One of these is Inuyasha, the story of a young school girl. Quite surprisingly, she doesn't turn into a robot, ride in a robot, or own a robot. But she does wear school girl outfits.

Her name isn't Inuyasha, it's Kagome. One day on the way to school, she is transported through an ancient well to feudal Japan, where there's a lot more monsters and magic than I suspect actually existed in feudal Japan. There she meets the half demon, half human character of Inuyasha, a boy with a problem. Every new moon, he loses his demon powers for a night, and that's always at a bad time. Rather than pulling a Pinocchio and wanting to become all boy, he is attempting to find and assemble the Jewel of the Four Stars, which will make him all demon.

Inuyasha enlists the aid of Kagome, and the wackiness ensues. Toynami is releasing the first series of action figures based on the show, that includes Kagome and Inuyasha of course. They've also announced a second series that will include Inuyasha's full demon brother Sesshoumaru, and his former main squeeze, Kikyo. There's also a chase figure in the first set of two figures which hasn't been too widely noticed yet. Inuyasha comes with both an open mouth, and a closed mouth.

Toynami also released a boxed figure of the human form of Inuyasha as a convention exclusive. I picked this up at the recent San Diego Comic Con, and that's the focus of tonight's review.

"Inuyasha Convention Exclusive - human form"

If you're not a fan of the show, then don't get too excited about the whole 'human form, demon form' thing. There are only a few differences, and they aren't as pronounced as you might think. But fans should be excited, because Toynami has really done some nice work in making this exclusive show accurate. Retail on these will be between $10 and $13 - further proof of the effects of dwindling toy retailers. The exclusive I'm reviewing here cost $15 at the convention, and I have a couple other suggestions at the end of the review if you'd like to avoid ebay.

Packaging - ***1/2
The exclusive comes packed in a nifty box, with great graphics and a nice view of the figure. Additionally, it's so collector friendly you don't even have to cut any tape to open it!

Sculpting - ***
Let's be honest here - anime sculpts are not the most difficult on the planet to capture. That doesn't mean you can't screw them up though, as we've seen on more than one occasion from lesser companies than Toynami. Here, they've managed to capture both the look of the character perfectly, and also give him a truly dynamic appearance.

Yes, these are predominately statues from the waist down, but if you're going with that level of articulation, you have to be sure that you give the character one hell of a cool pose. And that's what we get - I was pretty amazed at just how photogenic the figure was.

The big difference between this figure and the normal release is the head sculpt. Here we see the human version of Inuyasha, which is actually the same face but black hair, missing the little ears sticking out. The hair is long and although it's in an action pose (something I notoriously hate), they've managed to do it right, conveying movement without looking ridiculous. The hair is also well designed to work with the neck and shoulder articulation, and restricts his movement much less than you'd expect. It's sculpt is slightly different from the carded version, allowing you to see the human ears, and flowing slightly differently down the back.

The body sculpt is identical to the regular release. The red “haori” is billowy and flowing, with just about the right amount of detail for this style of animation. My big complaint here is that the legs are hollow, giving the figure a slightly cheaper feel.

Paint - ***1/2
The other major change to the figure is in the paint scheme, but I've already mentioned it - he has black hair instead of white. For the observant, they've also left the fingernails unpainted, which is correct and a very nice touch.

The paint operations themselves are very clean and neat, matching the general anime theme and style perfectly. He has very few bleed issues, and the colors are consistent and vibrant. Both the sculpt and paint seem extremely show accurate, so anal fans should be happy. Uh, I mean fans of the show who are very anal retentive. Never mind.

Articulation - **
Damn those billowy clothes. I don't know when the last time was I said or wrote 'billowy', and now I've managed to sneak it in twice! It's the puffy nature of these clothes, particularly the arms and legs, that makes articulation a real problem. Toynami did what they could to keep the sculpt sharp, and still give you some posing possibilities.

Inuyasha has a ball joint at the neck, but it's somewhat restricted by the hair. It's not as bad as you would expect though, and the hair sculpt actually allows for more head movement that I anticipated. He also has cut shoulders, wrists, waist and ankles. You won't be able to do a lot with the articulation, but as you can see from the photos, there are a few very dynamic possibilities.

Accessories - ***
There are three accessories - his regular sword, a scabbard for that sword, and his pumped up "Tetsusaiga" version of his sword.

Now I think I know why he wants to switch to full demon and drop that human handicap. See, his sword triples in size when he's a demon. The little wimpy, damaged version - and this nifty accessory even has the scratches and dents sculpted in - is the best he can muster in human form. I'm betting most men would happily live with a pair of dog ears if it meant tripling the size of the sword.

Both swords fit perfectly in his sculpted right hand, and the smaller sword fits nicely in the scabbard. The scabbard also fits into his belt through a rubber loop, and hands at his side nicely.

Value - ***
This exclusive was $15, which just about right for a con exclusive. The run on these was 2000. Considering that the regular series figures are around $10 - $13 each, depending on where you pick them up, the fact that the exclusive was only a few dollars more is pretty impressive.

Overall - ***
I'm not a big fan of the show, although I watch at least a little of every show that pops up on Adult Swim. I have been talking with several big fans though (and special thanks to Rusty Barron for providing me with a lot of the background info on the characters!), and they seem to be all in agreement that this line captures the look and feel of the show and the personality of the characters extremely well. While they suffer from the same higher prices that we'll see across everything for the rest of this year, they do give fans the sculpt, paint ops and style they are looking for.

Where to buy -
Your obvious best chance was at the San Diego Comic Con. You should have been able to get them at Wizard World in Chicago, but unfortunately for Toynami, their product hadn't shown up yet on Saturday when I was there.

For the regular series, you have some options. I've heard that Hot Topic is getting them already, but I don't have a price. On-line options include:

- Corner Store Comics has them for $11 each, and has the exclusive I just reviewed for $30.

- Killer Toys has them for $12 each.