It's amazing how popular Deadpool has become within the last year or so, so much that stores were actually removing pre-orders for Kaiyodo's Deadpool figure only days after it went live! I was lucky to get my order in in time, and after many long months of waiting, I finally got mine!
If you haven't already read my primer on Japanese figures, I suggest taking a quick look first to understand the pros and cons with the Revoltech "Revolver" joint system. One thing not often mentioned about Kaiyodo/Revoltech figures is the material the main figures are made from are often soft and deform over time under their own weight (it got worse with heat). This is where Deadpool has fixed much of those prior material issues. The plastic is generally stiff enough that it shouldn't deform due to environmental factors, but is still pliable enough to make ball sockets and joint peg holes for.
The Revolver joints are well utilized to give Mr. Pool an abundance of articulation all around as we've come to expect, but one of the new design elements introduced in this figure are an articulating thigh in the form of a limited range smooth ball socket located mid-quadricep that allows slight pivot and free rotation. The range seems pointlessly small until you bend the lower leg all the way back: the extra several degrees allows for the lower leg to flex even further back, enough to make a visual difference. The ball sockets seem to hold firmly enough in place, at least after day 1 with the figure. Hips are regular ball sockets instead of Revolvers which is great. The waist is a hollow ring that hides a larger Revolver pegging the upper torso to the hidden hip joint.
Another new element introduced is in 'pool's skull base "ring" they added to hide the Revolver underneath the head and to fill in the gaps. This also increases the range the head can tilt, which is a bit down to straight up.
Yet another new idea is the interchangable "eye patches" that simply pop out with the provided poker tool. Each left and right eye are independent so you can make Deadpool squint with one eye all day long. The eyes are all painted accurately and they all fit consistently into the eye sockets. 5 pairs of eyes in total, 2 head sculpts (normal and frowning).
The included base with articulating arm and optional claw work reasonably well. The arm doesn't bend much past 90 degrees which make holding the figure up a bit awkward when he's positioned low to the ground as this puts the base further away from the figure. The claw base still uses the same poor design that cracks inside the holes very quickly. Fortunately, DP's upper and lower back both have peg holes for the base's arm so you don't need the unreliable claw, and the figure stays in place very well when pegged in.
I'm not overly fond of the limited wrist articulation hindered by the straps and the recessed Revolver joint. The ankles also don't bend up as far as I'd like. The trigger finger hands that double as the sword holding hands look like they could break due to repeated bending of the curled index fingers to get them over the pistol triggers, it would've been nice if they added dedicated sword hands.
Someone did point out the sword scabbards are shorter than the actual swords, interesting bit of trivia.
This version of Deadpool was styled after the comics and not the movie so the exaggerated body proportions elaborate that theme, and even the use of the double ball joint legs allow for comic book style poses.
Kaiyodo's Deadpool is a super fun figure that is well executed from the choice of materials, clever use of joints, using non-Revolver ball socket joints at all, and the different sets of eyes. There's very little to complain about because none of my gripes are anywhere near deal-breakers. I think this is the best I've seen so far from Kaiyodo. The only deal-breaker is the lack of availability. Kaiyodo may have been victims of their own success, but really who knew how popular this figure was going to be. In comparison, the upcoming Kaiyodo Spider-Man figure has much of the same design elements as Deadpool but hasn't met with the same popularity (i.e. hasn't sold out of pre-orders within days). As with their other figures, they will eventually get reissued, but that usually doesn't happen for at least a year later. I can still see the next release of Deadpool figures getting snatched up about as fast as the initial release!
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