Figure Review: Tru-Force Megaman X Designer Series

I am X – the Maverick Hunter!

Redesigns of existing characters have been a common practice in the figure/toy industry, and our beloved Maverick Hunter is no exception. Megaman X has been a classic redesign of an even more classic character: the original Rockman. And his popularity inspired many redesigns based on him since X is a more “mechanical” and grown-up version of Rockman. Among them is Tru-Force collectible – an action figure company – made the ambitious move by starting a Kickstarter campaign for their redesign of X. And the result was astounding success!

+ Design: While the original Megaman X still show a lot of “smooth” texture on his design, the Tru-Force adds a lot more details to those areas – especially the biceps, thighs and abdomen. The overall proportion of X is still the same, just with extra mechanical details across the board, mostly for the legs. Panel patterns and decals are also printed on to further emphasize the fact that X is a “robot”, and that he was “built”. Even so, his facial sculpt is extremely expressive and human. Some tampo-printed decal will put a smile on face of fans who adore this character, such as the “Irregular hunter 17th elite unit” on the chest. Other decals are warning decals that really makes you feel like this character is a full-blown mecha.

The color scheme of the Tru-Force is much darker than the original, opting for a darker shade of blue all around and cyan accent. The painting on the figure is really good, with glossy paint on dark blue parts and matte paint on light blue parts. The inner joints however is left as bare plastic of black and blue, which is probably a consideration to playability to avoid paint chipping. The thrusters and X-Buster however are beautifully painted with metallic gunmetal.

+ Articulation: Tru-Force really made it worth the backer’s money. The figure is extremely articulated with a wide range of movement, part of it thanks to X’s already simple design and the minimal obstruction that the new look incorporate. The bulkier lower legs really don’t diminish the posability at all, and even has open panel for the double-jointed knees, something we can all appreciate. The manual doesn’t mention this, but you can slightly extend the thigh-hip joint to allow for some more articulation should you need it.

The bulk of the die-cast (yes this figure has some die-cast) lies in the legs. And of course, X’s design is heavily focus on the balancing of his giant feet – which in this case you have zero cause to worry, since the feet is on a dumbbell-type ball-joint which allow for almost 360 movement if the leg armor doesn’t get in the way. You can balance him even in full spread pose. For the Tru-Force, you can replicate any poses you’d like, especially X’s dashing poses or jumping poses. I do recommend getting a solid stand for it since it is quite heavy.

+ Gimmicks: There are a few that is pretty nice to have. Firstly is the most important one: the LED gimmick for the X-Buster. For some, it’s easy to turn on while I have heard report of some other where the LED is a bit finnicky. For my copy, the LED only turns on if I twist the barrel at a certain point, but still, the LED works perfectly and is quite bright. Bright enough to enable it to shine through the effect parts that comes with the figure as well.

Other gimmicks include leg thrusters (which really makes X more like a mecha) that can flip out from the back of the calves. You can also switch out the back panel for additional thrusters which looks pretty cool as well.

+ Accessories: The figure came with some basic but iconic accessories:
– 1 x shouting faceplate
– 1 x Buster Arm Cannon (switchable with a regular arm on either side)
– 2 x Open-palm hands
– 2 x Rear Thrusters
– 3 x X-Buster Blast Effect Parts
– 1 x Stand

The stand is basically a Sentinel base (after releasing X, Sentinel acquired Tru-Force Collectibles) that is very good at holding the figure up, but it might buckle in certain pose, but it will hold the effect parts up well.

The X-Buster effect parts are great additions to the figure. The light from the LED can pipe through the semi-clear effect parts very well, making for an awesome shot (pun intended). The fact that the X-Buster can switch between either arms allow for some alternate configs, not much but still something.

+ Conclusion: The Tru-Force Megaman X is an ambitious project that paid off handsomely. The figure is one of the best X figure out there with both high posability and interesting gimmicks. Unfortunately, the figure is the only product made by Tru-Force even though the X figure was very successful. The studio teased a Zero figure in the same aesthetic but too bad that dream is never coming true. Nevertheless, this figure is a beautiful one and really well-deserve in any fans’ collection.

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