Was this re-relessed of Megahouse’s 1/8 Cowboy Bebop 1st GIG set worth it? Let’s see.
Unboxing / Assembly / Review
Figure Review
Cowboy Bebop 1st GIG Set info
I bought it here
Otaku Sinh’s collection
Timeline
Paid on 08/01/2022
Shipped on 09/01/2022
Arrived on 010/19/2022
Price
¥25,500 (Figure) + ¥30,800 (Cowboy Bebop Figure) + ¥6,630 (Figure) + ¥7,825 (Surface Mail Premium shipping) = ¥70,756 or $534.04
AmiAmi
When it comes to importing anime figures from Japan, AmiAmi has a strong case to be the most reliable site to buy anime figures from. You can combine orders within the same month and generally cancel at least the month before the release month.
They also have a live chat that you can speak with customer service almost instantly during their operating hours.
Their shipping options are typically EMS, DHL, and other boat options like Surface Mail (Premium). Compared to other Japanese website prices for shipping, they are pretty competitive.
Shipping Box
When shipping by boat, it seems like you are more at risk for box damage. This has been the worst shape condition my AmiAmi box has ever been in compared to the airplane shipping options.
Megahouse Box
Like Figuarts ZERO, Megahouse comes in its own branded brown cardboard box that holds the 2 figure boxes inside.
The figure boxes themselves are typical of what you’ll find on scale figure boxes
At the bottom of the Spike figure box is a small ding. Other than that, the figure boxes came in pretty good shape.
Assembly
Let’s cut to the chase when it comes to this assembly. Assembling this figure is actually very simple even though the oddly shaped glass parts can throw you off. All glass parts have pegs and all you have to do is insert it into the corresponding peg hole.
The BIGGEST issue is inserting the figure bodies onto the silhouette background peg. In the prototype pictures and the manual, Spike’s leg is suppose to cross further over onto Faye’s base, but I could not maneuver Spike to be positioned this way. I spent an hour and annoying chipped some paint off of Spike trying to get it to look right.
BE CAREFUL removing spike from the background silhouette peg. His left arm is placed right over the glass, so there’s a high chance his left arm is going to bump into the glass.
The biggest reason for the foot needing to cross under Faye’s is because there are 3 figure foot glass parts that are supposed to sit on the ground below both figures’ shoes. I couldn’t get it to look correctly and Spike’s foot is actually sitting under Faye’s. Even though I RAGE QUIT and forfeited this part of the assembly, they are just optional parts. It’s not even in the prototype pictures.
Just take those glass foot holder parts and just chuck it back in the figure box. Save yourself the trouble and just enjoy the figure without it because you don’t need it.
Aesthetics
Design
The design and pose of these two are incredible! The idea of a broken glass backdrop with the silhouette of the Swordfish II and Cowboy Bebop logo still feels fresh 3 years later. There aren’t many scale figure designs that have this style and can really duplicate what a classic Cowboy Bebop really was.
Spike and Faye’s look is absolutely in character as they both look like they are taking down some wanted criminals for woolongs. This dynamic action pose exemplifies the famous line if “space cowboy” with their cocky grins and fingers in the trigger. Most people find these two characters as the most popular and probably would have liked to see them “shipped.” As a figure set, they both go perfectly together.
Sculpting
For the sculpt, it makes the most sense to look at the face and hair first. Spike’s face is incredibly accurate. There isn’t a shadow of a doubt with either head sculpts that this is Spike. Given his shaggy, spiky hair, it looks very accurate to it’s anime counterpart.
Faye’s head and face sculpt isn’t as perfect, but it’s still a very good representation of the character. In the anime, there are at times where Faye’s face looks like it’s a bit longer, making her face proportions look a little bit longer. Faye’s Megahouse face sculpt looks to be a little bit smaller in proportion. While it’s not as perfectly represented like the Spike face, it’s still a pretty good head sculpt of Faye. Given the rest of her sculpt and design, you can still tell this is 100% Faye.
Given Spike’s lengthy and lean body type, he does look pretty normal for the character, except maybe the right leg that goes across the base seems to be a bit too long? However, it might just be the angle of the pose. For Faye’s legs, it looks to be of a normal proportion for her.
Paint
For Spike’s hair, he usually has green tint colored hair and the Megahouse prototype pictures shows more of the green. For the current one that I have, the green is a lot less noticeable, but there is a bit of hint of green there. Overall the shades of paint and the cleanliness of the paint turned out well, except for the his tie and his jacket buttons.
For Faye, her painting is near flawless. If I had to pick an area where it wasn’t perfect, it would be the blue paint on her blue shorts. Faye’s design sports a gold buttoned shirt and gold shorts. One issue that can arise from gold paint is that it has some known issues spilling over. Luckily, the figure that I have looks to be incredibly painted in. Like Spike’s painting, the color palette suits the theme of the figure and accurately portrays Faye’s look.
Errors? Complaints?
One big complaint that people had was of the figure’s smaller size than the listed 1/8 scale. In the video, I thought the size difference was a bit more egregious, but a couple of my 1/8 scale figures actually do run kind of close in size to this Megahouse figure.
Sometimes people can find themselves with gold paint bleeding over and that was not the case with Faye scale. She turned out to be painted almost as perfect as you can get it. I would still like to see how this paint does hold up overtime though.
Pictures
Last Thoughts
For the Japan prices as of this blog post, ¥30,800 is only around $232. So you can wait for the boat shipping, you can probably get this set for around $250-260, which I think is an acceptable price. Unfortunately, for US retail stores that caught the prices before inflation and the Japanese Yen price drop, it’s going to cost those consumers $300+ and it’s about $379.99 on BBTS! In my opinion, anything above $300+ for this figure set is a bit too much.
The idea is that you are getting two 1/8 scale figures, so $300+ is still suppose to sound acceptable. Given the design, $125-150 for each figure actually does sound reasonable, which makes me think the $250 I paid for this figure sounds acceptable. Given the quality of this set and the rare scales for Cowboy Bebop, this is one of those “must have” for Cowboy Bebop fans. The biggest deal breaker for me is not the dumb foot holder glass pieces, but the price tag.
As of 12/30/2022, it’s still available on AmiAmi and likely other Japanese stores as well. Those prices are value prices. If you are a US customer, I would try to catch a discount or just import it. Given the amount of volume of sellers on MFC for this figure, buying it off of someone between $200-250 is the likely aftermarket price right now.
OTAKU SINH 