Media Mass Effect General Discussion Thread

[Garlador]

Not sure how available they are these days but the play arts kai figures werent bad. Sheps head isnt great but the garrus and tali are great. They did a ashley williams and a femshep too i believe. Ignore the posing they were put in the holding area whilst i organise! View attachment 570398

My honest opinion is that no figure company has really “nailed” it for me yet. Play Arts is better than some takes, but, yeah, I think it’s a terrible face sculpt on Shep, and at 8 and 9” scale the line feels both too large for my normal 1/12 figure displays and far too short for any 1/6 displays. It’s a weird middle ground limbo.

But it is probably the best on the market.

Still, I think I’ll renew my petition to see if we can get more updated 1/6 figures (or badger McFarlane to do more than just Ryder from Andromeda). We’ve come a long way in figure tech and photoreal printing.

Blows my mind we never got a Liara action figure. Or Wrex. My mind races with how good a 1/6 Javik or Mordin or Tali would look on the shelf.

 

[Unsubliminal]

Completely agree on the scale which is why they have to be on a different shelf space to others. Still wish the shep came with a helmet to cover that monstocity of a face. The whole crew from ME2 would have been awesome. Some of the new cosmic legions figures look like they could be straight out of the game but a shame they wont scale with what i have

 

[R_R_X]

Not sure how available they are these days but the play arts kai figures werent bad. Sheps head isnt great but the garrus and tali are great. They did a ashley williams and a femshep too i believe. Ignore the posing they were put in the holding area whilst i organise! View attachment 570398

The Play Arts Kai figures were good... for the most part, that Shep sculpt is the stuff of nightmares , but as @Garlador said the scale wouldn't really match with any of the other scales I own, the closest thing we had to a full ME 1/12 line was the DC Comics figures but they are too cartoony looking imo but I've tried to hunt down those as well.

Anyway while it isn't a perfect figure and does have some flaws like the bad wrist joints, outdated paint apps and casting, I'm really happy to finally own the 3Z Shepard, I've put a piece of wire around the rifle and it's currently attached to one of the plates on the back, (sorry for the crappy phone pic), it makes for a pretty cool effect, too bad 3Z followed up with Legion and not Garrus, would've killed to have them two standing side by side.

 

[Garlador]

The Play Arts Kai figures were good... for the most part, that Shep sculpt is the stuff of nightmares , but as @Garlador said the scale wouldn't really match with any of the other scales I own, the closest thing we had to a full ME 1/12 line was the DC Comics figures but they are too cartoony looking imo but I've tried to hunt down those as well.

Anyway while it isn't a perfect figure and does have some flaws like the bad wrist joints, outdated paint apps and casting, I'm really happy to finally own the 3Z Shepard, I've put a piece of wire around the rifle and it's currently attached to one of the plates on the back, (sorry for the crappy phone pic), it makes for a pretty cool effect, too bad 3Z followed up with Legion and not Garrus, would've killed to have them two standing side by side.
View attachment 570425

Looks good!

Still bummed that only preorders got the Shep head for this, but admittedly I also prefer the helmet on, so it can represent all the male Shepards out there and not just the default.

 

[Garlador]

I don't normally double-post, but I thought, you know, I have a few connections, let's see what I can do, and I've created a survey to gauge interest in a new line of Mass Effect figures.

Mass Effect Action Figures Survey

Thank you in advance for any participation. Feel free to share the link as well. I'll keep it running about a week or so and see what the response is.

 

[vaanrose]

Ignoring that we'd be lucky to get even Shepard, I'm mostly after the game 1 team, though I'd want their final game 3 designs.

Femshep
Tali
Garrus
Liara
Wrex

In that specific order, and then if someone tackled those five, I could be convinced to get Mordin and Legion after that. But beyond that I'd lose interest. Especially the various human characters, I don't have much desire for them. I like Jack well enough, but not for 1/6 price tags.

 

[Garlador]

Ignoring that we'd be lucky to get even Shepard, I'm mostly after the game 1 team, though I'd want their final game 3 designs.

Femshep
Tali
Garrus
Liara
Wrex

In that specific order, and then if someone tackled those five, I could be convinced to get Mordin and Legion after that. But beyond that I'd lose interest. Especially the various human characters, I don't have much desire for them. I like Jack well enough, but not for 1/6 price tags.

