#digimon amplified

[reversemoon255]

Figure-Rise Amplified Alphamon

When this Alphamon was announced I remember thinking how they had somewhat forced popularity. Given their own movie, placed opposite to Omegamon, pushed heavily in marketing. I began to question if they even had a personality at all... And then I thought some more. Even if it focused more on its prevolutions, X-Evolution was all about Alphamon, they were a very intimidating villain in Tri (with no payoff, but whatever, Tri sucks), has several manga appearances, and is technically one of the main characters in Cyber Slueth. There are plenty of interesting interpretations of this character, even if their initial pitch was forced upon us.

The Good: Despite the proportions, Alphamon is quite posable. Full range in the arms and legs, decent range in the torso and neck, and an articulated cape and wings. They also come with an effect part to replicate “Digitalize of Soul,” and their sword is a large, single piece that uses raised gem stickers to finish the look. It was a very fun kit to put together.

The Bad: Alphamon has poor balance. While it’s possible to tripod them on their cape, it causes it to bend if you do, which is why mine is always on a stand. The plastic was also strangely flaky. I felt like washing my hands every time I clipped the black plastic because there was always bits of debris on them.

Also, he reuses parts from both Dukemon and Omegamon, but only, like, five pieces per runner? Which begs the question as to why they didn’t just make a single new sprew, at least for the weight bearing parts? I really want to know how much money was saved by doing this.

The Details: For the most part it was just metallic red panel lining to replicate the Children’s War Game look of the rest of the kits I’ve done. I also painted parts of the chest and the back of the head gold, panel lined the mouth black, and painted in the eyes. Since he’s mostly black, there wasn’t much else to be done when it comes to things like fill :/

Overall, a fun kit with some production weirdnesses, but nothing that impacts the final product. The next announced kit is an anime-accurate Angemon, which looks interesting. They also announced an S.H.Figuarts Angewomon, which isn’t my scene, but I might be tempted if it matches Angemon in size. We’re at the point where I’m beyond guessing what they’re going to do next, but Susanoomon, ShineGreymon, or Shoutmon X4 would all be cool, IMO.

[reversemoon255]

Figure-rise Standard Beelzebumon / Beelzemon (Amplified)

I think Beelzebumon was a good choice. Even if he had a turnaround, he was an antagonist for most of Tamers, and the only other villain we have (not counting repaints) is Mugendramon. He also has a much different silhouette, being a lot sleeker than everyone else in the line, unencumbered by the capes and wings and shoulder pads of its linemates. Also, he’s really popular; popular enough to be brought back in Xros Wars (BTW, Shoutmon X4 please). I’ve also talked to several women over the years who claim Beelzebumon to be their favorite Digimon, and I think that’s important, too. Digimon is a franchise normally targeted to boys, so picking a Digimon that’s known to be popular across the gender spectrum is just a good marketing choice and makes more people happy.

The Good: Fantastic build. Lots of cool parts layering, interesting engineering, and a lot of neat asymmetry. There’s also some wire work going on, which adds a lot of flexibility to posing and helps easily convey motion.

Speaking of posability, it’s good, if a little tough to adjust some of the universal joints. Drop hips, double joints, good wrists. Those wrists in particular are helpful when posing his pistols, as they’re slightly angled.

He also has those custom ports on his legs, and if you remove his... exhaust pipes(?) you can do a few things with his back.

The Bad: While I didn’t have too much trouble balancing him, Beelzebumon has smaller feet and quite a few things jutting off his back, which means you can’t just set him down and expect him to stand, though that’s kind of a through-line for all of Amplified.

Speaking of things on his back, the tail, while an interesting idea, has problems. Even though the instructions claim you don’t have to cut the wire, I had to resize it to remove any gaps between pieces. Also, every time I adjust it I have to push the tip back in since it’s held on by friction while everything else is loose. While it would have been a little more frustrating to build, I kind of wish both ends were clamped in and each tail segment was two pieces clipped around the wire, instead of one.

Also, he is very pointy. It hurts to have hair that nice.

The Details: I continued to use metallic red panel lining throughout this kit, as I have with the rest of the Amplified releases, but I also used a bit of black for his lips and in all the closed zippers and scarf to give them more definition.

As for added color, I painted the eyes and feathers on his head (which were originally stickers), as well as added some black around the eyes to make them look more natural, and around the edges of his mask(?) to give it a sharper appearance. I also filled his exhaust pipes(?), inner belt buckles, and pistol barrels with black. Then, I painted his actual buckles (jacket, waist, and right leg) silver as well as his open jacket zipper (only his jacket buckles had stickers).

Overall, this is a fun kit. A solid, interesting build with decent posability and negligible problems. Also, Beelzebumon is still probably the Digimon with the most complex and interesting character development of any in the canon, and that’s very cool and also sad because it’s been 21 years.

[reversemoon255]

Figure-rise Standard Omegamon X-Antibody / Omnimon X (Amplified)

I feel like a very obvious Digimon to do next, that we probably won’t get, is Sakuyamon. We just got Dukemon and Beelzebumon, so we’re currently doing Tamers, we don’t have any female designs in the line yet (which are apparently popular considering how many MS Girls they’ve done recently), and Renamon is one of the most poplar Digimon period. Feels like a no-brainer. The issue with doing Sakuyamon is it’s almost an obligation to do SaintGargomon to complete the set, who is canonically enormous. Also, I’ll say again and again, I want combining Shoutmon X4 or X7. Those designs need some proper toy love.

Most likely we’ll actually get something like Diablmon/Diaboromon or Alphamon.

The Good: Big, very posable, very solid. This was a very fun build from a construction perspective. In particular, I really liked the chest, sword, and cape. They all had interesting elements to them, such as the parts layering or the sticker usage.

It also comes with a ton of adapters so you can attach parts from the previous kits to him: • WarGreymon’s wings in place of the cape using his own adapter. • MetalGarurumon’s wings (in one of two forms) in place of the GreySword using an included adapter and his missiles in one of the knee ports. • Imperialdramon’s cannon in one of the knee ports. • Dukemon’s lance in place of the GaruruCannon using an included adapter and his shield in place of the  cape using an included adapter. • Mugendramon’s cannons (entire unit) in place of the cape (no adapter) or (just cannons) to the back of the waist using an included adapter. It’s a lot of customization that I’m not entirely sure what to do with. But it’s cool, though.

The Bad: While it doesn’t impede his posability, he is very pointy and stuff can bump into each other. Also, particularly with his arms, they have a lot of range, but it’s very awkward to adjust the black parts of his arms and sometimes the shoulders, especially with how large his “hands” are and how those particular joints work.

Also, as predicted, while the sculpting is all new it borrows a lot from Dukemon.

The Details: So, as always, I did the bit of panel lining this kit had in metallic red to emulate Children’s War Game. This kit also had a number of metallic green stickers, but since I was doing the red I replaced them with metallic red paint to bring the look together. There were also 3 translucent green parts that I repainted as well.

I spent way too much time detailing the bottom of the feet, which no one will ever see, including myself.

I redid all the gold plastic with paint, and added a few extra details around the chest, waist, and ankles. Apart from that, there were a few small areas where I added black (collar, hands, crotch, knees, feet, cape harness), and I repainted the eyes instead of stickering them.

Overall, I think this is a very interesting kit. The level of proposed customization is a cool touch, though I don’t know if I will take advantage of it myself, but apart from that it’s just a very solid kit.