A photo of Garo, a 2006 figure from Bandai’s Equip & Prop volume 1 set.

With the cape attached, Garo looks at once savage and majestic.

I was not a fan of the MSiA line. The figures may have been well-articulated and faithful to the source material but the first few in the line-up felt really cheap in hand.

Despite my low opinion of the line as a whole, there was absolutely no way I was going to pass up MSiA Gogg. How can you not smile when you look at this endearingly chunky Boss Borot-ish mecha design?

As an action figure, it’s decent. It feels solid in your hand and it’s well-articulated. The neck and waist swivel, each arm has five ball joints, the wrist is hinged, the fingers (excluding the thumbs) are hinged at the first knuckle, the hips have swivel joints, the knees have swivel/hinge combo joints, the “ankles” have a limited ball joint and the shoulder pads swivel out of the way for some poses.

Some parts do pop off easily when handled — the hands and shoulder pads most notably — but this is something you come to expect with MSiA figures.

The Gogg is also notable for one special feature …
Continued…

(Click on the photo for a larger-sized version.)

The 19cm-tall figure is pictured here with the 15cm-long Garo Sword. The articulation for Garo’s arms is much better than for the Kouga figure and you should have no problems putting Garo in your favourite swordsman pose.

The legs aren’t as posable, unfortunately. There are joints galore but they’re all restricted in some way. Nobody expects a fully armoured knight to execute kung-fu side kicks but I was hoping to put Garo in a few more dynamic poses. It must be said, however, it looks good in the poses you can put it in.

Two things that may not be evident from the photo: the figure is mostly plastic and the sword is mostly metal.