Eren Yeager

Attack on Titan has become a real smash hit on both sides of the Pacific with hundreds of fans all proudly wearing their Scouting Legion jackets at conventions across America. Hajime Isayama’s tale of humanity struggling to survive against a nearly unstoppable race of giants who hunger for the flesh of man combines the high energy of a good Shonen action series with the dire situation of a Heinlein-esque Bug War. The whole premise sounds so oddly familiar to something else I’ve been really into lately. And As a matter of fact, Isayama came forward and apologized (in a tongue in cheek way) for plagiarizing parts from one of his favorite PC games / manga, Muv-Luv Alternative.

My colleague Spacerunaway did a translation of what Isayama had to say. He says, “These following words are at least 50% accurate” but that the author of Attack on Titan is clearly a big fan.

“I have to confess that SNK copies parts of [Muv-Luv Alternative]. I’m very sorry! I received an enormous influence from it!

Although I was watching manga and movies normally like anyone else,
[Alternative] was the first time I thought I could actually be killed by the creator of a work of fiction.
Being impacted by such a malicious attitude, as if I too had been killed, I was driven by an impulse of wanting to launch something with a strong impact into society, or
wanting to destroy something.

I realized that impulse was what I wanted to do.”

If you want to check out this short article for yourself, it is in volume 7 of the Muv-Luv Alternative manga.

Attack on Titan’s nominal male protagonist, Eren Yeager received his own Figma following his best friend and expert cooldere soldier, Mikasa Ackerman. You can check out Spacerunaway’s review of Mikasa here. The two figures are largely the same but since this is my first AoT toy I will give my own impression.

Eren stands a little under six inches tall and his design captures the look of the recent anime quite well. All the little folds and straps on his outfit are nicely sculpted and cleanly picked out with paint.

The standard Figma joints are noticeable but not too obtrusive. Without any of his equipment, Eren stands up quite well.

His jacket has the now iconic Scouting Legion emblem tampographed on the back with a somewhat irksome hole right through it for attaching the stand.

The emblem also appears on his breast pocket and sleeve.

Please note that my camera really exaggerated the difference in color between his soft PVC jacket and the more solid sleeves. It is barely noticeable in real life.

“Damn those titans!!”

Eren’s outfit uses a lot of soft PVC to allow some flexing and bending around areas like his jacket’s shoulders and his saucy miniskirt. I find that the skirt and the crotch area of his pants tend to limit his range of motion. Still he has some joints not commonly seen on Figmas like thigh swivels, toe hinges, and even a proper waist to compliment the upper chest joint.

Of course, Eren can show the proper decorum with a salute. It’s not quite as splendid as Armin’s but it does the job.

Eren comes with quite a number of accessories. In addition to the Three Dimensional Maneuvering Gear (3DMG) you get the operating devices / sword hilts with plug-in blades, a full array of optional hands (with holder), two extra faces, a pair of static grappling hooks, a pair of hooks attached to string, extra string, the Scouting Legion cloak, several gas effect parts, and the standard Figma stand. Also included but not pictured is the official Figma plastic baggie.

Eren’s three faces are well sculpted and easily changed out by removing the front part of his hair and swapping in the desired expression. His default look is that of a determined Shonen hero.

This face represents a determined Shonen hero who is also shouting.

This, dear readers, is pure unbridled despair…

“Aww cheer up, Eren! Trust me when I say things can’t possibly get any worse than watching your loved ones being eaten by heartless monsters.”

The standard issue cloak is a hefty piece of PVC that is sculpted so that it looks like it is billowing in the wind. I thought that Eren would be unable to stand with it attach but he can muster a few heroic poses with the cloak around his neck. You just have to pop his head off before slipping it on.

This extra bit of clothing really looks the part and gives off a proper fantasy flavor even frozen in mid flap. The emblem on the back is cleanly applied and follows the contours of the folds.

When Eren isn’t attached to a display stand, the instructions recommend you use this small clear plug for keeping the cloak firmly seated on his back. Otherwise the peg from the stand will thread through and secure the accessory. Be advised that when threading the peg through the clear bracket you need to make sure all the holes are lined up or you will scuff the emblem on Eren’s jacket.

Of course the main draw of Eren’s equipment is the 3DMG. This loose collection of oversized knife holders attached to a couple of car parts really emphasizes form over function as it’s hard to even figure out what it does unless you’ve experienced Attack on Titan in some capacity. The instructions note that you should be cautious around the soft PVC struts that connect the main body to the grapple guns on either side as flexing them too much could cause a breakage.

The whole setup plugs into Eren’s body in several places and even features movable pegs where the main scabbards attach to his legs. There is a big peg that go into his back and two others on either side of his waist which makes everything feel secure.

Much like with the cloak, Eren can stand unaided with his 3DMG.

