Review – Mecha Azteca (Jungle)

Designed by Jesse Hernandez (website), the Mecha Azteca vinyl toy robot is even cooler in person than I had imagined. Produced by http://www.rajetoys.com/RAJE Toys, this “Jungle Edition” is limited to 100 pieces and available now at the RAJE Toys shop. If you like the pics then stop reading and start shopping; the toy’s $125 plus shipping. Pricey, yes, but it’s very big.

Sculpt

Starting with the remarkable sculpting job we see that the Mecha Azteca vinyl toy robot is covered in faces. In addition to the rather obvious face on the chest — and the usual face placed on the head where it belongs — the toy also has faces decorating the hands, feet, and back of the design. I think my favorite have to be the “hand” faces with the fingers as massive teeth. And every detail is dramatically sculpted, with sharp lines and deep gouges into the skin that make me wonder just how difficult the toy must have been to cast.

Below is a shot of the feet showing the faces. The teeth detail is painted on while the eyes and ridges over the eyes are sculpted with paint applications to highlight the sculpt. And if you raise your eyes just slightly to the robot’s knees you can see sculpted kneepads and a decorative design that wraps completely around the legs. Lots of great work in the sculpt!

Articulation

As with many vinyl toys, the Mecha Azteca is not highly articulated. Swivel joints at the neck, shoulders, knees, and elbows are it for a total of seven points of articulation. He’s not super-poseable, but he’s got enough articulation that you can choose a pose that works for you when you sit down to display the toy in your collection. I would have liked to have seen a waist joint, but as I study the design I can’t see how one could have been added without negatively affecting the sculpt of the torso so I can live happy with what we get here.

Paint

Acceptable, but not as impressive as the sculpting work. For all of the paint applications the job is actually very well done, but when you spend over $100 on a vinyl toy you start to get very picky about the details. There are a few rough edges around the fingers where the yellow wasn’t applied evenly, and a couple of spots on the chest where loose flakes of paint fell away when I first opened the box, but in general the paint works and doesn’t detract from the toy at all.

And that’s me being too picky. When I stop and look at the toy a little more casually — say from a reasonable distance and not studying it from inches away — the paint works and works well. Please don’t let my picking nits about the paint ruin this toy for you; I think that if you love the design and can afford the price tag that this is a good buy and a great vinyl toy robot for your collection.

Goes Great With Combat-R Zero!

As I suspected when I first posted about this toy back in December (posted here) the Mecha Azteca design is a perfect fit with the Combat-R Zero vinyl toy robot that I’ve reviewed before (first review here, second review here, third review here). And where Combat-R Zero always felt big to me the Mecha Azteca robot is even larger; just take a look at the shot showing “Swamp” with this Jungle Mecha Azteca toy.

Closing Thoughts

I love it. Maybe not enough to grab several of them like I did with the Combat-R Zero toy, but considering that I could get three Combat-R Zero vinyl toy robots for the price of one Mecha Azteca toy I think that’s understandable. This one seems to still be available at the RAJE Toys shop, so if you’ve got the cash right now I suggest going for it; this is one fun robot toy.