Figure Name: Revoltech Yamaguchi No. 116: Edward Elric
Figure Maker: Kaiyodo
Retail Price: ¥3,314
Buy at: HobbyLink Japan

So, to begin with ... a box. Standard Revoltech Yamaguchi fare here: same front window, same basic layout on the sides, and the back has some shots of Ed in motion. Nothing fancy here.

Whoa boy, there's much to go over on what's inside the box. Let's dive on in!

To start with, there's the stand, which features an extension, unlike some of my older Revoltech stands. It's optional to put on but proved rather useful throughout the shoot. However, keep in mind that this makes the figure take up a bit more space on your shelves, so plan accordingly.

What's the first thing you notice out of the box? Well, you do see the joints, (but when don't you on a Revoltech or figma?) but you can also see that Ed looks ... well, like he should. Everything is there, and in the right color, right down to the soles of his boots and the tie on the end of his braided ponytail. You can also spot the Flamel emblazoned on the back of his coat, covered partially by the hood.

Underneath the jacket is actually where the plug hole for the stand is. It's a bit of a pain to get to sometimes, but not as bad as you might expect at first.

Speaking of the back, there's an interesting choice that Kaiyodo has made, giving Ed's coat poseability by first making it in two pieces, then giving each a separate joint that plugs in to the back. It does make him look a bit bulky back there, but it actually proves rather useful ... when the joints aren't popping out of place, that is. I had a bit of a problem with that, but thankfully, they go right back in. You can also see that Ed's braided hair has a joint on it, too.

Ed's hair is sculpted in the appropriate manner, with his bangs slightly hanging over his face, and it's the right color yellow, to boot. His actual default face is alright; it's not the most exciting thing in the world to see, but it is pretty true to his appearance in the manga by Hiromu Arakawa. 

As for his outfit, Revoltech and sculptor Katsushita Yamaguchi have made sure to include everything that's expected. The paint is rather clean, but there's not much detail in the way of folds and such. Plus, those coat cuffs being flat against the joint and not made so the joint recesses inside of the coat makes it look a bit more, well, plastic than other figures I've seen, like the aforementioned Play Arts Kai figures. Still, it's enough to get the job done here, though the joints aren't all hidden well.

Everything is also accurate at the legs and feet, too. No paint issues to report, and Ed stays pretty stable just on the base itself.

The one thing I don't quite like is how blocky Ed's fists are. They seem a bit too squared off on both hands, and they're the only hands for the figure that feel this way, to be honest.

But, on the other hand, there's this little innovation from Kaiyodo — a hinged front hair piece — that lets you swap out the faces much easier. Seriously, it's no mess, and since there's a seam on the top of the head anyways, why not go this route? I like it a lot better than the traditional way of doing things because it also doesn't mean the front hair piece gets loose over time and falls off.

How about some action, though? Here's Ed in a fighting pose, and as you can see, he's pretty flexible. There weren't any issues with joints popping or breaking on the body and he holds his shape pretty firmly. You can also see how those coat joints work here and how nice it looks with the added feel of movement.

This piece is apparently supposed to be a piece to highlight Ed's foot sliding and the force behind it, but to me, I just don't really like it. It feels kind of cheap and you can see some of the flash from the mild still attached to it.

On the other hand ... Ed's cocky smile face? Yep, I like that, and it sure fits him! A little better detailed than the default face, for sure, and no real paint issues. It's actually my favorite of the four included.

My blocky complaints about the hand sculpt don't apply to the open-palmed left hand, which looks nicely detailed. Or rather, as nicely detailed as a white-gloved hand could. There's some definition between each of the fingers and I like how the shape of each finger curls more as you get toward the pinky, in part because that's usually how it looks in real life, too.

You probably want to see the other side more, though. Right?

Wouldn't be an Edward Elric figure without his automail. Coming as a separate forearm and hand piece for the right arm, Kaiyodo appears to have gone to great lengths to replicate as much detail as possible from the manga/anime. As such, the lines between the metal plates look great, especially topped off with a metallic silver paint job. Still, that's not all:

The outer part of the automail is removable and swappable with Ed's automail blade, along with an alternate open-palmed hand and a torn shred of his red overcoat that fits into a small hole (via a peg) on the automail base.

You can also see his last face, the angry, scowling one, which is a little clearer in some of the photos coming up. I think they may have messed up the coloring on his left eye, as the line under that eye seems to be a more brown than black color. That just bugs the perfectionist in me.

The automail swap itself was painless and the finished piece looks nice from afar, but what about close up?

The answer is ... well, yeah, it looks pretty good up close as well. In particular, the blade part has a nice shape to the edge of it, but the real nice detail here belongs to the opened hand. Like the fist,you can see all the seams between the metal panels and pieces, and there's no major paint problems to deal with. I just had a tiny spot where they missed a layer of metallic silver paint, but that's more likely a one-off defect than any serious problem. 

Whoa now, Ed. I didn't call you short or anything; no need to kick me in my face! Another pose from the package, this one requires the full stand (minus the extension), and features our little state alchemist leaping into the air, ready to kick someone's head into orbit for a perceived slight.

... Okay, I just did call him small. I deserve it.

Ed's rage face is just too perfect and in hindsight, not including it would have been a huge mistake on Kaiyodo's part. Some parts of it do look a little rougher than his other faces, but there's nothing here to distracting.

Ed's last set of hands are the ones he uses for most of his alchemy-related poses, hands bent at the wrist and fingers together. They look alright, though a bit bigger than I'd expect, and have a pretty good range of motion (more on why I didn't say "perfect" later). 

The other thing to note is the effect pieces, the blue circles of energy, as I like to call them. They're semi-translucent and made of a light blue metallic PVC with enough detail to be useful. These can be used flush against the ground or, really, against anything at all. It's a nicer effect piece than the first one we saw, and they fit snugly into the holes on the inside of each hand via a peg.

This is one of the big "money" poses, with Ed transmuting on the ground (or whatever surface you happen to have him on), along with the accompanying effect piece. You're supposed to be able to get Ed to have his head up while in this pose, but I was unable to. His neck joint didn't seem as poseable as it did on the box, apparently. That, or I was doing something wrong.

Also of note, his leg is bent backward instead of being out to the side and his hands aren't quite flush with the ground, no matter how hard I tried. A bit disappointing, but what I managed to pull off isn't that far off from the box, so I won't complain too much about it. Having had posing troubles with figures in the past, I was at least happy to get something like this. Plus, the effect piece hides that his hands don't touch the ground completely!

Upon closer inspection, you can see the little bits of detailing on the translucent piece, which adds some much needed definition to a piece like this. The little corners are distracting, but they're a necessary evil to keep this piece standing, and when you get it under the right light, it really looks nice:

Revoltech Yamaguchi Edward Elric isn't perfect, but it is a major improvement in several regards. An improvement over some of the past figures they've released featuring characters in coats, which were a bit more of a pain in the butt to work with or just looked plain ugly (especially that Kenshin ... ugh). There's little complaints here and there, but in general, I'm satisfied with what they've put together, especially on this small scale.

As for how it matches up to the previously released Play Arts Kai figures ... well, those are indeed bigger, but you get so much more from the smaller Revoltech Yamaguchi series for almost the same price that it doesn't seem like a fair fight. I probably don't need to say this, but fans of Fullmetal Alchemist would do well to have this in their collection.

[Thanks to HobbyLink Japan for sending Revoltech Edward Elric along for this review!]