[Toy Review] [Bootleg] DIABLOS ARMOR (RAGE SET) - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Play Arts Kai

I was debating myself if I should review this toy or not, but here it is! I'm on a cheap budget and the Play Arts Kai action figure of the Diablos (or Diabolos) Armor from Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate are long sold out. So I got the next best thing, a bootleg version. This is my first "real" bootleg toy to review on this blog. As always, this one will get a fair review. This Rage Armor set is designed by Tetsuya Nomura as a collaboration between Capcom and Square-Enix.

PACKAGING

Front and back of the box.

The prints on this knock-off coffin-type box is muddy or fuzzy and darker than the original. The cardboard's quality and the plastic tray that's holding this toy and its accessories is weak. It also got a magnetic front cover with a large product shot of the figure and the Monster Hunter 4 logo, like the original, is also a sticker. The back shows more product shots of the figure in different poses.

Opened front cover.

Open the front cover to see the figure and its accessories on the right hand side. On the left side you can read the details about Capcom and Square-Enix's Tetsuya Nomura's collaboration to design and create this armor set and its amazing scythe weapon for the game.

Now that's a scary-looking armor.

Packaging includes: Diablos figure, Scythe (two parts), L/R gripping hands, L/R fists, Display stand

THE FIGURE

This figure have a nice weight on it. Its look and presentation is amazing for a knock-off. It almost got the scent of the original. The design of this figure is like a that of a dragon with Evangelion's Unit 01 as a head on Diablos' base design.

Viewing Diablos on 4 sides.

This is based on Final Fantasy's Diablos that first appeared in Final Fantasy VIII. You can count on this as a FF figure too and a Summon/Esper/Eidolon/Guardian Force at that, but smaller.

Looks like he forgot to take care of his teeth.

The headsculpt looks good, but the mouth is a dead giveaway that this is a fake. The original have a set of defined long, silvery teeth. The teeth on this figure is short (not molded properly) making its mouth look opened wide. Still, I'm liking this fake. The eyes are uneven in size and the eyes are supposed to be green, this figure's eyes have their green color faded. The right eye have a scar that makes this figure cooler.

He got fins for ears!

The fins on both sides of the head are nicely painted and detailed. The top horns are made of plastic and they're kinda warped, just like in some of the originals.

If you look at the chest only, you'll probably think that this is a Nightmare Batman.

The upper-body parts like the chest and abs looks good. The chest part have a nice additional crossed arm as part of the armor, giving the impression that it got four arms. The black parts are detailed and textured like a solidified rock that came from a volcano and the red are glossy and smooth with nice shading. Paint work is kinda poor but that's what you get for buying a fake figure.

Nice wings.

The back features a pair of wings. It looks really cool but this armor's wings are really small compared to the wings of the actual Diablos summon.

The outer side of the arm.

Both arms have a nice black and red parts just like the chest and abs. The outer side of the arms have dark rocky-looking scales/carapace.

The inner side of the arm.

The inner side or what I call "exposed parts" have smooth texture and they're mostly red with darker hues. The hands looks really cool and I don't have any problems with that.

Shoulder guard

Both arms also have a large shoulder piece that's made of soft plastic and the colors are inconsistent with the rest of the arms because of its lighter color.

This piece is separate but it looks seamless.

The crotch piece is made of soft plastic and it's a free-floating one which is a PAK standard. This piece also looks like a scaly dragon skin.

The legs

The design of both legs remains consistent to the overall design of the figure with a nice combination of textured/detailed black and glossy/smooth red parts. I didn't notice that there are some bluish hues around the figure.

The feet... or talons.

Both feet looks like a dragon's feet/talons and I don't have any complaints on them. They also help the figure to stand properly.

ACCESSORIES

That's all of them.

The Diablos Armor doesn't have that many accessories. It only got a massive scythe that comes in two parts and two pairs of extra hands.

Scythe: Unassembled

The scythe comes in two parts and you need to combine the grip/shaft to the blade.

Scythe: Assembled

This massive scythe is the thing that won me over when I saw the official photos of the Diablos Armor. The scythe is based on Sephiroth and his single wing.

The blade part of the scythe.

The blade part's design looks amazing and like I said, it's based on Sephiroth's wing, but I think this wont cut anything in half in real life. Anyway, I like the colors on this one because of its gradient paint application. This part is heavy and causes some articulation issues. More on that on the ARTICULATIONS section.

The Sephiroth image is a nice touch.

Here's the silver Sephiroth image (or sculpture) on the scythe... it looks good. There are few silver protrusions present on the scythe.

