Recently scored an original 1/6 ThreeA JEA Boss, which is actually a repaint of a vinyl figure by the company. Though the Bambaboss doesn't belong to any series / universes introduced by 3A, the JEA is a colourway from the World War Robot series. As with the other members of the JEA (which means Joint Earth Alliance, I think... not too sure), the figure sports the usual insignias "JEA 80" and "Yumiko DIV" on him.
The JEA Bambaboss was released as a secret drop in limited quantities on Christmas of 2010, the whole sale period lasting a little under 20 minutes... I wasn't there, having started collecting 3A much later... but I could read all the excitement, love and loss from the old forum thread. The JEA Boss became one of my grails to be hunted down since I started with 3A, especially since I really like the JEA colour scheme. This Bambaboss easily became one of my favourites, amongst the three that I currently own (other 2 being 2nd and 3rd Anniversary releases).
The Bambaboss figure really belongs to the designer toy / vinyl figure genre, with very limited (yet essential) articulation and interchangeable faces. I would describe it as a stylized humanoid figure with chubby proportions. The figure seems to be wearing loose basketball shorts matched with a hoodie that terminates into an almost perfect circle, within which sits the face of the figure. It is so simplified and stylized, that the figure's side profile looks almost like the top part of a submarine's periscope that emerges from the water. A cloud of smoke rises from the back of the figure, another prominent feature of these Bambaboss figures.
Three interchangeable face plates come with the figure: the human, the twin-canister gas mask, and the cyclop. If you invert the gas mask, the outcome is a stump-horned creature, somewhat like the famous Hellboy himself. Of course, it is probably not intended to be fitted on this way... When I purchased this 1/6th figure, the Action Portable (AP) version was already released. In a short span of a couple of months, 3A released the AP versions of all existing Bambaboss designs as resident sales at Bambaland. Of the 9, I bought only 1, which is the JEA. However, I haven't taken it out from its brown carton box yet, reason being the human face plate. Now, among the 3 face plates, my personal fav is the human one. From in-hand pictures of AP Bosses I see online, I can already tell that the 1/12 human face plate is not as circular as I want it to be, and certainly not as round as its 1/6 counterpart. It is very telling from any of the photographs featured here, that at the 4-to-5 and 7-to-8 o'clock positions of the circular face, the roundness is somehow "shaved off", for some reason... and that irks me alot. Also, the faceplate of the AP version does not sit deep enough within the hoodie, another thing that I find rather irritating. While the AP version is representative of their 1/6 counterparts in general proportions, there are small details that reveals their inadequacies, which kinda puts me off...
The simple, clean colour scheme and the chubby proportions for this range of figures is a major, major appeal for me. Articulation-wise, the ball jointed ankles and waist cut, complimented by the interchangeable face plates, gives the figure an reasonable amount of poseability, not to mention the rotatable smoke cloud and wrist cuts. Overall, the design of this figure is quite pleasingly eccentric: rectilinear robot feet, round human attire, rectilinear gloved hands with a larger right palm (yes... pay attention to the two palms and you'll notice the left one is somewhat smaller). It being JEA is really the icing on the cake. Something unique about the JEA Boss that I like alot is the olive coloured ring around its eye (consistent for all 3 face plates)... In short, a timely reminder (for me) of the potential ThreeA has in delivering high quality, interesting figures. Having said that... AK Rehel? Easy pass!
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