While the Ivorinium Noboto is one of the first two colorways of the character, it's been in development for a very long time. This blog post from 2007 is one of the first public showings of the character, and to add an unfortunate twist to his long path to production the figure's initial release was scheduled for June 14. A major disruption of the Paypal system backing the Onell Design store resulted in another delay, but that was good news for fans - because Noboto became the freebie when the sale took place again just over a week later.
This new figure has 19 total parts plus a bonus head, and has been changed slightly from the original prototypes. He has two closed hands instead of an open hand, which you can see here. For his debut, he was cast in clear colorless and a faux ivory color, meaning the best is arguably yet to come for this nifty character. So how did he turn out? Good question.
The figure was worth the wait - this bun spent more time in the oven and the extra work really shows. The prototype had an open hand and a fist, and the final has two fists. Unlike some existing Onell figures, each hand has one thumb - so this is a figure with a right hand and a left hand, not a hand that can be used for either with two (or ambiguous) thumbs. The belt is a removable piece, if you split the figure at the waist joint you can pop it off, just like the ring around the figure's neck.
Articulation is slightly superior to your standard Traveler or Pheyden, because the arms are 3 pieces rather than 2. Each fist is a separate piece, but you can see a cut in the shoulder that looks like a plain, ordinary sculpted arm. It adds a little extra swivel, which adds to the level of motion and boosts his personality a bit The legs on this marshmallowey little guy are more or less normal, with 3 pieces each. Onell Design's unique house style comes through as always, but is just a little bit better than the classic guys from 2007. He doesn't look at all out of place, which is good, because Noboto is supposedly Gobon's little buddy.
I find it odd that Onell Design wouldn't exploit a new figure like this one by, you know, selling it at full price. I suspect that this is the best freebie figure you'll get from any company all year long. I'm eager to see what color configurations happen - maybe a yellow and green would be nice - and the figure looks like the basis for something truly wonderful later. Noboto currently exists in clear colorless plastic or this metallic white "Ivorinium" flavor, either of which is going to look great. His black eyes have a little blue and a dot of white, and Onell Design promises another run of Noboto in these colors in the future. I really like this guy, and at 2 1/3-inches high he's a full head shorter than Pheyden. I'll definitely buy one or two more in other colors in the future. Get one, you'll like it.
One final note - if you like the "Ivorinium" color of metallic white, there's a matching Pheyden as well as a whopping eight similarly colored Outer Space Men on deck. The OSM figures will be sold at San Diego Comic-Con 2013 as ShopAFX exclusives. (Sadly, there is no Ivorinium Crayboth known at press time.)
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