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Ken Kaneki Total Anime (Jazwares)While most anime collectibles come from their home in Japan, there's been plenty of western toy companies who have tried their hand at figures, with varying results. Nowadays, Bandai and McFarlane are doing a few anime icons, and while they could look much better (with some looking worse than others), they serve as good alternatives for those who don't want to pay import prices. Jazwares announced last year they're getting into the anime figure game with their "Total Anime" line, and they're tackling today's most popular series first, alongside a less popular series in Tokyo Ghoul, with Ken Kaneki being their first work with the license. All of the packaging across the figures is the same, with official artwork and a cross-sell and figure photo on the back, but the colors vary between properties. Kaneki uses purple for his box, and the packaging as a whole looks great, and stands out a bit more from other anime line. The boxes are designed for easy opening, and while most of them have those consistently-present plastic ties, Kaneki lucked out by not having them. The window box gives you a good view of everything inside, but this is a figure you'll want to open up. This figure depicts Kaneki after his personality shift, as brutal torture turned him from a meek but gentle boy to a ruthless, but still kind-hearted, opponent to anyone who dares threaten him. His natural black hair turned white upon fully embracing his ghoul side, and the sculpt here is brought out by the wash. Usually we don't get this kind of paint work with anime figures, but I guess Jazwares was trying to add a touch of realism to these figures. He wears an eyepatch over his human eye, leaving the black ghoul eye exposed, and the lower part of his face is covered by a mask with a zipper resembling a set of clenched teeth, and the mask extends down to the neck. Two maskless face plates - stoic and psychotic - are included, as is an alternate neck piece for them. The paint and printing on the faces is really clean, and they nailed the likeness, standing out as the best of the figures Jazwares' done so far. Kaneki stands 6 1/2" tall, which is the scale Jazwares chose for this line for some reason. I don't mind it much, but he'll look out of scale with my other figures. His season two outfit has been recreated well, with some of the lines in the clothes becoming subtle stitches, and a loose-fitting look to the sleeves and shorts. Some parts of the outfit, like the upper torso and thighs, are separate pieces overlaying underlying parts, presumably to cover up some joints for a better aesthetic. The paint on the outfit is clean, utilizing both wash and metallic accents, but there should be a bit more color variation to it. The shorts should be a different shade of gray, and the shoes need to be a different color from the leggings. It's okay for the market and price point, but some more accuracy would be nice. The Jazwares figures I grew up with had joints that were floppy, prone to breakage, and/or oddly designed. Thankfully, that's no longer the case. Kaneki has a barbell head, ball-jointed neck, chest, and waist, swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, and ankles, ball-jointed and hinged hips, double-hinged elbows and knees, swivel biceps and thighs, and pectoral hinges. The joints in the torso are a bit wobbly, like they'll hold a pose but not too tightly, but everything else has no issues and moves perfectly. You can even get him standing on one foot, but the ankle swivels aren't too tight, so he can lose his balance if he's weighed over too much on one side. The different parts swap with no need for heat, and in addition to the closed hands, there's also loosely gripping and finger-cracking sets of hands. The ghouls in the series, aside from needing to eat human flesh and their eyes often turning black, also have "kagune" that they use for combat, and Kaneki's consists of four tentacle-like appendages that come out of his back. These are not small pieces, each being 6 3/4" long, and are designed with scales and plenty of shading for a more defined appearance. They're not super screen-accurate, but the work is still impressive. In addition to swivel/hinge joints where they plug into the back, they also have bendy wires that move with ease, allowing for many dynamic poses. If you don't want Kaneki with his kagune, there's an alternate back piece with no tentacle ports, and it swaps out easily. Speaking of stuff that pops out of the back, there's a small piece of plastic higher up that covers up a port used for dynamic stands like Revoltech or Figma. Kaneki doesn't anything like that, but he does have a clear, oval-shaped base that helps support him. I'll admit I lost interest in Tokyo Ghoul long ago, but learning of a Kaneki figure coming from Jazwares of all companies caught my attention. I've gotten a few of these Total Anime figures already, but Kaneki's proven my favorite, thanks to the great sculpt and quality combined with a surprisingly low price of $17, where other companies would charge around $30-40 for him. Only issue is that he's a Target exclusive, and not an easy to find one at that, since my Targets don't really carry these figures (in fact, this single one was the only figure I've seen there so far). Hopefully they pick them up more soon, or least this half-ghoul isn't an exclusive for long. - 1/16/25 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Galadriel | ![]() | Submission Order | ![]() | Cabal 3-Pack |
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Galadriel | ![]() | Written by RMaster007 | ![]() | Cabal 3-Pack |