I'll give a bit of a run down of the figure now.
So as far as the paint applications go this is easily ThreeA's best job so far. They really put some heart into the weathering. Often times their weathering jobs are sporadic, random, and nonsensical. They don't go well in some kind of theme or idea so it can be hard to call it anything, but random dirt and grime. Here though we can really see a battle damaged feel to it. The pistons and pipes throughout Ambush are impressively weathered to look rusted. Paint looks like it is chipping off in areas and his boxing gloves really look like they punched a few too many times. Even his head has taken a beating. It's OUTSTANDING.
The engineering is one of the most impressive aspects of this figure even if it ends up being its weakness too. Just look at the back shot I posted. I can't help but stare at the intricacies throughout the figure's build. Just bending his arms and legs is almost hypnotic because you can really appreciate all the effort they had to put to designing it. This is not a normal toy. It is nothing like a Bandai robot for example. This thing is like a machine. It has all of these parts and pieces to it. The detail put into it is like a real body or machine. It's on a whole new level of detail.
His eyes can light up, but for some reason they did not bother to include the batteries needed for it, which really annoys me especially since to insert the batteries you have to open up the back of his head with a screw. For how much we paid they couldn't be bothered to just do it already?
The Bambaland exclusive is a must end of story. If you have any other 1/6 human this figure becomes twice as awesome. It does not matter who you use. Hell I have Che Guevara holding the controller and it makes it three times more awesome. The controller feels a little cheap, but it is actually really well build. They made it so that it can fold up and fold out which allows you to pose the arms of the figure and the controller adjusts to it. Basically it makes holding the controller in a believable fashion really easy.
The figure has a good center of balance, but of course he would have a much better one if I could get the blasted legs to move. His toes have basic articulation too so it helps keep him stable.
He generally feels surprisingly light. I understand that using diecast for something like this would be a disaster, but I think some areas (well all the blue parts honestly) could probably have benefited from it though it might have really messed up the balance and joints so I think they went for the right choice in the end. The pieces feel sturdy enough that I am not too worried about breaking it though and that's a good thing.
He's absolutely gigantic. Height wise he seems like he is almost twice as tall as some one sixth scale figures, but what really gets me is the width. Especially if you spread his arms out he just takes up so much room. He's very impressive on display.
The articulation is somewhat of a mixed bag. I am satisfied with it so let me state that first, but there are two killer aspects of it. For one thing, obviously the tight joints on the legs out of the box is terrible. This is too ridiculously tight not to have noticed. They should have had these joints nice and ready before shipping out. Of course this can be fixed, but that doesn't mean I still wouldn't dock them for it.
The other issue is a true problem that everyone should be aware of. While he does have points of articulation at the chest that allow him to move backward and forward (so leaning points), he lacks one above the groin at the waist. This means he can't actually bend forward in more than just a hunch. This is somewhat weird because it makes it so that you can't do poses you might have hoped for. You can do boxing poses, but if you were hoping for kind of a football tackle or more wrestling looking stances it isn't going to happen.
His arms are not double jointed unfortunately. Ambush has a thick design so I think it is justified. I believe Midas and Atom will have full on double jointing so it should be fine. What Ambush can do that I love is his arms can be bent upward toward his sides because they work on an extreme ball-like joint up top. I am bad at explanations, but when you see it you'll know what I mean. It gives you extreme control over the arms, more so than you would have expected.
And as for the packaging this is probably 3A's best too. The box seems simplistic, but that's because it is. Nice basic white with details on the robot. It's simple, but great and it makes an excellent backdrop if you have the room. Its cover is magnetic and it folds out so you actually can have a nice white background that says AMBUSH on it.
What really impressed me was the packing. At first I was upset they went Sideshow style and it was basically just the box put into another cardboard box with no real packing materials to protect it, but then I realized how safe Ambush was within his actual box. They used layer after layer of DENSE foam material. This is probably the most sturdy packaging I've ever seen a figure come with. Ambush wasn't going anywhere. You could probably throw the box at a wall and he would be fine (please don't do this).
So considering that Midas will have more articulation (we already know this to be true) he's going to be insanely awesome. If you are a Real Steel fan like me or just appreciate a good robot figure then you can have a lot of fun with Ambush. The figure looks terrific on display and he has some really unique articulations points. Just about everything on his body moves in some way. Even the basic flaps sitting on his feet or waist can be moved around.
EDIT: Forgot to mention one of the weirdest problems with this figure. I can understand the lack of a waist joint since the thing would probably collapse onto itself due to the design, but what I don't get is the neck joint. The figure CAN move its head to the left and right, but it reverts back to the middle and it seems dangerous to force it. So basically Ambush has to look forward. You can tilt his head to either side, but you can't turn it so he is looking toward other directions. It's a really weird thing and if this wasn't a boxing robot I would be annoyed, but because it is a boxing robot I find it surprisingly irrelevant and unimportant. In fact I really don't care much honestly. I feel like it makes sense you would have him facing forward at all times. I don't even know how far the robot could turn his head in the movie.