Review – Armored Trooper Votoms Fatty

Armored Trooper Votoms* is one of those anime series with awesome looking mecha that I’ve never actually watched. As much as I love the vehicle and mecha designs in most anime, the stories and culture shock always keeps me at arms length; enjoying the designs but being unhappy with the few stories that I watched. So time and again I see awesome toys that I skip because I have no idea what I’m even looking at. While I was in Hong Kong, though, I grabbed a few different toys because the prices were so low. And this toy is one fantastic mecha.

Packaging

A simple window box, the minimalist design choices behind this box should make me happy but after spending some time looking everything over I decided that it’s just too simple to be interesting. I love that I could see the toy through the window, but there was nothing great about the box so in the end it’s merely trash. And lots of trash, because the box was considerably larger than it needed to be to house the toy. The box front, above, is fairly dull but make sure you take a look at the large size of the box back for a look at the Fatty and some of the other 1/48 scale mecha in the line.

3.5-Inches of Armored Articulated Astounding Action

Even though it’s a small toy, the Fatty’s articulation is better than we see on several 3.75-inch scale action figures (I’m thinking of you, Dive Attack Spider-Man). Ball-jointed shoulders and hips, hinged knees, ankles, and toes, swivel-hinge elbows, a swivel waist and head, and rotating wrists are just the start. Taking it a step further the legs snap up and swing back and the cockpit opens to reveal the pilot.

And the balance is pretty good, with the toy able to hold some pretty cool poses without falling over. I would have loved to have seen a stand so that I could put it into some outrageous poses, but there’s absolutely no reason to complain about what we get in the articulation and balance department.

Is it a Model or an Action Figure?

Molded in one basic color and with minimal paint applications, the toy feels like the same type of plastic that is used for model kits and not the harder stuff we often find used for action figures. And the toy’s gun was even included on a sprue; I had to pop the pieces off and assemble the weapon before it was ready for action. Weird. I know it’s not a model kit, but it sure kinda feels like one.

And the one-piece, one-color pilot (shown above) doesn’t make it feel any less like a model kit. This isn’t a terrible thing, but now I feel like I should paint the toy so that it looks a little more exciting. Anyone know what sort of paint works well on these 1/48 scale Armored Trooper Votoms toys?

Accessories

Not much. Besides the gun and pilot, the toy also comes with a total of four interchangeable hands. Open, fists, weapon-gripping . . . check all of the photos I shot for looks at the different hands. Changing the hands is a bit of a pain, requiring the wrist section to be removed before the hand can be popped out, but it’s not complicated or difficult. Just annoying.

Fun!

I paid a little over $10 for the Fatty and at that price this was a great deal. Compared to the price of other Armored Trooper Votoms toys** $10 is an awesome deal, but even if I compare this guy to DC Universe Classics action figures this is a fun toy. It’s smaller, yes, but it’s cool to have a tiny mecha that looks pretty good with my 3.75-inch scale action figures. He’s shorter, yes, but he’s pretty bulky. This could easily be used as a droid in a Star Wars collection or as a robot villain in any Marvel Universe collection.

Closing Thoughts

At $20 I never would have touched this guy, but at $10 it was a great deal. I would have liked to have seen the toy with more paint apps (the red touches are so minimal that they barely even matter), but what I got was a neat robot/mecha action figure that’s going to stand nicely on my toy shelf. The toy doesn’t make me want to start watching Armored Trooper Votoms*, but it does have me looking at some other toys from the series.

A cool toy, but not one that you should rush out and track down.

*Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.
**Affiliate link: Orders using this link earn battlegrip.com cash, which is applied to buying toys.

Philip Reed also has a Scopedog mecha that’s scaled for 3.75-inch action figures. The price when he spotted it in Hong Kong was too good to pass up. It’s huge and needs to get a turn in the review seat so that Philip can show it to you.