My Sinanju has arrived... several months after it's been released in Japan. And it's still untouched -_- But it seems my kit purchases keep coming anyway T.T That said, Dragon Ball is getting a resurgence with Dragon Ball Super, and Bandai decided to revive the Dragon Ball Model kits. Let's take a look at Bandai's second attempt at a Goku model kit: the Figure-rise Standard SSJ Son Goku.
As said in the introduction, this is not Bandai's 1st figure-rise kit for SSJ Son Goku. They had a Master Grade a few years ago (MG Figure-rise) of Normal Goku, SSJ Goku with battle damage (which I have somewhere) and the Kaioken Goku (web shop exclusive). These were huge figures ... around 10 inches in height. While it had pretty interesting engineering (like the bicep), it didn't really take off as the prototype Vegeta (which is my favorite character), didn't see the light of day. DBZ was no longer popular back then. But so far, they have been successful in releasing 4 characters, which is a positive sign. But still no Vegeta in sight (figure-rise mechanics don't count).
One key point, I suppose, is the new anime Dragon Ball Super. It's currently airing right now (EP62 so far). I'll keep my opinion on the anime to myself till I watch everything. Another key point is that this kit seems to be aimed at an international market. Just look at the instruction sheet.
Also I do not know the reason why the Box art depicts a drawn Goku but with the joints of the model kit.
Does it look like SSJ Goku? Yes pretty much. A lot more accurate than the old MG. It depicts Goku in his Cell Games attire... contrary to the what the box depicts where he's fighting Freeza (no "ribbon" on his belt). This kit is OOB and no stickers were applied.
Let me talk a bit about construction. This one improves over the MG in some regards. The Hair is multi-layer and molded in an almost translucent gold. It actually looks pretty nice when light hits it. The eyes have no stickers (unlike the MG). All the colors in the head are actual plastic.. which is very impressive. The only stickers to be applied are the ones in the boots (which is the same as the MG ones) and the tongue. We'll get to that in a later section.
All the muscle sculpt hides the seam lines. The plastic used is a softer polystyrene, which means you can press it a bit tighter to smush out seams. The overall construction on some parts however results in difficulty when painting since some parts are sandwiched between other colored parts. Example would be the boots: the boot is sandwiched between the 2 lower pants parts, but it's a mushroom joint. So cutting it off means you compromise articulation. Ditto the blue on the Gi.
There are a few sore points in the look, but they're there for articulation. Overall though, it looks pretty decent out of the box. Color separation is impressive and construction is easy. Painting and shading would do wonders... but the plastic on plastic joints and parts scraping with each other will pretty much mean you can't play with it too much lest you end up scratching the paint job.
A model kit of a melee fighter needs to have excellent articulation. And for the most part, that's a check in that regard.
The head is on a ball joint. The joint that connects the head to the neck is on a double hinge. The neck itself is on a separate swivel.
The torso has a deep ab crunch. And the waist is mounted on a ball joint and can swivel freely
You can pull the torso out of the ball joint slightly to give it better range.
The chest is actually hollow. This is to accommodate he shoulder mechanism, which allows you to swivel it forward. When it does that however, you'll end up with a very unsightly gap.
The arms are mounted via a ball joint, which you can pull out to extend it even more. The blue sleeve is on a loose clip so as not to interfere too much in the articulation. I wish the shoulder mechanism cut a bit more on the front bit, so Goku can do a more natural firing a kamehameha pose.
That said, the shoulders are a bit weird. It looks as if it need the swivel to be a bit higher up. Other than that, everything in the arms is excellent.
The legs are... interesting. The legs themselves are pretty articulate. You have an individual joint to pull down the hips. The hips are on the same swivel with balljoint you see in the shoulder so it can wiggle. My main issue here is the tight swivel are 2 relatively hollow plastic... and it doesn't sturdy when you move the legs. Given how tight everything is, it can get scary moving it around. Especially in my humid country where the joints can get all sticky.
Also the legs angle outward for some reason. Picture below has the legs straight, but you can see the knee joint point at an angle. You can't bend it in too much too, so not too much range on knee attacks.
The rest are pretty standard stuff. The hips can swing out very far thanks to the hip articulation. The boot itself can swivel. The knee bends in a single, yet deep joint without destroying the sculpt.
The feet can pivot very well, but the construction is a bit wonky. You expect the ankles to be tight, but in mine, they're loose so it tends to topple over a lot. Also because you insert the peg at an angle towards the toes, you get no toe joint. Sad.
Overall pretty good. It has all the basic human joints with pretty good range. It can kneel naturally, which passes my articulation test.
And exceeds it with this Iron Man pose. Still to nitpick, I wish the shoulders cut into the chest a bit more, the scary construction on the hips and the loose ankles are sticking points. The lack of polycaps also means it's plastic on plastic, and on a humid environment, means joints will be sticky (broke a couple of transformers because of it)
No human action figure is complete without some accessories. It comes with an alternate shouting face, Kamehameha Hands, an instant transmission hand and 2 Kamehameha effect parts.
