Max Factory's Figma line soars to new heights.

It's that time again! The last few months have been fairly barren in terms of exciting new Nintendo-related merchandise save for the odd Mario trinket here and there, but Max Factory and Good Smile Company have come to the rescue with the release of the long awaited next entries into their articulated Figma line of action figures. Let's not wait any longer and dive right in!

A double dose of awesome.

The box designs for Pit...

...and Dark Pit (originally named Black Pit in Japan).

Pit and Dark Pit are figure numbers 175 and 176 on the overall Figma checklist, and like Samus and Link before them, these ones come with little gold Nintendo authenticity stickers, showing that they're licensed merchandise. The package designs contain background art true to the scenery from Kid Icarus Uprising. It keeps true to the uniform style presented across all Figma boxes, not just the Nintendo ones, and they look great.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"



Check out those wings!



The arms and legs of Pit and Pittoo are pretty poseable, but not so much as previous figures in this line due to the bulky wrists and ankles in the characters' design. You won't get any jointed toes or crazy poses with these two figures, but the designers certainly didn't skimp out on the detail. To compensate for any potential drawbacks with their limbs, both Pit and Dark Pit's wings are superbly detailed and maneuverable into many poses and angles. I haven't found a way to remove Pit's wings entirely to match the land stage segments as seen in Uprising, but even if it's possible, I'm not going to force them and honestly, he looks better with his wings intact anyway.

I also like how the angels' size is accurate in relation to Link and Samus, and their light weight allows you to put either character into all manner of mid-flight positions due to the trusty and sturdy bases they come with.

Ready for land action!



"Get ready to taste holy arrow, Underworld creep!"



Pit comes with a large array of props and accessories, keeping up with Figma's high standard of customization. He doesn't have as many hand poses as Link, but his Palutena Bow can be separated into two halves with swappable grip handles, allowing him to wield the weapon in its bladed form as seen in both Uprising and Brawl. It also comes with a blue arrow bolt and two versions of the halo rings that circle Pit's arm when he's using the bow: a wider set that clip to his arm and a smaller set that loop around the arrow as he readies it to fire.

Everything in the Pit package.

Interestingly, he also comes with a Monoeye enemy that stands on a little transparent stalk of its own, and you can even rotate its front tentacle to turn its eyeball and make it look left and right. Both characters have an alternate "attacking" facial expression to swap to, which first requires you to remove their hair piece.

To prevent Dark Pit from being a mere repaint of the Pit figure, he comes with some minor changes. While Pit's default face features an innocent and shy smile, Dark Pit wears a stubborn frown. His bow is much the same as Pit's, but has been colored to resemble the Silver Bow weapon, which does not feature Palutena's halos surrounding the arrows. He also comes with the Dark Pit Staff, which can be disassembled to slot into a special grip variant of his hand. Sadly, he doesn't come with an Underworld enemy like Pit's Monoeye, it would have been cool to see him come with a Mick (those creepy green spheres with large lips and tongues).

Not quite a simple re-color.



"Quit stealing my act, Pit!"



And finally as an extra special bonus, these two figures come with two Kid Icarus Uprising AR cards each, including the Pit (Injured) and Dark Pit (Flying) cards, which are exclusively packaged with Pit and Dark Pit, respectively. I can only wonder if these cards will be translated if Diamond Comics ever releases Pit and Dark Pit in America. Fortunately, these cards work with the English version of the 3DS game.

An extra bonus.



It really does look like Max Factory intends to eventually amass an entire Smash Bros. roster of characters in this series, as Marth from Fire Emblem is next up on the release list. It's also great to know that the Diamond Comics partnership has been approved and both Link and Samus are getting an American release later this year. (please note that the US release of these two isn't being handled by Good Smile and may not have the authenticity sticker, even on the official items. Be careful of bootlegs!)

Team Nintendo assemble!



Awesomely, this month has also seen the release of some other great Nintendo figures, and in the next article I'll be covering the titillating Kongiku figure from Muramasa: The Demon Blade. As usual, thanks for reading and check out the gallery below for more pics.