New Arrivals: Figma KOS-MOS and NECA Duke Nukem

Recently acquired Figma KOS-MOS ver.4 from Amiami.  Although it is a bit funny how I went about getting her.  I had preordered her long ago alongside Black Gold Saw.  But determining that I was getting too many Figmas, I cancelled both.  Later, I bought BGS on impulse.  A few months after that, people started getting their KOS-MOSes and posting pictures of just how great she was, and for a bit I lamented my cancelled preorder.  But then I saw that Amiami had a restock, and immediately ordered.

Getting NECA's Duke Nukem was slightly less onerous.  Just had to visit a Toys-R-Us a few times.  And wait fourteen years.

Rest after the cut!


For those not in the know, KOS-MOS is from a game series called Xenosaga.  Unfortunately, Xenosaga didn't become the next Final Fantasy as its creators hoped, and now the series is dead and no one cares about it.  KOS-MOS, however, remained popular enough to make cameos in further Namco games and to continue getting merchandise.  Basically, she's Namco's equivalent of Capcom's Morrigan.  Although Darkstalkers at least still has people that care about it.

Accessories!  Lots of accessories that are big.  For once, the figure actually needed the larger Figma box.  They even had to use a small second tray under the first.  I don't know the proper names of most of the weapons, or if they even have them, but I was able to look up some names!  KOS-MOS also has two faces and five sets of hands.  The hand sets are trigger fingers (which do not have wrist joints, and for good reason), standard fists, standard splayed, standard holding-things, and a pair that look like they're in a kind of neutral/relaxed pose.  I didn't bother cutting out her di:stage cover, because it's just a rather plain design with the Xenosaga Ep. 3 logo in the middle which would just get filled with holes.  Oddly, KOS-MOS didn't include the angle adapter bit for the stand, which I was beginning to think was standard-issue, so the one I use in a number of these pictures is from another Figma.

KOS-MOS's articulation is pretty much what you'd expect from a Figma, though she has a few bits worth pointing out.  Her hair is in two segments in the back with each segment on a joint the same way they were on Black Gold Saw.  She's also got thigh swivels, and the two things on the sides of her hips are each connected by a single hinge.  It looks like she doesn't have much of ankles, but they're actually there and on normal Figma joints.  I picked up a protip from bd77 who picked it up from Plastic Parfait of pulling the ankles out slightly to give them more movement.

Also notable is that the peg hole for the stand is on KOS-MOS's lower back instead of the upper back, where it usually is on Figmas.  This might be in part because of how tall KOS-MOS is, but whatever the reason, I like that positioning much better.  Makes it a lot easier to pose her when I don't have to worry about lining up hips, waist, and torso joints any time I move something.

I'll just go ahead and go through the accessories now!  First, the pistol.  Not a bad looking pistol, and it doesn't look undersized like pistols on some action figures tend to.  Also, it reminds me of Varista.

Some sort of sword-arm thing!  I guess she can be a pirate like this.  And it really is a sword-arm, as you have to remove a elbow-lower arm section to stick it on.  Reminds me of T-1000.

Next is the Dragon Tooth (I knew that one!), which apparently is competing with King Saw for Biggest Damn Sword.  The "blade" section is removable and the weapon itself can be switched to a closed form.

And then there were the Triple Gatling guns.  Apparently someone decided that giving KOS-MOS a gatling gun wouldn't be ENUF DAKKA.  So they made a gatling gun that was made up of three gatling guns.  And then they gave KOS-MOS two of them.  They come with little support pegs since they are pretty heavy.

The gatlings come with firing effect bits.  It is possible for KOS-MOS to hold up the guns without supports, but it feels dangerous and I suspect trying to leave them unsupported would result in eventual damage.  So I enlisted some Revocontainers for this picture.

KOS-MOS's alternate face is her "more human-like mode" face with the blue eyes instead of red, which Wiki tells me means she's in Mary Magdalene mode.  The eyes are looking off to one side, and there is a slight smile instead of the no emotion of the other face.  It's sorta hard to swap her faces around, too.  The things on the side of her head make it impossible to simply pull the face straight out, instead you're supposed to pull the top of the face forward to angle it and then pull it out at that angle...a bit annoying.

The secondary visor apparently is for something called "Fatimas Gras Mode".  It also makes her look a bit like a pirate.  The visor isn't part of her front hair fringe.  It's actually a seperate piece, also seperate from the face, that is switched by taking off the front hair piece.

Final accessory is a secondary chest plate for her X-Buster attack.  That's the one where KOS-MOS undoes her bra and shoots a laser from her cleavage.  Yeah.  The chest swapping works pretty much the same as it does on the Figma Kanu Uncho, just pull one straight off and slide the other one in place.

And since I have it, KOS-MOS alongside an old gashapon figure of Ep.2 Shion that I have.  Certainly not the same scale (I think they're supposed to be pretty close in height to each other), but at least it's close and I can have KOS-MOS sex up her lover.

The gatlings happen to also look good with a certain other female robot.

I HOPE YOU ARE ENJOYING EVERYTHING.

You might have noticed that every picture of KOS-MOS looks kinda odd.  If you have not figured out the reason, you might need to stare at some of them more.

And on to Duke.  FORE-*shot*

Made by NECA, this Duke Nukem is based on the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever.  Which is actually coming out in like a week oh my god what the hell is goingaodigfaosugaisurbhfigahkfsuhkzj

Articulation is fairly decent, and similar to NECA's other fully-articulated figures, such as the Street Fighter figures they did and some of the Bioshock ones.  His main failing in the articulation is his shoulders, which are really, really weird and I don't know how to explain them.  Basically, he can't put his arms at rest at his side.  But it's not too bad, as it doesn't really interfere with the kind of poses he should be in, that being doing MANLY things.

He doesn't come with much for accessories, just a little pistol and a cigar.  Duke feels a bit lacking not coming with any nice, big guns.  But that cigar does give him a ton of character, and is quite a nice touch.

So since he lacks weapons, we must simply find more!  Rather conveniently, NECA Duke can actually hold all of the weapons that came with the original Duke action figure, although they do require stretching out his hand.

And speaking of Old Duke, NECA Duke is a significant improvement in everything.  Except the guns thing.

In fact, unlike Old Duke, NECA Duke can sit!  And fits quite nicely in the little chair I picked up in Hawai'i.

Where he can enjoy some bitches.

He's even just the right size for my Banpresto Menace!

Cowboy Bebop at his computer.

No, not even Duke Nukem will be exempt.

I was also planning on talking a bit about a recent Transformer purchase, the Human Alliance Thunderhead from the new movie line.  It's a neat figure, changes from robot to spider tank to mech suit and has a little dude.  But I don't really care enough.  I kinda feel like I've lost most my interest in Transformers outside a select few, in part because the Nippon invaders are pretty good at trumping the Transformers at characterization, which means the Transformers show up less in the comics...also doesn't help that I never saw a few of the newer Transformers I wanted in stores.

Well, just makes it a bit easier to reduce the growth of my collection.