9.23.03
Mega Man 15th Anniversary Figures - Series 1
Mega Man, Proto Man, Bass, Mega Man X, Zero, Bass
  
    I hadn't really been planning to go to Toys R Us this afternoon, but I'm rather 
glad I did. I figured I was in for a useless trip seeing as I'd found no new Marvel 
figures or Transformers or Lord of the Rings figures. Then I came across the words 
"Mega Man X" while scanning the aisle. Sure enough, two pegs full of Mega Man based 
figures. Where had these come from? Why wasn't I aware of such a thing being released?
  
    These are put out by a company called JazWares, Inc. The cards are all identical 
except the X figures feature "X" after the word 'Mega Man". The cards are blue in 
color and feature all 6 figures in the assortment on the back. The cards also feature 
Mega Man EXE's head on a "Mega Man 15th" logo, presumably for the 15th anniversary. 
Each figure stands about 6 inches tall and includes a few accessories. They were 5.99 
each, and a full set includes Mega Man, Proto Man, Bass, Mega Man X, Zero, and Vile. 
I'll assume the reader is somewhat familiar with Mega Man and it's characters in this 
review.
  
    I'm actually kind of mixed on these figures. There are some serious quality control 
issues all over these guys. Seams are blatantly visible on all of them. The heads are 
generally oddly shaped as well, a little too round really. This is particularly bad on 
Mega Man X and Bass and Mega Man's face seems a little too large compared to his helmet. 
The accessories fare much worse then the figures themselves though.
  
    All of the figures except Vile includes and extra "fist" arm. You can pop off the 
arm canons on the figures and replace them with these regular hand arms. The arm canons 
actually look better since they are beefier and make the heads seem less disproportionate. 
Some of the other figures have additional accessories as well. Protoman includes his 
shield, which is grossly undersized and can'' be held in a manner that looks very "Proto 
Manish". Proto Man also includes a spring loaded "slider" enemy thing. Vile includes a 
hand gun sort of thing which I've already broken the handle off of and his shoulder 
missile launcher. The launcher also includes two tiny bullet shaped missiles, which 
should be lost in about, two shots. I'm actually surprised such tiny missiles were 
allowed to be included for safety reasons. Zero includes a strange spider enemy (?) 
and his Z-saber. The saber, like Proto Man's shield is rather undersized. Mega Man 
includes a hollow Eddie "PVC". Bass comes with a Met "PVC". Mega Man X includes a 
Z-saber identical to Zero's (as it should be) as well as a backpack attachment that 
hasn't been featured in any actual Mega Man X games. Eddie and the Met have horrible 
paint applications. There is crossover between the colors all over and one of Eddie's 
eyes is very red. Fact is Eddie's two halves are noticeably different shades of red. 
The paint on the figures is not nearly as bad, but iy's not exceptional.
  
    All of the figures feature the same articulation, which is one area these figures 
shine. There are combination hinge and swivels at the shoulders, elbows, knees, and 
hips. There are also swivels at the ankles, waist, neck, and where the arm meets the 
"fat robot ends". For the most part the joints are unrestricted except at the hips, but 
the boots prevent the feet from moving too much anyway so you would have a hard time 
getting them to stand up with the legs spread too far apart. Also Zero has restricted 
neck articulation due to his "hair".
  
    As far as a general ranking. I'd say Vile is the best of the lot. His head is just 
slightly too round but he looks the best in general. Zero comes in a very close second 
if only because his head is just right. I just wish Zero had a better saber. It's kind 
of spotty from there down though. X's chest is a bit too flat and his head is just too 
large. Bass is almost on top except his face sculpt is just horrible. Has the mouth been 
better he'd rank better but as it is it's too distracting. Protoman suffers a lot due to 
his undersized shield and there is just something about him and Mega Man that seems off 
in general. I'm thinking they are just a bit too tall, I always got the impression the X 
characters were a good head taller than the ones in the Original series.
  
    Overall, definitely worth 6 dollars each if you're a Mega Man fan, despite the 
quality issues. I mean Mega man figures of any kind are fairly hard to find. The old 
figures from the show aren't exceptional by any means. You could import some of the 
model kits but those are around half the size of these and you'll likely pay 4 times 
the price once they are shipped. However, even if it means a price increase, I would 
really like to see the quality issues fixed on any future releases should the series 
continue. I would pay ten dollars for these if it meant the mold seams were gone and 
the accessories had better paint jobs and proper sizing. Also I would love to see more 
figures in more waves. Mega Man sure doesn't have a shortage of characters, even main 
ones. Perhaps future waves could include a couple of the more popular robot masters, 
maybe 2 Original and 2 X, plus 2 other main characters. Rush, Roll, Wily, Light, Treble, 
Sigma, Dynamo, Anyone from EXE or Legends.