Bandai Tamashii’s Metal Build Line takes Full Metal Panic back to the Arm Slave that started it; the Arbalest.
Producer: Bandai Tamashii
Price: Approx. $220 USD
Release Date: May 2018
Item Height: Approx. 7″
Item Weight: N/A
Batteries: N/A
WHERE TO BUY: Ageless Geeks
Back in July of 2014, Bandai Tamashii took a nice turn from their growing Metal Build line in taking it from Strictly mecha from the Gundam franchise and making an homage to the ARX-8 Laevatein from “Full Metal Panic.” The Arm Slave (akin to mobile suits in “Gundam”) is piloted by the main protagonist Sgt. Sousuke Sagara, however it wasn’t his first suit but created after his previously-piloted ARX-7 Arbalest was destroyed. This past month, Tamashii brings us back to the beginning with the Arbalest and just like the Metal Build Laevatein, it’s an incredible toy and was a real treat to review and photograph. Check out the video above as well as my thoughts below and leave a comment to let me know what you think as well.
Presentation: The Arbalest box is a sturdy, cardboard one which is surprisingly more narrow in depth than the Lavaetein one since it comes with essentially the same accessories. The pictures and graphical layout all around are extremely clean and gives it more of a “high end” feel than Lavaetein and a lot of the Metal Build Gundam boxes which feature (very nice) artwork on the front. Everything is very well packed into the styrofoam and plastic shells as well. Arbalest himself is absolutely gorgeous with the Tamashii-standard perfect paint and tampo/detail applications. They’ve really accentuated an already very clean design.
Build: Per line standard the Metal Build ARX-7 Arbalest is a figure made of a diecast frame and joint system with the outer “shell” being a nice, sturdy plastic. The fit and finish are magnificent and it literally feels just as good as it looks. I also have to state that it’s really impressive that they handled so many small panels that flip and pull out to reveal the ECS sensors in a manner where nothing feels fragile (definitely watch the video to see which parts are recommended to use the included tweezers on!)
Accessories: I don’t even want to try to list the accessories because they’re so numerous that I feel as if I’m bound to forget something, however the Arbalest really comes with most of the items used in the show and the storage points both on the figure and its included “hangar” for them are awesome. The weapons are great but my favorite thing that came with are the parts to emulate its look while the Lambda Drive has been activated. The extended fins are so accurate and well done that it’s easily my favorite way to display him.
Articulation: I honestly can’t think of a pose that Metal Build Arbalest can’t pull off. It has joints just about everywhere you can think of an outside of individually-articulated fingers there really isn’t much more that I think COULD be added to this one. Throw in the buttery-smooth joints and great weight balancing and it’s just plain fun to play with.
Overall Score: 9.5/10 – Sousuke and the rest of the Mithril would be proud of this one. The Metal Build Arbalest looks like the TV model popped out of your TV and onto your desk, is an insanely good build with high-end materials used, and is as articulated as all get out. It’s an insanely good piece and I recommend the heck out of it. There really isn’t an area where this doesn’t not only meet standard but excel.
Check out the gallery and even and if you’re interested in purchasing one of your own, order from Agless Geeks!
