Revoltech - Takeya Takayuki Buddhist Statue Collection - Tamonten

One of the key element in Shewsbury Land is that we love varieties. We don't stick to one particular type of toys or figures or items or brand only but rather we review as much things as possible. There are many websites or blogs out there focusing and specializing in 1 particular items that they are passionate about only and there is nothing wrong with that but in Shewsbury Land, we love live and we love many things including and especially sex, lots of sex LOL. In Shewsbury Land we reviewed toys and hobby items, photography products and related items, blue-ray player, autombile stuff, food stuff and even pillow to named a few which is quite weird for some other toys and hobby specific bloggers like some of you out there but then again, this is Shewsbury Land... anything goes, especially sex, lots of sex.

Nonetheless, all that is not even matter or important but the point is that today we will review this "Revoltech - Takeya Takayuki Buddhist Statue Collection - Tamonten" - a figurine produced by Revoltech of Kaiyodo.

Kaiyodo is a Japanese company dedicated to figurines and garage kits. Its headquarters is in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture. While the company mostly focuses on anime related characters, it recently has acquired other licenses, e.g. King Kong, and some Godzilla characters.

Kaiyodo was originally a small shop in Japan, but grew into a famous company over the years, leading them to sell collectables worldwide. One of their most famous sculptors is "Bome", who is most well known for his Mon-sieur BOME collection. In recent years, his figurines have become well known and sought by collectors, and his works have been displayed on a worldwide scale at conventions, including Paris, Tokyo etc.

The featured item today is this "Buddhist Statue Collection" of the "Tamonten" (also known as Bishamonten). Tamonten is a Hindu deity incorporated into Buddhism as indeed Buddhism is originated from Hinduism. Tamonten is 1 of the "4 Heavenly Kings", he is King of the North and happen to be the most powerful amongst the 4 Heavenly Kings.

Tamonten nearly always dressed in armor (yoroi 鎧), looking ferocious and carrying weapons or objects (jimotsu 持物) said to eliminate evil influences and suppress the enemies of Buddhism. Tamonten also typically shown standing atop evil spirits (known as Jaki in Japan), symbolizing the power to repel and defeat evil. Sometimes depicted with a fiery halo. Tamonten often depicted holding a stupa or pagoda in right hand and a halberd (hoko 戟 or hōbō 宝棒); the small pagoda symbolizes the divine treasure house, and Tamonten shares the pagoda's vast treasures with only "the worthy." The deity’s attributes, however, are not rigidly prescribed and thus differ among Buddhist nations. Sometimes shown holding a mongoose, representing victory over the Naga (serpentine creatures).

Tamonten is the most popular and widely known of the "4 Heavenly Kings" in Japan. Also said to be the richest of the Shitennō, for Tamonten was rewarded with great wealth after practicing austerities for 1,000 years.

This "Buddhist Statue Collection" is a special figurine series created by Revoltech/Kaiyodo for the specific target market; Buddhist primarily in Japan (and I think you can guess that correctly) but in fact this product also did catch the attention of some other figurine collectors who happen to appreciate the artistic beauty and value of the figures in this series.

For this particular series, Revoltech employs the skills of talented sculptor "Takeya Takayuki" who also sculpted some of the figurine products/models from the popular "Bandai S.I.C (Super Imaginative Chogokin)" series which covers the characters from "Kamen Rider" franchise and other characters created by "Shotaro Ishinomori" and his production company.


Now, let's have a look at this figure.... first the box/packaging;

You can see the name "Takeya" displayed prominently on the box as an honor to the sculptor;








There are 5 of them in this series, as at now, I have 2 of them ^__^






Out of the box - you will get all these stuff;






Let's have a look at the figurine;

The color scheme chosen for this figure is an imitation of wood grain coloring and I think they did a great job both on the sculpt and also the coloring part.

Let's have a little bit of close up look on this figure;







As you can see from the close up pictures above the face expression is not friendly but the point is that the sculpt and detailing is quite remarkable.

As for articulation, I can honestly say that they are quite average, nothing great. Despite the fact that this is from Revoltech and generally most of us will expect a super duper articulation ability since they are using that typical "Revoltech joint" for this figure but that is not the case. This is because of the design issue, look at the armor and what ever clothing and fashion accessories you can see on this figure and if you are sensible enough, you can guess that there are some sort of limitation on movement for the limbs.

Well, if any of you have that Revoltech Jack Sparrow, then I guess I can say that the articulation of this figure is more or less the same to that Revoltech Jack Sparrow. You can see our review for that figure from the link below;

http://www.shewsbury.com/2011/04/sci-fi-revoltech-jack-sparrow.html

Moving on, this is the demon or the evil spirit which happen to be the display base for this figure;

I can imagine why the above "evil spirit" is not a happy bunny.... just look at the face expression, he seems to suffer from severe constipation LOL.....


These are the weapons and other stuff that comes with this figurine;

OK, let's just do some action pose of this "Tamonten" - although the articulation is poor, being a reviewer and photographer, I tried my best to make this guy looks good;

This spear.... it's funny that even though they gave us this spear, they never give any hand(s) that can grip the spear accordingly, at the end, you just have you use your creativity on how to pose him with that spear;

Let's try the red background that comes inside the box of this item;

Overall, this is a brilliant Buddhist statue or figurine from Revoltech. Takeya Takeyuki did a great job on the sculpt and detailing while the painting finishing of the wood grain color is brilliantly done. I am not Buddhist though I don't mind to be one as once in a while I do read about Buddhism philosophy a little bit on this and that but apparently I'm a Catholic. However, being a collector, the artistic value and beauty of this figure is something that I appreciate a lot and although naturally and historically, I never really want to have any of those figurines with ugly face or monstrous looks but this is different.... oh well, they are divine creatures in Buddhism so I guess it deserved some respect.

I cannot recommended this figure to just any figurine or action figures collectors because this particular item is unique and I'm not surprise if many typical and casual toys collectors will dislike this figurine partly maybe also because of the association of this figurine with Buddhism but if you can look at it beyond that with open mind and just appreciate the artistic value of this item, then and only then, I guess you could like it.

I would love to use this figure as "actors" in one of our future digirama ^__^

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