Volks A3 F-14D Tomcat Review

Turns out to be promising lineup.

This is my first A3 Muvluv Action figure which i got from YJA for 5000 yen included the middleman's fee. I would say these figures really worth to get if not for the inconvenience of getting them from overseas.Back then i intended to get one of A3 figures as comparison with Kotobukiya's Muvluv kit considering Volks had plenty of these figures for Muvluv Franchise before Kotobukiya released one. I tried to find the figures which had a slim chance for Kotobukiya to release and initially i considering to get F-15 C/E Eagle but ultimately i end up getting F-14D for some reason.

This all of the stuff that you got from this Action figure and as you see you got plenty of accessories though the handheld weapons are molded together with the hand probably because Volks doesn't see the need to separate the mold as it is not model kit or they are just too lazy. After I unboxed the figure for first time i came to realize that the A3 Action Figure are pretty much meant for High-end Collector which are somewhat equivalent with Yamato's Macross toys or Bandai's Gundam Fix Figuration or Soul of Chogokin.

F-14D Tomcat is one of the earliest 2nd Generation TSF model developed by United States around early 80s in Muvluv Alternative universe where humanities are fighting losing war against Alien race called BETA. The reason why i believe that F-14D is a 2nd Generation TSF is because it has much sleeker appearance compared to F-4 Phantom which represent the strongest point of 2nd Generation TSF. Probably it still looks bulkier compared to F-15 considering one of the very first model for its generation. F-14 had exclusive weapon equipped to them which are 6 "Phoenix" Cluster Missile. The settings that i use for my F-14D in this review is equivalent with Isumi's Valkyrie Blast Guard position.

Initially i was abit skeptical about this lineup since i heard people said they have balance and articulation issues which turn out to be only partially true. The action figure articulation is not as bad as people said except the Leg which had rather limited articulation. The action figure has really fine plastic quality(much better than revoltech) and is still well balanced except when you equip the Jump units which makes the figure to be back heavy and expect you won't be able to pull dynamic pose without additional support. However Kotobukiya's kit also suffer the same balance issue with the Jump units.

Primary arsenal of a TSF is an assault rifle which F-14D had one as well. Probably the Assault rifle that F-14D use also shoot 36mm Machine gun bullets and 120mm Grenade shells or at least other similar type of ammo. Compared to Type 87 Assault rifle which Japanese TSF began to use around 1990s, the F-14D's assault rifle is bigger and heavier which i assume the TSF developer still found difficulty in making the weapon more compact.

F-14D have Combat Knife as close range weapon which is only used in desperate situations such as the TSF is being swarmed by Tank Class BETA or running out of ammo since USA consider Close Combat with BETA is used as last resort.

Mandatory full weapon action pose

The last weapon that F-14D had is the "Phoenix" cluster missile which each equipped TSF had 6 of them. Probably i could see only some F-14s will be equipped with the weapon depending on the team role since i could see that these missiles are used to provide support fire. probably these missile work best against smaller strains BETA especially the Tank Class which are the most threatening smaller Strain of BETA for TSF.

Here is the comparison with my unfinished kotobukiya's Takemikazuchi(because i run out of paint) and surprisingly the F-14D is slightly bigger compared to it since i saw the A3 version of Takemikazuchi turns out to be smaller than the Kotobukiya counterpart. I don't think i will get any A3 figures for now since it is too much hassle to get them. However if i ever went to Japan these figures would be my first priority to get and the models i will definitely get are the F-4 and F-15. If you really want to get one of the A3 figures despite knowing that you will be paying more then i would recommend to do so since these lineups really worth it. However the cheapest total price that you could get for these A3 models from Overseas are at least more than 4000 yen for each of them  even in Mandarake including the shipping.