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Macross Pilot Hikaru Ichijo

One of the more popular anime series is Macross, also known as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross...but who the hell wants to say all that. The Americans got ahold of it and turned it into Robotech. More or less.

Macross stars (surprise, surprise) giant transforming ships and vehicles, and the people that pilot them. The main character is Hikaru Ichijo, a young pilot. In 1984, a feature film was released based on the story line, and it was called "Do You Remember Love?". While not actually a modern day tale of Macross (it's considered a 'historical' film), it was and is extremely popular.

Several companies joined forced to manufacture and distribute this new sixth scale high end version of Ichijo. Popbox Collectibles handled manufacturing, while Toynami worked with distribution. You can find him for around $80 at select stores, including Action-HQ.  And if you order through this site, you'll get free shipping - just follow these instructions:

1) Click the link to Action-HQ.
2) checking out, put in the comments section "MWCtoys" (which
alerts them)
3) air mail shipping cost will be deducted manually during processing. 
Alternatively, they will discount $20 in shipping if they choose express mail.






Packaging - ***
Like most import packaging, the box is completely collector friendly. Take out young Hikaru without damaging a thing, play around with him for awhile, display him on the shelf, and you can always return him to his original home.

The box itself is very attractive, and I like the front silhouette photo. It's a five panel design, and you can open it up to view the figure before purchase. The accessories are packed against this fifth panel, but they've even gone out of their way to make this tray easy to remove with no damage.

The only real descriptive text is on the back though, and had there been just a bit more background (or perhaps some additional graphics) it would have eeked out another half star here.

Sculpting - ***1/2
If you've been complaining that the action figures in your collections just don't have big enough heads, then this is the guy for you. But, unlike characters based on real people that end up looking like bobble heads in sixth scale form, this guy is supposed to have a huge head. He's anime! That means big hair, big eyes, big head, and itty bitty hands and feet. And he has all those.

The head sculpt is clean and sharp, with his trademark hair style. The hands are a little rough, and a tad more Ken-like than some may like.

The huge noggin' actually puts this guy taller than most standard 12" figures, if you include the hair. However, the shoulders actually fall below the height of most 12" action figures, making the body more suitable for small characters if it were applied to a 'real world' license.

For a character in the 5'8" to 5'10" range, this body would work pretty well, but the large anime head tends to throw off your perception of the accuracy of the rest of the proportions. The hands and feet, in standard anime style, are also a tad small, but the body itself is well proportioned.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint ops are spot on, as you'd expect in this type of high end sixth scale figure. The colors that cover large areas, like the face and hair, are consistent and even in color and coverage, while the small details on the eyes and stripes on the boots are excellent. There's not a ton of paint work here, but what is looks great.

Articulation - ***
The body sports all the articulation you expect from an Asian import, and the joints are also quite tight and solid. The neck is the only one that's heavily restricted, due to the heavy head and big 80's anime hair.

The small feet and large head make some poses tough to maintain, like the one footed stance I have in the photo. He held that for about, oh, 3 seconds, just long enough for me to get the shot. But most two footed flat stances are easy to maintain, and the excellent articulation in the rest of the body allows for some interesting options. Just don't expect to do much with the head.

Outfit - ***1/2
The outfit is perhaps my favorite aspect of this character. Not only is it tailored well, it is made from a very high quality material, heavy yet not out of scale. It's blue and yellow (my least favorite color combination due to it's affiliation with a particular university), and very bright. The blue might look a little purple in some of the photos (bright lights tend to 'redden' blue and confuse the white balance on a digital camera), but trust me - it's bright blue.

The zipper is scaled properly, with a tiny pull. No huge, honkin' out of scale zipper for this guy. He is also wearing a dickey underneath the jumpsuit (and no, I do not mean he's anatomically correct), and blue and yellow boots that match the color of the jumper perfectly. The boots are a soft rubber, making it easy to take them off and put them on, but that also means they provide a little less support for difficult stances.

Accessories - **
Hikaru himself doesn't have much in the way of accessories, but there is an extra hand, and he does have his wristwatch. The additional accessories aren't for him, but rather the buyer. The hands go on and off easily enough, and the extra right is like the standard left, in a cupping pose. The hand he comes wearing is the saluting flat right hand.

There's a full size patch that can be put on your own jacket, so you can pretend to be Hikaru, along with a full size dog tag and chain that you can wear, which sports the VF-1S. These are nice, but I would have liked some additional stuff for Ichijo at this price point.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
This is an extremely well built, solid figure, with a lot of play potential. Of course, it's also extremely limited and very expensive, two factors that tend to make people shy away from giving it to little Johnny to play with in the backyard. But if you were Donald Trump, you certainly could, and kids who are fans of the show would have a good time with it.

Of course, most of the fans here are much older at this point, and so the likelihood that any American 8 year olds will be up on who Ichijo is, well, it's fairly unlikely.

Value - *1/2
The high price tag on this guy is partly due to the license, partly due to the run size (only 3000 were produced), partly due to the high quality uniform, and partly due to his import nature. Still, there's absolutely no denying that this figure is going up against other figures in the same market place with fewer accessories and a less complex sculpt and outfit. Casual fans will have a tough time justifying the price.

Things to Watch Out For - 
Zippo. The figure is well built, and can handle some abuse, although I wouldn't suggest you start abusing your action figures. I believe there's even laws against that in Iowa.

Overall - ***
This figure would be a solid ***1/2 stars at $40, and might squeak in at that score even at $60. The sculpting, articulation and outfit are all excellent, but an $80 price tag is more than some buyers might be able to handle. Die hard fans won't mind of course, and in reality, the price isn't too far out of line with some of the costs of the actual transforming toys based on the same property.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Outfit - ***1/2
Accessories - **
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value -  *1/2
Overall - ***

Where to Buy - 
Action-HQ is the place to pick this guy up. They have him in stock at $80, and if you order through this site, you'll get free shipping - just follow these instructions:

1) Click the link to Action-HQ.
2) checking out, put in the comments section "MWCtoys" (which
alerts them)
3) air mail shipping cost will be deducted manually during processing. 
Alternatively, they will discount $20 in shipping if they choose express mail.

Related Links - 
I dabble with anime and manga related products:

- while not specifically Macross, the Garland from Megazone 23 is definitely influenced by it.

- I have a number of guest reviews of Transformers, including the deluxe Unicron, Skids and Shockblast (Alternators), Insecticons, Energon Prowl, Astrotrain, Smokescreen, Hoist, and Red Alert.

- and there's my review of a couple of the Toynami Robotech figures.


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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