Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Carmeara

Release Date: August 2022

RRP: 7150 yen

With the number of alien and kaiju figures it has produced over the years the Ultraman S.H. Figuarts range certainly isn't short of villain material, however it's also particularly exciting when a main villain turns up in the line. In Ultraman Trigger: New Generation Tiga the Giants of Darkness were an ancient race of beings that destroyed everything in their path, eventually arriving on Earth 30 million years ago in search of the Eternity Core. Sealed away after one of their own turned to the light, they awoke in the present day to seek revenge against their former comrade – Ultraman Trigger. The leader of the group was Carmeara, driven by her love for Trigger Dark and hatred toward Kengo Manaka for taking him away from her. S.H. Figuarts Carmeara joins the line as a Tamashii Web exclusive, and is notable for being the first female character to appear in the whole Ultraman S.H. Figuarts line.

S.H. Figuarts Carmeara comes in the usual modern Ultraman style packaging - windowless to denote its Tamashii Web exclusive status and sporting a fitting gold colouring to compliment the black accents. The front of the box features a nice big image of the Carmeara suit alongside one of the figure itself, with another figure image featured on the side of the box to give it a cool bookend-style look. On the back there are further images showing Carmeara off in various poses (as well as the bundled beam effect for Ultraman Trigger Multi Type), and inside the figure and accessories are neatly laid out on a moulded plastic tray. 

Much like how Trigger was designed as a new generation version of Ultraman Tiga, Carmeara is directly based on Camearra – the Giant of Darkness that appeared in Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey. Both characters share very similar design traits, with silver and gold colour schemes that aren't too far removed from the Ultras themselves. To fully hammer home how similar they are, they also have their own Colour Timers. Being a more modern suit though Carmeara has a slightly more elaborate design than her predecessor, with additional black detailing across the suit as well as two ribbons which hang from her shoulders. The gold and silver colouring is particularly good on this release, giving the figure a real vibrance which enhances the sculpt. Elements like the flame-shaped translucent orange eyes, crystal-like Colour Timer and metallic purple lips might be small, but immediately draw your eye. The ribbons are made from a soft plastic that has some degree of flexibility, but aren't designed for specific posing. It's a shame since Bandai have been doing some really nice work with soft/wired pieces on Figuarts as of late, but as a standard release this is pretty much their usual way of doing things.

The shared design traits with Ultraman also means that Carmeara has pretty much the same build in terms of articulation, altogether consisting of;

- Ball jointed head, neck, torso, waist and wrists

- Swivel hinge shoulders, hips and ankles

- Butterfly joint shoulders

- Double hinge elbows and knees

- Single hinge toe sections

- Thigh swivels

With some toy lines a smaller, feminine body shape can often lead to either restrictions in the articulation or elements being taken out altogether, but thankfully with Carmeara there isn't really much change at all. You've still got those fantastic double joints in the elbows and knees, as well as ball and swivel hinge joints spread across the body to provide a wide range of movement. That said, Carmeara certainly isn't without her flaws – though these definitely come down to how the suit design was tackled. Even with the hair pieces at the front made of soft plastic, the head doesn't have a whole lot of movement to it even if it's connected via a ball joint. But what's more noticeable on this release are the ribbon pieces on the arms, which despite being able to rotate do not have a whole lot of flexibility to them. Admittedly it's less about the joints they're connected to and more about the rigidity of the soft plastic used to make them, but it is a shame that they kind of just hang there in action poses rather than raise and flow as they would in reality. Even if they were connected via tiny ball joint to give them a little bit of lift independent from the arm it'd be something.

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