Two of the earlier pairs of 1/6 Adidas Superstar that were released were worn by 1/6 scale 12-inch Hong Kong Special Duties Unit (SDU) members. They came with Hot Toys SDU Assaulter and Breacher in 2003. Although they are usually attired in their tactical suits, in the movie "Final Option (1994)", Michael Wong as LT Stone Wong (Dragon's LT Wong posted here) orders his Unit to discard their suits in place of civies so that they can identify who the bad guys were as they too wore SDU suits to confuse the unit in the ultimate battle.
As usual, Hot Toys SDU team came heavily decked out with tons of equipment and accessories - value for money!
Now a comparison of 1/6 scale Adidas Superstar. The pair of 1/6 scale white/black Adidas Superstar was made available thanks to Shaun who bought it during his recent trip to Hong Kong and there's a whole post/entry about the sneakers here.
Hot Toys Adidas on the left and genuine Adidas licensed item on the right
Close-up of Hot Toys' Adidas
Close-up of Adidas 1/6 Superstar White/Black
Rear view of Hot Toys 1/6 scale Adidas
The genuine stuff! Look at the details and stitching - really SUPERB
The character wearing the 1/6 Adidas Superstar is Kakugo from Apocalypse Zero (覚悟のススメ Kakugo no Susume), a manga series written and illustrated by Takayuki Yamaguchi, and adapted into a two-part original video animation (OVA) in 1996. The basic plot is that Kakugo and Harara are siblings trained to fight the monsters roaming in post-apocalyptic Tokyo in the 21st century. To aid them, Kakugo and Harara were entrusted with "Zero armors", exo-skeletons forged from the souls of deceased warriors. After Harara succumbs to the evil within the armor, it is up to Kakugo to defeat his sibling. I really dig the "Zero armor" and bought the Medicom Apocalypse Zero "Kyoka Gai Kokaku Zero" figure without even finding out who the character was, good or bad (see my post of the full armored figure here)
Close-up of Kakugo's head sculpt
If you are thinking of watching the Apocalypse Zero OVA, John Oppliger (editor and consultant of AnimeNation, an anime merchandise and production distributor) called the Apocalypse Zero OVA "the most viscerally violent and gruesome anime" he has seen and "arguably the most grotesque anime ever made". Consider yourself warned!Tokyo Tribe 2's Kai from the Saru gang also wore Adidas Superstar (link here)
Thanks so much for the comparison pix, my guru. The eyelets on the SDU superstars look great, and the advantage that they have is the thin shoelaces. The shoeslaces that come with the official product is thick, and one end is frayed, which makes it a bit difficult to re-lace, but a pin and some sticky tape to guide the frayed end through the eyelet may solve that issue. Size wise, other than the sole, they look pretty close. Also, the cloth three stripes on the SDU superstars is quite nice. I believe the three stripes on the official superstars is PVC.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the pix!
very keen observation shaun :) and U R most WELCOME!!
ReplyDeleteGlad, and in a way disappointed, to see that I'm not the only one who suffered from cracked muscle bodies on those SDUs. They're lovely figures, and the kit is amazing (the t-shirts, jeans and Superstars are awesome), but those muscle bodies... I'm sorely tempted to refit them to more modern HT bodies, or try and rustle up some old HT bodies from somewhere.
ReplyDeleteHi bighatdino, as I also just told Joshua, these were Hot Toys' "prototype" i.e. first generation muscle bodies and they crack up over time. they also suffered from very limited articulation as well - same thing happened with Hot Toys first DEVGRU figures; Dragon's USMC "Russell" wasn't spared either :( thankfully, the later versions seem to have not suffered this same cracking issue - Hot Toys Rambo figure and Dragon's Bad Boys II figures have withstood the test of time.... so far
ReplyDeleteI know about the limited articulation, I managed to dislocate one of the shoulders completely of one of mine :(
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they've sorted it with the muslce bodies, although I can't say I'm keen on buying another again, even though the Arnie as Dutch from Predator is sorely tempting :)
One thing I would like to ask, however, is do you have any idea how to get the t-shirts off these figures? The lack of articulation and the size of their muscles makes them awkward to strip, and I'd really like to save these t's for some kit bashing :)
I haven't tried stripping the T-shirts myself, they seem rather tight on the muscle bodies. I was thinking if the bodies were already all cracked up and if one of the arms is already dislocated (OUCH!), perhaps if the other arm was also dislocated (double OUCH!), then the arms become rather flexible for the removal of the T-shirts. Just throwing in my two cents worth coz my time will come when I also want to switch bodies.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that after I posted my comment :)
ReplyDeleteI suspect, if I can't get them off (as you say they're pretty form-fitting to the muscle bodies) then I might have to cut the bodies apart to get them off (as neat as the bodies are, they look horrble all cracked up, so I'm not bothered about losing 'em - I can keep the head sculpts after all).
my thoughts exactly :) great minds think alike - the head sculpts are still good for bashing
ReplyDelete