Figure-rise Standard Beelzebumon / Beelzemon (Amplified)I think Beelzebumon was a good choice. Even

Figure-rise Standard Beelzebumon / Beelzemon (Amplified)

I think Beelzebumon was a good choice. Even if he had a turnaround, he was an antagonist for most of Tamers, and the only other villain we have (not counting repaints) is Mugendramon. He also has a much different silhouette, being a lot sleeker than everyone else in the line, unencumbered by the capes and wings and shoulder pads of its linemates. Also, he’s really popular; popular enough to be brought back in Xros Wars (BTW, Shoutmon X4 please). I’ve also talked to several women over the years who claim Beelzebumon to be their favorite Digimon, and I think that’s important, too. Digimon is a franchise normally targeted to boys, so picking a Digimon that’s known to be popular across the gender spectrum is just a good marketing choice and makes more people happy.

The Good: Fantastic build. Lots of cool parts layering, interesting engineering, and a lot of neat asymmetry. There’s also some wire work going on, which adds a lot of flexibility to posing and helps easily convey motion.

Speaking of posability, it’s good, if a little tough to adjust some of the universal joints. Drop hips, double joints, good wrists. Those wrists in particular are helpful when posing his pistols, as they’re slightly angled.

He also has those custom ports on his legs, and if you remove his… exhaust pipes(?) you can do a few things with his back.

The Bad: While I didn’t have too much trouble balancing him, Beelzebumon has smaller feet and quite a few things jutting off his back, which means you can’t just set him down and expect him to stand, though that’s kind of a through-line for all of Amplified.

Speaking of things on his back, the tail, while an interesting idea, has problems. Even though the instructions claim you don’t have to cut the wire, I had to resize it to remove any gaps between pieces. Also, every time I adjust it I have to push the tip back in since it’s held on by friction while everything else is loose. While it would have been a little more frustrating to build, I kind of wish both ends were clamped in and each tail segment was two pieces clipped around the wire, instead of one.

Also, he is very pointy. It hurts to have hair that nice.

The Details: I continued to use metallic red panel lining throughout this kit, as I have with the rest of the Amplifiedreleases, but I also used a bit of black for his lips and in all the closed zippers and scarf to give them more definition.

As for added color, I painted the eyes and feathers on his head (which were originally stickers), as well as added some black around the eyes to make them look more natural, and around the edges of his mask(?) to give it a sharper appearance. I also filled his exhaust pipes(?), inner belt buckles, and pistol barrels with black. Then, I painted his actual buckles (jacket, waist, and right leg) silver as well as his open jacket zipper (only his jacket buckles had stickers).

Overall, this is a fun kit. A solid, interesting build with decent posability and negligible problems. Also, Beelzebumon is still probably the Digimon with the most complex and interesting character development of any in the canon, and that’s very cool and also sad because it’s been 21 years.