Tuesday 23 June 2015

DAM Toys - Spetsnaz In Dagestan.











Std. armaments:

Tactical glove x 2.
Zsh-1-2 helmet and cover (Olive Drab) x 1.
Balaclava x 1.
Shirt (Olive Drab).
SPOSN Gorka E suit (Spring Summer).
SPOSN Gorka E pants (Spring Summer).
Straps for pants.
Tactical leather boots (black).
VM armour vest (Flora).
SPOSN Lazutchik chest rig (Olive Drab).
SPOSN mid pouch (Olive Drab Green).
SPOSN Buttpack (Olive Drab Green).
SPOSN VX radio pouch (Olive Drab).
Motorola radio PTT (Push To Talk).
1-QT canteen cover (Woodland).
1-QT military canteen (Olive Drab).
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) Short Assault Rifle x 1.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) 60R Mag (black) x 1.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy 30R Mag (black) x 2.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) 30R Mag (brown) x 2.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) hidder.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) silencer.
Avtomat Kalashnikova Skladnoy AKS-74U (Ukorochenniy) sling.
Kobra Red Dot.
Kobra Red Dot mount.
Kobra Red Dot hood.
Stetchkin APS (Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina) automatic pistol.
Stetchkin APS (Avtomaticheskiy Pistolet Stechkina) wooden shoulder stock.
Pistol mag x 3.
Pistol double mag leather pouch x 2.
 
