Alpha Male, Beta Midget
Yes, You know about the stikfa super poseable figures which are rather abstract in design, but have you heard of Bandai’s Gashapon contribution to that “micro” genre? The Beta Midgets are the alternative 1:1 scale action hero figure. I’ll be covering the Stikfa Alpha male, the Fire Fighter and the “Early Type (tr)” Midgets.
I found out about them through the Micropolis Embassy, but they are not a niche figure. They are an excellently designed for a game prize toy and are an extremely cool base for customization. I did not take many pictures of the main characters, because they are well covered at other sources such as the official Midget page (photos of v1.5 here) and MicroForever (version 1.0) , and I encourage you to patronize those sites to find out more.
I purchased the Alpha male because I love the comic, SCUD: the disposable assassin, and had to make a custom, but I ended up getting another partially for the second pistol and partially to keep one so I can play with him stock. I ended up getting the firefighter because I really enjoyed the alpha males and the new Fire Fighter accessories are really neat. It ends up to have a very good feel and real character after you get the guy into his gear.
The Beta midgets are similar to microman in that the plot is that they are from space, and adapt to the element that they first arrive in. There is Salamander, the fire Elemental (Red and White), Salamander 1.5 (Red and Orange), Undine, the Water Elemental (Dark Blue, I added a Drill arm, but he normally has two arms), Gnome, the Earth Elemental (Green with the luger pistols), and Sylph, the Air Elemental (Blue and White). They come with intellegent “Jacket-o” that attach and endow them with additional elemental powers. The Jackets are PVC armor that pegs into various 3mm and 5mm ports on their body. It’s a tad bendy, but mine have straightened out nicely and there are literally a hundred or so parts amongst the 6 jackets, so it’s lotsa fun to fiddle with.
On to the Early types. There are 3 of them. A gray one, A pearl with blue trim and a dark blue with black trim. They are the proto-Beta midgets and suposedly without personality because of their inhuman features and augmented physical attributes, but I’ve found that they are my favorites of the bunch. Action! Drama!
Disclaimer: I did paint these guys, but all I did was accentuate the detail that was already there. Plus the obligitory Non-sequitor desktop group photo of those who weren’t topical, but I love em anyways.
