Toybox REVIEW: Figma Gridman (Universe Fighter)

Release Date: November 2024

RRP: 8900 yen

In 2023 Studio Trigger's continuation of the Gridman the Hyper Agent franchise came to a climax (at least for the time being anyway) with the aptly-titled Gridman Universe, crossing over the casts of SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon for an action-packed finale that naturally introduced a number of new forms and combos. Something that both Bandai and Good Smile Company have taken advantage of with their respective toylines, particularly the latter as they follow up their premium THE GATTAI releases with Max Factory's Figma Gridman (Universe Fighter). This figure is based on the form Gridman takes during the finale of the film as he merges with Yuta once more and breaks free of the confines of the universe itself.

Gridman (Universe Fighter) comes boxed in standard Figma packaging, which adopts a two-tone blue colour scheme with fits rather nicely with that of Gridman himself. On the front of the box is a very neat rectangular window to show off the figure inside, flanked by a large image of the figure and the character name/details underneath. The figure is designated SP-163 in the Figma line's numbering, although it isn't all that clear to me why the Gridman figures are in the SP branch despite being standard retail releases. Both sides of the box feature different full-sized images of the figure in action poses, and then those (among several others) can be found again on the back. Inside the figure is stored on a plastic tray alongside some of the accessories, with the remaining accessories all bagged up and taped on the underside of the tray.

It's been five years since the release of Gridman (Primal Fighter) and Gridknight, and while the pair have received slightly revamped re-releases in the time since, as far as I'm aware neither had any significant moulding changes. This is worth noting because as great as both figures were, they were also stylised more towards how the characters looked in action sequences as opposed to their default character models. While the same can perhaps be said for this version of Gridman, it's definitely far less pronounced. Universe Fighter is a far more elaborately designed form to begin with, but compared with the previous releases the proportions (and more significantly, the head sculpt) feel a lot more natural. Universe Fighter also feels positively ornamental in terms of design - maybe a little too busy in places, but it certainly feels like they took the base Primal Fighter design and amped it up movie-style. Max Factory have done an absolutely incredible job nailing the sculpt, and between all the metallic paint and clear plastic parts it doesn't feel like any expense has been spared getting the figure to look as good as possible. There are as couple of bits I wonder about the fragility of in the design, but if posed with caution there shouldn't be any real issues here.

Like previous figures Gridman's articulation mainly comes from a variety of Figma-brand swivel hinge joints running throughout the body (plus a couple of extra types too), however as with the proportions the layout has been slightly changed for Universe Fighter for even more dynamic poseability. Altogether this version of Gridman features;

- Swivel hinge head, neck, shoulders, torso, waist, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and feet

- Butterfly joint shoulders

- Bicep and thigh swivels

- Ball jointed shoulder pads

- Rotatable ankle guards

For the most part you're getting the same buttery smooth type of movement (something Figma figures have always excelled at) throughout the body, so all of the joints have the same level of tolerance which makes it an easy figure to get to grips with. The standard Figma joint doesn't necessarily work perfectly everywhere - the torso and hips don't have the greatest range of motion and the ankles could really do with some tilt movement, but overall it works well for what the figure needs to be able to pull off. As with both Gridman (Primal Fighter) and Grid Knight the shoulder pads are more than a little fiddly, but they pop on and off their ball joints quite easily which makes handling them much more tolerable. By far however my favourite bit of engineering on this figure though its the lower neck joint, which connects at the front of the collar rather than the centre. This allows the neck to fully swing downwards, which is perfect for clearing the head forward from the shoulder pads and into the kind of exaggerated action poses you'd see in the anime. While overall Figma are falling a bit behind their rivals when it comes to the level of articulation their releases have to offer, Gridman mostly delivers when it comes to dynamic posing and the inclusion of a display base only enhances its potential.

Gridman's accessories include a standard articulated Figma display base, three additional pairs of hands and Grid Beam effect parts. The Grid Beam is comprised of four different components – an alternate Primal Acceptor (featuring a slot to plug in the parts), translucent pink "flash" and cross pieces, and then finally a multicoloured beam that's just as long as the figure is tall. Caution should definitely be taken when putting the beam together, which requires slotting the flash and cross pieces through the end of the beam piece and the plugging the combined effect into the Acceptor. The holes in the flash and cross are quite small though so getting them onto the beam is a tight fit, and being translucent the plastic itself is also quite brittle. The end result looks fantastic though, particularly the beam which vibrantly goes from pink to yellow to green and then finally blue. Even in low levels of light it's one of the most eye-catching beam effects I've seen on a figure. Though Gridman is perfectly capable of holding a good-looking beam pose without the aid of the stand, given the limitations of both the hips and ankles it is better to use it for a more dynamic and anime-accurate pose.

Among the hand selection are the default closed fists, a pair of open hands, a pair of knifestrike hands and then finally a pair of accessory-holding fists. Now you might be thinking that the figure doesn't come with any accessories to hold, but these are so that he can wield the Calibur Sword that came with the Primal Fighter figure. The sword slots into the hands perfectly, adding an extra level of play/posing for collectors with both versions of Gridman. It might seem like only a small touch, but given how often cross-play like this gets overlooked I'm really happy to see Good Smile/Max Factory implement it here.

Finally the set also includes a black adapter piece which plugs directly into the port on Gridman's back, allowing it to combine with THE GATTAI Big Goldburn. Sadly I don't own that release so can't show it off as part of the review, but hopefully Good Smile's own pictures of the combo should suffice. Proportionally it looks a lot better than the same combination performed with the smaller Gridman included in THE GATTAI release, and while this is a cool little function for the Figma to have THE GATTAI releases don't come cheap. If someone is picking it up it's more likely to be to combine with Dynazenon for Rogue Kaiser Gridman, so while it is cool that the figure can do this I do wonder how many people would display the figures this way.

Just as Gridman Universe rounded off Trigger's extension of the franchise in style, Figma Gridman (Universe Fighter) feels like the perfect culmination of everything the line has been doing with the series. Universe Fighter improves upon the proportions and sculpting of previous releases, with a design and finish that feels like an ultimate form in any sense of the word. Though the articulation can be a little fiddly and the effect pieces fragile, the overall presentation of the figure is enough to overlook these things and it stand tall as a centrepiece in any Gridman collection. At least until the S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou figure comes out next year that is...