The Invasion of Dagestan, also known as the War in Dagestan (2 August 1999 – 14 September 1999), began when the Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade (IIB), an Islamist militia led by warlords Shamil Basayev (14 January 1965 – 10 July 2006) and Ibn al-Khattab (14 April 1969 – 20 March 2002), invaded the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan on 2 August 1999, in support of the Shura of Dagestan separatist rebels. The war ended with a major Russian victory and the retreat of the IIB. The Invasion of Dagestan was the casus belli for the Second Chechen War (26 August 1999 - May 2000, June 2000 - 15 April 2009).
During the inter-war period of 1996 to 1999, a war-ravaged Chechnya descended into chaos and economic collapse. Aslan Maskhadov (21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005)'s government was unable to rebuild the region or to prevent a number of warlords from taking effective control. The relationship between the government and radicals deteriorated. In March 1999, Maskhadov closed down the Chechen parliament and introduced aspects of Sharia law. Despite this concession, extremists such as Shamil Basayev and the Saudi-born Islamist Ibn Al-Khattab continued to undermine the Maskhadov government. In April 1998, the group publicly declared that its long-term aim was the creation of a union of Chechnya and Dagestan under Islamic rule and the expulsion of Russians from the entire Caucasian Region.
In late 1997, Bagauddin Magomedov, the ethnic Avar leader of the radical wing of the Dagestani Wahhabis (Salafism), fled with his followers to Chechnya. There he established close ties with Al-Khattab and other leaders of Chechnya's Wahhabi community. In January 1999, Khattab began the formation of an "Islamic Legion" with foreign Muslim volunteers. At the same time, he commanded the "peacemaking unit of the Majlis (Parliament) of Ichkeria and Dagestan". A series of invasions of Dagestan from Chechnya took place during the inter-war period, culminating in the 1997 attack on a federal military garrison of the 136th Motorized Rifle Regiment near the Dagestani town of Buinaksk. Other attacks targeted civilians and Dagestani police on a regular basis.
In April 1999, Magomedov, the "Emir of the Islamic Jamaat of Dagestan," made an appeal to the "Islamic patriots of the Caucasus" to "take part in the jihad" and participate in "liberating Dagestan and the Caucasus from the Russian colonial yoke." According to this "prominent" Wahhabi's vision, proponents of the idea of a free Islamic Dagestan were to enlist in the "Islamic Army of the Caucasus" that he founded, and report to the army's headquarters (in the village of Karamakhi) for military duty. Chechen separatist government official Turpal-Ali Atgeriev (1969 – August 18, 2002) claimed that he alerted the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) Director Vladimir Putin (Acting President of Russia, 31 December 1999 - 7 May 2000, President of Russia 7 May 2000 - 7 May 2008, re-elected 7 May 2012 with a six years term) in the summer of 1999, of the imminent invasion of Dagestan.
On August 4, 1999, several Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) servicemen were killed in a border clash with a group of Magomedov's fighters led by Bagaudin Kebedov. On August 7 Basayev and Khattab launched an invasion into Dagestan with a group of roughly 1,500-2,000 armed militants consisting of Islamic radicals from Chechnya and Dagestan, as well as other international Islamists.
Khattab described himself as the "military commander of the operation" while Basayev was the "overall commander in the battlefield". They seized villages in the districts of Tsumadi (Echeda, Gakko, Kedy, Kvanada, Gadiri and Gigatl) and Botlikh (Godoberi, Miarso, Shodroda, Ansalta, Rakhata and Inkhelo). On August 10, they announced the birth of the "independent Islamic State of Dagestan" and declared war on "the traitorous Dagestani government" and "Russia's occupation units".
The federal military response to the invasion was slow, and the efforts were initially fumbling and disorganized. Because of this, all of the early resistance, and much of the later resistance as well, was undertaken by Dagestani police, spontaneously organized citizen militias, and individual Dagestani villagers. Basayev and Khattab were not welcomed as "liberators" as they had expected; the Dagestani villagers considered the invading force occupiers and unwelcome religious fanatics. Instead of a mass anti-Russian uprising, the border areas saw mass mobilization of volunteers against Basayev's and Khattab's army.
As resistance to the invaders stiffened, Russian artillery and airstrikes came into action. This conflict saw the first use of aerially delivered fuel-air explosives (FAEs) against populated areas, notably on the village of Tando by the federal forces. The rebels were stalled by the ferocity of the bombardments: their supply lines were cut and scattered with remotely detonating mines. This gave Moscow time to assemble a counter-attack under Colonel-General Viktor Kazantsev (appointed President's Representative in Russian Southern Federal District on May 9, 2000, dismissed on March 9, 2004) commander of the North Caucasus Military District. On August 23 the Basaev and Khattab announced they were withdrawing from Botlikh district to "redeploy" and begin a "new phase" in their operations. The war also saw the first use of the T-90 tank. In the Kadar zone, a group of 8 to 12 T-90S tanks pushed through stubborn resistance. One of the tanks was hit by 7 RPG rockets, and remained in action.
On the night of September 4, as the federal forces were wiping out the last bastions of resistance in the Kadar region, a car bomb destroyed a military housing building in the Dagestani town of Buynaksk, killing 64 people and starting the first in the wave of the Russian apartment bombings (4-16 September 1999, including Moscow and Volgodonsk, 293 deaths, more than 1,000 non-fatal injuries). On the morning of September 5, Chechen rebels launched a second invasion into the lowland Novolakskoye region of Dagestan, this time with a larger force. The rebels came within a mere five kilometers of the major city of Khasavyurt. The second invasion at the height of the hostilities in the Karamakhi zone on September 5 came as an unpleasant surprise to Moscow and Makhachkala. According to Basayev, the purpose of the second invasion was to distract federal forces attacking Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi. Intensive fighting continued until September 12, when federal forces supported by local volunteers finally forced the Islamists back to Chechnya, even though sporadic armed clashes continued for some time.
By mid-September 1999 the villages were recaptured from the routed militants, and they were pushed back into Chechnya. Meanwhile, the Russian Air Force already began bombing targets inside Chechnya. At least several hundred people were killed in the fighting, including an unknown number of civilians. The federal side announced that they suffered 279 dead and approximately 987 wounded.
Russia followed up with a bombing campaign of southeastern Chechnya; on September 23, Russian fighter jets bombed targets in and around the Chechen capital Grozny. Aslan Maskhadov, the separatist president of Chechnya (ChRI), opposed the invasion of Dagestan, and offered a crackdown on the renegade warlords. This offer was refused by the Kremlin. In October 1999, after a string of four apartment bombings for which Russia blamed the Chechens, Russian ground forces invaded Chechnya, starting the Second Chechen War. Since then, Dagestan has been a site of an ongoing, low-level insurgency, which became part of the new Chechen War. This conflict between the government and the armed Islamist underground in Dagestan (in particular the Shariat Jamaat group) was aided by the Chechen guerrillas. It claimed the lives of hundreds of people, mostly civilians.
