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Next up in the realm of Dragon Ball Figuarts is none other than Super Saiyan 3 Goku. I was never completely excited for this release, as I’m rather happy with the two versions of Super Saiyan Goku released previously, and I’d much rather see new characters show up. However, with a lot of Figuarts sharing similar body molds, especially Sentai releases, it’s not a surprise they’d make use of Goku’s body mold again. However, this comes with quite a few problems. Let me start by saying the sculpt is great. I still like his body mold, and the face(s) are done great. The hair is on three individual sections and ball joints, allowing some posing of the hair not seen in some DBZ figures. That being said, this great sculpt is ruined by paint. The obvious flaw comes from his skin, which is almost a brighter orange than his clothes. I’m not sure what the designers were going for. I’m all for a tanner skin approach (like Vegeta) compared to the pale manga colors of Goku and Gohan, but this is borderline Oompa Loompa and Snooki territory. It could be they were trying to emulate the aura of a Super Saiyan 3, but I’d consider that a much failed attempt. To top it off, the clothing is neither the vibrant orange used in the original figures, or the darker red/orange color of the animé. Instead, it’s a weird mustardy orange color that ends up looking pale and and almost knock-off in quality. Between the hair, skin, and clothes, there’s just so much orange that the figure is incredibly off-putting. Lastly, like the SDCC SS Goku, the belt and wrist bands are more of a purple color rather than the blue of the undershirt. The figure itself is great, just ruined by a horrible paint job. The figure does come with a secondary face, two splayed open grip hands, two energy shot hands, and one Instant Transmission hand. The halo on his head is also removable. Lastly he comes with a Tamashii Stage that’s plain and clear, as well as four crescent energy effect parts that can snap together, then onto the stand to make an energy field. Overall, I just can’t recommend the figure. The sculpt is good, but you can get most of the same excellent sculpt from the original two releases of SS Goku, even though they are incredibly pricy. The paint just really ruins an otherwise good figure with some pretty cool stage effect parts. Hopefully Trunks fairs better, and the SDCC 2012 Re-Color of SS2 Gohan doesn’t suffer the same orangey fate.
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CollectorShuki.com