EmencyBlazer Works

NAME: Nero
SERIES: Devil May Cry 4
SCALE/CREATOR: Non-Scale, by Kotobukiya
RELEASE DATE: September 2008

I have started a quest to acquire more male figures for my army of plastic people. Unfortunately, males are a bit hard to come by in the anime figure world. Luckily Kotobukiya decided it was a good idea to make a line of Devil May Cry figures, which consists entirely of handsome silver haired men.

Dude, you might want to get that arm checked out. Looks infected.

I lost faith in Kotobukiya after witnessing their pathetic excuse for quailty with DIDI. I mean seriously, what the hell happened with her? It’s up to Nero to save the day with his exceptional quality and super duper totally awesome coolness.

I wear a trenchcoat because I want to be cool like Dante.

I know absolutely nothing about Nero except that he’s the protagonist from Devil May Cry 4, and he bears a striking resemblance to Dante. The figure features him laying a royal smackdown on the floor using his “Devil Bringer” powers. The original prototype for the figure was based on the promotional images of DMC 4, which showed Nero’s Devil Bringer with a golden glow. In the finalized game this color was changed to blue instead. The official release for the figure also went with blue, though the original gold looked a little better…

Another sword user…I wonder how many I own now?

Overall, this is an excellent figure. It’s got everything you could ask for: a dynamic pose, a diorama base, flawless painting, attention to detail, and optional parts! Nero comes with an extra hand, his Red Queen sword, and his Blue Rose gun. As cool as the gun is, Nero looks a lot better with his giant over-compensating blade.

Falcon Punch…?

Nero is almost flawless. I didn’t find a single issue with the paint-job. Everything is neatly painted and shaded beautifully. There are also different uses of paint: Metallic for his hair, weapons, buttons, and attractive rose belt buckle, pearlescent for the…big energy demon arm thing….and matte for everything else. There are no obvious seams anywhere on the figure or diorama. Also, the energy arm is made from clear plastic.

Nero’s non-scale, but I’d probably list him as 1/7-ish. He’s not as big as a 1/6 figure, but he’s definitely larger than the average 1/7. He’s also very heavy thanks to the diorama base. Thanks to being such a fatty, it cost almost $50 to ship him. $50!

Oh baby.

Nero comes screwed to the base so there’s no worry about leaning despite the overall weight. Even without the sword Nero is a space hog, so beware if you’re low on shelf-space.

OVERALL: 10/10

+ Dynamic pose and a diorama base
+ Top quality! Kotobukiya at its finest

? – Major color variation from the original prototype may irk some, but it still looks pretty cool

- Ridiculous shipping costs thanks to the heavy weight
- Space hog

I don’t believe Nero was a hot seller since…well…he’s not Dante. He’s still in stock at many vendors in both Japan and the US. As of June 2009, Hobbylink has him for 50% off retail price. Beware of the shipping costs, though!

- G.K. Sil Kamina