ThreeA WWRp JEA Caesar

I was very much impressed when previews of the WWR versions of Caesar were shown, and I bought a couple, knowing that they'll probably cost a bomb to ship in the secondary market. Truth be told, I was darn glad I did. Caesar is probably one of the best robot designs from 3A of late, and I dare say, of 2013. The size, proportions, workmanship, were all pretty top notch. So then WWRp was announced, I didn't really hesitate in getting the JEA, especially after seeing from the previews how the shrink ray at 3A was working wonders.

Ashley Wood's art work showcasing the robot is one of the first things to emerge from the brown carton box. I have much to say about how ThreeA runs their business, but when it comes to Wood's painting, I'm still fascinated everytime i see one of those canvas paints / prints. I do hope all boxes come with a Wood's art on it, and not some lame photoshops or blurries of toy photographs...

The proportions of Caesar has been well kept, there isn't anything that is too jarring even though the original release has been halved in size. One noticeable change is that working buckles on the WWR version are changed to single cast pieces that only function as strap loops. I remembered how when I unboxed the WWR Caesar, the monstrosity that was the rifle left quite an impression in me. Scaled down, it is just normal looking. All in all, while the proportions have been maintained, the grandeur of the WWR is lost in the Portable, and understandably so since the guy has been downsized.

The JEA comes with a rifle, and the standard issue knife and pistol to all Caesars. Mounted on his right shoulder is a shield that covers most of his arm. Unlike the flimsy fingers on the WWRp Dropcloth, Caesar's fingers are quite sturdy, and grabs all of his weapons quite firmly. The way the scope is mounted on the rifle, it almost dictates that Caesar carries his weapon on his right arm. Initially I had some issues with the positioning of the rifle butt, as the pistol holster seemed to have taken up the precious real estate underneath Caesar's armpit. Soon I realised that by unvelcro-ing the entire belt and rotating all the pouches clockwise slightly, the problem is solved.

One thing rather unusual about the JEA Caesar, both WWR and WWRp, is that the cloth used for all the pouches and apron are in a weird green colour. I know that it has been shown in the preview images prior to sales, but really, this difference causes Caesar to stand out like a sore thumb when posed next to his JEA comrades... at least to me. I think I might prefer if all the clothed parts were of an earthy tone, with the weird green colour limited to a smaller extent as highlights on his body...

Next up, QC issues. Now, one of the first things I always do when I boxing figures is to give each joint a tug to free the joint and make sure that none of them are jammed or too loose. For Caesar, I did the same, and when I came to the right hip, I noticed that there was some "recoil" action, which usually means there's something wrong with the joint. Turns out, the crotch is designed to be a cylinder, with two posts branching out from it to join to the hips as a ball joint. This particular ball joint of mine was super tight, causing the post to crack at where it connects to the crotch cylinder when the leg was moved at the hips! I hate to email CS, but I had to get a replacement part for the crotch, which they did oblige. At the same time, I managed to fix the crack with tonnes of super glue applied layers over layers over a couple of days...

Another issue that I read online but hasn't experienced it myself was that the butt end of the crotch cylinder protrudes beyond the rear apron through a circular hole cut in it. Because of this detail, the hip rotation of the figure is pretty much restricted to a couple of millimetres... Some claimed to have applied too much force rotating the hip and saw the little hooks securing the apron break off.

One last issue I had was with the weathering. Right on the chest of the robot, there were some noticeable large blotches of bright green, orange and brown... It feels like 3A just got someone off the streets to do their weathering for them with the following instructions: "Take sponge, dab here." If you were to look at some of the WWRp JEAs released earlier, I don't think you can find weathering that are done with such huge grain sizes... They should've been finer and more refined IMO...

So the verdict...? I don't regret buying it, but I'm a little underwhelmed by the overall quality of the product... If you haven't bought it, I won't really recommend it, even if you lack a Caesar to complete your entire WWRp JEA line up... If you have the space and money, buy the WWR version.

This concludes my review of the WWRp JEA Caesar, the 1st ThreeA product to reach me after the arrival of my precious daughter, Evey...!

Posted in: Toy Review