Got my Medi Bats yeserday from HLJ, only had a little while to check him out and tinker a bit yesterday, did alot more today.
I ended up seperating the suit and tweaking his cotton stuffing, i found out of the box his abs little dent was too extreme. So i had to pad out his belly to make it less severe. Removed some around the hips to try and add movement, the legs were as some said not as bad in person so i left them. I re-sealed the suit and set to work on the other problems.
Pics/explination after:
I repainted the belt, the medi belt is actually technically more accurate in sculpt (though it has the wrong layout for tdk since they just used hteir begins belt). The buckle is smaller and more accurately sized and the sculpt of his line winder is much more accurate. Mainly i repainted it to tone down the orange, its not as dulled as the ht one, but its closer to the movie.
I also repainted the face, nothing to severe just trying to give it more realistic skin tone.
Lastly i added a new cape, this one was actually a shorter cape i did for my original HT TDK but decided to go for the longer look with him, since i had it cut and ready i just used it here.
I found that removing the medi cape was easier than expected, its sewn to leather tabs which are attached to the inside of the armor by a small peg, the tabs slot into the armor and a peg goes through the tabs, i hope thats clear. Anyway minor prying and pulling let the glue go and i got the tabs out intact and the pegs stayed fine, i then just stuffed the tips of the new cape in and pushed hte tabs back into their recieving holes and they hold the new cape in fine. This also means i can technically remove the new one and put the old one back if i desired, though the process is by no means easy its still possible.
After doing all this i'm much happier with him. I still find some annoyances, while his boots look more accurate, they are crap for articulation, he's fallen over more times than i've gotten him to stay standing because his ankles while poseable in the boots, seem not to be able to actually hold any pose. I found it seems he works best when he's in a medi thrust and you push him down a bit to make sure his feet set, but i get tired of medi thrusts, seriously.
Also i found the arms are actually little more difficult to get in a raised position and to stay there than the HT is, granted it takes work to get the hot toys arms positioned but they will hold, with the pads attached to the arms on the medi, he's very limited and it kind of bugs me. Add that to the fact the arms dont want to hold raised poses because the armor pushes them and the articulation isn't tight enough to hold its annoying. Much the same goes for his other joints, the hips and ankles are likewise, unable to hold extreme poses due to the suit bunching. He has the articulation to crouch but an attempt to do it failed, his suit bunched and he just folded himself back out when i let him go.
This figure is far more a LOOKS figure than a play figure, its clear HT sacraficed some elements of the looks in order to retain poseability and playability. Their suit and boots, while duller, are far more pose friendly. So its really a clear choice for me with which to get, it depends on what you want, a figure to look at or a figure to play with. I think medi clearly wins the looks, the headsculpt is amazing and he can look great if you can get him in a decent pose, but he's not perfect or amazing enough to me to put away the hot toys.
