Dog Alma
Review by JoshB
Dog Alma comes from the Tandem Twin animal girls series by master sculptor Kouichi Yamazaki. Each one of his creations feature a female with animal features. This figure is available at Yamato USA's on-line store.
First of all, this toy is for Mature Collectors only. You will see why in a little bit.
Dog Alma is packaged in an attractive wondow box, and the figure itself rests in a clear plastic tray. There are no twist-ties or anything to remove.
The figure stands about 12" tall and actually has some articulation, but it may be unintentional. You can move the head a bit, the arms where they connect to the clothing, and the wrists.
The sculpt and paint on this is amazing. By collecting mass-produced robots with articulation, you get used to a certain level of quality. Sometimes toys don't have as much detail as you would like because of manufacturing and tooling costs to make the toy move, or be playable. With these fixed-pose female figures, you get a whole new level of quality. Each paint application, every fold in the mold is perfect, and it has to be, to justify the price tag. If all it does is look good, it better look damn good.
Dog Alma also has a few additional things that make her more than just a statue. Included is a removable visor:
Removable neck and wrist spiked rings
Removable whip
Removable chest armor! :-0
Of course, we run a family show here on CDX so we're not going to show you the uncensored pictures, but rest assured, she's anatomically correct under that armor. This figure is definitely for mature collectors.
Yamato USA currently has a variant of Dog Alma up for preorder on their site called Dog Annerose. If you like Dog Alma then you should check it out. It's a little different, and it ships in May 2008.
Comments
10 comments postedwhile I really like the look of this (I like the look of that repaint even more) i'm not sure i could display it in my room with out having to hide it when ever some one wanted to come in.
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Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com
Hmm, maybe you could, just don't mention that some parts are removable, especially the chest one :P But still this is a really nice toy, maybe with an extreme heavy metal overtone, but still pretty :)
I suppose but the whip might be harder to explain
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Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com
Duh! A weapon, a weapon! Even Power Rangers used whips from time to time :P
I've never seen a Ranger use a whip as a weapon; however they are frequently used by the MotW or lead villains to trip- or wrap-up the heroes. So it tends to be used in underhanded way. Or, there's the more-frequently seen cord-sized tentacles...
(Having not seen Super Sentai with my own eyes except for a few later subbed series, I can't say with certainty if this is also the case with the Japanese counterparts, but from what I've seen, whips aren't included in standard-issue arsenal.)
But I digress.
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CollectionDX Staff
You should check the first weapon of Pink Ranger in PR: The Movie :P If It's not a whip, then I have no idea what is it...
Oh yeah- I forgot about that. Yeah, that is a hard weapon to categorize since it could shoot out like a long spear, but was flexible like a whip.
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CollectionDX Staff
So Dog Alma has nearly zero points of articulation. It has no die-cast. It can not transform into an airplane. It's fists don't fly out when you press a button under it's elbow.
Honestly, I don't see the appeal.
I wouldn't get one, but I'm guessing it's the visual appeal that's supposed to make her interesting. Oh, and the fact that you can make her topless... ;)
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CollectionDX Staff
Ah! So the attachable chest armor is something like a combiner gimmick? That makes some sense, then.