The Invasion of Dagestan resulted in the displacement of 32,000 Dagestani civilians. According to researcher Robert Bruce Ware, Basayev and Khattab's invasions were potentially genocidal, in that they attacked mountain villages and destroyed entire populations of small ethno-linguistic groups. Furthermore, Ware asserts that the invasions are properly described as terrorist attacks because they initially involved attacks against Dagestani civilians and police officers.
Despite the initial poor showing of the government forces (for example, military helicopters were hit by anti-tank guided missiles during a rebel raid on the Botlikh airfield), Moscow and Makhachkala were able to put together an impressive fighting force. For instance, the light infantry units were partially drawn from the Spetsnaz, paratroopers and naval infantry, crucial to mountain and counter-insurgency warfare.
The government forces consisted of three main elements: light and airmobile infantry units able to operate in the mountains and in small ambush and assault forces; larger mechanized units to seal areas off and maintain area security; and artillery with air support elements that were able to interdict supply lines and box in the rebels. Most of the 'teeth' were drawn from regular army units, with the exception of the MVD's Internal Troops' 102nd Brigade, the Rus commando force and the local Dagestani OMON. Makhachala long expected an incident of this sort, and since its OMON troops proved ineffectual in 1996 when Chechen rebels seized hostages in the Dagestani city of Kizlyar, it placed a part of its scarce resources into turning this force into a small local army. The Dagestani OMON force numbers almost 1,000 men and, bar the absence of armour and artillery, they are equipped as motorised infantry; the force even had a number of BTR-60 and BTR-70 armoured personnel carriers and heavy support weapons.
At the end of 1997 the republic also began raising volunteer territorial militia. During the emergency, its ranks of reservists and volunteers almost reached 5,000. Their training and equipment were minimal, making them little more than a home guard force.
The insurgents proved to be a collection of Chechen guerrillas, Dagestani rebels, Islamic fundamentalists and mercenaries from across the Arab world and Central Asia. Estimates of the insurgent forces' strength has been estimated of being 1,500-3,000 men. While mostly experienced veterans of the Chechen and other wars, they were lightly equipped. They possessed ample supplies of small arms, support weapons, several 9M111 Fagot ATGMs, mortars and ample ammunition but they appeared to have only two BTR-60s possibly captured from government forces in the first days of the attack, a single T-12 antitank gun and a few truck-mounted ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns to use as fire support.
Their first-among-equals leader was Basayev, Chechen rebel leader, erstwhile prime minister and founder of the CPCD. Basayev's position was in many ways an ambiguous one. He was a staunch Muslim but didn't share the extreme Wahhabism of many of his allies; however, he strongly believed that Dagestan and Chechnya should be one state. Although a seasoned and wily guerrilla commander, this war saw him used as a political figurehead. His CPCD was officially charged with forming new "structures of Islamic self-government" in rebel-held areas. The brevity of the occupation and the opposition of many locals to their "liberation" meant that this was never a serious process.
Ibn al-Khattab's Islamic International Brigade formed the core of the insurgent forces, accounting for perhaps half of the rebel fighters. Having fought against the Russians during the First Chechen War, he went on to wage an open campaign against President Maskhadov, whom he regarded as too close to Moscow. Khattab concluded a marriage of political convenience with Basayev, but in effect retained operational command and a veto on political direction.
The third element in the loose rebel triumvirate were the Dagestani Islamic militants. Besides Bagauddin Magomedov, the two key figures were Nadir Khachilayev and Siradjin Ramazanov. An ethnic Lak and former leader of the Union of Muslims in Russia, Khachilayev had a long pedigree of opposition to the local regime of Magomedali Magomedov. In 1998 he launched an abortive attempt to storm the government buildings in the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala. Khachilayev escaped to Chechnya where he found sanctuary with Islamist guerrilla movements, eventually forging an alliance with Khattab. Despite their Dagestani origins, he and the self-styled prime minister of 'Islamic Dagestan', Ramazanov, proved marginal, reflecting their failure to bring recruits to their side after they launched the operation. The self-proclaimed Shura of Dagestan welcomed the "liberation" and declared an Islamic state, but proved to have relatively little authority.
According to Boris Berezovsky (23 January 1946 – 23 March 2013), he had a conversation with the Chechen Islamist ideologist and Basayev's propaganda chief Movladi Udugov six months before the beginning of the rebel invasion of Dagestan. Allegedly, Udugov proposed to start the Dagestan war to provoke the Russian response, topple the Chechen president Maskhadov and establish new Islamic republic made of Chechnya and Ingushetia that would be friendly to Russia. Berezovsky asserted that he refused the offer, but "Udugov and Basayev conspired with Stepashin and Putin to provoke a war to topple Maskhadov..., but the agreement was for the Russian army to stop at the Terek River. Putin double-crossed the Chechens and started an all-out war." A transcript of the conversation was leaked to one of Moscow tabloids on September 10, 1999. Nevertheless, even if the Russian Army would have stopped at the Terek River, they could have still taken over Chechnya, as most of the Terek River flows through Chechnya, and the part that borders Dagestan, where the Russian Army was to allegedly stop, had no major river crossing. Basaev claims that he would never sell Chechnya to Putin, and denies the makings of such a deal.
The Invasion of Dagestan leading to the start of the new Russian-Chechen conflict was regarded by the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya (30 August 1958 - 7 October 2006) as a provocation initiated from Moscow to start war in Chechnya, because Russian forces provided safe passage for Islamic fighters back to Chechnya. However there were no Russian forces in the Chechen rear to prevent said passage from being safe. It was reported that Alexander Voloshin of the Yeltsin administration paid money to Basayev to stage this military operation. Basayev allegedly worked for Russian GRU. However, Basayev denied any involvement with the GRU, nor was there any actual evidence of Basaev's involvement as a GRU agent.
A member of Russia's KPRF Duma Faction, Viktor Ilyukhin who served as a co-chair of the defense committee, charged the FSB with "failing to timely disclose the information about Berezovksy's financing of Chechen rebel leaders". Ilyukhin believes that had Berezovsky's finances been timely exposed, the number of civilian and military casualties in Chechenya, on both sides, would have been greatly diminished. Berezovsky had the motive of seizing the Caucasian Region due to its oil and gas reserves. Ilyukhin fails to mention how Berezovsky would have controlled said Caucasian Region's Government if his "plan" worked. One way of the finances is that the Chechens would capture civilians, and demand monetary compensation; yet Maskhadov and Basaev often complained that parts of the compensation were siphoned to mysterious third party.
When the FSB published their charges against Berezovsky, he responded by blaming the FSB for the apartment bombings, and stating that he had a film to show the Russian public that would be shown on TV-6 in 2002. However TV-6 was shut down by the Russian government, and the movie is yet to be seen or published.
- Wiki.

