Riobot Anubis by Sentinel – Available From HobbyLink Japan
By Cacophanus from Mecha Damashii
Following the unboxing here is the review for the Riobot Anubis by Sentinel. This is the main villain orbital frame from the Zone of the Enders games and is meant to be quite an imposing piece. Like everything Sentinel does, this toy is pretty damn incredible and for fans of these designs you have a lot to look forward to.
It’s not so obvious with Jehuty but in the case of Anubis you can see the influence of Egyptian mythology quite heavily. This is no accident as the mecha design in this game uses a lot of very interesting visual influences and it makes for some fascinating results.
Previously we’ve had a Revoltech version of this design and while that was decent enough, this Riobot version is several orders more impressive. It’s also quite a bit larger.
Considering that the games have never been overly successful, the fact we are getting an Anubis toy at all is amazing, really. Sentinel hasn’t disappointed either, as this is the ultimate toy of this design to date.
Like the Riobot Jehuty, Anubis can stand on its own initially. However, once you add the elements at the rear it requires the included stand. Considering that this orbital frame is mostly airborne or spaceborne throughout the games, using the stand makes more sense.
The articulation is very comprehensive and facilitates a wide array of poses all of which are held well. The detailing is also superlatively good and the sculpt is effectively immaculate.
In terms of gimmicks this is actually a simpler toy than Jehuty and in some ways comes with fewer optional parts. This is again down to how it is portrayed in the games, as Anubis is a complete orbital frame and Jehuty has to power up in order to get new abilities to survive a fight with this almost demonic mecha.
Like with Jehuty, the amount of diecast this toy uses is very slight and is entirely internal from what I can make out. This makes the toy feel quite plasticky but the detailing as well as the articulation have always countered that for me. Not to mention these designs are meant to be otherworldly anyway, as they are built from a mysterious sentient material called Metatron.
Overall then this is an immaculate figure of a fascinating design. Even if you are like me and don’t rate the games, this is still a figure any self respecting fan of mecha should have in their collection.
