Kit Review

Straight build + Stickers

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Size comparison with a cigarette pack. With the wings fully spread, it's a massi

Size comparison with a cigarette pack.
With the wings fully spread, it's a massive kit that exceeds 50cm.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Various angles (1/7)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Various angles (2/7)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Various angles (3/7)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Various angles (4/7)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Various angles (5/7)

Various angles

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Detail shots. Thanks to the gloss injection, the whole body shines brilliantly.

Detail shots.
Thanks to the gloss injection, the whole body shines brilliantly.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - The wings have a thin, soft flexible rubber or film-like feel — a unique materia

The wings have a thin, soft flexible rubber or film-like feel — a unique material you don't often see.
It's kind of similar in smell and feel to the material used in inflatable pool toys.
Also, the front and back surfaces have a glossy/matte finish respectively, so the light reflects differently on each side,
and the wing colors are gradient-treated as well.

In addition to the mouth, the tongue inside also moves.

The included clear display stand

Two types of joint parts for the stand are included.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Depending on the pose, you can swap out the armor on the bottom or top of the bo

Depending on the pose, you can swap out the armor on the bottom or top of the body to mount it on the stand.

Range of motion for the front/rear legs and neck

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - The neck also rotates sideways quite smoothly. The 9 armor segments at the lower

The neck also rotates sideways quite smoothly.
The 9 armor segments at the lower part of the neck each move individually,
and there are 2 lead wires running inside, which gives it good holding strength.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - The tail is also made up of 9 multi-jointed segments, with the front 5 connected

The tail is also made up of 9 multi-jointed segments, with the front 5 connected and held in place by lead wires.
Surprisingly, the bending angle isn't all that large given the number of segments.
The rear 4 segments are connected by their own ball joints rather than lead wires, and the range of motion is narrow with the holding strength feeling a bit iffy.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - The body is also connected by 4 multi-jointed segments, though the range of moti

The body is also connected by 4 multi-jointed segments, though the range of motion is on the narrow side.
All in all, it's structured to move across a total of 9+4+9 = 22 segments from head to tail.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - You can move the 4 wing joints by narrowing them slightly, which causes the soft

You can move the 4 wing joints by narrowing them slightly,
which causes the soft wings to fold up in a curved shape.
However, the wing material is quite springy so it's hard to fold them much, and once folded they're not easy to flatten back out —
so it's probably best to just leave the wing joints alone.

The wing connection joints also move forward and backward.

The wings can rotate 360 degrees around the fixed axis, but —

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - The fixing pin that holds the wing to the body is really worrying. T_T It plugs

The fixing pin that holds the wing to the body is really worrying. T_T
It plugs in with quite a tight fit, probably to hold the large, heavy wings in place,
but the problem is it looks very likely to twist and snap under the rotational force when you try to rotate the wing.
(Feels similar to the hip joint breakage cases with the MG Freedom Gundam v2.0)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - In my case, I tried rotating the wing and it was on the verge of snapping, so I

In my case, I tried rotating the wing and it was on the verge of snapping,
so I carefully pulled it back out and gave it one pass with fine-grit sandpaper.
This does make the wing rotate much more smoothly, but if you sand too much it'll become loose and the wing won't stay in place —
so you really only want to take off the tiniest amount.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Poses on the ground. The body joint strength is decent, so as long as you keep t

Poses on the ground.
The body joint strength is decent, so as long as you keep the center of gravity from leaning too far forward,
the pose holds well.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Flying pose with the belly section swapped out for the stand joint parts and mou

Flying pose with the belly section swapped out for the stand joint parts and mounted on the stand

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Roaring pose (1/4)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Roaring pose (2/4)

Roaring pose

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Pose with the back section swapped out for the joint parts and mounted on the st

Pose with the back section swapped out for the joint parts and mounted on the stand.

Size comparison with a 1/144 Gundam.

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon - Alongside Omegamon X-Antibody, one of the larger kits in the Figure-rise Standar

Alongside Omegamon X-Antibody, one of the larger kits in the Figure-rise Standard lineup.

This kit is the Blue Eyes White Dragon, released as part of the Figure-rise Standard Amplified series. It's a popular monster from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, appearing as an ultimate-level monster card — and it's been released as a plastic model with quite a few unique characteristics.

First off, once you finish building it, the sheer volume will catch you off guard. With both wings spread out, the wingspan easily exceeds 50cm, taking up an enormous amount of display space. The entire exterior is molded in gloss injection, giving it an overall shiny, premium feel. The large wings use a unique thin, soft film-like material, with one side having a glossy finish and the other a matte finish, and the colors are gradient-treated throughout.

In terms of articulation, you can really feel how ambitious the design is. Bandai advertised that they pursued a balance between articulation and proportions, and true to that, the kit is connected with over 20 individual moving segments from head to tail. Specifically, the neck has 9 segments, the body has 4, and the tail has 9. The neck and the front part of the tail have dual lead wires built in, which gives them smooth movement along with solid holding strength — though the neck is quite flexible, the tail has a narrower range of motion than you'd expect, and the rear section's holding strength is a bit lacking.

The soft-material wings also have 4 joints that move, allowing them to fold to some degree. But the material is springy enough that they don't fold easily, and once folded they don't flatten back out well either, so it's probably best to just leave them as-is. On top of that, the mouth and tongue each move separately, and you can display the kit at various angles using the swappable joint parts that attach to the belly or back, along with the included clear stand.

There is one structurally concerning point with this kit. The fixing pin that plugs the wings into the body has a real risk of snapping, so you need to be careful. The joint is designed to be quite tight in order to hold the large, heavy wings in place, which does keep the wings firmly supported in the default state — but when you try to rotate the wings around the fixed axis, it looks very likely that the pin won't be able to handle the rotational force and will snap.

In my case, I gave it one slight rotation and it nearly snapped (T_T), so I carefully pulled it back out and gave the pin one gentle pass with fine-grit sandpaper before reinserting it. This made it rotate much more smoothly and hold much more securely without that worrying feeling. It seems like the most reliable fix, but there's a real risk of it becoming too loose if you sand even a little too much. If you're thinking of sanding the pin to ease the excessive tightness like I did, I'd recommend using the finest sandpaper you can find and doing just one gentle pass — no more. If the whole thing just makes you too nervous, another option is to plug the wings in once and simply never rotate them. Either way, there have been reports of people snapping the wing fixing pin when rotating the wings, so please be extra careful. If the wing fixing section breaks on this kit... the wings are too heavy to fix with glue, so you'd be in a really hopeless situation — like a flip-flop with a broken strap. T_T

On another note, this kit has more sharp parts than your typical Bandai kit, so you need to be careful when handling it. Bandai kits usually round off sharp designs as much as possible for safety, and while it's nowhere near the level of Kotobukiya kits — which keep things pointy enough to draw blood in the name of style — this one will still give you a bit of an acupressure(?) experience as you work on it.

So all in all, it's a fantastic kit with a massive, beautiful appearance, unique material feel, plenty of moving parts, and great posing potential — but you really can't stress enough how careful you need to be with the wing fixing section. It's definitely a tempting item for Yu-Gi-Oh! fans, but setting fan loyalty aside, it's clearly a unique and fun kit in its own right. :-)

Figurerise Standard Blue Eyes White Dragon | 2023.3 | ¥4,800

AIThis page was translated by Claude Sonnet.