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The Spetsnaz series of figures continue with this new arrival from DAM Toys based on the event of the War in Dagestan. Curiously, when I googled the images, the Russian guys don't look like what the figure is wearing. Nevermind of course. I am not really a military nerd, no I don't mean that in a malicious way, just that it is fine if it is not 100% accurate in terms of the details of the uniform used, etc. of which a military maniac figure collector would pour all over to nit-pick (I would if I were to get a vintage repro denim, if I were to go back into that hobby). The gears are well made, just like the FSB Vympel, but the so-called 2.0 version body is a bit loose. Looks like 3A is not the only one hit with the loose (but at least not floppy) syndrome. Or course I would like to qualify that comment strictly on the figure in hand. Both arms are pretty loose. Other parts, a-ok. Articulation is there. I still have to slog through assembling the gears, though it is not as tough as FSB Vympel. Ironically, I broke the slot of the tactical belt even though it is supposedly easier. Sigh. Some UHU glue to the rescue. Doesn't come with any assembly one sheet instruction like Vympel, no YouTube for tutorial so I have to squint me eyes and make puzzles with me minds' eyes to see where the gears go. The front picture of the figure sitting is quite cool in an intimidating sort of way, with a balaclava which now lined with reinforcement, unlike the Vympel, so no frayed edges but to capture the "aggressive" look is tough, pun fully intended. Putting on the balaclava (I don't mind the staining, if any, anyway coz I ain't gonna take them off anyhoo), doesn't look natural. It sits too low, obstructing the line of sight. No matter how I adjust it. Sigh. Then I tried to adjust the vest to make it sits abit lower but it keeps hitching up to the chest. Aesthetically, it is not so...uh...pleasing. But I ain't wanna break anything, but credits to DAM Toys coz their gears are made tough. If it were to be any other brands out there, I can vouched that with the amount of efforts, sweat, tweezers, something would surely have had snapped. Now onto the background of the war, I just read it over Wiki, didn't know it was such a mess and so much conspiracy theories going on. The costs which the population paid for with their lives due to the ambitions of men. Anyhoo, it sort of awakened me once more on the state of the world we are living in right now, it not that positive but there is always hope I tell myself. Why? Coz nothing lasts forever. Now, looking forward the next one, the Beslan version.

