Retronauts Looks at Eastern Rockman Models vs. Western Mega Man Figures

Over on 1UP’s Retronauts blog, Jeremy Parish has taken a look at the most recent efforts from both the East and the West in their attempts to recreate the Blue Bomber in a tangible plastic form.

On the Eastern side, we have Kotobukiya’s upcoming Rockman model kit, which we’ve covered at length here on The Network. And why wouldn’t we? The detail, articulation, accessories, and interchangeable parts all come together to create what appears to be the most definitive Rockman figure to date.

On the Western side of the coin, we have Jazwares’ Mega Man figure from their Mega Man Retro Roto line from 2005 (technically, their newest take would be the JUVI versions). The line, which includes Mega Man, Guts Man, Elec Man, the hard-to-find Shadow Man, and a shield-less Proto Man, were based on Capcom of Japan’s own character model turnarounds from earlier games, and sacrificed articulation in order to more accurately represent the characters’ pen-and-ink forms (as seen on page 158 of UDON’s Mega Man Official Complete Works art book).

The Retro Rotos are slated to be re-released soon, though it seems some websites are erroneously reporting them as “new” figures. Perhaps this is a testament to the impact they had the first time around.

The Retronauts post, which can be seen here, goes on to liken the differences between the two releases to the way Capcom USA would often alter the look of the Blue Bomber for his Western appearances, often resulting in a less-aesthetically pleasing rendition of our hero.

One thought mentioned is that if Jazwares were mimicking the East-West transition on purpose, “they’d go all the way and create a deformed midget style Mega Man based on the first game’s U.S. box art: A squatty old man incapable of standing with anything but a pigeon-toed hunch. Which, truth be told, I’d actually buy.”

And that leaves me curious: would you purchase such a figure? Personally, I might consider such a thing, particularly if they managed to fit the backdrop in somehow as a sort of diorama.