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Personal
Story:
I found out about this figure from my favorite Kubrick forum, KubrickWorld.
They had announced its upcoming arrival so I raced to preorder it.
I waited several months and I finally got it after a lot of annoying
mishaps with the store and their shipping problems. The shipping
price was pretty high too compared to the estimate I was given but
I wanted it so I agreed to get it. I'm glad I did because you can't
find it anywhere except in the secondhand market now. It was sold
out before it's release since so many people had preordered it so
I'm glad I was one of the bunch who got it. I actually got this
BEFORE I had an iPod which was pretty funny to me. :P
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Introduction:
This is a 400% Kubrick figure based on the design of the Apple
iPod. It was made as an accessory for the iPod. It was available exclusively
to HMV stores in Japan only. |
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Sculpt:
It's a standard 400% Kubrick body and head. That's it. There
aren't any custom parts or anything on the body itself. The only
new accessory is the tray for the iPod. It's a simple sculpt and
it holds the standard iPod extremely well. The iPod fits into the
tray quite snugly. There's a slot under it for the cable to charge
the iPod, but people who love their iPod docks will find it disappointing
that you can't use it with this figure. The tray snaps into the
arms of the figure quite clumsily. I had expected Medicom to give
us a better way of putting the tray on the figure. It's a bit annoying
to put on if you want to change the iKub from normal standing mode
to sitting-holding-iKub mode. It adds to the cheapness that I wasn't
expecting from this figure. I also have to mention that the body
feels a little light compared to other 400% figures that I've seen.
If it were heavier it would've added to that sense of value but
it feels more like a toy. Hmmm...
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Paint:
The paint is a plain white with chrome on the back and sides
to mimic the shiny metal surface on the back of the iPod. The glossy
white paint is simple and looks similar to the white color of the
iPod. It looks good and is very clean. I had mixed reactions with
the chrome on the body though. While the chrome looks great, it's
extremely fragile. There were fingerprints on it even before I touched
it! That shows people in the factory didn't use gloves during assembly
which sucks. Also, the chrome had tiny dents and scratches which
was also very annoying. I had expected better quality from Medicom
considering how limited this figure was. I was hoping they didn't
use this cheap chrome but they did. If you had expected it to be
metal or something similar to the real iPod, you'll be sorely disappointed.
Good thing the chrome is in the back. I had to handle this figure
very carefully to avoid damaging the chrome. Boo...
But
even with my complaints, the overall design is very cool. I really
love the fact that it looks like an iPod. The white and chrome worked
very well together. Like I said, the design is nice but the execution
was less than stellar.
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Overall:
B
A great design that was executed poorly with the cheap chrome
and light body. But even with those problems, iPod owners and lovers
will want to get their hands on this. It's a great item to show off
your iPod while it's charging its battery. Casual kubrick collectors
might find it disappointing with the complaints I had mentioned. I
wish Medicom had put more effort into this. |
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Where
can I find this?
Ultra rare. It was only available from HMV stores in Japan as
a preorder and as soon as their preorder deadline ended, it was already
sold out. I saw some available in some online import stores so you
should check around. Good luck. |
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Images: |
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The box. Fantastic design! Even the box was made to look like an
iPod. I loved it so much that I had to take pics of all the sides
of the box (which I don't normally do). Kudos to the designer.
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The
iKub with my U2 Special Edition iPod.
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The
tray. Simple but not very well designed when connecting to the figure.
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The instruction sheet. Pretty funny but also useful. It basically
shows that you should never store the iPod on it when it's standing
since it might tip and fall. You know that's bad news for your expensive
iPod so it was a good idea to have this reminder.
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The back. Sorry for the weird angle but I doubt you'd want to see
my hands and camera in the pic. ^^;;
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