Medicom MAFEX General

[crisis]

There is no thread for Mafex-only so I thought I'd make one, starting with this




Only a matter of time before they make him in his hospital nurse disguise

 

[silverpikachu]

There is no thread for Mafex-only so I thought I'd make one, starting with this

View attachment 367241


Only a matter of time before they make him in his hospital nurse disguise

The dark knight must be huge somewhere in Asia. Even tamashii is wasting money on it.

Medicom just needs to go back and focus on the Real Action Hereo products

 

[Plastic Bateman]

Just had a nasty surprise, HLJ took the money out of my account for the 2001 astronauts, which I'm pretty sure weren't due until the end of next month. Hope they live up to the prototypes.

 

[crisis]

It's hard to tell which looks better; they both look great, but Tamashii has a better track record when it comes to prototypes & the actual release

Just had a nasty surprise, HLJ took the money out of my account for the 2001 astronauts, which I'm pretty sure weren't due until the end of next month. Hope they live up to the prototypes.

Haven't seen those yet, can you upload photos when they areive?

 

[Plastic Bateman]

View attachment 368371
View attachment 368372

It's hard to tell which looks better; they both look great, but Tamashii has a better track record when it comes to prototypes & the actual release

A couple of months back I'd have said SHF all the way, but Mafex have been releasing one solid figure after another recently while SHF's quality seems to have taken a dip. I think waiting for in-hand reviews is the only option.

Haven't seen those yet, can you upload photos when they areive?

They should be here within the next five days, I'll be sure to post some pictures and overall impressions.

 

[Plastic Bateman]

My spacesuits arrived.

There is some extremely small tampo printing on the front of the harness. Bowman's didn't fair too well in the Mafex QC lottery, with settings ranging from "LPHA" to "ET". The ill-fated Frank Poole does somewhat better but it's worth bearing in mind that this printing is so fine it's hard to make out with the naked eye - so I applaud them for the effort.

Both figures feature some very fine Discovery mission patch tampographs on the helmet, left shoulder and both the backpack and harness. The only problem is the text reads "Clavius Base". I'm guessing that means we'll get the suits from the first chapter of the film seen in the TMA-1 sequences at some point.

The only major piece of paint slop is on one of the thrusters on Bowman's backpack. Not too bad.

There's some very attractive detailing on these figures, especially the transparent tubes connecting the helmets to the backpacks. Slightly disappointing is the fact that the heads are completely unarticulated. I appreciate it's probably more accurate that way but a ball joint at the base of the neck wouldn't have been out of the question. Also the figures are almost completely painted, despite looking completely plastic in the promo shots. Only bare plastic parts are the joints, which are colour-matched perfectly, and maybe the boots, straps and hosing.

Articulation is decent if unspectacular. The knees are little too much like PAK peanuts for my liking. There's good movement at the waist and torso that's slightly limited by the backpack and harness. Ankles are ball joints, which are ever so slightly too loose on Bowman. Hips drop down like an SHF but don't have much outward spread.

The shoulder joints are ugly, my only major complaint about these figures. Functionally they have plenty of range but aesthetically they're begging for the same kind of floating cup cover you see on SHF figures.

Stands are included, but almost useless, the clamp isn't wide enough to wrap around the bulk of the figure thanks to the backpack and harness. If they'd included a small hole in the base of the backpack or made one of the thrusters removable for the stand to peg into, that would have been better.

I don't normally mention packaging, but in this case the boxes contain a nice surprise printed on the inside - the iconic octagonal corridor from the Discovery. The packaging design itself would probably have met with Kubrick's approval, it's extremely clean, minimalistic and features great film-inspired typography. For more on Kubrick's obsession with the subject check out the fantastic blog "Typeset in the Future" - https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/01/31/2001-a-space-odyssey/

Overall I think I'd recommend these. If you only get one, I think I'd go for Poole - yellow is a hard colour to pull off and it's done nearly flawlessly here, especially the contrast between the matte spacesuit and glossy helmet. I hope Medicom go further with Kubrick-inspired figures, I'd love to see a Dr Strangelove in this line.

 

[ragacin]

Hey one question. First the suits look great. In some shots it ***almost*** looks like there is a head inside the helmet, like what Mafex did with the Rogue One Vader with eyes behind the helmet lenses. It may just be the way the pics look but I am curious .

 

[Plastic Bateman]

Hey one question. First the suits look great. In some shots it ***almost*** looks like there is a head inside the helmet, like what Mafex did with the Rogue One Vader with eyes behind the helmet lenses. It may just be the way the pics look but I am curious .