Thursday 11 June 2015

ThreeA - Popbot : Tomorrow King Death Mask Heavy Duty Slicer Tomorrow Nothing.








"Nah," I shook my head, "things that come out of nowhere go back to nowhere, that’s all." We fell silent again. "The thing we had shared was nothing more than a fragment of time that had died long ago. Even so, a faint glimmer of that warm memory still claimed a part of my heart. And when death claimed me, no doubt I would walk along by that faint light in the brief instant before being flung once again into the abyss of nothingness.”   
-  Haruki Murakami, Pinball, 1973.

“What is next to ecstasy?
Pain.
What is next to pain?
Nothingness.
What is next to nothingness?
Hell.”
-  Umera Ahmed.



A (mis) interpretation:

Category type: Mass production replicants.
Model type: The Tomorrow King GEN. 3.0
Unit type: Death Mask (デスマスク) Heavy Duty Slicer.
ID: Hiragana Nanimonai / Tomorrow Nothing.
Rank: Shateigashira-hosa.
Manufacturer: The Luthor Bean Jr. Corporation.
Incept date: 9th January 1994.
Serial no.: TKG03MAC09011994DM.
Function: Close assault.
Longevity: 4 years.
Physical: Level A.
Mental: Level C.
Abilities: Panzer Kunst - anti-armour martial art; superhuman physiology.
Std. armaments: "Titan Blade" - force weapon x 1; Ō-yoroi - power armour x 1; - cuirass x 1; sode - spaulder x 1; kote - vambrace x 1; phosphex grenade x 12; HVYMFKR - battery back pack x 2.

