Toy Reviews: S.H.Figuarts Red Buster

Almost a month after Gobuster’s end, it’s time to look back at this series with a review of S.H.Figuart’s Red Buster, which I found sadly to be a disappointing figure…find out more after the jump. Let’s Morphin!

To see more professional photos, please do not hesitate to check out Hacchaka’s gallery. Now onto the review!

I love Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line. To me, it’s a line that can do no wrong even at it’s worst I can find some quality about the toy that turns me around on him, especially if it’s a character that I like, evidently as I own over 100+ figures from this line. Certain issues that most people complain about aren’t that big of a deal to me. ]Red Buster is no exception to this, despite my issues with him I have found one or two things about this toy I really like that turns me around on him somewhat.

Let’s get the huge negative out of the way first, and perhaps my biggest gripe with the figure: that being his articulation. Now Red Buster has all the standard articulation you’d come to expect out of a Figuarts; rotating biceps, ball jointed wrists, head, arms, hips,  double jointed arms and knees. What brings the figure down however is just how restrictive his arms feel. There’s just something about moving his arms that to me felt sort of awkward.  You can’t bring his arms all the way across his chest, so it’s impossible for him to pull off his role call pose. Even his “Busters, Ready Go!” pose while doable is kinda tricky to pull off right.

To me, this is a HUGE problem that Red Buster can’t do his two signature poses. An extra joint or two or some more clearance in his sculpt..or maybe even alternate arm pieces like what they did with Gokai Red and Piccolo would’ve helped tremendously it’s a real shame that Bandai didn’t go the extra mile with this release.

Fortunately, with what articulation Red Buster does have you can still get some pretty dynamic posing out of him. To help with that, we have Red Buster’s accessories. He comes with two closed fits which already come attached to the figure right out of the package along with two trigger finger hands, two gripping hands and two calm open palm hands along with his weapons: The Ichigan Blaster, Sougan Blade, and combined Ichigan Buster Special Mode. While he’s a little light in the accessory department, he comes with everything that he needs to although I wish they gave him a thumbs up pose since that was kind of their salute. Swapping the hands is easy enough as they’re on ball joints, however I’m not sure how wide spread this problem is but on mine, his other interchangeable hands don’t seem to want to stay on even when I push them in.

The sculpt of the figure I think is dead on, other then the black joints which don’t really bother me that much the suit looks like it did in the show. His box is another thing that I love about this toy too. It’s covered in this delicious reflective chrome red, so shiny that I can see my reflection in the packaging.

I almost wonder if Gobuster’s poor ratings affected the development of this figure. As is, Red Buster’s major problem makes it a hard figure to recommend, especially if you’re looking at this to be your first S.H.Figuart. I can only recommend this figure to fans of Gobuster and die-hard S.H.Figuarts collectors, just try not to pay too much for the figure. As of this article, you can find him as part of HLJ’s Bandai Discount Sale for 15$ Dollars!

The final verdict for S.H.Figuarts Red Buster is a 2.5/5. While he’s not as terrible as I’m probably making him sound, no body needs to go out of their way to own this figure.