Lightning Base (Red)
Review by JoshB
I saw this display stand at Image Anime earlier in the year, and I thought it would be a cool way to showcase figures for reviews or on the shelf.
Turns out, it’s kind of lame. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
The Lightning base is an illuminated display base designed for use with other bases of similar style. They are geared towards SHFiguarts and Robot Soul sized figures.
Each base comes with a black base and a clear disc. Insert three batteries and switch it on, a color illuminates the disc.
Each base only does one color. In this case, red.
The light is not bright enough to make a difference in the daylight display of your figures. Turn the lights out and it might be kind of cool, but how often are you going to turn this on and off?
If you get more than one base you can connect them together, but they are not interchangeable with Bandai’s Tamashi Stands. That’s a missed opportunity right there.
You can also turn the disc to get a different dispersal of light on the figure but it doesn’t really make that much of a difference.
Overall it’s underwhelming, and at $14, not that much of a value.
Comments
4 comments postedI also got one of these quite a while ago, because I was planning to use it with my Gundam Unicorn. Once I put the batteries in and turned it on, the result was not amazing, as I expected. These bases only have two LEDs installed and they point towards each other (if they were facing up, at least a few degrees, the effect would be better) and they barely light the figure that is placed on top of them.
These bases are design to be compatible with Bandai's action bases (they have the same octagonal shape and size), instead of being compatible with the Tamashii stands (guess it's primary use will be with Gunplas).
The only way to get a satisfying effect on the figure you're displaying is to use just the lightning base, without any other light source. And even then, the shine on the figure is not remarkable.
If Bandai added a couple more of LEDs facing up, then we would have a winner.
Thanks for the review!
^ ^
I picked up one of these (the green light) along with a few Sparkle Green Action Base 1s for a Gundam 00 display and I have to say its not too bad under the right conditions. But it really helps when there's another light source of the same color or a clear display base attached to it to help bounce the light around.
poor mr. javelin doesn't look very excited about the lights
What about changing the LED's to brighter more powerful ones? Does the base dismantle so you can get access to replace them?