TruForce Collectibles Mega Man X Review

It’s been exactly a year since the depute of TruForce Collectibles’ Mega Man X figure. We originally saw the prototype at New York Comic Convention 2014. Shortly after the reveal he went to Kickstarter and was eventually funded. Backers have not yet received their figures, but Truforce decided that they would offer a black NYCC exclusive version for the show this past weekend. They also made the questionable decision to sell the standard blue version along with it, before the backers got theirs.

From what I hear, the backer version should be shipping very soon. Also, TruForce (through Bluefin who sold the figure at the show) did charge an additional $10 to what backers paid for the figure at the convention. I can understand why they did this. The logistics of shipping out all your backer rewards is certainly more of a challenge than just boxing up the product to send directly to a distributor. On the other hand, it is completely understandable for backers to be annoyed as well.

I was not a Kickstarter backer. I’m not very good with Kickstarter as I’m generally hesitant to put a large amount of money down on something that will not be in my hands for a year or more. As far as the TruForce Kickstarter campaign I thought the price was a little bit high and I’d never heard of the company so I held off. Having seen the final product at the show, however, I went and grabbed a standard blue Mega Man X to mess around with.

I’m happy to say that Mega Man does indeed live up to the expectation of his price. TruForce clearly knew what they were doing and delivered. Looking over this box you would never assume this is a company’s first foray into action figures, let alone one that needed to be Kickstarted.

Mega Man comes packaged in a lovely opening-flap window box with very sharp and professional artwork. The contents of the box are as follows: Mega Man, two batteries, a stand base with two arms, three blast effects, a set of alternate open hands, a screaming alternate face, blaster arm, a pair of back jets, and instructions. I know it’s a very simple thing, but I really appreciate the inclusion of the instructions. It gives a clear and concise summery of what I can actually do with the figure. If it were not for those instructions I would have never known about the jets that pull out from his lower legs.

Mega Man feels like a quality item. As promised parts of the feet and shins are diecast giving him substantial weight. The articulation choices are also really great. He has amazing range of movement all over the body, and can nail just about any Mega Man related pose. One of the more creative points are in his shoulders. They added a forward motion swing joint that enables him to stick his arms out almost straight in front of him. It works really well for hitting some cool poses with his blaster arm.

The LED is built into his X-blaster. I can’t express how thrilled I am that they actually included the batteries in a separate bag with the figure. Chasing down tiny cell batteries for toy LEDs is a giant pain in the ass. On top of this by putting them in a bag separate from the figure this minimizes the chance of acid leak destroying carded figures down the line. The light looks nice and works seamlessly with the blast effects included in the package.

My one complaint with this figure is that the hand peg-holes are not very deep. I have a slight fear that if I swap the hands out too much the holes will wear out too wide and the hands won’t stay on. Mind you, this is completely speculative of me though. They may be fine in the long run, but I do have that fear in the back of my head. Other than that Mega Man is a very solidly put together action figure.

Going by the convention prices Mega Man will cost you somewhere between $80 to $100. If you are a backer all you have to do is sit back and wait for TruForce to ship it your way (the figure is great, so fret not as your pledge was well worth it!). If you did not back the Kickstarter, then I believe that Bluefin will be handling distribution so you should have little issue obtaining one once they are officially released. Amazon has a listing up, but it is currently in “unavailable” status.