Truth or Derringer
Written: Aug 30 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Accessories and articulation
Cons: ow, my wallet!
The Bottom Line: Okay, she's expensive--but there's a reason for that
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| yogore's Full Review: Meryl Stryfe |
Vash the Stampede is the first human ever designated as a regional disaster. Bernadelli Insurance Group dispatched their agents in order to cope with this brand new case. Their mission is to observe Vash 24 hours a day and confirm, report, and fully evaluate the disaster damages. They are to interrupt the activities of the target in order to prevent any further damage before they occur. One after another, many agents declined this mission due to its dangerous nature, but she accepted it with clear determination of justice. On the outside she looks like a thin girl of Asian descent, but she is woman who dares to travel the Outer (Outlaw) regions. When the scene calls, her cloak flips open and she uses her derringers with an almost divine technique in order to handle the demanding situation. While it is true that this type of gun must be easy for her small hands to handle, but can there be a better and more efficient way? Despite much concerns, she travels together with her sidekick Milly from town to town on this hot desert land.
Gotta love that crazy translated text.
Meryl Stryfe is from an anime series known as Trigun, which I've personally never seen. But it is listed on epinions, so there's a link to a good review at the bottom of my article here. After the ultimate coolness of the Monev action figure, I was willing to give Kaiyodo/Toy Tribe another shot.
Meryl's packaging is nice, with soothing pink tiles on the card. The blister itself has three-dimensional derringer and two bullets molded at the top, lining up with the gun and ammo printed directly behind it on the card. That's a nice little effect.
There are quite a number of items you need to remove from the two plastic trays before you can really start playing--while there's nowhere near as much assembling to do for this little lady as there was for that big honkin' robot, you've still got to put a few things together.
Ms. Stryfe includes a display base simulating a bar that's been shot all to hell; it's riddled with bullet holes, the wood is splintered and cracked, and discarded guns litter the ground. There's a small rusty sink behind the bar, and a hidden buzzer beneath a shelf. Kuroneko the freaksome big-eyed cat is falling off the bar, leaving clawmarks in the wood. The base is comprised of six sections--floor, bar facade and top, a shelf, the sink, and a faucet. The paint job on the "wooden" sections is good, with dark finish on the surfaces and lighter, natural color poking through from the insides where the wood is cracked or shot. There are several pegs on the back of the base which look as if they're designed to plug into another base; what that base may be, however, is unknown. Maybe the aforementioned sidekick Milly?
Meryl herself is a very well-sculpted figure with a sweet, innocent look on her face. At 6" tall, she's barely big enough to see over the bar. As you can see in the picture, she's wearing a white miniskirt, jacket, and boots, black leggings, and a long white cloak. The interior of the cloak is blue, and blue areas have been air brushed onto the white sections of the figure to create some shadows. Her skirt and cloak are made from soft, flexible vinyl, which holds its shape without cracking. She has twenty points of articulation which allow her a wide range of motion.
If you remove Meryl's cloak and dickey, you'll see that she's got some sort of harness around her chest. Dangling from her shoulders are four bands of holster, each holding five tiny guns. And yes, the guns are removable--she includes twenty individual quarter-inch pistols. Actually, no, that's a lie; her holsters are capable of holding twenty guns--the figure comes with 26. Not counting the eight discards that are sculpted onto the base. The figure has an extra set of hands designed to hold the guns, and they do so perfectly.
But the fun doesn't stop there; in addition to all the guns, Meryl comes with three manila envelopes stuffed with official documents. Each is molded from a single piece of solid plastic, so there's no danger of losing any tiny papers. Two of the envelopes are open, while the third remains sealed.
Since she travels from place to place, Meryl logically has a suitcase. It's got (non-moving, molded) wheels, several handles, and even an extending handlebar to facilitate rolling it along behind a weary traveller. There are zippers, pockets, and little rubber feet all molded on to add to the realism. Pretty cool, eh?
You don't know the half of it.
Her suitcase opens! It's hinged on the side, allowing you to simulate it being zipped open. Inside? Removable accessories. That's right, even more tiny separate pieces: a blue box, a pink drawstring bag, and a garment bag with coat hanger. How cool is that? There are also some more documents sculpted into the interior pockets. Moving on, we--
Wait, what's this? The suitcase has a false bottom?! It opens even further, revealing a bright red typewriter and... an uzi!? Again, both removable. The barrel of the gun pokes out through the side of the suitcase, and there's a hidden mechanism which allows it to be triggered from the handle of the suitcase. Wow! Tres cool.
Meryl's biggest drawback is that she costs upward of $20; that's three Simpsons figures or two McToys. Of course, for the amount of playability you're getting, that might not be such a bad deal. Additionally, Meryl's US release came more than a year after Monev, the last figure in this line, so it's not like you're dropping the clams every month. This is a great toy, and a good buy.
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BONUS!
Interested in the anime? Read Alkaiser's review of the first dvd at http://www.epinions.com/content_9189691012
McFarlane Toys made a figure of Vash, the main character in Trigun. Read Vash's comparative critique at http://www.epinions.com/content_34340376196
I've mentioned Monev the Gale a lot. Read my review at http://www.epinions.com/content_40323878532
Suggested For: Anime fans
Bang for the Buck: It's a good thing you get so much
Best Feature: Accessories
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 21.99
Type of Toy: Action Figure
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Epinions.com ID:
yogore
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: elsewhere
Reviews written: 1099
Trusted by: 78 members
About Me:
No way am I gonna get 100 this month--Epinions' database is just too lacking.
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