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Trunks (Bandai)

April 8, 2011 | By Errex More

Some times, when I’m bored and not paying much attention, I end up getting figures from series I’m not necessarily a fan of, which usually results in rather bizarre additions to my shelves. One such addition is this Trunks figure, from Bandai’s Hybrid Action Figure Dragon Ball Z line.

I have no idea who or what the character is, outside of the name printed on the package, but it is done in a roughly 4 inch scale and seems to have a rather unusual articulation model.

First things first, Trunks is sculpted in a decidedly anime-like style. The body proportions are fairly heroic and the costume consists of a short purple jacket over a purple top, baggy gray trousers and yellow boots. The head sculpt seems accurate to the drawings on the package, and the hair is also painted purple.

The paintjob is neat and clean, and sports some subtle color gradations that really add to the finished look of the figure, even if color selection is a little on the cartoony side of things, as evidenced by the purple hair and rather orange skin tone.

Articulation is rather extensive and for the most part is fairly well concealed within the sculpture. Trunks has:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Hinged pectorals. Remember this, it will be explained in a moment.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Upper biceps swivel.

• Dual hinged elbows.

• Pegged hinge wrists.

• Floating torso.

• Swivel waist.

• V-cut hips.

• Upper thigh swivels.

• Dual hinged knees.

• Swivel calf cuts.

• Double pegged ankles.

A very impressive number of joints, and all of them work as expected, which is both good and bad. You’ll see Trunks is made from two types of plastic; a dense, rubbery type was used to cast the legs, head, lower arms and hands, with a more rigid, styrene-like material used for a few joint connectors, the torso and shoulders pivots. The two types of material have a rather low friction quotient when used with one another, resulting in upper limbs that fall off rather easily.

It would be no more than an annoyance but for the jacket accessory design. The torso section of the jacket is formed by to separate attachments that are held in place by the arms of the figure, so whenever an arm slips off the socket, it means half of the jacket also falls off.

The reason the vest piece is designed like that is connected to the extra joint at Trunks pectorals. This joint allows Trunks to “rip” his jacket by “flexing” the muscles in his back. I don’t know how often does that happen in Dragon Ball Z, but Bandai could have probably left that feature out and have a better figure as a result.

Or at least, they could have made the pieces from the rubbery material, so it would cling a little bit better to the figure.

As a matter of fact, there are more than a few pieces included with Trunks that should have made more sense if the material used for them had been of the rubbery kind. For instance, Trunks comes with sheathed and unsheathed versions of a sword. He also comes with an empty scabbard and a strap to hang either of the accessories to his back.

While both versions of the sheath are made from rigid plastic, there is no reason for the strap itself to be cast also from the same rigid material, as it only makes more difficult switching accessories.

Other than the weapons, Trunks comes with multiple pairs of hands: closed fists, open palms and grabbing hands. Also, a three-piece flying stand is included, consisting of a triangular base, a transparent arm and a hinged C clip.

In the end, Trunks is little more than a curiosity. The figure isn’t really intended to be played with, but the anime look is fairly accurate and interesting, if you like that sort of thing. I would not recommend paying full retail for any of these Hybrid Action Figures, but if you can find them cheap, you might as well give them a try.