It’s been a while since I’ve done a review on a Japanese import.  There’re a couple of reasons for this.  The Sci-Fi Revoltech line has slowed way down now that they can’t do as many kaiju.  Second, a lot of the figures I’ve been pre-ordering keep getting delayed.  This was the case for Figma’s KOS-MOS figure.

If you read a lot of my articles, you’ve probably noticed I’m a bit all over the place when it comes to what toys I collect.  This is mostly because I don’t only buy toys of characters I’m familiar with, like DC and MOTU.  I’ve gotten to this strange point in my collecting habits where I’m more interested in if an action figure or toy is fun or looks great rather than how much I know about the character.  This is why I buy figures like KOS-MOS.

KOS-MOS is a character from the Xenosaga video game series and anime.  She is an android created to fight off the invading alien race known as the Gnosis.  Her entire body is made up of sophisticated nanomachines which can morph into various weapons.  She has been destroyed at various times in the series and this figure is based on the forth version of her body.

That’s about as much as I know, since I’ve never actually played/watched Xenosaga.  There is plenty of information about her on Wikipedia, but I found it to be a bit overwhelming since I don’t have a firm grasp on the series.

As action figures go, KOS-MOS is definitely on the higher end just based on the amazing amount of detail that was put into her design and accessories.  If it looks like there’s a lot going on with her body, that’s because there is.

Her torso is actually made of three main parts: her upper torso, breasts, and lower torso.  This not only gives her great articulation (which I’ll get into later), but also allows for sculpting details that you don’t see very often.  For instance, her entire white skirt is actually made from a soft robber and is a separate piece that’s been attached to her lower torso.  Underneath it the sculptors still gave her a detailed body with raised armor plates, but you have to stretch her skirt up to even see this.

The details continue beyond her body though.  On her legs, the thigh highs and garter belt straps have been raised off of her flesh.  This gives the illusion that they’re separate pieces even though they’re still part of her thigh sculpt.  Speaking of thighs, they also sculpted her entire upper legs.  So from behind you can see her ass cheeks peeking out from beneath her short skirt.  Now that’s some nice detail!

Her hair is made of a light translucent blue which catches the light.  Also, many of her armor pieces were sculpted separately and added on, giving the feel of real armor rather than something that was originally part of the body.  These pieces also work with the movement of the figure instead of against it.  The spiky wrist gauntlets can rotate allowing her to hold different weapons or even place her arms closer to her body.  The golden armor that hangs to the sides of her thighs were even designed with swivel hinges so that they wouldn’t interfere with the movement of her legs in any direction.

I have mixed feelings about the paint job used on KOS-MOS.  On one hand her design is incredibly complex, so I know that adding the color probably wasn’t easy.  On the other hand, the mistakes that were made really stand out because they break up the overall flowing look of the figure.  The blue lines on her armor aren’t as clean as I’d like and under close inspection are rough instead of smooth.  There are also a few drips and marking of gold paint on the flesh parts of her thighs.  Luckily, most of them are underneath the skirt, so they can be hidden.  But they’re still very distracting in certain poses. Continue to Page 2…