Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Review: Kotobukiya Mega Man X Rising Fire Ver.

When Kotobukiya's Mega Man X Fourth Armor Rising Fire Ver. was announced, it was accompanied by the kit above: Mega Man X Rising Fire Ver. While on the surface it may appear to be an X recolor, it does bring its own flavor to the table. Besides, X having recolors is a huge part of the games in the first place, right? After the break, let's see what makes this kit more than just a simple recolor.

 Review sample provided by HobbyLink Japan. Go check 'em out!

After defeating fan-favorite Maverick Magma Dragoon in Mega Man X4, X is granted the Rising Fire ability. It turns his armor to red and grey; a palette perfectly captured in this kit. Aside from making X dress like his best friend, this kit also comes with several fire effects. These include flaming fists, a Rising Fire piece, and a Ryuenjin blade to add to your Z-Saber. As usual, he also comes with an assortment of facial expressions and hands to fit any pose you're going for.



The accessories are really the stars of the show here. A flame shot for X and a flame sword for Zero can really spice up your display.


This kit is also fully compatible with the Mega Man X Fourth Armor Rising Fire Ver. kit, so it's once again time to use your sense and skill to create your own burning Hunter.


And for those who were upset that the Second Armor did not come with a Shoryuken effect, you may be wondering if you can use these fire effects to cover that. Well, sure you can.



So, is this kit worth it? I'd say so, especially if you like X in red. The effect pieces are really fun and add a lot of variety. This kit will also fit into a Mega Man X3 display since this color scheme is the same as Spinning Blade (or extremely close), so feel free to get creative!

If Kotobukiya decides to do another weapon re-color for X, which would you like to see?

The Rising Fire kit is available from HobbyLink Japan, so get your hands on one today. Also worth pointing out, at the time of this writing, they're holding a sale on the other available Mega Man X kits. Grab 'em while you can!

13 comments:

  1. @ColeManX what do you use for your panel lines? Pen? Pencil? Gundam Marker?
    Do you have issues with smearing? Some of those cause smearing issues if your not careful.

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    1. Black Tamiya Panel Line Accent and Gundam Markers depending on what is being lined. A white plastic eraser cleans up the Panel Line perfectly leaving the lining only where you want it. If you use a clear paint sealer, over the Gundam Marker bits, it should stop the smudging. Hope that helps.

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    2. Didn't know Tamiya made panel line accent. Gundam Markers, in the past, would run even if I used clear coat. If one or the other was too heavy, it would mix and run. So stopped using it altogether.

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    3. Most of the Gundam marker products are oil-based, and oil takes a long time to dry. If you were clear-coating too soon: that was your problem. It sounds like you're aware that blasting (and not misting) with clear coat was causing problems, too. There are lots of tutorials about how to use these products correctly.

      I think Tamiya Panel Line Accent is enamel, which also takes long to dry, but is pretty durable without clear-coating.

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  2. I really think that this kit --- the basic version of X -- is the best of the bunch overall after building several from this line.
    The satin finish of the plastic makes it look much better than if it were glossy.

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  3. I really hate how X and Rock (by extension Zero) get all the love when it comes to figures. It's been 18 years and we're only now getting hints of an updated Axl figure.... Why no Alia? Ciel? ANY female character....

    Plus, maybe I'm the weird one, but of all the armors I only really like the vanilla looks of the characters (and I doubt we'll ever see a CM version of X).

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    1. "ANY female character..."

      The very FIRST wave of Rockman model kits offered by Kotobukiya included Roll, and it had enough parts to make two different versions of her; Roll received arguably the most attention-to-detail and love in that wave of figures. Sen-Ti-Nel made a Roll Caskett figure with 3 variants. Roll also has an excellent Nendoroid from Good Smile. X-Plus released a giant-sized premium vinyl statue of Roll. Takara Tomy have released Roll, Tron, Yuna, and Sera figures, with Roll and Tron having been released in several sizes, poses, and variations. Don't forget about Keshi either, and other vending-machine toys...

      Otherwise this discussion is so tedious and so tone-deaf. "Business" is always the answer. Big companies (like Kotobukiya) are not going to invest in supporting, (mostly) non-playable characters like Alia and Ciel. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to make model kit and action figures, so their priority is to make every kit have wide appeal to turn a profit. Look at some of the other X armor variants, and you'll see how difficult it has been for Kotobukiya to sell even those. Out of the 12 kits released in this series so far: only 5 have been reissued, and those are: two BLUE variants of X, Zero, and both Max (X3) Armor versions. Most of the reissues are "core" characters! When D-Arts reissued a figure: which one was it? It was just regular X. Do you see a theme here?

      If you want smaller, fan-made tribute figures of lesser characters: HobbyRock and WonderFest are the places to look. You can often find these figures on eBay or Yahoo! Japan after these festivals. (Yes, there have even been Alia, Iris, and Ciel figures.) Yep, they're going to be expensive to get outside Japan! (Though I did manage to get a HobbyRock Forte resin kit for under $100.)

      The silver-lining here is that we have some chance to see Kotobukiya go deeper with Rockman, but I'm guessing there will never be a financial precedent to engineer and manufacture an Alia figure; we're more likely to get Tron Bonne -- she had her own game, at least -- with some Servbots.

      I'd love to live in a world where all the characters are always available as premium figures -- I would truly love for your frustrations to be allayed -- but reality is that a minority of fans pining for bit characters does not add-up to profits, or even to breaking-even.

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    2. Merry Christmas 🤢😅
      https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Jazwares-Mega-Man-6-inch-Articulated-Action-Figure-Command-Mission-Megaman/PRD45GVCKZRHIBD

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    3. My hobbyist attempt turned out so much better than that Jazwares abomination

      https://imgur.com/a/vl9jpd7

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    4. @shrap
      Your work is another example of a point I neglected to make, which is that fan-created art of lesser-appreciated characters -- especially some of the stuff we've seen from MadHands, SAGE, etc. -- can often be much better than what a big company would give us.

      There are tons of figure customizers with ample talent on Instagram, so if you want a character bad enough: just commission one. Having a big brand-name doesn't necessarily make the figure better. Shrap's got stuff in his collection nobody else has because he made them himself.

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  4. Here's a shot of some high-quality, fan-made "lesser" characters which even includes a female:
    https://preview.redd.it/ych0vz0joen31.jpg?auto=webp&s=cd9bcf926b5500c207e4f9f293a142a3153fa084

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    1. Ooh, those look lovely! I'm guessing they were WonFes exclusive?

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  5. It's a nice addition, but I think they could include those flames effects on the classic version. There's too much version for one figure and of course the goal is clear.

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