Scythe's grip

The scythe's shaft is black with blue bands wrapped around the bottom end to form a grip. Paint application on this part is poor and the plastic felt cheap.

The extra hands.

The extra pair of gripping hands are for holding the scythe one handed or two-handed. Note that it's difficult for the figure to hold steady the heavy scythe one-handed. The fists are just for other poses and punching stuff.

Display Stand

The display stand is kinda useless because I watch some videos of the Diablos Armor in action and it's not capable of flight. But if you want to get creative with the poses on this figure, then you can use this.

ARTICULATION

Angry staredown

This will test how this bootleg's articulation felt and how it works compared to the original PAK figures.

He can feel the power of the armor.

The head movement is stiff at first but after some very careful adjustments, the head moves but mostly hindered by its sculpt. The long fins on the head's sides collides with the shoulder armor, limiting the head movement even more. The neck is on a double ball-peg.

He enjoys this power.

Both arms moves fine but kinda limited on the shoulder part because of the shoulder pieces. I also find it difficult to raise the arms forward, probably because of the figure's design. They have bicep swivel. The elbows and wrists are ball-hinged and these parts move really well.

Look how tall the scythe is!

The chest have a click-hinge that holds the chest in place when leaning to the front and back. The chest can also twist and lean side to side because that click-hinge have a ball peg. No huge gaps present which is good.

Ready to hunt down huge monsters with his scythe.

The waist part can move but it's very loose. If you hold the figure horizontally and faced up, the waist joint will start to go down. This doesn't happen when the figure is faced down.

Intimidating stance

Also, if you equip the scythe, wherever the blade part of the scythe is placed/posed the waist will flop down on that direction making it hard to pose the figure straight.

Going to swing the scythe.

The legs can raise up and a bit to the back. They can also raise sidewards just fine. Both legs also can twist.

A very chill pose.

The knees are double-hinged and looks fine when you bend them thanks to the knee design.

Imagine that he's flying and about to change and unleash his gravity-based attack.

Both feet have ball-hinges for ankles and they move well and on top of that they have toe hinges.

By the way, the wings are articulated thanks to their ball-hinges.

SCALING

Time to compare the height of this Diablos Armor Bootleg PAK with the rest of my PAK collection.

With the guys from FFVII:AC.

Diablos is the shortest in this group with Cloud (FFVII:AC), Tifa (FFVII:AC), Barret (FFVII:AC) and Sephiroth (FFVII:AC).

With FFXV colorful characters.

Based on the eye level, Diablos is around the same height as Lunafreya (FFXV) and Cindy (FFXV). Noctis (FFXV) and Aranea (FFXV) are taller.

Diablos with the citizens of Ivalice and Coccoon.

Diablos is shorter than Fran (FFXII) and Gabranth (FFXII) while he's taller than Lightning (LR:FFXIII) and Serah (FFXIII).

Looks like Riku took a piece off one of Diablos' wings to create his Keyblade.

No problems in scaling when comparing Diablos with Sora (KH3D) and Riku (KH2).

Diablos with a few more colorful characters.

Catwoman (Variant) is the tallest while Hatsune Miku (Variant) and Lightning (Dissidia) are shorter.

Random assortment of people.

It's funny that Raiden (MGR) and Lara Croft (RotTR) is taller than Diablos. Harley Quinn (B:AK) and Leon (RE6) are both shorter.

Maybe we can get over the fact that this figure is short if we think of it this way: The one who's wearing the Diablos Armor (Rage Set) in Monster Hunter 4 is probably a short man. It can't be a woman because there's a female version of the Diablos Armor.

QUALITY ISSUES

Being a bootleg figure, it obviously got quality issues like lots of very poor paint application that are visible around the figure. The critical issues that I have on this one is the mouth and the very loose waist joint. I'm also afraid that this knock-off toy will break if it fell down 3 to 4 feet high. Other than those issues I mentioned, I think this is a very good replica of the original PAK figure.

CONCLUSION

Bad set of teeth, waist articulation and paintwork aside, this is a good copy of the Diablos Armor Play Arts Kai action figure especially on its price that's only just around $30 (Php.1,500) and the original ones are unfairly expensive. I can display this one along with my original PAK figures, but I got a feeling that this toy might break if it falls off the shelf. You get what you paid for on this one and I hope that this review will help you guys not to get duped by these bootleg figures. By the way I intentionally bought this because I lucked out on finding an authentic one.

Cheers and Happy Collecting!