Toybox Review: S.H. Figuarts Gavan

Jōchaku! Finally making an entry into Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line is the original Metal Hero - Space Sheriff Gavan! This is the original version of the character rather than the new Type-G Gavan (who will be getting a release a little later), who appeared in the original Gavan series and more recently the Gokaiger vs. Gavan crossover movie. Gavan was a Tamashii web exclusive figure, and also a little more expensive than the standard Figuart.

Much like the character himself, there's something that feels gloriously retro about Gavan's packaging. Lots of grey and black colours and angular shapes with some effective red text tampoed on the packaging window. As you can see the back adds a little more colour into the mix, showing off the figure in front of a fiery orange background.

The most notable thing about the Gavan Figuart is just how shiny it is - so shiny that you can probably see the reflection of me taking all these pictures in him. Almost the entire body is covered in vac metal chrome finish, with the little that isn't a matte black. The Gavan suit design is certainly a product of its time and if you're a fan then there's very little here to disappoint you, every little detail no matter how simple has been faithfully recreated. Just be warned that handling this guy with sticky fingers is sure to leave a mark or two!

Due to simple design featuring no overhanging armour Gavan enjoys all the articulation a standard Figuart body can offer. Among it is a fully moveable head, rotating shoulders, double jointed elbows, swing down thighs, double jointed knees, ball-jointed ankles and even a hinged toe section. My only concern is that getting the most out of the shoulder articulation could potentially result in scuffing the chrome shoulder pieces against the main body of the figure. A couple of complaints I've noticed on my figure is that the hips are really loose - to the point where the figure struggles to hold most poses without some careful balancing. The other thing (that admittedly bothers me with most new Figuarts) is how awkward to hands are to switch out. Only here it's not just the hand joint I'm worried about breaking, it's scuffing the finish too.

Unfortunately, even with a slightly higher price tag Gavan's accessory count is a little on the low side. Included are the alternate "lit up eyes" head, 8 pairs of hands, a standard sword and energy slash effect part sword. The additional head felt almost a necessity, so including that doesn't feel like too huge a bonus. The hand count feels a low and including no charged up energy blade feels like a massive misstep. This figure might have the chrome, but Megahouse's old Action Works Gavan came with much more.

Ultimately Gavan is a beautiful looking figure, and the use of so much vac-metal chrome makes it unique even amongst a collection of Figuarts. However being both a slightly more-expensive Figuart and a Tamashii Web Exclusive is something that could easily put some off. The floppiness on mine isn't something that's going to be a widespread issue, but the difficult hands and low accessory count are. Still, the great thing about this Gavan is he works in a standalone display, a Gokaiger display or (once Type-G, Sharivan and Shaider) a Metal Heroes one.