Makai Kado Jaaku

Good day (or maybe night) to my brothers and sisters in toy collecting, or to whoever it is that’s reading this. Today I would like to present to you one of the most elusive figures Bandai has ever produced, the Makai Kado (MK for short) Jaaku.

Jaaku (also spelled as Jyaku in some media and writing) is featured in the Tokusatsu show “Garo” in the second season. I would like to say, if you like Kamen Rider or Super Sentai and want something more mature, this is a show for you. Just avoid watching it in front of people (your kids especially) as it does contain some nudity.

I’m not gonna spoil you the plot, but basically Jaaku is the shadow of the Golden Knight Garo in the show and so, he’s just a repaint of the MK Garo reviewed already by SentaiSeiya (which you can read here). Is he JUST a repaint? Lets find out.

MK Jaaku is an exclusive release so he came with the usual windowless box that Bandai packs their exclusive stuff in. After collecting exclusive Bandai stuff all this time, it’s like Bandai’s way of saying, ’’Screw the box. They’re gonna love what’s inside of the box anyway without looking at it.”. That’s true most of the time ^^;.

Inside the box, everything is served on two layers of trays.

First tray, you get:

– The figure itself

-Garoken (the sword, which is 100% diecast metal)

– A scabbard for Garoken

In the second tray, you get:

– A cape

– A pair of closed fists

– A Zaruba-less left closed fist (not sure why this is included)

– A right holding things hand

– Three back attachments (I don’t know their name. The triangle-shaped piece is diecast.)

And of course, an instruction manual.

Out of the box, you need to attach all the back attachments to complete the figure.

As I mentioned earlier, Jaaku is a repaint of MK Garo, so all the details that’s on Garo is here on this guy. What’s surprising is, contrary to what I thought at first, Jaaku is not just flat black. The figure actually has a silver based body and been given a heavy (really, really heavy) black wash and some brown accents throughout the armor to simulate rust.

I just can’t get enough looking at this guy. The color scheme and application is AWESOME, although there is some little inconsistencies here and there.

Sadly, like MK Garo, there is no diecast on the base figure.

Articulation is exactly like MK Garo, and SentaiSeiya has already covered all those so I’m not going to be redundant here.

I would like to say, surprisingly, Jaaku has that pull down hip joint akin to the S.H Figuarts toys (left leg is pulled down), which is really cool, but with the limited ankle tilt, it’s kinda useless, in my opinion.

Moving to accessories, Jaaku came with the black version of Garoken and its scabbard.

The detail on the sword is on par with the figure, but the scabbard is less detailed. That’s how it looks in the show.

The sword is diecast and I like that, but the arm can’t support the weight of it in some poses. To use the sword, just swap out the default splayed open hand with the holding things hand which is in on a ball joint. The scabbard can be held using the splayed open hand.

With limited articulation, there’s not much you can do, but you can still get this guy into a good pose.

Copying the box art.

Surprisingly, the brown accent is more visible in low light.

The last of the accessories is the cape, which is the recoloured MK Garo’s cape. I don’t remember if Jaaku wears a cape in the show, but it’s a nice addition in what is otherwise a sparse accessories count.

To attach the cape onto the figure, you need to remove the three back attachments and use those attachments as a peg. Pushing the triangular one in is quite tough on my copy of the figure. The cape attaches solidly and makes the whole set up quite back heavy.

With something that’s already limited, adding the cape will make the articulation more limited. I gave up trying to put this guy in some dynamic poses, but the overall look is still outstanding and I think I like this color on the Garo armor more than the trademark gold.

“Come to the dark side…”

Yup, this guy looks good even just standing there.

Should you buy this?

I’ve been collecting the Prop & Equip (PE) line and this is the first figure I have gotten from the MK line. It’s practically a re-release of the old PE Garo with some joint updates, but it doesn’t improve the articulation at all (OK, maybe a little) and Bandai went to make a limited figure with the Garo mold. After all things considered, NO, I would not recommend this to most people. My first reason is the price point. I could say I’m lucky to get this guy at the price of the normal MK Garo of MYR180 (about USD 50), but this guy usually goes for MYR400 (about USD 120) and I’m not sure a lot of people want to go down that road of spending for a single figure. For the price and what he came with, there’s a lot of other Bandai high end figure which I think are a lot more worthwhile.

Second, his accessories. This is just a repackage of the normal MK Garo and I would like the stuff that Garo had packed in also be given to Jaaku. One could argue he never has much in the show to begin with (he just appears for one episode for crying out loud), but a cape is included which is not show accurate after all and I wouldn’t mind to have the flaming sword version of Garoken. Heck, even the Madoubi lighter.

Third, although I really, really love his paint job, at the end of the day he really is JUST a repaint. An awesome repaint to boot, and I dare say I like this color scheme more than the gold on Garo. If you are the completionist of the MK line and hardcore Garo fan, then I’m quite sure that whether the figure is good or bad, you are going to buy it anyway and I can assure you would not be disappointed (with his whole look of course).

That’s a long wall of text. Anyway, that wraps up my review for the MK Jaaku. As usual, any comments or critics (positive or negative) are always welcomed to improve my reviews for next time. Have a nice day (or night). 🙂