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Product:
  Black Lagoon Figure DX 004 / 005

Product Type:  Display Figure

Number of Figures in Range:  2

Manufacturer:  Banpresto

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £20 each

Purchased from:  K-Books, Akihabara, Tokyo

Rarity:  Rare

Reviewer:  Rich (Webmaster)
 

Considering I own two other figures in this range it would see rude not to pick up a third one, and I have always been complimented on my good manners!

Unlike the previous three figures in the Black Lagoon DX range these ones are based around the Roberta's Blood Trail storyline featured in the latest OVA.  As before they are designed to be prizes for 'UFO Catcher' arcade machines, but this time focus on ex-FARC guerrilla Roberta and Revy (again).  Roberta is depicted as she is at the climax of the Blood Trail storyline, wearing trousers, a white shirt and gloves rather than the maid outfit she normally wears, whilst the Revy figure is... wait for it... another re-spray!  Yes, after re-issuing the original Revy figure in the last range with a partly metallic colour scheme, they've done exactly the same this time.  I won't go into too much depth on the Revy figure considering I've covered it twice already (here and here), but suffice to say it comes in two parts and once assembled stands at approximately 6" (17cm tall).  The sculpt is identical, with the only difference a slightly tweaked colour scheme that gives a different skin tone and some other minor colour changes.
 

Instead I'll focus more on the Roberta figure, which is a nice addition to the range.  The Roberta figure again requires some basic assembly to slot her body and legs together and to attach her arms, and once assembled stands just slightly taller than the Revy figure at approximately 6.5" (18cm).  As previously mentioned the figure depicts Roberta in the casual combat gear she wears when hunting the Grey Fox commandoes in the Blood Trail story arc, and the design nicely echoes a particular shot from the manga and anime where she pulls on her gloves ready for battle.  The sculpt is pretty good, with excellent detail work bringing her flowing hair to life and realistically picking out the creases and folds in her trousers and shirt.  As with the Revy figure there is a level of detail you don't always get and therefore don't expect in prize figures like this, and Banpresto have managed to get her murderous glare spot-on too.

The painting is pretty good, although the skin tone seems slightly off with a bit of a yellow tint to it which doesn't seem quite right.  However the main issue with it is one of personal preference.  In both the manga and anime Roberta wears a maid outfit, has her hair in pigtails and carries a machine gun and shotgun concealed in a suitcase and umbrella respectively.  That's her classic look from the series, and whilst the other figures in this range have depicted the characters' classic looks, this one doesn't.  That's not to say there's anything

wrong with the figure as it is, and it's worth noting that it's the only available figure of this iteration of Roberta, but for me her standard outfit is a lot more individual and impressive.  It's still a good representation of the character, but I personally think that the maid version would look better.  The only other problem with the figure is the usual visible join line across the hair (a standard issue with anime figures, but annoying nonetheless) and when the arms are in place the hand doesn't quite meet with the other glove.  It's not that obvious unless you're looking for it but it's still a little disappointing.

Despite these minor niggles though this range is easily as good as the last one, with a new character added that largely stands up in quality to those that have gone before.  It's a shame that they just trundled out the same old Revy figure once again (good though it is) with only some superficial tweaks, but it's good to see a character from the Roberta's Blood Trail arc shown as the look in the climactic part of the story.  It does make the inclusion of Gretel in the last part of the range all the more confusing though, as there are plenty of other characters from the Blood Trail arc they could have used including Roberta's young master Garcia Lovelace or her protégé Fabiola.  It seems a bit cheap that out if the five figures released by Banpresto in this range so far three of them are the same figure of Revy, but at least there has been some variation with the other figures.  I do think there is a missed opportunity with the pool of characters Black Lagoon has that we've really only had three depicted in this range so far, but the three we've had are damn good.  These two are worthy additions to your collection, although if you already have one of the earlier Revys there's no real reason to double dip, the Roberta figure is well worth picking up.

Extras:

Once again the same plain black base the other figures had, very basic.

Ratings

Feature:   Extras:
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