Toy-Review: WWR Dropcloth & Peaceday Square in 1/6 by 3A Toys
TOY-STORY: WWR Dropcloth EMGY was an exclusive 3AA-members only pack by ThreeA Toys - which included a 1/6th EMGY Dropcloth, and a 1/6th Girly Pink Square. Price was US$120 for the set (and that excludes the 3AA-discount). No quantities were ever revealed. [blogged]
Essentially, the Dropcloth main figure stands ober 12" tall and comes with two shotguns and a sidearm. The figure is fully and utterly articulated, worth a whole lot of colorway variants out there. The SQUARE as well has seen a myriad of colorway releases (17 in all, according to 3A-Wiki). First, we continue with the unboxing of the Peaceday Square!
(Disclaimer: These images were actually meant to be used for a slideshow-video, hence the sheer amount of snaps - as well they were actually "lost" in a previous downed computer - now refound and resuscitated to be posted here!)
PEACERDAY SQUARE: Ironically, this Peaceday Square was sold separately to the Peaceday Dropcloth. (One day if ever I re-find my Peaceday Square, I want to trade it for an EMGY-Square - released in the first series of blind-boxed Squares, instead - unless someone has it for sale? :p). The figure has always been quite a delight, and this weathered paint-app only enhances the figure's desire and feeling that it is a "hand-painted" custom piece instead of a production piece - which in actual fact IS hand-painted on the factory-line! Sweetness.
As interesting as the articulation and character-design of the Square is, the fabric-bags clipped on each side are somewhat distracting from the form, IMHO. I understand the bags are part and parcel of the figure's story-concept, but perhaps fans of the WWR-lore ("World War Robot") will appreciate them moreso than I did and do. I tend to "loose" the bags too! But perhaps they'd do more good as kitbash fodder for other 12" figures :p
WHAT-IS: 'The Square, smallest of all robots designed by Rothchild and Co. Essentially an autonomous intelligence (allied troop position, enemy position, telemetry) gathering machine, the Square plays a pivotal part in all battlefields on both sides that Rothchild had to devise special empathy features on top of heavy armor to help lengthen their up-time in the field. Known as the "carnival effect", the Square attempts to disarm all those who come across it with sickly childish features combined with specially designed audio emissions of the phrases such as: "Why can't we just get along?" and "Come out and play", all with the tone of a small child. Variations of the Square have also made an impact in the civilian sector including emergency logistics and light cartage.' [3A-Wiki]
EMGY BOX: I may not possess nor own loads of 3A Toys, but this has got to be my favouritest box to date! The colors pop and the treatment is lush and reminiscent of classic no-frills figure-boxes! Somehow the yellow is so attractive in it's happiness, it makes opening the figure-box even moreso exciting! (Which is a surprising emotion for me lol).
INSIDE THE EMGY BOX: I am a sheer sucker for "parts", all sealed inside nifty lil'plastic baggies LOL - from the shotguns, to the baton and shield (hidden behind the plastic-tray actually, and took me sometime to realize that!). And as well the added lil accordian-foldout catalog was a real treat then (now replaced by a new-fangled one instead). The catalog really brought back old memories of small-sized catalogs that came with figure of yore, like Lego and Playmobils! Really nice touch, this.
EMGY FIGURE: I actually never really thought much about the Dropcloth-figure, since first reporting on it on my blog (sans fabric-cloth) because it essentially looked like a trash-can with robot-legs, innit? But with this figure in-hand, I am literally sold and bought over by 3A! The weathering seems more focused and intense for this edition, as well the simplicity in colors of choice had a nice impact, with black on dirty yellow, and heaps of olive green in the fabric-mix.
The articulation had always been a draw for me (ever since the early days of Bertie The Pipebomb), with the movable hands and fingers providing more playability than most articulated toys out there, IMHO! My figure had all decent joints - nothing too loose or tight (as opposed to previous figures, like Deep Powder Bramble being a stuffy) and such a toy-joy to behold!
EMGY SHIELD: As mentioned before, it took me some time before I realized the shield is packed out behind the plastic-tray holding Dropcloth. Mind you, this is a heavy accessory, and gives the added "heft" to a figure, providing it a more grounded aspect to the set, IMO.
WEAPONS: Besides their signature katanas, one aspect of 3A Toy's sweetness, is also the highly weathered and "realistic"-looking weaponry. One-half of 3A: Hong Kong's threezero is well known in the industry for their accessories production, and attention to detail. As you can see in the images, there be hell-loads of "details" right there!
One aspect of detailness in a product, especially a weapon? That the nozzle-part is "hollow", and not a molded dead-end stub. The weapons - from shotgun, to hand-pistol, to even the baton (with pleather-strap!) is exceptional.
Besides the weapons, it came as no surprise the battle-pounches that featured exceptional miniature tailoring, as well as weathering. Where the heck were these loose parts when I was kitbashing military-figures back in the day? LOL
WRAP-UP: I can hardly be termed as a raid-fan of 3A, although I think loads of the brand, and neither dare I claim to be an expert in their productions (as I do not own all of them to be biased or otherwise), but as a figure, this is an exceptional one, and worth having in your collection - 3A or otherwise. I would not know the price-point now in the secondary market, as new folks jump on day-to-day hawking the figures (which is great for "competitive pricing"), but for an older figure, especially a 3AA-one, it would do you well to search longer and harder to score yourself a decent price for this set, or even a singular Dropcloth sans-Square (they are different colorways anyways).
I had joked in the past, that if you lined-up all 3A Toys side-by-side on the shelf, it would look like the shelf is filled with "dirty toys" - but if Dropcloth is any indication of what 3A has to offer, in terms of robots and paint-app, then please do color my shelf "dirty"!
In closing, here be some fun snaps of EMGY Dropcloth and Square in action! See? I had so much fun posing them and snapping pics! THAT's how a toy should be, IMHO! Enjoy!
[6 x images in slideshow above / Full-screen viewing]
