Re: 1000toys - TOA Heavy Industries Synthetic Human
If someone wouldn't mind, could you give me a brief rundown of what makes this figure so good (aside from the awesome physical look)...what allows it to achieve the balance it can?
The body is very well-made. All the joints are firm but not stiff, and everything has a large range of motion, especially without any clothing to inhibit it. The arm, for example, is attached at the shoulder to another joint that moves up and downward, so you have the normal ball-jointed shoulder articulation PLUS up/down motion that mimics the natural extension of your back muscles when you lift your arm up high. And
that joint is embedded in a horizontal swivel in the chest, so a cut-out section of the figure's chest can also swing in and out. Because the original Synth and the CaRB are naked, engineering like that actually improves the aesthetics of the toy. The bodies look like very believable androids because they actually
do move like real people..
The excellent articulation is part of what gives the figures such great balance. When you're moving around, your core will bend and flex to facilitate that movement and the Synths work the same way: my CaRB's abs are split into three individual segments that I can tweak around to help the figure balance. The rest is probably down to weight distribution, which I don't have any specialist knowledge of. That's it; for me it boils down to each figure being able to achieve a huge range of really expressive poses, and the marriage of function and form in the joint engineering.
Also, being a complete newbie with these, where's the best place to buy, the typical price range, etc.
The best place to buy is probably the 1000Toys site, but they are currently sold out of everything. The company first released the original Synthetic Human for $120, and the CaRB sold a few months ago for $150. All the other figures have been con exclusives—the Test Body, for example, was only sold at SDCC 2014 for $150 (I think). Figures with accessories are more expensive—the Anti-CaRB Squad sold for $200 apiece at SDCC 2015 and Asian summer cons, and some stock made its way onto the 1000Toys site as well.
Now for the sad part: all of these figures, potentially excluding some Anti-CaRBs stocked by resellers, are long sold out, and they're worth a bomb today. The original Synthetic Human and Test Body usually go for $500+ on eBay and I have seen Test Bodies sold for $800. CaRB will usually sell for between $280 and $400. Anti-CaRBs are more consistent in pricing but still sell for $260-300.
I've personally had the best luck on toy forums and Facebook BST groups—forum members who avoid eBay have offered me some really good deals and trades. Don't expect to get these for less than retail, but if you're patient and persistent, you might be able to pay close to $200 for pretty much anything besides the original Synth.
Someone mentioned a figure at NYCC, I have a friend going, what should I tell him to look for?
I don't know 1000Toys' booth number, but if you can get these at NYCC I'd recommend it. The toy they're selling is the CRC (close-range combat body), which looks to be a lot like the original Synthetic Human underneath its clothes but with very faint blue accents in place of the bone-coloured off-white sections. You can find some photos of the figure's new head on the company's Instagram. If the CRC follows the trend of the last two toys, the price might not be too far above retail in three or four months, but you'll still be paying more than you would at NYCC. Plus it comes with a shirt!