Afraid not, that's probably my fault for pointing a blue LED at the helmets while taking the photos. Holding them up to a high-powered bulb reveals they're completely hollow with an opaque gloss black plastic insert for the visor.

 

[GasparZizou]

My Bowmans arrived, I like them quite a bit, not perfect, but we're not gonna get any more 2001 figures in this scale, didn't get Poole because, eeeeh, Nica doesn't do anything until 3001

I always handle my figures with care, but these are my first Mafex figures so I'm handling them like they're made out of glass, can't tell if they're solid or brittle.

 

[GasparZizou]

Some pics with an aesthetic millennial retro filter, I had never looked dorkier than handling a toy and taking pics of it at work.

 

[rivera2171]

My spacesuits arrived.


There is some extremely small tampo printing on the front of the harness. Bowman's didn't fair too well in the Mafex QC lottery, with settings ranging from "LPHA" to "ET". The ill-fated Frank Poole does somewhat better but it's worth bearing in mind that this printing is so fine it's hard to make out with the naked eye - so I applaud them for the effort.


Both figures feature some very fine Discovery mission patch tampographs on the helmet, left shoulder and both the backpack and harness. The only problem is the text reads "Clavius Base". I'm guessing that means we'll get the suits from the first chapter of the film seen in the TMA-1 sequences at some point.


The only major piece of paint slop is on one of the thrusters on Bowman's backpack. Not too bad.


There's some very attractive detailing on these figures, especially the transparent tubes connecting the helmets to the backpacks. Slightly disappointing is the fact that the heads are completely unarticulated. I appreciate it's probably more accurate that way but a ball joint at the base of the neck wouldn't have been out of the question. Also the figures are almost completely painted, despite looking completely plastic in the promo shots. Only bare plastic parts are the joints, which are colour-matched perfectly, and maybe the boots, straps and hosing.



Articulation is decent if unspectacular. The knees are little too much like PAK peanuts for my liking. There's good movement at the waist and torso that's slightly limited by the backpack and harness. Ankles are ball joints, which are ever so slightly too loose on Bowman. Hips drop down like an SHF but don't have much outward spread.


The shoulder joints are ugly, my only major complaint about these figures. Functionally they have plenty of range but aesthetically they're begging for the same kind of floating cup cover you see on SHF figures.



Stands are included, but almost useless, the clamp isn't wide enough to wrap around the bulk of the figure thanks to the backpack and harness. If they'd included a small hole in the base of the backpack or made one of the thrusters removable for the stand to peg into, that would have been better.



I don't normally mention packaging, but in this case the boxes contain a nice surprise printed on the inside - the iconic octagonal corridor from the Discovery. The packaging design itself would probably have met with Kubrick's approval, it's extremely clean, minimalistic and features great film-inspired typography. For more on Kubrick's obsession with the subject check out the fantastic blog "Typeset in the Future" - https://typesetinthefuture.com/2014/01/31/2001-a-space-odyssey/

Overall I think I'd recommend these. If you only get one, I think I'd go for Poole - yellow is a hard colour to pull off and it's done nearly flawlessly here, especially the contrast between the matte spacesuit and glossy helmet. I hope Medicom go further with Kubrick-inspired figures, I'd love to see a Dr Strangelove in this line.

Excellent review!

I had never looked dorkier than handling a toy and taking pics of it at work.

Nice one. Thanks for the pics!

 

[GasparZizou]

Oh yeah, Bateman's review was excellent, I didn't give it recognition

 

[BurningRage]

Probably will pick up Astro Boy

 

[kyekye]

Probably will pick up Astro Boy
View attachment 373285

Very first descent version of ATOM (a.k.a Astro Boy) with good proportion and motion range!
Pre-ordered!!!

 

[Thainitty]

That Astro looks so good! Ordered as well

 

[GasparZizou]

I woul've got Astro Boy but he's 6"? why Mafex?

 

[Thainitty]

Mafex homecoming Spider-Man is a fantastic figure! I highly recommend it to any spider fans...much better than the figuarts (which is still cool)

 

[GasparZizou]

The mafex spidey certainly has the best sculpt and proportions, but, what do you think of the headsculpt, I've seen pics where the HS in the Marvel Legends one looks much better, since now Hasbro's using the dot matrix too.

 

[Thainitty]

The mafex spidey certainly has the best sculpt and proportions, but, what do you think of the headsculpt, I've seen pics where the HS in the Marvel Legends one looks much better, since now Hasbro's using the dot matrix too.

The unmasked sculpt? Eh it's whatever, but I only used it for one picture and won't use it again. The body and the detailing and articulation on it are fantastic! Masked heads are perfect and he has tons of accessories. I really love this figure, way better than the last mafex spidey which I really hated

 

[Angelo2113]