Despite our functional dislike of the Zone of the Enders series, we’ve always admired the designs that Yoji Shinkawa penned for the games. As such, we felt compelled to purchase the recently released Revoltech Jehuty toy. It’s clear from the off that the team at Kaiyodo were obvious fans of the series, as this toy has had a lot of love poured into it. In addition, to give the toy some context, we’ve included some gameplay videos of Jehuty in action from the first game at the end of the review.

Jehuty and the other orbital frames from the ZOE series are an interesting entry into the mecha mythos. They’re not reals, supers or even hybrids really. Effectively built from a mysterious substance called Metatron, that also seems to be possess a form of sentience, they glow like almost living machines. It’s safe to say, that there are no real mecha design allegories to what Shinkawa birthed. For that reason, the design of Jehuty is an incredibly important one and overshadows its host work in our opinion. Unsurprisingly, Jehuty has subsequently become iconic of the ZOE games.

Whilst many fans have been waiting a long time for this figure, this is by no means the first attempt. Back in 2002, Kaiyodo also released a very beautifully sculpted garage kit of the design (with a suitably stratospheric price). The difference here is that this is very much a toy that’s specifically built to be dynamically posed in all manner of positions.

The amount of extra bits this toy comes packaged with is also pretty impressive. From multiple hands, extra joints, a pseudo-HUD element to a slew of other options (almost all of which can be stored in a handy little storage container that’s also in the box). It even has a stand too. For a very reasonable price you are getting a very thorough little toy, to the extent that it can be reconfigured to the v2 version of Jehuty seen towards the latter part of Anubis.

As with all Revoltech toys, the figure can be disassembled pretty painlessly and the joints re-positioned if need be. In addition, there is no real diecast in this figure whatsoever. This is the main reason why its pricepoint is so reasonable.

Toy: Revoltech Jehuty
Price: 2,838 yen
Size/Weight: 21.7 x 21.7 x 6.7 cm / 260g

Despite the pointed legs, Jehuty can still hold its own. With the addition of two “feet”, it can stand just like in the games. It’s very hard to come up with anything bad to say about this toy really. It’s very tactile, sturdy, supremely poseable and even has its own stand. The only minor quibble is that paint job is a little budget in places but considering the tiny price point that’s hardly surprising.

Even if you dislike the games, this toy is still worth getting. The design has been treated with a really good sculpt and the Revoltech joints allow for some great poses, which is something of a trait with this toyline. So we can thoroughly recommend this figure to fans of the series as well as pretty much anyone else that likes the look of the design. It does still make us want a full blown diecast beast of the design, but that’s no bad thing. Hopefully Kaiyodo will follow up with more orbital frame toys from the ZOE games, as we’re still hankering after an Anubis figure.

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