Pacific Rim Uprising: Robot Spirits (Damashii) Obsidian Fury Gallery

"Be advised, we have a rogue Jaeger."

In the years' long war against the Precursors & their weapons of mass destruction, the Kaiju, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps has continued to develop newer and better Jaegers. And while a Drone program is also under development by Shao Industries to eventually replace the PPDC & it's pilots, the occasional rogue element does arise. Enter: Obsidian Fury. A mysterious Jaeger which rose from the ocean to battle Gipsy Avenger. Equipped with advanced weaponry and capable of entirely inhuman movement, this monstrous mech is a force for our heroes to reckon with. Can Jake & Nate uncover the secret truth of Obsidian Fury? You'll have to watch Pacific Rim Uprising to find out!

** Beware, there be spoilers ahead! If you'd rather not be spoiled on some minor elements of Pacific Rim Uprising then I wouldn't read my review too thoroughly.

Packaging
As I mentioned with Gipsy Avenger, Pacific Rim Robot Spirits have gone in a totally new direction this toyline hasn't really done before in terms of packaging. Each figure comes in a box with a punched tag to hang it on a retail store hook. It's definitely a new thing for Robot Spirits/Damashii to so openly market these figure at mass market retail. But perhaps their appeal and simultaneous release in both Western & Asian markets contributed to this decision? In either case these boxes are very unique and totally their own thing within the line. Even in regards to how slim and tall they are. I really like this new direction. Obsidian Fury is also the first, and so far only, evil Jaeger in the line so his packaging get's some extra red accenting that the others don't.

Main Figure
Literally and figuratively, Obsidian Fury is an entirely different beast from Gipsy Avenger. Gipsy served as a modernized update, a streamlined version, of the Gipsy Danger. Obsidian Fury isn't really bound by any such nostalgia and is therefore a bit more free to embrace it's alien nature. As a figure, this means that Obsidian is incredibly poseable and has very few of the limitations the other figures in the line have had.

Like I said, Obsidian Fury is quite alien, and a lot of the design choices for the figure reflect it's inhuman nature. Much like Gipsy, Obsidian has really nice ball jointed ankles with plenty of range in all directions. They can even spin a full 360 degrees. I really really like the small details on this guy that set him apart from the more human like Jaegers, like his two-toed feet that remind me of like a mechanoid ninja. By far the thing that sells the alien-ness of Fury the most is the knee joint. It's designed in such a way that you can purposefully hyper extend it back, so far that the calfs wind up in an entirely different line of sight from the rest of the body when you look from the side. This kind of free movement makes for some insane posing potential. This guy cans trike a pose, and hold it.

The waist & hip area is designed in much the same way as Gipsy. Each thigh has a rotating section within it attached to the hip ball joint. These rotating sections let you turn the leg in or out, but they themselves are also attached to another balljoint down within the thigh meaning they have even more play to them. Double jointed thighs are a welcome feature. The hip balljoints are aslo attached to the interior of the waist on a shared gray panel. One which move's independently of the black waist/crotch itself. This entire assembly can swing in and out of both sides of the waist allowing for maximum movement. Lining things back up perfectly can be a pain, but all of these features add up to some incredible legs as whole.

The torso is also similarly designed to Gipsy. The lower half is one piece connected to the waist so there's no joint to make it move. Only the upper body floats on a ball joint. But thanks to how slender the lower half is, you can literally spin the upper body completely around, a full 360 degrees. The forward & back movement leaves a bit to be desired, but I'm not terribly displeased.

As with Gipsy, Fury has some pretty poorly designed shoulders. In this case much more poorly. Underneath those giant shoulder pads is a very spindly looking balljoint that sticks out and attaches to the bicep. Weirdly enough, there's no true bicep swivel in the arm, but rather right above the bicep where it attaches to the balljoint, is a swivel. This can make using the arms a bit more awkward than I'd like. I'm assuming the joint was placed there because the giant shoulder pads make it look like there's more mass to the upper arm than actually exists. The movie's CG model could certainly make this work, but in physical toy form it's a bit more difficult to cheat that. The elbows are fairly standard like Gipsy, and the wrist joints are just the same. Though Obsidian's end to pull the joint completely out every time you change hands. And those big shoulder pads I keep mentioning? They're on some weird peg joint that lies on the tip of the shoulder blade. You would think this means they could rotate up and back to free up the arms some, but they actually don't function very well at all.