Give me Jack’s ME3 look with biotic effects, middle finger hands, and a pet Varren, and I could be convinced.

 

[WhoaItsJBot]

My top five would be:

Garrus
Male Shepard
Wrex
Tali
Zaeed

I would also get Mordin, EDI, and Legion. I thought for sure an unlicensed company or two would have attempted at least Shepard by now. I wonder if the SooSoo team are fans...

 

[R_R_X]

Sheploo/FemShep, Garrus and Liara are my top picks, other them, Tali, Wrex, Mordin, Grunt, as far as humans maybe Miranda, a Joker would be cool to see since he's basically the only other playable character in the OT and I did like him and Anderson because Keith David is a badass, I never cared much about Kaidan or Ashely but I would get one of them to complete the ME1 crew, but I think the likelyhood of all those characters getting figures are really slim, at least in this scale so I would be more than happy with just my top 3 picks.

 

[R_R_X]

I wonder if the SooSoo team are fans...

I doubt it, Mass Effect isn't really big or well known in China, but it's probably worth suggesting the idea to them.

 

[Garlador]

Well, good news and bad news.

The Good news: the response to this inquiry has been great! Lots of good feedback and passionate fans giving me good info.

The Bad news: the responses blew past my Surveymonkey account limits. The leeches want double the monthly fee for me to see and analyze everyone's feedback. I should have gone with a different survey format, but I never anticipated it would grow so fast so quickly.

 

[chrisstbh]

I think ME3 got a lot of underserved hate for the ending, I really loved the game up until the end, it felt like a proper race against time and I thought they did the reapers really well for the time the game was released, I did not like Starchild of course and I thought the origin of the reapers was underwhelming but aside from that I think ME3 worked really well as the final war and had some of the best moments in the whole franchise.

The ending itself isn't that bad with the extended cut now, imo of course, I just wish we could've seen the fruits of our labor in cutscenes and not pictures, I also wasn't mad that Shepard dies 99% of the time, since my Shepard had the sole survivor backstory and turned into a paragon over the course of the series it only made since for him to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the galaxy and reedem himself and his past, but that's just me I totally understand why people hate the ending, especially those that expirienced it without the extended cut, that was just a slap in the face.

If they do plan on bringing Shepard and the crew back in the new game then I can only hope it's good and gives us a more satisfactory conclusion to the series, even though for me the Citadel DLC was one of the most beautiful goodbye letters to a franchise I've ever seen.

I didn’t hate the ending as much as most. It’s the journey that mattered more to me, the experience and relationships you built with the characters. Unlike Game of Thrones the characters all stay consistent and true to their development until the credits roll, and based on how much time you spent getting to know and helping them you can pretty accurately predict what their gonna get up to with the rest of their lives (should they survive).

The ending wasn’t perfect but one cutscene isn’t gonna ruin the experience for me.

 

[Garlador]

I’ve made my peace with the ending and that’s one reason I think a figure line would do better now than back at release.

When Threezero did their Shepard, it was right when the ME3 ending backlash was strongest. It’s all anyone talked about. Even diehard fans like me were just so “done” with the series for a bit, and I didn’t want any Mass Effect merch while I processed it.

The Extended Cut, Citadel DLC, time and distance have all vastly improved my mood and rekindled my love for my favorite sci-fi gaming series. But it took some time. I know my feelings are hardly unique in this regard.

 

[Victοr]

I eventually moved past the ending too. I played the Trilogy two times, and the third one three times total. At this point, I just want more. The good outweigh the bad, you know? If I had a euro for every comic book/videogame/movie/etc story that I feel didn't live up to its potential, I'd be a millionaire... So might as well focus on the good things; it's disposable entertainment after all.

As far as figures go, I'm all over the place and have too many interests. So I'd have to contain it to 5 figures ideally. BroShep/FemShep (Shepard counts as one, suck it), Liara and Garrus are my locks. Illusive Man follows closely (I just love his design). In a "free for all" scenario, I suppose I'd move on to Thane, Samara and Javik, just for how cool their designs were. Miranda & Tali just to round up the core cast. But then you get pulled into the "well, I need a Wrex and Mordin too, and maybe a-" and you're suddenly wishlisting for the entire cast. Which, let's be honest, even if by some miracle we got good, licensed 1/6th figures, I doubt they'd tackle the really big and costly characters. Such a line would warrant a lot of unique and expensive tooling, so I don't know what we'd even get, realistically speaking.

