Coming directly after her
Tiger & Bunny colleague Blue Rose, this month's review is another Chibi Arts figure: Dragon Kid!
Last time, I discussed Bandai's Chibi Arts line, and how they stacked up against their main competitor, Nendoroids. While I did like Blue Rose, she didn't convince me that the line was going places. With Dragon Kid, a lot of the same faults apply, but now I think it's taking a step in the right direction.
Once again, the packaging shows that you can make a lot of use out of less plastic and puts GSC and Max Factory to shame. There isn't as much packed into Dragon Kid's box as Blue Rose, but they didn't have to make room for extra sets of legs (more on that later) so it's still impressive. There's more of an emphasis on the extra hands this time around, as well as the posing possibilites.
That's right, Dragon Kid is articulated. Not to an amazing extent--the joints are in her legs and hair rings, and neither can move a huge amount--but it's a big improvement over Blue Rose, who can only mimic the poses on the box. For review purposes, I always try to replicate box poses to see if they're achievable, but just that little bit allows you to start to change up Dragon Kid's poses however you like.
And she's cute too! The facial expressions are well done here. In the promo pictures (and on the box) her eye color is washed out for some reason, but in person they're close to the same shade as her hair. She also gets the same stand treatment as Blue Rose, with her superhero name and subtitle printed in yellow on clear plastic. (So that you don't strain your eyes, the subtitle reads: "Lightning Bolt Kung-fu Master.")
However, right out of the box it's clear that she has some serious paint issues. Lines bleed all over the place, especially on her pants and the edges of her sleeves. There's a random mark on one of the winged ornaments that's really noticeable, as well as some badly concealed seams in the back of her hair. On the other hand, the dragon decal on her front and the symbol on the back are very nicely reproduced given the scale, and the sponsor logos are clear as day. If only Bandai would put the same effort towards QCing line painting as it does with its decals...
Anyway, her first pose has her holding some meat buns (I assume). While putting this pose together, I made an interesting discovery; her hands are removable. I tried to attach the bun hand to a different set of arms, only to find out that the joint was too large. What's the point in making hands removable if there isn't a standard size for arm joints? Your mileage may vary on that with this figure; the fact that it was possible for me to take the hands off does imply that the intent was to swap them out. Adorable pose all the same, though.
Her next pose has her holding her sponsor item, Calbee. There are finger intents in the bag to make it very easy for her to hold and for me to put this pose together. The decals on the bags are very clear as well. This is also my favorite faceplate for her. I don't recall her ever making this expression in the anime (although it's been a little while). As a side note, the "backwards" way of putting on faceplates that I covered in Blue Rose's review also applies to Dragon Kid: back of the head comes off first, then the bangs, then the faceplate. To put her back together, place the bangs in first, and then attach to the back of the head.
Finally, the pose I chose to display her in and my favorite accessory, her staff! I really like the detail on the dragon heads. Thanks to being able to switch out the hands (and turn them, etc.) you can pose her holding it a different way, but I like the box pose. It just looks dynamic. She also comes with the same floating speech bubble stand that Blue Rose did, with a set of quotes specific to her. Unfortunately, my Japanese is not good enough to translate them, so what's displayed here is a sound effect/battle cry.
Overall, I like the Chibi Arts version of Dragon Kid more than I like the Blue Rose version. I feel that I can do more with her instead of being forced to mimic set poses. She still has her issues (her tassels fall off very easily in addition to what I explained above) but this is a case where character love overrides a lot of the flaws. Dragon Kid is still readily available for a very low price--I got her off Ami Ami for less than 1000 yen--so if you're a fan of her, what are you waiting for?
Images by me. Also available on
Organization Anti Social Geniuses.
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