The Death Mask or Desumasuku Heavy Duty Slicers are a series of Tomorrow King whom are ruthless and utterly lethal in all aspects of close combat. Infamously known as the Tomorrow Nothing, their talents garnered them respect but their murderous will earned them reputation for infamy. Dangerous and fearsomely violent, the fearless Heavy Slicers are masters of close assault, tearing through the Mortis Legion and enemies with their massive force weapon in the form of a electro-plated thunder blade known as Titan Blade tuned to slice through any physical object by disrupting the molecular bonds of matter. They also carry phosphex grenades, which contain rare corrosive toxin and incendiary compound. It expands on contact with the air into a seething, liquid mist which burns with an eerie white-green flame that is attracted to movement. This flame ignites metal and eats into living tissue, and more ominously can not be extinguished by any means short of exposure to a vacuum. Their skill, strikes and parries are uncannily precise, blocking the blows of their opponent with ease and expertly evading their defences to deliver the killing blow. The Death Masks paint their faces with skull pattern, and to combat these berserker replicants are akin to facing Death itself. Interloper mutation are rampant amongst the series. As such they are only sanctioned for deployment only in the direst circumstances by Luthor Bean Jr. He doesn't expect each Death Mask to come back from each mission into the Underverse.
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As of the time of writing this, the Heavy Duty Slicer has gained infamy in the official 3A forum due to its floppy torso and various other issues. Like Yoshitsune, for me at least in terms of the figure in hand, the issue lies on the battery backpack, which, like Lasstranaut figure, is simply too heavy for the figure to support and pose. Likewise for the hand which hold the giant blade. It would simply pop out from its wrist peg. Based on what I've read and seen on the forum, some of the figures are really suffering from what I call "the 3A Iron Man Torso Syndrome" i.e. non-existing torso tightness (and lets not me forget Oliver Applehair's freely swivelling arm). One vid showed the head would loll about, the torso, like my Iron Man, would move forward and backward freely. At least it didn't break like Cornelius TK. Some highlighted the thigh joint being loose as well. 3A's quality control continues to downward spiral after the excellent Obsidian TK. And the packing continues to be done by someone whom seem to be in a hurry to finish up and go for a game of mah-jong. My Death Mask figure's spaulder armour plate is not connected in at all, the left leg shoe armour is not attached. The left arm is on reverse direction and when I adjusted it, it separated at the joint, which luckily, could be popped back in. Now, this is not the first time a 3A figure suffered from various sort of concerns and issues. What happen I wonder? A concern with the collection which I have and posed is gravity and ambience, which over time, may cause a fig to become loose at joints and deterioration. But not when it is box fresh, mint out of the pack. The Heavy Slicer design is one of the most awesome I have had seen from 3A. Love it. But is it because even though it is a great design, it is just not destined to be made tangible, pose-able and practical figure? Or could 3A have come up with something better, a lighter material possibly? I don't know. A very helpful 3A moderator has acted on behalf of the customers and it has announced that 3A would replace the figure for customers whose torso is truly floppy by sending a video or photo but (you need to read between the line) on condition that the battery backpack is removed. I did that and to my surprise, the figure is ok. By that I mean not as tight as some of the 3A figs (which leads to the question of the QC issue could be random on each and every figs) but could pose and hold. The head is not floppy either. But I am not taking any chances and apart from lack of real estate to pose the figs, I have to put them back into the boxes. Gravity could be a problem, even though they provided a stand with each figure. And about the inclusion of the stand, some agitated forum members pointed out that how 3A once proudly announced that their figs don't need a stand to uh, stand. How ironic. During drop day and follow up to the final production announcement, every thing seems dainty and nice. Really looking forward toward them. And oh, 3A forgotten to include the other six grenades and would send them later. Face palm...What happen to the days of which 3A would take the initiative to replace the figs, like Princess TQ and Oroshi Adept TK which is missing an arm tat. Again, the fan fiction background write-up is taken from WH40k.


ThreeA - Popbot : Tomorrow King Seven Bones Heavy Duty Slicer Yoshitsune.









Yoshitsune of the 7BONES, the catcher - if memories were real, and they seldom are - you would hold a drink high in his memory...
If you could remember...
You would remember a cat that sings and says f***, a guy who can't find himself but can stop Death with a touch, and an orange robot that was once a...
- write-up from the box.

A (mis) interpretation:

Category: Experimental prototype replicants.
Model type: The Tomorrow King - GEN. 2.0
Unit type: The Seven Bones (骨) Heavy Duty Slicer.
ID: Yoshitsune / The Thunder King.
Rank: Wakagashira-hosa.
Manufacturer: The Luthor Bean Jr. Corporation.
Incept date: 9th January 1990.
Serial no: TKG02MAB000000007B.
Longevity: Unknown.
Function: Tactical assault / close combat.
Physical: Level A+.
Mental: Level B.
Abilities: Panzer Kunst - anti-armour martial art; superhuman physiology; precognition.
Std. armaments: Takemikazuchi ((建御雷) - force weapon x 1;  Ō-yoroi - artificer power armour;   - chest armour x 1; sode - spaulder x 1; han kote - vambrace x 1; phosphex grenade x 12; HVYMFKR - battery backpack x 2.

