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Revoltech is a multi-property brand of super-articulated action figures produced by Japanese toy company Kaiyodo. The whole selling point of the line is that the figures are articulated with many of the "revolver joints" that give the line its name. Introduced in mid-2006, as of Jully 2008, the line was on its 57th numbered figure, not counting unnumbered redecos such as Ultra Magnus from Optimus Prime.
The figures are primarily made from PVC plastic while the revolver joints and many accessories are ABS plastic. The standard joint(seen below) is a 3-piece design, but there is also a double-jointed 5-piece design which is used in the necks of Prime, Megatron, and presumably the upcoming Transformers.
The joints are interchangeable, making it possible to swap body parts between different figures. This swapping of parts is limited by the fact that not all figures use revolver joints in the same places or to the same extent. Prime, for example, has cut-joints in his shoulders while Megatron has revolver joints, giving him much greater flexibility. Photos of the upcoming Hot Rod and Starscream figures reveal that they will have this shoulder design.
Unusual for a Japanese figure line, Revoltech freely mixes giant robots with action figures of human characters, such as Dante of Devil May Cry and Revy of Black Lagoon. Regardless of height in the source material, all figures in the line stand approximately 12 cm at the head. With this glaring lack of scale, the Transformers license was a natural, although, like modern-day Action Masters, the figures trade off increased articulation for a loss of transformability.
Similar jointing was used for the Hasbro "Robot Replicas" sub-line.
Transformers Revoltech figures[]
The sculpts for Prime and Megatron were based on prototypes which Kaiyodo first revelead back in 2004. Since this was before the launch of the Revoltech concept, these figures were to feature traditional Kaiyodo joints( meaning a whole bunch of Swivel joints) and looked somewhat different. The photos released also showed a prototype for a figure of Energon Optimus prime but so far nothing more has been shown of this.
The spiffy revolver joint
- 19. Convoy / Optimus Prime
- Ultra Magnus (A redeco of Optimus Prime)
- 25. Megatron
- 46. Starscream
- 47. Hot Rodimus / Hot Rod