Ultra Seven: S.H. Figuarts Dan Moroboshi Gallery – Toku Toy Box Entry

"Ultra Eye!"

Dan Moroboshi was a heroic member of the Ultra Garrison. A mysterious young man, Dan was secretly in fact the hero Ultra Seven! Having come to Earth by chance while mapping the Milky Way, Seven would manage to save the life of a young hiker. Putting a spin on the classic story of Ultraman & Shin Hayate, rather than merging his being with this hiker, Seven would assume his appearance and create his Dan Moroboshi persona.

Packaging
Following the examples set by the first few Ultraman S.H. Figuarts, Dan comes in the now standard themed packaging. I really like the sweeping effects of the design, and the subtle blue of his box really works well with it. I do feel like the stock photos are deceptive as they don't really show you anything of action or significance.

Main Figure
Tamashii Nations has been at it with S.H. Figuarts for a very very long time at this point. Celebrating 10 years of the toyline, has also happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the series Ultra Seven. So Seven has enjoyed a number of great releases this year. S.H. Figuarts has tackled Ultra Seven himself, Alien Metron, King Joe, and the recently announced Alien Guts. Rounding out this years releases though is Dan Moroboshi himself. The first in a new sub-series of civilian identity S.H. Figuarts, Dan is sort of setting the bar for what we can expect with these kinds of releases going forward. Retsu Ichijoji of Space Sheriff Gavan & Takeshi Hongo of Kamen Rider have also been releases recently. But we're gonna kick off our thoughts with Dan.

So this is a brand new mold. One that I want to say from the outset, does indeed have some flaws. I always like to start my reviews from the ground up, so the legs are what I want to focus on first. As Bandai has improved it's sculpting over the years, they've been able to more accurately recreate realistic fabric/fold details. Giving these figures a better sense of realism. That detailing is very apparent in Dan's boots and pants and I just really appreciate that. His ankle tilts though, really need improvement. There's just not enough play in them for dynamic poses. But that's really only part of the problem. The hips & knees are likewise limited. The knees are on a strange split ball joint, when you bend the knees one half of the ball joint tracks with the lower leg and upper leg which feels very limiting. The knees get a bout an 80 degree bend which would be fine, if not for the limited hip joints. They also cannot assume a 90 degree bend. Combine these issues with the ankles and you have a recipe for mediocre articulation.

Now I really really like the waist and torso detailing. Dan's Ultra Garrison belt and holster are very crisply painted and detailed. The holster for his Ultra Gun is a bit tight, and given it's pointy tip it's a bit dicey to put in there. The torso is more of an interesting mix of sculpted details and joints. I really appreciate that the abdomen can rotate independently move from the upper, but it does break up the sculpt work of his UG Suit. Now I'm not a huge fan of the strange cuts used for the shoulder sections. They feel like they want to be similar to the "butterfly joints" of some Marvel Legends. Instead they function very ineffectively. Really that brings us to the arms themselves. The biggest fault of this figure, it has no bicep swivels, and that's detrimental. The combination of no swivels and little clearance for the shoulder sections means getting the arms close to the main body is eye pleasing poses is difficult. Even getting his hands on his hips is nearly impossible, or trying to get a hand on the Ultra Gun while it's in the holster. And that's really disappointing. Sadly another contributor to this imperfection is the same split style ball joints used for the elbows.

Finally that brings us to the head. Now I know people have had divisive opinions over Bandai's face printing technique for human faces. A number of the Marvel & Star Wars releases have honestly been done pretty poorly. But I gotta say, Dan's face print looks great. It's a little dead in the eyes, but the face print itself is really quite on point. Unfortunately the head is very limited in what it can do thanks to the weird cuff around the neck, it's basically just a cylinder raised out from between the shoulders that can hardly move and impacts the underside of the head at every turn.

Honestly I'm just really frustrated by the articulation choices that went into this release. I think it looks great from many angles, but the ability to get it into those angles is very limited.

Accessories
Honestly Dan comes with a ton of stuff:

1 - Ultra Gun. This small sidearm is the standard weapon of all Ultra Garrison members. It's a bit difficult to fit into the gun hands because of the width of the grip. You kind of have to turn to a weird angle to make it fit, then really push to get his trigger finger through. It could have been executed much better than this.

1 - Video Seaver. This wrist mounted communication device is another standard for Ultra Garrison members. The figure already has one attached behind the left wrist straight out of the box. But this swap out one has a flipped open screen. There's not much to it but I appreciate the inclusion.

1 - Helmeted Head. This head features the same face printed likeness of Dan, though it feels a bit softer. The helmet itself has a nice glossy finish and a visor that can flip down (this looks rather silly thought). This head runs into (literally) the same issues as the other in regards to hitting the collar parts. I really wish it had just been an empty helmet that could be placed over the normal head, but oh well.

1 - Ultra Eye. This is Seven's transformation item. It's a very small and thin accessory that can sort of be held in one of the Ultra Gun hands. Though this is rendered unnecessary by another accessory.

1 - Ultra Eye hand. This one is molded straight into a hand in the position you'd need to get it flush with Dan's eyes to simulate his transformation. It's a little tricky to get it there but it does work. I don't really know why the individual Ultra Eye is included now honestly, it can't stay on his head or anything like that.

2 - sets of hands. 1 set of open palms, one set of gun hands. I would have liked a slightly better selection but this gets the job done.

I can't really think of anything else that I miss terribly from this release other than a few more hands.

Final Thoughts
So what do we think of the first true civilian form S.H. Figuart? Well, I'm mixed. I love the idea, I just think the execution is very flawed. The articulation just isn't really there. The sculpt and paint work are on point, the face printing is much improved as well. The accessories are pretty great. As the first of the generation of civilian figuarts, S.H. Figuarts Dan Morboshi doesn't set the bar particularly high, but it's a great starting point. I'll be reviewing Retsu Ichijojo in the coming weeks, as well as Takeshi Hongo. So I'm anxious to see what if any general improvements have been made since this first attempt.

Part 2
- Alien Metron
- Ultra Eye
- Ultra Seven

This just reminds me I need to watch my Seven DVDs

I really like his jumpsuit. The white on blueish-silver looks really neat.

That's a really sharp headsculpt. I'd really like to get more "civilian" mode figures for Toku stuff, for some modern releases. If there were a Kiriko Shijima figure there would be more of a reason to get the Figuarts Tridoron.

that is really cool! and a good likeness as well.

It's certainly an interesting addition to any collection.

I'm excited that toku civilian Figuarts are now a thing, even though they haven't yet solicited any of the ones I'd want (Heisei Riders, mainly.) I haven't seen Ultra Seven, having instead opted for Ultra Seven X, and I've been impressed by what I've seen so far.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for... Well, anything from the SuperHero Time shows. In the meantime, these are making me optimistic that these'll actually happen. (I also picked up Taskeshi Hongo - it's in the mail now - not so much because I care about Showa Riders, but because I want to encourage Bandai that these could sell.) Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, thanks for another fun gallery!

That’s a really nice head sculpt but I would’ve liked a more anime style face for the future identity figures, still a nice figure though