S.H. Figuarts Son Goku Ultra Instinct Toyotaro Edition
I can’t believe the line has already become this expansive (and expensive.. lol).
The box is much, much larger than your garden variety S.H. Figuarts release due to the pack-in book. The box stands roughly 10.5 inches tall.
Toyotaro’s signature on the front of the box.
For the unfamiliar, this set is named after the famous manga artist and Akira Toriyama’s chosen successor, Toyotarou. He’s since been busy doing the manga adaptation for Dragon Ball Super, working closely with Akira Toriyama on the storylines until the latter’s recent passing.
Inner packing with the book.
Packing tray.
Son Goku’s latest, most powerful form yet! The “Ultra Instinct” is a technique that separates the user’s consciousness from the body, allowing the body to move and fight on reflex and “muscle memory”, without relying on the brain to process actions, resulting in faster movement and reaction speed. This technique transcends Super Saiyan Blue.
The figure heavily reuses parts from the previously released Ultra Instinct Son Goku with a new hairpiece. It also has some darker shading for its skin tone.
While in this form, Goku’s hair turns silver and becomes only slightly raised as opposed to his Super Saiyan hairstyle.
Unlike the Super Saiyan transformations which usually relied on emotions to power up, the Ultra Instinct requires the user to remain completely calm. Sudden failure to maintain a neutral emotion while in this form results in the form expiring sooner than expected with extremely painful physical damage to the user’s body.
Yeah, this spot on the back of the knee still sticks out like a sore thumb..
Goku comes with a really cool alternate face that looks to his left side
While we do get a lot of new faces, it’s too bad U.I. Goku doesn’t come with any effects parts, considering the premium pricing for this set.
The set comes with a huge booklet caleld the “Dragon Ball S.H. Figupedia”, which showcases all the S.H. Figuarts Dragon Ball figures since the toyline’s inception way back in 2009.
Interview with Toyotaro. Surprisingly, the text is bilingual.
Interestingly, the book grouped the figures by their sagas, as opposed to their actual release dates from Bandai. While I love the contents of the book. The paper they used here is seriously low grade. I wish they printed this on the stuff that Hobby Japan uses for their toy compilation books. This feels like a cheap magazine print out.
Original Dragon Ball
Saiyan Saga
Frieza Saga
Androids Saga
DB Super
The movie-based releases.
The last pages are an index which shows the release date of each figure in chronological order, starting from 2009 with Piccolo being the first ever Dragon Ball SH. Figuarts release. It’s been an insane 15 years alright. According to the count in this book there are already 171 releases, not including the newer figures that will come out after the middle of this year. Wild!!
Overall, honestly, it’s a bit disappointing. Given the high price for this set, it’s generally a retread of the previous Ultra Instinct Son Goku with just some new parts and no effects parts. It’s probably something casual collectors can pass on, particularly if you already have the previous release.
For me. what I’m really after here is the Figupedia book. It’s the only reason why I picked this set up and while contents are amazing, I really, really wish Bandai Namco went with better paper stock. There’s just no high end feel to the paper they used here. Sigh..
The set was released as a P-Bandai Webshop exclusive.
Gold
