Aegis

Review by JoshB

Aegis is a character from the video game Personna 3, as well as it’s many sequels, most recently the fighting game “Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena”. I’ve never played any of the games, but I’ve always been drawn to the appearance of Aegis as a character.

Basically, she’s an android. While she may seem cute, she’s built to fight.

Chogokin Aegis arrives courtesy of HobbyLink Japan

Bandai has been branching out with it’s Chogokin line, with releases that are outside of their normal robot characters. Aegis continues the trend set forth by Hatsune Miku and Hoi Hoi San in joining their metallic brethren.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of gokin in this Chogokin.

Aegis comes in a rather small box that is reminiscent of the boxes that the Mazinger Lady Soul of Chogokin came in. Inside is a single plastic tray with all the accessories laid out neatly.

The first thing you need to know is that the figure does not stand. This is by design, however, as I believe Aegis “hovers” above the ground. As such, you will always need to use the stand.

Aegis feels light, but well-constructed. It feels more durable than your average Figma. Metal content is very low and consists of only the parts that are gold plated, as well as the tips of the feet. The shiny gold metal looks amazing, however, and is well utilized.

Four face plates are included - sleeping, angry, and two happy faces. You have to admit, she has some cute expressions. The faceplates are exchanged by removing the front part of the hair and then swapping faces. The head is on a double ball joint.

The shoulders are metal, and remind me of the inner workings of a watch. They have a very “steampunk” vibe going on. The shoulder can swivel and rotate, and the outer gold panel is a separate part that moves independently.

The arms are where a lot of the magic happens with this figure. Each wrist features a removable weapon that looks like a small bank of missile launchers. She has three additional sets of hands, one of which has gun barrel fingertips.

Either arm can be separated at the wrists to attach a variety of weapons.  The most exciting one to me is the rocket punch fist that actually fires. Aegis comes with a different wrist that has a spring loaded firing mechanism that can actually launch the fist a fair distance.

She also has an adapter so she can just hold the fist without the launcher.

In addition, a cannon and a rifle are included that can be mounted onto either wrist.

There’s a joint just below the chest, and then you have the metal hips that look like precision machinery.

The knees bend, and the feet at the end are made out of diecast metal.

The stand is simple, but cool. You can choose to use it with or without the baseplate. When not using the baseplate, a small rubber tip is included to prop the figure up like a tripod.

Overall it’s a great little figure, but a little bit expensive for its size and metal content. This probably should have been marketed as part of their D-Arts line instead.

Aegis is available at HobbyLink Japan