Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Suit Jack -The Animation-

Release Date: September 2023

RRP: 9900 yen

With the anime adaptation of the ULTRAMAN manga now fully wrapped up (the manga itself is still ongoing), it's finally time for Bandai Tamashii Nations to do what they promised at last year's Tamashii Nation event and complete the Ultra Brother lineup. Now it's Jack's turn - a character who was perhaps a little more understated in the anime adaptation but still managed to leave a big impression. S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Suit Jack is another Tamashii web exclusive release, following on from the release of Ultraman Suit Taro at the end of last year. 

S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Suit Jack -The Animation- comes in a windowless black box identical in design/layout to the previous ULTRAMAN web exclusive releases, with the name of the figure printed across the side next to a nice big image of the Jack Suit with its fists raised ready for a fight. Interestingly Jack's box has been labelled with the ULTRAMAN Final logo rather than just the generic series one that appeared on the previous releases. The sides of the box are identical and relatively plain, simply repeating that bold lettering alongside the SSSP logo against a brown backdrop. On the back of the box you'll find the usual selection of stock images showing off the figure in various poses, and then inside both it and its accessories are neatly stored on a moulded plastic tray.

While all the suits in the ULTRAMAN manga/anime have diverged from the source material quite a bit, one of the biggest jumps of them all is definitely how Ultraman Suit Jack looks. Rather than just another Ultraman with slightly different patterning, the Jack Suit is a much larger and bulkier suit to match its user's muscular body. If the standard Ultraman suit was equivalent to Iron Man, then the Jack Suit would be the Hulkbuster. It's a great design that didn't get to shine nearly enough in the anime adaptation of the series, so it's great to see that at least Bandai are treating it right here. As with the previous entries in the ULTRAMAN anime range it uses more vibrant red and shinier silver than the original manga-derived S.H. Figuarts x Ultra-Act releases, which only saw the release of Ultraman, Seven, Ace and Bemular. Despite being slightly bigger than your average S.H. Figuarts release Jack surprisingly isn't that much heavier, but still feels like a really solid release. The colouring and moulding on the figure are really sharp, with etched metal plate detailing across the body and of course that iconic Ultraman suit head sculpt. There's even some cool detailing that could easily go unnoticed, like a silver painted spinal robotic spinal column just behind the head. Overall it's a great looking figure, with easily the most shelf-presence of this range so far.

The bulkier body doesn't seem to have done too much to impede the articulation though, with the Jack Suit showing off nearly as much poseability as his more slimline brethren. Altogether the figure features;

- Ball jointed head, neck, torso, waist, wrists and hips

- Swivel hinge shoulders and ankles

- Butterfly joint shoulders

- Double hinge elbows and knees

- Bicep and thigh swivels

The shoulder pads are also connected to the arms via levered balljoints to the give them some independent movement whilst posing. And to their credit they actually pull away from the arm quite far, which not only makes posing look a lot more natural but also much easier to see the arm joint and how it moves. The forearm gauntlets and lower shin guards are mounted to the figure in a similar way. While there are a couple of areas that are brought down a bit by Jack being a little bit larger than normal (the knees only have a 90 degree bend at best, and you need to be careful about the upper legs scratching against the crotch plate when raising them), but overall the movement on this figure is really good. Larger joints that normal perhaps allow for better movement in some places, with the ankle joints particularly having some really smooth movement. The design isn't one that needs a great deal of posing to look big and imposing, but when it comes to all those cliche fist-fighting bruiser poses Jack pretty much has them all down.

Given that this is already a larger figure without too dramatic a raise in pricing the accessories are kept fairly light - solely consisting of three alternate pairs of hands and an alternate red colour timer. These hands include two pairs of open hands (one resting and the other with the fingers splayed open) and a pair of thumbs up hands, which compliment those default closed fists rather nicely. After previously having wrist joint issues with my Taro Suit figure, it's nice to see Jack has big thick wrist joints to go along with those much larger hands - meaning changing without any accidental breakage shouldn't be a problem at all. Finally there's the alternate red colour timer, a staple of Ultraman releases no matter what corner of the franchise they hail from. Despite it being a small circular piece akin to what you'd find on the Showa Ultras, they're actually very easy to remove from the torso and swap around which is a relief. All in all it's a pretty basic array of accessories, but even though an effect part or two might of been nice this is the one Ultra that should just be posed punching things - and to that effect he's pretty much got everything he needs.

After things got a bit dicey for a second with Ultraman Suit Taro, the ULTRAMAN range is definitely back on track with S.H. Figuarts Ultraman Suit Jack. A long-awaited entry into the line thanks to its look and size, Bandai Tamashii Nations have crafted a great figure that uses its size to show off plenty of great moulded detail but also doesn't lose any of that great S.H. Figuarts articulation in the process. Sure the accessory count isn't much, but this is one of those rare cases where the figure alone is more than enough to carry the release. With the Zoffy suit due out early next year the Ultra Brothers will soon be completed, but there are still plenty of other offerings from ULTRAMAN Final that deserve to join them. However if you're going to get any figure from the ULTRAMAN range, definitely make it this one.