Revoltech Prize Gloomy Bear (Halloween Edition)

Trick or TreaaaAAAARGGGHH! BEAR! BEAR! THERE’S A BEAR ON MY FAAAARRRGH!

In Starting with the Conclusion
This is a sweet take on the original Revoltech Gloomy Bear. Like that version of Gloomy Bear, this toy has its share of flaws, but you get Gloomy Bear more so for the fun and design than you do for the practicality. If you find this version of Gloomy Bear to look uber neat, then by all means, this is a Recommended figure, even if you already have the first version.

Review
What’s a Gloomy Bear you ask? Gloomy Bear is a design by some guy named Mori Chack. It’s pretty much his best known design. He’s got loads of merchandise based on Gloomy Bear, from plush toys to schoolbags. The story of Gloomy Bear is that when Gloomy was a cute little cub, he was saved by a boy named Pitty. However, as bears don’t form attachments to humans like say, dogs do; as Gloomy grew up, he became wild and dangerous. This is illustrated by the copious and gratuitous amounts of violence inflicted upon Pitty by Gloomy. Thus hitting home the concept that humans and bears can’t get along.

This Revoltech toy of Gloomy Bear (henceforth called Devil Gloomy for the purposes of this review) is actually a September 2010 prize from one of those UFO Catcher Machine thingies by Taito, but you can probably find him in a bunch of import shops anyway.

The basic mold of this toy is the same as with the original Revoltech Gloomy Bear, but naturally, the ears have been remolded into giant devil horns and it’s got a devil tail now. Slap on a new paint scheme and voila! A totally awesome variant that looks significantly different and distinct from the original, despite sharing 95% of the same parts. Another cool thing is that due to the darker devilish duds, the joint seams on Devil Gloomy are less noticeable than on regular Gloomy.

Unfortunately, like the original toy, Devil Gloomy has his share of flaws. Articulation is weird to mess with due to the inhuman design of the bear, and his huge head hinders his shoulder movements. Add in that the big giant head messes with the center of gravity, it means that Devil Gloomy is pretty hard to stand up bipedally without the use of a display stand.

Thankfully, a display stand is included, as well as a shattered Jack-O-Lantern (Pitty (Halloween Edition) has an intact Jack-O-Lantern) and a set of bloody fangs. What’s cool here is that like the first Revoltech Gloomy Bear, you can stick the fangs under Devil Gloomy’s muzzle, then by tilting the devil horns back and forth, cause the muzzle to move up and down.

On the downside, that’s all Devil Gloomy gets in terms of accessories, but hey, this is just a prize item, not a full on figure release. Unless the secondary market is charging through the roof for this item due to its relative rarity, he shouldn’t cost all that much for an import item. So you’ll be getting what you pay for.

Pros: Cool concept. Distinct from the original. It’s Gloomy Bear.
Cons: Wonky articulation and engineering. Somewhat limited accessories count.

Grade: B