This brings us to that beady little head of Obsidian Fury's. Set down a bit more into the shoulders of the figure it actually has a bit more range than I'd thought. Double jointed like Gipsy, Obsidian can angle his out to the sides quite nicely and stick his head out and forward menacingly as well. The only issue being backward movement where you always run into the neck cuff. Overall this is an exceptionally well articulated figure. But the lack of the neon orange light details that the movie model has can make this guy just blend together visually. There's a ton of uniquely sculpted detail everywhere that hasn't been painted properly and thus makes the figure seem really bland.

Accessories
Like Gipsy Avenger, Obsidian Fury comes with the bare minimum of what he needs, but thanks to the higher price point, it feels a bit less like a good deal.

2 - additional hands. Just a pair of open palms almost exactly like Gipsy's. They're even molded the same way, as though intended to arch the hand back rather than straight out, so they can look a bit unnatural. Then again this is a giant robot with an inter dimensional monster brain, so, yeah.

2 - Plasma Chainsaws. The Obsidian Fury's trademark weapons, these require a bit of part swapping much like Gipsy's Chain Sword. However nothing is leftover in doing the swap for Obsidian. You remove the forearm covers, attach the Chainsaws, then snap the arms covers back over top of this. It gives the effect of these actually popping out of the arm and doesn't leave you with a whole extra forearm the way Gipsy does. It would have been nice if these were painted correctly. But much like the figure itself, they are sparsely detailed. They're just solid translucent orange rather than being metal grey through the center as they should be. But I do appreciate the nice orange glow these give off in the right light. They do not however attach to Gipsy as they did in the film. These swords were salvaged from Obsidian and given to Gipsy for the final fight but that cross compatibility sadly did not make it into the toyline.

That's it for this one. I would have appreciated a little more variety in the hands, a chest blast effect part, or frankly even an alternate head with the exposed Kaiju brain. Any of these would have been a nice inclusion, especially given the extra $10 this figure (and the other 4 Jaegers) cost over Gipsy's more introductory $19.99 price point.

Final Thoughts
While I can definitely recognize this is a well made figure, a great figure even, I'm not terribly amazed by it for some reason. It's fun to pose because it has an event greater range than Gipsy Avenger did. But the sparse paint apps really do impact my impression of it. That and well, the rather convoluted arrival and eventual departure of this Jaegar from the film itself, combined with the films iffy plot, definitely hurt my interest. If you've already got Gipsy or some of the other PPDC Jaegers then I'd suggest picking this guy up to be a foil to them at least. Given that this figure and the other 5 are all still showing up at Toys R Us locations that are going out of business, and you can get a somewhat decent discount on them, I'd definitely pick up Robot Spirits Obsidian Fury.

Part 2
- CHAINSAWS (cont.)

Something about this guy reminds me of Bardiel from Evangelion. Not sure what.

Man that Jaeger looks so good. Can the energy chainsaws fit on Gypsy?

Calling it, someone will try to make a custom Gipsy with chainsaws

Picked up this one and Gypsy yesterday and I couldn't be happier with what I got at the prices I paid (10% off at B&N, then 20% more coupon for Obsidian).

I really like the black here, but she could definitely benefit from some more orange highlights. And I wish the chainsaws could be attached to Gypsy. Other than those two things, I can't think of anything I actually dislike about Obsidian. Might even like her more than Gypsy. Definitely glad to own them.

But I also don't feel like I need more than just these two. The others didn't leave much of an impact on me.

Now if only we could get some of the original Jaegers in the future...

Needs more glowy orange bits.