Non-Gunpla: Revoltech - Laevatein

Revoltech is a series created by Kaiyodo, another Japan toy maker. It is a famous line-up because the Revoltech toys are able to be posed with a lot of action thanks to its Revolver joint. I'm not really a big fan of Revoltech because it's small(comparable to a 1/144 Gunpla) and the design is not really my kind of taste. But, I still have to give it credit because the Revoltech design resembles closely to the anime design and it's able to perform variety of poses that's almost reminiscene the actions seen in the anime. The cost is about RM 90++ each. Since it was released, it has come out with a lot of sub lineup like Fraulein Revoltech series, which is specifically for Bishojo (beautiful lady), Street Fighter, and Fist of the North Star.

The Revoltech that I got is ARX-8 Laevatein (No. 59) from the series Full Metal Panic. Although I never watch any of the Full Metal Panic episodes, I do remember that I didn't see this in action at all. From what I could understand from the box, this ARX-8 does appear in the serialized novel. It is considered as a deluxe Revoltech because it comes with a lot of extra parts that you could choose from, and the box is 2 times bigger than the normal Revoltech but surprisingly it cost the same.


Here's a picture on how it looks like. This set comes with a display stand as well so you could display the ARX-8 in the air like in the following pictures. I must say that it looks quite nice and cool and overall it looks pretty anime.



The ARX-8 comes with a long rifle that could be detached to become a short assault rifle. I don't really know what's the name for the weapon although a couple of googling could help, but I just don't bother to do it. The rifle would look something like the following picture. This rifle reminds me of the rifle used by the Gespent MK II Kai in Super Robot War Orignal Generation Gaiden.



So it looks nice & cool and it's able to pose a lot of difficult action, so it's great!!! Not exactly though because like Gunpla that could break easily, I'd see that Revoltech has a weakness too. Although the Revolver joint is great, but it's very hard to get it into the desired position. Sometime you may have to take out the joint, twist it to your desired position, then put it back again. For a toy like this that made of durable plastic, I'd enjoy it if I could just twist and turn the joint wherever I want without the needs to take it out, twist, and put it back. The maker surely have their reason behind this, so I won't give any further comment on this.

On another note, like the GFF series, this comes with a lot of spare parts that could render useless because you can't use all of them at the same time, so you might considering to get another one. Also, it's very hard to get this Revoltech to stand still because of it's small feet under full equipment load, so the display stand will have to be used to make it stable.

Conclusion? I still prefer 1/100 Gunpla. Revoltech is very innovative, but it's just not my cup of tea.