It may not seem obvious but, full disclosure, i am a huge Final Fantasy fan, i picked up the series during their 6th installment (Sabin's my fave btw), played through 7 (Pfft! Cloud and Tifa and Sephiroth), 8 (Squall the emo poster boy)  until 9 (believe it or not i'll pick Amaranth and Vivi over Zidane) though i only recently rekindled my interest with FF13, and while i eventually grew to hate the hype (and goddamn pathetic fanboys too!) i must agree that Final Fantasy 7 redefined the whole FF universe. And this guy right here is one of the more popular supporting cast from that awesome game aaaannnddd movie, yup, this is the movie version Vincent by the way...  

Special thanks to my cousin Josh for letting me review this figure.

I guess i don't need to introduce this gun-slinging vampire anymore. If you don't know him, get out of here, where have you been the last two decades? Living in a goddamn cave? Anyway, it's a good thing he was reincarnated as a Play Arts Kai figure though i am not a big fan of Vincent (or his crappy Dirge of Cerberus solo output) i am definitely impressed with this figure...

Play Arts Kai Helena Harper Review - Resident Evil 6

I'm never a fan of Helena, as a newcomer to the Resident Evil franchise you can easily dust her off as another Sheva or Piers; another member of the one-and-done supporting character tier. Not counting Jake since he's a main cast or Sherry since she's a returning character albeit a big age leap, among the new "partners" Chris' bromantic interest Piers is actually much better since he became a villain in the end. Perhaps that's why i never gave much hoot about Helena's Play Arts Kai incarnation. I've always thought she'll just be a supporting display to Leon's (expected) awesomeness...

Oh sweet irony, when the oft-overlooked, supporting cast actually upstaged the main guy. As far as the sculpt is concerned, i find Helena's face better than that of Leon...we'll get more on that later...firstly, her arsenal...

Play Arts Kai Leon Kennedy Review - Resident Evil 6

When SQEX announced that they will be making Resident Evil 6 Play Arts Kai figures i was really excited. Hell! I even created a separate article for it when it was first announced. "Nothing could go wrong" was my belief since their first RE take some years back (Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar) aren't that bad by old PAK standards. It's to be expected that RE6 would be awesome, after all, they already learned from the past, ehhhhh... probably...

I guess i expected too much then, being filled with the thoughts of Metal Gear Solid and Advent Children, i convinced myself that Resident Evil 6 will be just as good. I kinda hate the let down, imagine PAK DMC3 and you'll know what i'm talking about...

Hot Toys Alice Showcase - Resident Evil: Afterlife

FACT: The Resident Evil Live Action movie series suck because of their representation of our beloved RE video game protagonists (i.e. Jill is reduced to a B-movie bimbo, Leon is a washed-up ex-boyband look-alike, Chris is good in breaking out of prisons, Ada lost her hotness and Barry is Blob). FACT: I am a Resident Evil Video Game franchise fan so i should be hating the movie series like hell (or in my case, like large hunstman spiders). However (and i believe i'm not the only one)... FACT: Even if you are a true RE fan you can't avoid watching this crappy series for some mind-boggling reason. Maybe this lady has got something to do with it...

My, my, isn't she perky?...ummm, i mean, pretty.

 ...or it's because of the large probability of seeing her...ummm...assets...oh hey look, a cool box and all those guns. ahem...Oh! Got her before Naked Snake actually but i'm not gonna review her since she's been around for quite some time. Just let me show you what she's got and why i got her.

Hot Toys Naked Snake Review - Sneaking Suit Version

I can't imagine missing this figure being a Metal Gear Solid fan, though, admittedly, i am not really a big fan of the sneaking suit design from MGS3: Snake Eater. I did plan to get this some months back but wave after waves of Play Arts Kai figures pushed him further down the priority list. Previous reviews (and they are quite rare) of this Naked Snake version aren't really reassuring but, what the hell! The MGS fanboy in me won out in the end and I'm glad i was able to "sneak" him into the budget.

Though equally impressive as the rest of the MGS installments i am not a big fan of Snake Eater's character designs (well, except for Adamska a.k.a. Young Ocelot) - Cobra Unit = Meh. Maybe that's the reason why i intended to pass getting into the 1/6 MGS line. However, rumors looming of a possible Solid Snake and Raiden Hot Toys solidified my resolve to get Naked Snake, after all, Snake Eater is where it all technically began.

Hot Toys Aldo Raine - Inglorious Basterds Showcase

I ain't gonna review this new acquisition of mine, well, he's released back in 2010 so i'll just do a showcase. I recently got into collecting Hot Toys figures which i'd fondly refer to as the "1/6 Curse" being quite an unhealthy line to collect. Anyway, this is one of my original targets being a big fan of Mr.Pitt here.

 If only they released other Brad characters like Achilles, Louis de Pointe du Lac or goddamn Tyler Durden...oh well, Aldo the Apache is still damn impressive

Revoltech Yotsuba & Danbo Review

The very first time i encountered the lovable Danboard i must admit i wanted to get one. It's a rare thing that something so remotely unknown to me perked up my interest and eventually prompted me to do some background check about the figure. I was actually surprised to find out that Danboard's just a supporting character in a very interesting manga "Yotsuba & !" Basically, it follows the story of a young girl named Yotsuba Koiwai. I haven't really read the ongoing series but i find it pretty charming that a non-fantasy story would actually be captivating. I guess that's one of the magic of manga that is strange to the west. I'm not from the west by the way...lol

I am also quite surprised to know that a girl friend of Yotsuba, Miura Hayasaka, was actually the person underneath those cardboard boxes. Well, a bit of a tomboy but a young girl nonetheless. How the manga guys somehow fit those pieces together in a narrative is truly something intriguing.

Play Arts Kai Raiden MGRR - Comparative Review of the 5 Variants

And so it has come to pass that by good grace i was able to complete the 5 variants of Play Arts Kai Raiden. It's not really an easy thing to accomplish, at least for me, and i certainly had to rely on lots of luck (3x to be exact) to acquire some of the pieces you see below. I'm just glad that i'll be able to move on to other constructive things; just one more review, one more damn round-up and i'm done with the Revengeance Jack...well, until the best PAKs of 2013 article...

 

Fondly called the "Raiden Rangers," the MGRR Jack Custom Body variants definitely made perennial variant god Sora proud. Oh, they are better than the Soras by the way but don't expect me to pose them ala Power Rangers. No way man! If, however, you do not have that insane amount of patience to complete these 5 (overpriced, some of them at least) variants let me do the honor of ranking them from the least interesting to the most impressive. I based this wholly on my opinion (and some of my fellow members @ PAKPTG) so you're FREE to do your own ranking. Ahem! Let's get this over with, shall we?