The second face has the same construction and the normal, so no stickers on the eyes. You do need a sticker for the tongue, and I had mine a bit off. To swap it out, simple remove the bangs, swap the face and plug the hair back. The flesh plastic is soft enough for it to have some friction to be secure.
Shouting face is intense enough to do the DBZ signature shouting power up, though not as intense as the SH Figuarts one.
Also I wish there was a face with clenched teeth too.. and some alternate eyes to look left or right.
The pre-fired Kamehameha doesn't have pegs, so you'll have to balance it on the hands.
It is however is a bit loose in construction. The part that slides in to complete the 3d effect is loose on mine and won't stay together. I almost lost it when it fell from Goku's hands.
The wave of the Kamehameha has a stand, so it's not completely useless if you don't have a stand ( I recommend getting one for this). It also looks puny... more charged mega buster than kamehameha. Still better than getting nothing at all like the figuarts.
And with enough fiddling you can get it into a decent pose. Here's where the complaint on the shoulder cut comes in. It just won't go far enough to look decent in my opinion. You'll have angles where it's just right... some some that are just horrible.
Last accessory is a waist clip to mount Goku on a stand. Not the stand it comes in mind you. The base on that one is too small to hold up Goku here.
Could I have asked for more accessories? I would have liked one more face, or an extra eye piece to make him look left or right. Or a open Ki firing hand. But overall, what you get is already pretty good.
I grew up watching Dragon Ball (the original with kid goku and DBZ upto Buu) and I'm pretty satisfied to get this. I bought this kit because it's the only way to get a less expensive, accurate Goku without paying 2x for a figuarts. It'll require tons of work though to get it to figurearts level. Even then the figuarts will be a lot more solid than this.
On the model kit itself, it has good points and sore points. Overall though, the positive outweighs the negatives for me. It's easy to build, requires minimal effort to look decent and is well articulated. Behind the simple build however, you'll see wonderful design and packaging: Well hidden seams, excellent parts separation. It also has a bunch of accessories. If you want a Goku figure for light posing, I would highly recommend this kit. I really do wish they make a Vegeta... the next kits after Gohan and Cell is SSJ3 Goku and Buu. Here's hoping they don't cancel it again.
Good:
- excellent parts separation
- well hidden seams
- pretty articulated
- has a decent amount of accessories
- cheaper than Figuarts
Bad:
- Some parts could have been more solid and better executed (hips, feet shoulders)
- needs more faces
 |
| He spent 2 hours making this... and he didn't even get the foot shadows right |
As said in the introduction, this is not Bandai's 1st figure-rise kit for SSJ Son Goku. They had a Master Grade a few years ago (MG Figure-rise) of Normal Goku, SSJ Goku with battle damage (which I have somewhere) and the Kaioken Goku (web shop exclusive). These were huge figures ... around 10 inches in height. While it had pretty interesting engineering (like the bicep), it didn't really take off as the prototype Vegeta (which is my favorite character), didn't see the light of day. DBZ was no longer popular back then. But so far, they have been successful in releasing 4 characters, which is a positive sign. But still no Vegeta in sight (figure-rise mechanics don't count).
One key point, I suppose, is the new anime Dragon Ball Super. It's currently airing right now (EP62 so far). I'll keep my opinion on the anime to myself till I watch everything. Another key point is that this kit seems to be aimed at an international market. Just look at the instruction sheet.
 |
| He wants to build the ultimate warrior too... but that's a different Ultimate Warrior |
 |
| Zwoooooooooooo goes the Kamehameha |
Aesthetics
Does it look like SSJ Goku? Yes pretty much. A lot more accurate than the old MG. It depicts Goku in his Cell Games attire... contrary to the what the box depicts where he's fighting Freeza (no "ribbon" on his belt). This kit is OOB and no stickers were applied.
 |
| He used yellow light to simulate the SSJ aura... which means it's not 100% color accurate -_- |
Let me talk a bit about construction. This one improves over the MG in some regards. The Hair is multi-layer and molded in an almost translucent gold. It actually looks pretty nice when light hits it. The eyes have no stickers (unlike the MG). All the colors in the head are actual plastic.. which is very impressive. The only stickers to be applied are the ones in the boots (which is the same as the MG ones) and the tongue. We'll get to that in a later section.
All the muscle sculpt hides the seam lines. The plastic used is a softer polystyrene, which means you can press it a bit tighter to smush out seams. The overall construction on some parts however results in difficulty when painting since some parts are sandwiched between other colored parts. Example would be the boots: the boot is sandwiched between the 2 lower pants parts, but it's a mushroom joint. So cutting it off means you compromise articulation. Ditto the blue on the Gi.
There are a few sore points in the look, but they're there for articulation. Overall though, it looks pretty decent out of the box. Color separation is impressive and construction is easy. Painting and shading would do wonders... but the plastic on plastic joints and parts scraping with each other will pretty much mean you can't play with it too much lest you end up scratching the paint job.
 |
| He claims he paints... but has he ever shown painted kits on this blog? Shame |
Articulation
A model kit of a melee fighter needs to have excellent articulation. And for the most part, that's a check in that regard.