There aren't a lot of videogames that I love enough to want multiple figures of. I want a Chief, but that's it Halo wise. A Samus would be nice. A Kratos. Some more on-offs. But MGS & ME are the ones where I have wishlists which compete with some of my comic-related set-ups, the cores of my collection beyond SW. ME's propped up for me because it's a Sci-Fi property, so it can be added there to a general SF shelf, next to a Spock, or a T-800 and a Deckard, the whole thing coming together nicely.

 

[Garlador]

There aren't a lot of videogames that I love enough to want multiple figures of. I want a Chief, but that's it Halo wise. A Samus would be nice. A Kratos. Some more on-offs. But MGS & ME are the ones where I have wishlists which compete with some of my comic-related set-ups, the cores of my collection beyond SW. ME's propped up for me because it's a Sci-Fi property, so it can be added there to a general SF shelf, next to a Spock, or a T-800 and a Deckard, the whole thing coming together nicely.

I personally, and subjectively, think a good Mass Effect line would work, even outside of hardcore fans, because the designs of cool space soldiers and aliens has cross-franchise and cross-genre appeal.

It’s the reason lines like Mythic Legends and Cosmic Legends can succeed just based on the premise of “cool genre figures”.

Casual sci-fi collectors would love some great aliens in their displays, I would think.

I do agree a hurdle to tackle and overcome is tooling. While a lot of alien characters are humanoid enough to go with basic figure bodies (Asari, Drell), many have unique physiology for a figure (Quarians, Protheans, etc). Best I can think would be to promote how some engineering could be shared (Garrus/Saren, Wrex/Grunt, etc).

Thankfully, characters like Garrus, despite his unique build, would be a prime candidate for a lead-in figure. Everyone loves Garrus.

 

[Victοr]

I personally, and subjectively, think a good Mass Effect line would work, even outside of hardcore fans, because the designs of cool space soldiers and aliens has cross-franchise and cross-genre appeal.

It’s the reason lines line Mythic Legends and Cosmic Legends can succeed just based on the premise of “cool genre figures”.

Casual sci-fi collectors would love some great aliens in their displays, I would think.

On one hand, I agree. There are many figures which tempt simply because they look cool, even if they're not from a property I'm invested in. But if we're still talking about 1/6th, 300$ for an average fig is too big of a price point for casual buyers to dive into it just because it looks cool. I do think it'd sell well enough, as beyond the fans of the series it does appeal to general Sci-Fi fans, as you said. But does that extend to characters like Mordin and Wrex?

I do agree a hurdle to tackle and overcome is tooling. While a lot of alien characters are humanoid enough to go with basic figure bodies (Asari, Drell), many have unique physiology for a figure (Quarians, Protheans, etc). Best I can think would be to promote how some engineering could be shared (Garrus/Saren, Wrex/Grunt, etc).

Thankfully, characters like Garrus, despite his unique build, would be a prime candidate for a lead-in figure. Everyone loves Garrus.

Yeah, no ME line would start without doing Garrus right out of the gate.

 

[Garlador]

I'm really kicking myself for going with SurveyMonkey. Hundreds of responses, but I can only view 10 of them unless I pay them $99 to view the rest.
Think it would be worth it to start over with Google Surveys?

Edit: Scratch that. Google charges even more to do their surveys. Google Forms, maybe?

 

[WhoaItsJBot]

There's no reason to pay that. I'd give my responses again on another survey.

 

[Garlador]

There's no reason to pay that. I'd give my responses again on another survey.

I've created a new Survey.

Mass Effect Survey Ver. 2

I'll need help getting it shared and promoted since so many people filled out the last one and I hate bothering them to fill out another. I was well into the triple digits in responses before realizing they would only let me view less than 10% of the responses without the fee.

But given how passionate the amount of responses I received was, I'm optimistic I'll get some help promoting the research this time around.

 

[R_R_X]

I've created a new Survey.

Mass Effect Survey Ver. 2

I'll need help getting it shared and promoted since so many people filled out the last one and I hate bothering them to fill out another. I was well into the triple digits in responses before realizing they would only let me view less than 10% of the responses without the fee.

But given how passionate the amount of responses I received was, I'm optimistic I'll get some help promoting the research this time around.

Hope this one gets as many responses as the old one!