Friday, November 23, 2012

Check out ZCWO 1/6 Articulate Body AB-01

The ZCWO 1/6 scale Articulate Body AB-01 will come with 2 pairs of hands, ankle extension joints, 4 pieces of interchangeable neck and an extendable neck. It's not clear whether or not the AB-01 comes with the 1/6 scale head sculpt. Since ZCWO announced their Mens Hommes MH010 1/6 scale U.S. Air Force Officer Service Dress Uniform for 12-inch figures recently (posted earlier in my toy blog HERE), we can be quite sure that this AB-01 articulated body is intended for that particular dress uniform ;p


Is the head sculpt supposed to be a replica of Hot Toys 1/6 scale 75th Ranger Regiment Terrence Howard head sculpt (see my earlier post HERE for pictures)? The resemblance to the actor is not so telling. Also the 12-inch figure body appears to be rather thin. Then again, thin bodies are easy to bulk up if necessary and this might just be what is needed, especially when you are going to pile on the uniform and assault vest plus pouches and gear as well as accessories. Hopefully, more 12-inch figure bodies being put onto the market means lower pricing for collectors with more options to purchase.




The longish looking giraffe neck and the size of the head sculpt (too big?) might be throwing off the proportions a little. Maybe adding a shorter neck and a smaller head might make the AB-01 look a bit better but that being said, once you start adding the clothes, things might just balance out a bit.


Figures like these are not meant to be 100% correct in proportions because most of the time you don't pose the figure naked i.e. without clothes. To get a correct picture of a proper proportioned 12-inch figure body that is ultra-realistic, you have to take a look at Hot Toys excellent Movie Masterpiece Series MMS114 1/6 scale 12" King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) collectible figure from the 2006 movie "300". Check out my REVIEW here with lots of pictures :)


Hot Toys King Leonidas is probably the last time we are ever going to see a fully seamless 12-inch male body. I suspect cost is the reason why they are not making any more of these seamless bodies. Soon after Leonidas, Hot Toys released the Hugh Jackman Wolverine Limited Edition Collectible Figure from the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)" movie and that body was anything but seamless (see my post HERE). And that has been the norm ever since.


Even ACI and Kaustic Plastik produced and released 1/6 scale Gladiator figures with bulked up bodies but they weren't seamless bodies either. Check out the ACI Flamma Gladiator pictures HERE and Kaustic Plastik 1/6 scale "Celadus" Roman gladiator 12-inch figure pictures HERE :) They are fine examples of 12-inch bodies designed to be displayed without clothes, not so this ZCWO 1/6 scale Articulate Body AB-01.


I'm pretty curious as to why ZCWO would include 4 pieces of interchangeable neck. Hot Toys only include two for their TTM (True Type Male) 12-inch figure bodies. There are no pictures of the neck pieces for show :(


2 comments:

  1. Thank you @lex! I mean for the blog and sharing so much great infos and pics (I think I visit your blog as often as my main 1/6 seller's site; Soldier Story's, DAM's, etc.)
    ...
    As I certainly do not have your collecting experience in time(and that certainly gives you some accurate judgment); would you be kind and share your opinion on Hot Toys True Type bodies. As you stated on this blog, the last muscular is very limited regarding bending arms. The others are more or less available.
    So ( a long intro to a simple question :)); do you think/know if they will produce some new ones Male and Female? If they will; what is their usual time rate you noticed?
    Thank you in advance for your time and stay yourself :D

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  2. Thanks for the encouraging words and compliments :) I started this blog as a way of cataloging my toy collection so that I know what I have and when I bought them but it has grown to be so much more.

    No doubt Hot Toys True Type bodies are the standard all 1/6 companies should try to emulate in terms of quality and steadiness. A lot of the bodies floating around have loose joints and are unable to stand on their own two feet, mostly due to the weak ankle joints. When the ankles are loose, the figure just drop like flies :( not good if you have taken time to pose them and worse when they create the dreaded domino effect and bring down the rest of the figures on display.

    The last Hot Toys True Type body released was the TTM19 Muscular Body (see my review - http://toyhaven.blogspot.sg/2011/12/review-hot-toys-ttm19-truetype-muscular.html) and I even made comparisons with the TTM18 (http://toyhaven.blogspot.sg/2012/02/comparing-hot-toys-truetype-ttm18-ttm19.html).

    There are no news from Hot Toys at the moment regarding new figures (their plate is quite full as it is ;p) and I think HT is letting the other players sort themselves out in the area of 12-inch figure bodies. There really are a lot of them in the market right now which is good for collectors.

    CHEERS

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