Toy Review: Acid Rain B2Five Wave 2A (Sand Laurel and Marine Stronghold)

B2Five keeps the 1:28th scale Acid Rain goodness going with the first part of their second wave!

Producer: B2Five

Price: Sand Laurel Approx. $55 USD Marine StrongHold Approx. $69 USD

Release Date: Jan. 2017

Item Height: Marine Stronghold Approx. 5.75″ Sand Laurel Approx. 4.25″ Pilots Approx 2.5″

Item Weight: N/A

Batteries: N/A

WHERE TO BUY: Acid Rain Shop

At the start of the year, B2Five released their second wave (titled Wave 2A) of 1:28th scaled Acid Rain toys with the 88th Sand Laurel LA4S4 and the Marine Sieger Stronghold ST2M. Featuring a new-to-line mech suit mold as well as the same interchangeablity and general “fun” that this line has become known for, these two definitely keep the hype going.
Check out my thoughts on these pieces below as well as the gallery and let me know what you think in the comments!

Presentation: The packaging is standard for the line with a nice graphical layout and clear pictures of the products and their different aspects on both the front and the back. The items are well-packed and protected in their plastic bubbles and even with fairly light packing from overseas the boxes were in pristine condition. The items themselves look fantastic with error-free paint applications and tampoes and a nice finish that isn’t quite matte but isn’t glossy to the point where it makes it hard to see details of the figures themselves.

Build: Fairly standard-but-strong plastics throughout all of it with no other materials like diecast. In handling both the pilots and mech suits everything definitely feels stable without any fear of overhandling even in fairly “rough” play.

Accessories: The accessories on both the mechs and pilots are pretty bare-bones but definitely not poor by any means. Only the Sand Laurel pilot has an accesory for himself in a gun and the Laurel itself is the only mech that comes with one in a large blaster and pack connected to each other by a chain of ammo that can be connected by each part at multiple points on the body of the mech.

Articulation: The articulation on the pilots like the last wave is just sublime. It’s insane to see 2.5″ figures rivaling the heck out of figuarts with what they can do. The mechs have pretty good articulation as well and it’s impressive just how well they pose even though they’re literally made to not “look” like they have much articulation at all. I have to use thise opportunity to give credit to just how “smooth” the joints on all of these pieces feel as well. Even though they hold strong, while moving things, pieces just have this glide to them that really has to be done in person to see why it’s worth writing about.

Overall Score: 7.5/10 – While both pieces are solid and fun, I feel that the biggest “draw” of this portion of the wave is the Sand Laurel in that it’s a “different” mech suit in terms of unique mold where the Marine Stronghold is literally the fourth variant of the Stronghold mold released so far. Now don’t get me wrong in that I personally love the Stronghold mold but if there was one to choose, that’d be it. The pilots as normal are awesome and insanely articulated but I was surprised that the Marine pilot didn’t have any weapons included. Overall I feel like these are a definite “go,” especially if you’re already invested into the toyline. As much as the mechs and pilots themselves are neat I’m about having as much fun as anything getting new pieces to expand the modular ability of them all and create mechs with even more pieces from between them.