Chaosman
Real x Head is a small Japanese vinyl company started and run by Mori Katsura in 2003. Mori’s first figure was the Oni-Head, but he saw much more success with his second figure, the Mutant Head, the start of the iconic Mutant Zone series. The Mutant Head sculpt was borne out of Mori’s love of classic 80’s toys, especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Taken from the Super 7 Mook and the new Encyclopedia of Kaiju, the Mutants are an invisible race that lives in the forests and mountains in natural harmony, existing outside the realm of human perception. The evil Mutant organization Akrobat is led by the militaristic Akro-Kaiser, and the Mutants dislike humanity because of the damage we do to their natural habitats, and so cause accidents and natural disasters to punish us. During an engagement, Mutant Head is injured and loses his ability to stay invisible. Mutant Head is found by a young boy and nursed back to health, showing Head that not all humans are evil. When Mutant Head returns to confront Akro-Kaiser about their aggression towards humanity, a schism erupts within the Mutant world over how to deal with humans, leading to what amounts to a civil war among the Mutants against Akrobat, with the human-defending Mutants being lead by Mutant Head.
In 2009, Real X Head debuted the first Chaosman releases. These new figures combined fight figure proportions with ‘standard’ sized vinyl chunkiness (standard size for vinyls is between eight and nine inches tall, from the original Marusan and Bullmark kaiju figures) to create a new paradigm of figure. I already described the new body sculpt in detail on my Pheyaos Man review, but to reiterate, the new Adult Chaos body sculpt is heavily influenced by Kamen Rider design sensibilities. Chaos in his new form has a distinct heroic poise to him, and looks ready to take on all comers.
The Adult Chaos is made of seven parts: head, torso, legs, upper arms, and lower arms. The arms are jointed at the elbows with a swivel, and can come off. We have already seen one weapon arm attachment, as on the Pheyaos Man, and hopefully we will see more in the future. Having the elbows jointed also gives the big figures a neat new point of articulation for figures of this kind, and allows you to pose him more dynamically and really ‘play’ with the figure!
The head sculpt is a new piece, obviously based on the previous renditions of Chaos. The head spike has grown much larger, and to my eye the whole head has a slightly leaner and more aggressive shape.
The paint scheme on this figure is a tribute to classic tokusatsu hero Kikaida, who is like Kamen Rider, but a sweet robot with an incredibly iconic deco! This figure was released at Superfest 51, about a year ago today! Many vinyl makers have painted figures in Kikaida colors before, including Real X Head, and this guy makes a great addition to the trend. Pictured with him is the Kikaida tribute Chaos Beast from the Mutant Zone 3 line, review forthcoming!
The Real X Head Adult figures retail in the US for $80.00, which might seem a bit high to vinyl newcomers. The regular fight figures retail for $60.00, and the new Adult sculpt is about three inches taller, much bulkier, and far more detailed. I have bought a handful of Adults so far, and am always blown away with what I get for my money, but the price is enough that I am choosy in buying Adults, and try to avoid any that I’m not 100% blown away by.