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; dō - 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.