New Arhan
Review by JoshB
In the anime "Expelled from Paradise", humans are divided into two factions. Humans with physical bodies live upon the Earth, while digitized citizens live in space on the space station DEVA. A security agent in DEVA, Angela Balzac is sent to Earth to investigate a mysterious transmission.
Given a human body, Angela flies to earth in a small ship which also contains her powered armor, the Arhan. The standard issue Arhan comes in the shape of a large ball which can unfold to become battle armor. On Earth, this armor is quickly disabled and sold for scrap.
Later in the movie, after Angela has returned to DEVA, she escapes in digital form inside the upgraded armor named New Arhan. This armor has increased speed, strength, and weaponry. Instead of a ball, New Arhan's initial shape is more like an upside-down acorn.
Megahouse has released a version of the New Arhan - the one we are going to look at is the basic Variable Action version. In addition, GoodSmile is releasing a fully-transformable version in May of 2016.
New Arhan arrives courtesy of and is available at HobbyLink Japan
The box is simple, but has a nice window to see the product.
Included is the figure, 4 extra hands, 2 guns, and a stand. No instructions are included. I knew this was going to be the more basic version of the figure, but I was really surprised at the lack of weaponry and accessories. Fortunately the figure itself is great.
New Arhan has an incredible amount of detail, with each little mechanical bit getting it's own clean paint application. Parts are molded in color where possible, lending a nice contrast on the light blue armor against the frame.
Articulation is ridiculous. There's an insane amount of motion here and it looks great in almost any pose. The joint work is just tight enough, and just mechanical enough, to make posing a joy.
The only real restriction in posing is in the head. Due to the nature of the design, movement is limited.
Both engines on the back are on ball joints.
Hands pop off and on with a little effort. The closed fists are on by default, but you can exchange those for open hands.
In addition, two gun holding hands are included. The two guns are simple with no paint detail.
The clear stand has some nice printed detail, and the support arm snaps easily in place. There are two points on the robot where the stand can connect.
It's a great little figure, but sadly, that's all it is, and that is sort of a waste. If you watch the movie, the New Arhan launches alongside scores of support modules that provide the robot with additional weapons and armor. We see a chain gun, a sword, shield, and even a rocket booster. None of this comes with this release. At almost $70 USD, it's a pretty bare-bones release.
Granted it's more affordable than the upcoming GoodSmile release, which will come in at about $250 USD. If you don't mind the price, it's a solid action figure.
New Arhan is available at HobbyLink Japan
Additional photography provided by Ender1000
Comments
2 comments postedMine has a permanent spot on my desk.
Seems like most Japanese retailers have it for more that 50% off these days, which makes the bare bones nature of it an easier pill to swallow. I'm definitely interested in it now. There was a Bandai web exclusive set of all of the extra weaponry, but that seems to be almost unobtainable now without paying an enormous markup.