Although he is pretty top heavy like this and cannot do a lot of action poses without the aid of a stand. I noticed on my figure that the scabbards can sometimes detach from his thighs when posing, but that is due to the ball-jointed pegs being a little tight.

The sword handles / operating devices are connected to the grapple guns via flexible PVC hoses. While this looks really great and is true to the source material, you need to be cautious when moving Eren’s arms as he holds his swords so as not to tear the hoses by accident.

I was surprised to see that the hardened steel blades are removable rather than just including a pair of handles without a blade attached. Eren even has hands designed to grip the operating devices with a finger in each trigger just like in the series. The best way to put these in his hands is to thread the handles into his palms before attaching the hoses.

Having the blades detach is essential for capturing the kind of overwhelming despair seen in the series. When a soldier loses his will, even his weapons are dulled by fear.

Each scabbard has three extra blades permanently sheathed inside. Sadly there is no way to store the extra blade alongside the static ends poking out.

In order to fight the titans, mankind developed the 3DMG to give a single soldier and unprecedented level of mobility. Firstly, a pair of grappling hooks let them swing on nearby buildings and trees. To replicate this function, the Figma has few different types of wires that plug into the grapple guns. One is a pair of static wires that appear to be shooting out at high speeds.

A pair of small gas effects parts can fit around the grapple guns to show them firing off their wires. I have to say the more I took pictures of Eren like this the more I started to wonder what is the real deal with all these young people pelvic thrusting around town as they shoot long penetrating things from their hips…

*Ahem*

Moving on then…

The 3DMG can also utilize a pair of clear hooks attached to strings so Eren can do things like hang on your coat rack.

Hey there might be titans lurking in the nearby closet.

You can also swap out the hooks for a pair of pegs that plug into a Figma Di:Stage or any stand with a similarly sized hole. And now I present to you an idea that seemed a lot cooler in my head.

I thought it would be neat to arrange my two Di:Stages like a brick wall and have Eren climb up the side. Sadly the strings are pretty long as you saw previously so achieving this setup with only two bases connected together didn’t quite work.

Still, Eren really is scaling the wall with just the strength of the strings holding him up. It helps that his boots have pretty good traction against a sheet of card stock so he is holding this pose the way a real person would.

The second way the 3DMG adds to the a person’s agility is a powerful gas jet that lets soldiers soar through the air for brief moments. By removing a small disk from the back of the 3DMG, you can attach this long trail of steam that then connects to the display stand. Now Eren can quickly shoot off the ground with a burst of speed.

Again this all sounds so familiar…

“You have some real fancy 3D maneuvering gear, Mr. Shiranui!”

“Oh you mean my jump units? Yeah they let me move all around when I need to.”

And for some real fun in balancing all this on a small stand, try adding the cloak to the mix.

There is a lot of stuff going into making Eren do this pose but the results are quite impressive and evocative of the series. The 3DMG is a very smartly designed piece of equipment for a fantasy setting as it feels fairly realistic despite the somewhat silly idea of a tiny steampunk rocket letting people fight on the bounce.

And now for some more crossover fun times.

Eren meets Professor Kouzuki:

“Someone once said that if an overwhelming force threatened all of mankind then humanity would band together to stop it. Sadly that was just a delusion…”

“Huh… I think I’ve heard Commander Pixis say something similar.”

Eren meets Aaron:

“Remember kid, you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become an ugly faced monster with a lot of teeth showing.”

“I’m not really following what you’re saying, Mr. Eckhart.”

Eren meets his hand:

“Bah! My dad can’t tell me not to bite my own hand! I’ll do it if I want!”

And Eren meets the rock:

“As God as my witness I am going to move this damn rock!!”

But in the end the rock stayed put…

Always on the lookout for more titans…

The Figma of Eren Yeager is an excellent rendition of the character as a 1/12 scale action figure. In a lot of ways that ends up being a bit of a double edged sword because while the Three Dimensional Maneuvering Gear is really impressive and very true to the series, the whole setup is kind of finicky for a toy of this size. Max Factory put a lot of effort in this figure and it shows but all the little wires and straps that connect parts of the 3DMG together need to be treated with care. On his own, Eren is a fantastic Figma who poses well, looks just like the character, and is easy to handle. With his gear attach you need to treat Eren a bit more thoughtfully. He is not fragile, just more limited by the 3DMG as you would expect. On the plus side, all of the extra effect parts and accessories really round out the package and make it worth the price. Handling this figure gave me even more respect for the legions of cosplayers I saw walking around Anime Boston with full gear as I’m sure they got their wires hung up on a few handrails and water fountains. Fans of Attack on Titan looking for an Eren at this size should find the Figma a satisfying purchase even if it may require as much skill to use as the actual 3DMG.