AV-0 Peacemaker

I had high hopes for both the AV-0 Peacemaker, and the Mecha Action Series in General, but CM’s has let me down yet again. For the price, this is an absolutely atrocious action figure.

The AV-0 Peacemaker comes from the anime Mobile Police Patlabor. I think it squared off against the griffon in the OVA series, but my memory is a little hazy on that.

The whole idea of this toy was that it was an affordable alternative to the Brave Gokin toys. Mecha that weren’t popular enough to warrant the full gokin treatment could be rendered in the same scale and look, only in plastic. This Peacemaker is the same size and scale as the other Patlabor Brave Gokin toys, and they even share a similar cloth joint system. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarities end.

This toy is full of massive fail.

The plastic used on the outer coverings feels cheap, and unfinished. It almost has a rubbery feel to it. The inside of the joints uses a harder plastic, but that is irrelevant because you can’t seem to pose this thing without popping the joint out. And since the joint is covered with cloth, you can’t see it, which makes popping it back in a pain in the ass.

That is unless the cloth decides to separate from the body like this, then it’s its easy to put the joint back in.

They did include several accessories, but none of them are executed quite right. A small handgun is included that stores in a compartment below the left side of the chest. The gun BARELY fits in there, and when it does you have to really jam it in. After that though, you will find that the door hangs open. There is no clip to keep it closed.

The left arm features an opening panel that opens up to reveal the compartment for the stun stick. Included is both the full size and shortened stun stick, but the space for the stick is too large, so it just sort of falls out.

The shield looks pretty nice, and is attached in two places. First, the pegs on the arm secure midpoint on the shield, and the front of the shield is supposed to secure to a special hand that has a molded on handle on it. Well, the shield is hard plastic; the hands are rubber and molded poorly, thus the hand wont stay attached to the shield.

Lets not forget the old extending hand. Only instead of sliding into the arm like the Brave gokin, this is a poorly-detailed hard rubber part that you plug in.

This toy cost 6500 yen which really is not that much different than the Brave Gokin Ingram, and that was amazing – lights, tons of metal, solid as hell. This? This is crap. I feel so let down by it. Sure, it looks nice on the shelf, but the second you try to pose it it all goes to hell. To top it off there are TWO versions of this toy – a unit 1 and unit 2, the only difference being the marking on the shield and shoulder. Oh, and you don’t know which one you are getting until it shows up at your door.

The AV-0 Peacemaker is for Patlabor completists only. I’m getting angry just thinking about it.