01 SIMON BELMONT

For my first review I'll take a look at NECA's Simon Belmont from the video game series  Castlevania.  Simon is beautifully sculpted, and the paint job is amazing words cant do it justice, it has to be seen (watch my video below). What surprised me is that for a NECA figure he sure does have a lot of articulation, and accessories. Usually there figures are like statues that only have limited movement, in my next review I'll show an example of this. Anyway with Simon that is not the case at all, he has a full range of movement.

     

     Simon stands at a height of seven inches, and has a total of nineteen points of articulation. His head is on a ball joint, and has the ability to go completely around, but his hair and shoulder pad come in contact limiting movement The arms are on  ball hinges, the left arm is hindered by the shoulder pad.  The left arm has a extra swivel joint at the top of the bicep, this joint is not on the right hand side. There is then a swivel joint at the elbow and a ball jointed hand.  The chest is a swivel joint as well, and it only turns side to side.  The legs are full of articulation too. He has a  swivel at the hip, thigh, hinge joint  at the knee, swivel at the shin, and ball joint for the feet. This gives him great flexibility, and a wide range of possible posses.
The sculpt and paint job  is amazing! from the hair, to the eyes it is a work of art. The armor he wears is also very well painted and really gives you look of metle and leather.  The look is imitated from the box art of Castlevania I, we only get a glimpse of his back so I'm guesses NECA took some liberties. I'm not complaining it came out most excellent.

Simon comes with eight accessories a dagger, sword, whip, candle, jar, crucifix, mace, and an extra hand. First is the dagger, this may be small but the paint job is great. The same can be said about the sword, what makes it stand out is its deep red paint that looks like jewels. You would think that these two are soft but if fact they are very hard plastic, and store on the figure in his sheaths.  Next is the candle. Any fan of this franchise knows about the candles, you break them and you get hearts, or money. It wasn't necessary for NECA to make it, but it's part of a larger plan. Each Castlvania figure comes with sub weapons or goods that one would find in the game. So It all works out and even by itself it looks fantastic. Next is the crucifix which is simply a cross painted blue and white, like the dagger it's a sub weapon from the game. It also comes with a Jar, which is a power up in the game. The jar is painted a copper color with a cork colored lid.  All these little pieces are molded , and painted with great detail. The figure also comes with an extra hand (closed fist) this hand is able to hold either one of the two whips, sword, dagger, or crucifix. All these things so far are awesome, but what is Simon Belmont known for? Exactly his whip known as the Vampire Killer, and it's up graded version the chain whip aka the mace. The mace is awesome it has individual chains linked together. This makes it look realistic, and really stand out. I believe it is made from real metal too. The ball however is just plastic but looks sweet anyway.  Finally is the whip. The whip is by far the biggest accessory, and is just plain bendable rubber. Like I said it is bendable, but there is no metal wire in it so it will not keep the shape u bend it in. I should just say its flexible. That concludes the accessories.

 

        In conclusion the figure has some bad aspects such as the common use of swivel joints, but NECA pulls it off with this figure. The sculpt and paint application is very first-class. What really makes this figure a great buy besides the above mentioned is its accessories. The dude comes with everything! The figure In my opinion is nostalgic. The likeness, and weapons makes one think "oh Castlevania!" and that's what collectables are suppose to do. I recommend this figure strongly for fans of the videogame franchise, and if you are a NECA collector take my word for it and grab this guy while you can.
FINAL VERDICT 10!

 Well that does it for my first review. This was NECA's Simon Belmont from the video game Castlevania.  Till next time this is Papadavigi  signing off.