The head is on a ball joint. The joint that connects the head to the neck is on a double hinge. The neck itself is on a separate swivel.
The torso has a deep ab crunch. And the waist is mounted on a ball joint and can swivel freely
 |
| Paint scraping hazard point here... actually pretty much all articulation will probably scrape paint |
You can pull the torso out of the ball joint slightly to give it better range.
The chest is actually hollow. This is to accommodate he shoulder mechanism, which allows you to swivel it forward. When it does that however, you'll end up with a very unsightly gap.
The arms are mounted via a ball joint, which you can pull out to extend it even more. The blue sleeve is on a loose clip so as not to interfere too much in the articulation. I wish the shoulder mechanism cut a bit more on the front bit, so Goku can do a more natural firing a kamehameha pose.
That said, the shoulders are a bit weird. It looks as if it need the swivel to be a bit higher up. Other than that, everything in the arms is excellent.
The legs are... interesting. The legs themselves are pretty articulate. You have an individual joint to pull down the hips. The hips are on the same swivel with balljoint you see in the shoulder so it can wiggle. My main issue here is the tight swivel are 2 relatively hollow plastic... and it doesn't sturdy when you move the legs. Given how tight everything is, it can get scary moving it around. Especially in my humid country where the joints can get all sticky.
Also the legs angle outward for some reason. Picture below has the legs straight, but you can see the knee joint point at an angle. You can't bend it in too much too, so not too much range on knee attacks.
The rest are pretty standard stuff. The hips can swing out very far thanks to the hip articulation. The boot itself can swivel. The knee bends in a single, yet deep joint without destroying the sculpt.
The feet can pivot very well, but the construction is a bit wonky. You expect the ankles to be tight, but in mine, they're loose so it tends to topple over a lot. Also because you insert the peg at an angle towards the toes, you get no toe joint. Sad.
Overall pretty good. It has all the basic human joints with pretty good range. It can kneel naturally, which passes my articulation test.
 |
| You have a test???? |
 |
| Does he do this pose in the Anime? |
Weapons and Extras
No human action figure is complete without some accessories. It comes with an alternate shouting face, Kamehameha Hands, an instant transmission hand and 2 Kamehameha effect parts.
The second face has the same construction and the normal, so no stickers on the eyes. You do need a sticker for the tongue, and I had mine a bit off. To swap it out, simple remove the bangs, swap the face and plug the hair back. The flesh plastic is soft enough for it to have some friction to be secure.
 |
| It is close to November... so body horror shouldn't be a problem |
Also I wish there was a face with clenched teeth too.. and some alternate eyes to look left or right.
 |
| Would have looked better if he can look to the left |
It is however is a bit loose in construction. The part that slides in to complete the 3d effect is loose on mine and won't stay together. I almost lost it when it fell from Goku's hands.
The wave of the Kamehameha has a stand, so it's not completely useless if you don't have a stand ( I recommend getting one for this). It also looks puny... more charged mega buster than kamehameha. Still better than getting nothing at all like the figuarts.
And with enough fiddling you can get it into a decent pose. Here's where the complaint on the shoulder cut comes in. It just won't go far enough to look decent in my opinion. You'll have angles where it's just right... some some that are just horrible.
 |
| angled a bit awkwardly |
Last accessory is a waist clip to mount Goku on a stand. Not the stand it comes in mind you. The base on that one is too small to hold up Goku here.
 |
| angled better |
Size Comparison
It's a 1:12 figure so it's in a pretty common scale unlike the MG one.
It towers over figuarts however... so it'll look awkward if you have figuarts DBZ figures and want this kit to represent Goku.
 |
| If you have DBZ figuarts... why would you need this goku kit? |
Summary
I grew up watching Dragon Ball (the original with kid goku and DBZ upto Buu) and I'm pretty satisfied to get this. I bought this kit because it's the only way to get a less expensive, accurate Goku without paying 2x for a figuarts. It'll require tons of work though to get it to figurearts level. Even then the figuarts will be a lot more solid than this.
On the model kit itself, it has good points and sore points. Overall though, the positive outweighs the negatives for me. It's easy to build, requires minimal effort to look decent and is well articulated. Behind the simple build however, you'll see wonderful design and packaging: Well hidden seams, excellent parts separation. It also has a bunch of accessories. If you want a Goku figure for light posing, I would highly recommend this kit. I really do wish they make a Vegeta... the next kits after Gohan and Cell is SSJ3 Goku and Buu. Here's hoping they don't cancel it again.
Good:
- excellent parts separation
- well hidden seams
- pretty articulated
- has a decent amount of accessories
- cheaper than Figuarts
Bad:
- Some parts could have been more solid and better executed (hips, feet shoulders)
- needs more faces
 |
| OBJECTION!!! |
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