Amongst the Nanatsu Hone-gumi, Yoshitsune the Thunder King was the foremost 7Bones member whom lead a tactical assault along the overlap realm of the reality of Leviathan 1 and the warp space of the Mortis Legion's Underverse. He was a feared strike team leader, leading the kyodai and their shatei brothers against the machine monstrosities. Known to possess strategic genius, his style of combat is as intricate as it is unorthodox. Lightning fast, cladded heavily in an artificer armour suit, he was known to be a formidable strategist with a penchant for unorthodox but highly intricate attack plans often designed to pull apart and maim enemy formations before delivering a killing blow. A master of integrated close assault and armour combined arms tactics, Yoshitsune is an expert duellist and warrior in his own right, wielding the legendary master crafted force weapon, the massive electro-plated thunder blade called Takemikazuchi, which could rend physical matter apart at molecular bond level, as well as carrying the unconventional weaponry, the phosphex grenade which contains a rare corrosive toxin and incendiary compound. It expands on contact with the air into a seething, liquid mist which burns with an eerie white-green flame that is attracted to movement. This flame ignites metal and eats into living tissue, and more ominously can not be extinguished by any means short of exposure to a vacuum. It is particularly effective against the Flayed Ones. He is an opponent to be reckoned with whom infamously sparred with Yaro, the 7Bones Slicer, over a bowl of ramen. He was also present when the Day One Popbot gunned down General Showa, an Oyabun TK within five seconds into being corrupted by Queen Mortis, resulting in him cleaving the orange droid cleanly into half with his blade. His name is said to be based on the exploits of a famous historical Eastasian general by Luthor Bean Jr. And like all 7Bones, Yoshitsune knows how and when he is going to die due to his precognitive ability. But like Punk King said, and Yoshitsune readily agrees, when a man plays a man's game, it gonna costs ya a man's price. Fair enough.
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Well, since 2011, starting from Wasabi TK, I have been literally tearing my hair out for 3A to just, for heaven's sake, complete the seven members of the 7Bones. Yoshitsune is the sixth member. Comes in a larger box than standard ones, and curiously include two posters, including Death Mask version. Took awhile to arrive, but I was excited. Was. Because the design of this TK is one which I really like. Except for the hair colour way of which the man behind 3A, which I think with a tinge of arrogance, replied on Instagram, "never had blue hair, doesn't care rules nor hair colour!". I beg to differ. The fig looks like it is a stand alone. I could live with that if it is. Except it doesn't. It's a 7Bone. And the feeling I have which is sort of telling me to look the other way because of their "I feel I want to do anything I want to do and its none of your darn business coz I'm the guy / Don't buy it if don't like it / I am an indie arty farty artist" doesn't work on this fig boyo. Know why? Because this fig is announced last minute as a 7Bones member before the drop in the advert. Something just smells...fishy, kuntsler. Sounds like a last minute excuse. Something not right. And that darn brinjal face. And elf shaped ear. Anyhoo, I could still live with all that after years of getting stuffs from 3A. Then bam. The avalanche hit. And like most avalanches, it starts with a little shake. The QC. Some old timer (as I cheekily call them early adopters) on the forum highlighted a really badly assembled fig. Floppy body, virtually none existing neck tightness etc. Photos and videos were posted. Strong words and exodus from 3A were exclaimed. The thread went nuclear. I can't explain for them but only the one in me hand right now. First, the fig would not stand. Think Lasstranaut. Yup, same thing. I suspected 3A knows, as they included a stand (which is floppy as well, ironic ain't it?), which admittedly a harsh assumptive accusation on my part but that's me when me ain't all good with a fig's QC. Good ol' Yoshit would lean back. I have to be careful because I'm worried that if I don't hold the uber large and heavy backpack, the torso might snap or strain the knee joints, ankle joints and snap. Then it would become another king of torso flop, 3A's Stealth Iron Man. I have to lean it against something. The stand doesn't really work fine. Secondly, the hands that hold the gigantor blade are molded and stick together. No issue with that, a little careful slice for the slicer's would do and done. It couldn't hold the massive blade. Just too heavy and large. The hand would just pop off each time from the wrist peg unless I let the blade act as a counterweight on the ground or angle it at nearly 90 degree. Otherwise just pose without it which defeat the overall "feel" of this fig. In summary, this figure in hand is not floppy, loose but pose-able. This is in regard to the torso. Due to the battery backpack. The arms, neck peg, legs all OK. It is a well designed figure, love it. I feel for those forum members whom received the incredibly floppy ones. As for the wrist peg, nothing could be done. The uber blade is just too heavy. Oh yeah, before I forget, the paint sort off came off abit on the hair, the residue could be seen on the clamshell. Again, why does some 3A figures paints are not totally "dry" before shipping? Reminds me of WWR's NW Heavy Bramble.
This could have been a classic (pun intended) "classic line" as per stated on the box. Alas, the QC...sigh. Well, regardless, hope 3A would moved on to close the 7Bones last and final member (hopefully with Punk King) soon....I took the fan fiction background wholesale from WH40k, Forge World to be precise, so it is not original.