Robot Damashii #149 Plan 1055 BELIAL

Full metal panic was one of my favorite anime and I really like its mecha designs especially the main protagonist mecha; the Arbalest. Belial is one mecha character from the manga version (if I’m not mistake, he is an antagonist) which I never know because he never appear in the anime and I never read its manga :).

Appearance

Belial sure looks good. The matte Black and glossy silver combination does really looks cool from every angle. Everything that you’ve seen on its picture does execute very well. He somehow reminds me of superman’s Black costume after his death story. I have nothing to comment cause everything at his appearances just simply cool and likeable.

 

Articulation

Now… Belial’s articulation does give me a mix opinion. Let’s just started to see how it’s doing.

Head Parts

His head could rotate at 360 on a ball joint, and his neck has a good front-back movement. They simply good and has nothing much to explain. 

 

Arms
First thing that I remember when I tried to moved his arm, is: SHFiguarts. He implied similar joint systems which definitely define as: good. Double ball joint at shoulder, rotation at biceps, double joint elbow and ball peg at wrist. If you have SHFiguarts, you will know how they work. His shoulder armor could move quite a bit and attached by using a ball joint.

 

There lower arms has this ‘gun covers’ that could removed and replaced with its alternatives part. They are attached pretty loose, but I don’t mind at all because for me he actually looks better without them, revealing its hidden lower arms metallic color.

 

The ‘shoulder fins are attached using hinge joint and could simply detach just in case you did not like it.

One unique feature is the circular body pieces that appear in between his body and shoulder. This piece reminds me much on Exia or double O body type. It does not have its own attachment joint and just simply hanging in the middle of shoulder ball peg. It does not have any circular movement, but instead just moving around following the shoulder movement.

 

His front and back side fins are attached at this circular part and has a limited hinge movement. They are pretty nice attachment IMO. 

Legs Articulation

Same thing happens at his legs joints; it’s using the similar to SHF joints structure. Ball and hinge at hip joint, pivot rotation at upper thigh, double jointed knee with a bit knee armor movements, ball and hinge at ankle area, separated toe at its feet. 

 

His foot feels a little bit too small though and kind of has hindered articulation. They have decent movements although quite troublesome for more dynamic poses.

Body

 Let see… An awesome detailed and colors appearance; a very good head, arms and legs articulation; Cool side fins… almost a perfect score for me until I’ve check at the main body articulation.

Surprisingly, they made his middle section articulation at a very limited range of motion. It does have a small front-back and side movement, but he could only performs at maybe about only 5 degree of rotation, which hardly seen and gives me the feels that he does not have any articulation at all. 

max body rotation

 

It feels kind of waste after all those good things that they’ve been doing for others parts of the figures.

When I look closely inside of the waist area, I see a cutting line which means that the abs and the hips are actually made of two separate parts. 

 

So I keep wondering, why they don’t place; let say a simple rotating peg; so it could performs better waist rotation which definitely will add much to its pose-ability. 
Not bad over all, but could and should have been better.

Small nice looking fins are attached at his back using simple peg and could easily removed.

 

Accessories
Not much to be talked here because he only has a bow, few extra hands and a pair of arms gun. Nice thing is they give an action base for Belial which I think rarely happen in Robot Damashii line which could nicely covers his small feet limitation.

 

The bow has moveable parts that could be used for certain pose. You need to detached the handle part before attaching the holding hand.

 

Size Comparison with revoltech and Real Grade

Belial in pose :

Final thought

If you are looking for a good looking figure to shown on your desk, you should go and get him. Belial has very good appearance for his scale and you might like him without even know who he is. His play value does a bit low due to his small number of accessories and limited abs movements.