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					Description; very Gundam-esque piece with realistic panels, engines, et al.  However, the piece shows many extra details, such as pipes, pistons, and sensor clusters.  The piece has two small rocket-lauchers attached to it's shoulders, one large missile launcher attached to it's backpack on the right side, one large gatling gun on the left side.  Also armed with a large rifle and a beam saber.  The entire piece is painted metallic grey with red hi-lights.
2-4-01 Figure #1- Armor Core 2, Koto Inc. Meat and Potatoes; 5.0 Perks; 5.0 Homer Factor; 5.0
Ah, welcome to what may be the new age of toys, folks.  Over the years, pieces by assorted companies here and in Japan have taken toys and gone from just making something for the kids to tear apart at Christmas to works of art that children AND adults can enjoy and admire.  Todd Toys, DC Direct, Kaiyodo, among a multitude of others have all seen that the toy market is filled not just with 8 year-olds with birthday money.  The market is also filled with Gen-Xers who remember the days of Star Wars toys, He-Man figures, and Go-Bots.  However, rather then just creating another toy, manufacturers realize these olders collectors want more then just painted plastic.  These collector figures are more detailed, have better articulation... and tend to cost about twice as much as your usual Batman figure.  However, if you reeeeeeeeeeeally want to get into collecting, here's a good place to start; Armor Core 2 figures from Koto Inc.  No, this isn't your Father's toy... trust me. The meat and potatoes are amazing.  The sculpting on this figure is magnificent, recreating maneuvering jets, a large backpack with more jets, pistons, sensor clusters, everything.  As realistic as the sculpting is on Gundam figures, this piece is over the top.  This is something the Defense Department wishes it owned.(Then again, if you're an Area 51 watcher, well....)  The articulation on this piece is likewise over the top.  The card states 22 points of articulation, and they aren't kidding.  Elbows, wrists, knees, ankels, waist, all move freely.  Although the painting on this piece isn't as colorful as a MSIA piece, it is very appropriate; simple gun-metal grey with red hi-lights for the sensor clusters, a few black hi-lights here and there.  To top it all off, this figure is a nice and hefty 7" tall, no more getting kicked around by Spawn figures.  One tiny problem with the piece; the name.  No, you aren't mistaken, this is called Figure #1.  In it's original Japanese incarnation, the piece comes with a rather neat, high-tech name.  Apparently SOMEONE decided that naming the pieces may confuse American consumers, so they just call the figures #1-4.  Go figure.   The perks for this figure are also excellent.  The piece comes with two removable missile launchers which attach to the shoulders, one large missile launcher which attaches to the right-side of the backpack, a large gatling gun which attaches to the left side of the back pack, and the obligatory rifle and beam saber.  The excessories have pretty good sculpting over all and attach rather well to the figure.  Figure #1 also comes with a set of hands which allow the piece to hold the rifle in the left or right hand.  The only problem with this is that the connection of the hand to the wrist is very tight, so be very careful when switching hands.  The Homer factor on this piece is very, very high.  When I first saw promo-shots of the figure, I drooled.  HERE was a robot to be reckoned with; giant weapons, beam sabre, and a nice, no-nonsense paint scheme.  Granted, the colorful super-robot look is fun, but sometimes you just want something that looks menacing.   In the end, Koto has hit a home-run with this one.  Everything abou this figure is awesome; the sculpt, articulation, accessories, even the size of this thing just screams a great figure.  Ok, ok, we'll ignore the name for now.  Nonetheless, Koto has created a superb figure, and one can only imagine what the rest of the line will bring.