Subdued Figures: Nendoroid Armin Arlert Review

I have a firm belief that some characters were meant to be Nendoroids. Armin is one of them.

After two straight months of not having a figure to review because of delays, I'm finally back on the ball with current releases! And it looks like GSC is finally getting the hang of making Attack on Titan Nendoroids, since Armin has nearly none of the problems that have affected previous releases in this series!

  
First, he was very easy to set up right out of the packaging. None of the pieces were particularly stiff, and the extra plastic he was packed with was easy to remove (seriously, that stuff gets annoying when it catches on joints that aren't meant to budge). Also, even with the default pose he's already pretty cute! I especially like the slight gradient on the tips of his hair.

 
The rest of the paint job is nicely done as well. As usual, all of the decals are clean, and it also looks like they've found a way to reduce the paint bleeding on the front straps on the torso. They only complaint that I have is that the lines on one of his legs seem to just stop, but it's only visible from a certain angle which makes it not that big of a concern.

 
But now on to the poses! First is one that has bugged me for a while with previous Attack on Titan Nendoroids, the salute! They've finally figured it out with Armin. The back arm is still blocked a bit by the stand, and the wrist isn't bent, but the arm is finally in the right position and not floating in front of his chest, so I'll take it!


I think that the salute got a bit more attention this time because it's meant to be one of Armin's character-specific poses, representing the time that he stood up to the other soldiers in a bid to save Eren and Mikasa's life. The faceplate here seems to be meant for this pose as well, but I can easily see it becoming a very exploitable expression for collectors and fans alike who like to photograph their figures in silly situations.

 
Armin also comes with a 3DMG set, although it was very hard to attach the main piece to his back. This was the only big problem that I had with the figure. It did snap on eventually, but because of this he's not very secure on his stand with the 3DMG, so I wasn't comfortable with putting him in any crazy fighting poses. On a related note, Armin doesn't come with the extra blood pieces that go on the swords, but if you have another Attack on Titan Nendoroid, it's easy to swap those in if you want to.

 
But the most unique piece for Armin has to be his kneeling pose coupled with the bandaged head accessory. This is based off of the aftermath from when Armin went up against the Female Titan, but clearly GSC decided to put their own twist on it. What makes this piece a bit special is that it involves an entirely different head piece, not just a different fringe part. The attention to detail is really nice. When Nendoroids go for cute, they go all out!

Overall, I'm really happy with how Armin turned out. This Nendoroid managed to avoid a lot of the pitfalls of the previous releases (I never reviewed the Levi Nendoroid because I literally could not get him on his stand, for instance) while still managing to be a unique piece on its own. Given the lack of Armin merchandise out there despite his loyal fanbase, it's nice to see that this wide-release figure is the nicest of the line so far. Also, this figure is still widely available as of the writing of this post, and the aftermarket prices are not too bad either. I highly recommend him to fans of the character and figure collectors alike.

I wonder who will turn up next in the Attack on Titan Nendoroid line?

Pictures by me.