Astro Toy

Figma Rintarou Okabe

Figma Rintarō Okabe
Series: Steins;Gate
Maker: GSC
Price: ~$48

I've found that Steins;Gate is one of those “you haven't watched Steins;Gate?!” series, so I'm going to come out of the gate and say I haven't seen Steins;Gate. That being said, it's pretty popular, Galvion got delayed... so we bought a figma off the shelf. This is a reprint, but Okabe's basically just lucky he hangs out with Kurisu Makise, whose two (!) figmas, released at the same time, were also reprinted.

I also do not know if the accessories are plot spoilers, but I figure they won't be if I'm the one reviewing them! Me and ol' Google should be able to get through this just fine.

The reason we bought Okabe rather than Makise is pretty simple: male figmas are simply rarer than their female counterparts. The target audience of a lot of these lines are definitely male otaku who like cute girls, and that's who gets the figures. Guy figmas aren't unheard of or anything, but it's maybe an 80/20 split. (Though I really wanted to, we could not fit Cobra and Crystal Bowie into the Astro Toy schedule.)

Note that he's a lot bigger than average for a Figma: this is of course because he's in scale with the diminutive Kurisu. Sculpt is good: there are a lot of nice details here that tell you right away that Okabe is downright slovenly. His facial hair is spotty and badly shaved, and I love the belt that just hangs off because it's too big. This piece is bendable plastic.

The lab coat, like other similar figma pieces, is segmented into two pieces with some articulation. It's also permanently windswept so that you can have it “flap in the breeze”.

Paint and accessories, as usual for figma, remind me of GSC's regular tucked-away warning that the figure you buy will never look as good as the beautifully painted protoype.

Here's a cool gimmick I haven't seen since I looked at Jotaro years back. This figure has alternate arm pieces so that Okabe can tuck his hands into his lab coat. This illusion is of course achieved with arms that don't really have hands attached, just little nubs that slip into the tiny spaces on the lab coat.

*WARNING**WARNING*

Replace the arms exactly as the instructions say, that is, grab the upper arm part and pull in a straight line on the lower arm part. The elbow joint is very delicate; if you pull at the elbow the part will bend and begin to crack. I know this because, of course, I did it this way and almost immediately caused permanent damage to the elbow joint. It didn't break, but it's already on its way there. I can use an elbow joint off one of the replacement arms in the meantime... but that's all.

The lab slippers come off, which was surprising. Nothing is securing them to the feet, so they will constantly fall off while handling the figure. I don't recommend putting them on until your pose is completely done and he's already plugged into the stand. Also, you're going to need the stand to pose Okabe while he's wearing the slippers; they are flat, slippery, roundish-- like real lab slippers-- and absolutely not designed to allow the figure to stand freely.

Given these troubles, you may want to swap out the slippers for regular shoes, for the times when Okabe isn't in the lab... or if you want him to stand up without the use of the stand. I switched them out immediately.

For accessories, you get Okabe's cellphone, which I read on Wikipedia is a major element in the original game. It's a simple, minimum-detail piece that comes attached to an extra right hand.

Also there's a ray gun! It's Mirai Gadget #1, the Bit Particle Cannon! ...which is actually just a TV remote. This piece is the one that looks least like the gleaming example shown with the prototype.

Would've taken a proper picture, but this goes onto the wrist and it isn't really visible over the lab coat's sleeve. Accept this instead.

This little gadget (Mirai Gadget #12: Darling no Baka) is a clever trick: it's actually an accessory for Kurisu, but it's been packed with Okabe so you can re-enact a scene where he gives it to her (I presume). That's what it says on the back of the box! There's even an extra hand for this specific purpose. But really... I think we know it's been packed with Okabe as insurance that Kurisu fans will buy his figure as well.

“Why didn't ya buy Kurisu then, you damn idiot?” Well, uh... the Kurisu figures actually come with even fewer accessories and there'd be even less to say.

The default hands and the “yeah!” face are so good that I'd personally never remove them. Ever.

So this is a perfectly good figma, but it's also the reason we don't buy figma off the shelf too often. There's no more difficult item to write this column about than a figma with minimum frills, and I do generally avoid them. I already know everything about it, and so do you if you've been reading this column for a while. There isn't anything unusual about this one at all. Nothing wrong, either, so if you like this character there's no reason not to go for it.

We paid $48 on Amiami. As I write this (however, please note we have a two-week buffer and “as I write this” is now two weeks before you read this) the figure's still available along with both Kurisus-- and I saw plenty of these figmas at Anime Boston-- but as usual with GSC stuff, if you want this don't wait around.

When he isn't killing time on fighting games and mahjong, David Cabrera makes moe 4-panel comics about videogames atKawaiikochan.You can follow him on Twitter @sasuraiger.