Busou Shinki: Checklist
Updated 10 Oct. ‘08 with Light Armor wave 1 reviews
One of the best things about Konami’s Busou Shinki line is that the company has used different character designers for each wave. Thus, despite having the common denominators of the same base figure design and same overall theme (i.e. “chicks ready to kick ass”), Busou Shinki figures differ from wave to wave. They may not have the incredible variety of, say, Xevoz, but there’s bound to be something in the line that appeals to an action figure fan. Medieval knight, future-tech SWAT operator, mermaid, Gundam warrior … the line goes from the past to the future, from the seas to the stars.
It must be said that despite standardised pegs, ports and joints Busou Shinki doesn’t really fare well in the interchangeability department. The problem is by playing up variety, Konami has diminished the interchangeability somewhat. Flower-inspired parts don’t really mix well with mecha parts.
The action figures are sold in two different types of sets.
Full sets
These range in price from 3500 yen to 4500 yen. Each full set includes a core MMS figure as well as many accessories and weapons to change the character’s look. The full sets also include an articulated figure stand.
EX Weapon sets
These range in price from 1500 yen to 2500 yen. Each EX weapon set includes a head, weapons, armour and other accessories but crucially, does not include a core MMS figure. The idea here is to get a new character design without paying the price of a full set. This may seem odd but Japanese toy companies have used this method to sell action figures as far back as the Henshin Cyborg line in the Seventies.
Both types of sets include access codes which can be added to Busou Shinki software to gain access to CG versions of characters.
The reviews linked below are in Japanese but they each have copious amounts of photos which are indicative of the figures’ features.
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Busou Shinki: MMS
The entire Busou Shinki line revolves around a svelte 15cm-tall female action figure designed by veteran figure modeller Asai Masaki (a.k.a. Apsy Masaki). Konami dubbed it the MMS figure.
MMS stands for “Multi Movable System” and the figure is indeed well-articulated. The head swivels, the bottom of the neck is ball-jointed, the shoulders are hinge-swivel combos, the biceps swivel, the elbows are hinged, the wrists swivel, the chest is ball-jointed, the thighs swivel and the knees and feet are hinged. In addition, some of the extra hands include a hinge joint. Most of these joints have been designed to allow a good range of motion so posability is quite good.
The posability is further improved by the cleverly designed hip joints. There’s a conventional ball joint for each hip but it’s supplemented by an additional U-shaped piece that swings out to allow extreme poses. The reason for this approach can only be to avoid ugly hips but it must be pointed out the figure does look awkward in some poses when the hip joints are swung out.
The overall design seems mostly sturdy but exercise caution when positioning the hip joints for extreme poses. The instruction sheet also advises caution when handling the knee and elbow joints although it may not be strictly necessary to point out knees and elbows don’t actually bend in those directions.
The MMS figure is meant to be easily disassembled to facilitate the swapping in and out of accessories, costume parts and weapons. For instance, to change Xiphos from plain MMS figure to knight, you have to first remove the head, the bust, the arms at the bicep, the hands and the lower legs.
Take note the biceps, wrists and thighs have plastic washers which may have to be removed when equipping certain parts to ensure a better fit. The washers for the wrists are especially tiny and will no doubt be the first pieces to be lost in this set. Some fans prefer to store these washers in the compartment at the bottom of the figure stand when not in use but a separate ziploc plastic bag would probably be a wiser choice.
Initially, the only way to get a basic MMS figure was to purchase one of the 3500 yen full sets but Konami began selling the core figures as MMS Naked on January 25 for 1800 yen each. These are difficult to obtain outside of Japan as the MMS Naked figures are sold exclusively through Konami’s online store which is unfortunately inaccessible to fans outside Japan. However, these figures are occasionally sold on auction sites like eBay.