Tom Cruise: Last Samurai from PopToys

Hi all, this time no diorama shenanigans just a new figure I bought last week from a malaysian store and 4 days later I had it in my hands.    That is a new record for speed delivery from asia.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the movie "Last Samurai" and after some thoughts I finally got my hands on him.
Some of you may know this figure as its available for quiet some time and was thought after - it even got a second production run.

Well the armor is excellent, made of metal and looks very nice. The whole figure is very well done imo.

He is not the most flexible poser in this heavy armor, but it is okay for a few nice poses at least. Figure comes with 4 swords (normally just two, ut Poptoys added two higher quality swords for free) a flag and a wooden box. I did not put on his helmet yet.



















Might not be the last figure from this movie.

Beautiful photos! Always that gorgeous warm lighting that looks so inviting. So glad you are pleased with the figure. Are you going to get him a horse?

Looks cool, and Last Samurai is also a favorite movie of mine, whenever I find it on TV I'll watch it. The extra swords is a nice touch.

The figure looks great and I'm happy you had such a good buying experience. But despite "no fancy dioramas," you still managed to present it both beautifully and effectively.

skywalkersaga wrote:Beautiful photos! Always that gorgeous warm lighting that looks so inviting. So glad you are pleased with the figure. Are you going to get him a horse?

Thank you sky. Not sure about the horse, I already need some horses for other characters I have planned and I think I have only limited space for horses. But never say never. I think I need to sell some not so great horses first from my collection (the longer I'm in this hobby, the more of a horse expert I become)

Theboo-bomb wrote:Looks cool, and Last Samurai is also a favorite movie of mine, whenever I find it on  TV I'll watch it.  The extra swords is a nice touch.

Yeah, bonus points to Poptoys here. And this movie is just cool even if a bif sad.

GubernatorFan wrote:The figure looks great and I'm happy you had such a good buying experience. But despite "no fancy dioramas," you still managed to present it both beautifully and effectively.

Thanks Gub, I don't often buy characters from movies, but for this one it was about time. The backdrop is just a canvas and some random flooring of mine. I thought it waas fitting for the beautiful scenery of the movie. I should visit Japan one day...

He is wonderful ! Thanks for showing. The metal armor is great, but the fine ornaments on the fabric are also amazing. A real masterpice of 1:6 Arts

Great looking figure, and I like the photos. The background is very effective. The armor looks amazing. Now I need to rewatch that movie.

The lighting, the backdrop, that floor... Beautifuuuutiful photos! And magnificent figure, too!

Great looking figure,

Very nice presentation of a pretty cool figure. The armour looks great and the h/s looks accurate as well. Now I have to go dig out the DVD and watch it again.

That's a very nice figure and some nice pics of your new purchase! Although, as with all factory rooted hair, it's a bit poofy and thick and could stand a bit of thinning out and restyling, but I realize not everyone wants to do that kind of thing.

This second run looks like it is actually a V2 with updated/improved clothing and armor. I bought the first run knee pads loose for my Yae and they are slightly different from the ones on yours, which has a stitched border and looks like all cloth (mine was foam).

Did you know this movie was based on the Satsuma rebellion of 1877, and that the Ken Watanabe character was one of the most famous historical figures from that era, Saigo Takamori? And yes, that person figured prominently during the Boshin war (and in Yae no Sakura!) and was one of the architects of the new government as well as taking part in crushing Aizu. Saigo did not die in a glorious charge but ended up committing seppuku and having his head cut off by an underling to finish the ritual suicide, when all hope of victory was lost. He also did not wear traditional armor but favored western uniforms by this time (and his men were well equipped with rifles, unlike in the movie).

The Tom Cruise character is based mostly on various French Army officers (especially Jules Brunet) who were advisers to the Shogun (so part of the Boshin war proper) and who were supposed to leave for France once fighting broke out but chose to stay and fight side by side with their Shogunate allies, fighting at Toba Fushimi, Edo, and finally in Hokkaido with the Shogunate forces' last stand (after Aizu had already fallen). He was evacuated before the final collapse and went on to further service in the French army including during the Franco Prussian War, retiring a General decades later.

Despite some of the historical fudging, I too really like the movie and recently watched it again.

tankgirlfuzzy wrote:That's a very nice figure and some nice pics of your new purchase! Although, as with all factory rooted hair, it's a bit poofy and thick and could stand a bit of thinning out and restyling, but I realize not everyone wants to do that kind of thing.

This second run looks like it is actually a V2 with updated/improved clothing and armor. I bought the first run knee pads loose for my Yae and they are slightly different from the ones on yours, which has a stitched border and looks like all cloth (mine was foam).

Did you know this movie was based on the Satsuma rebellion of 1877, and that the Ken Watanabe character was one of the most famous historical figures from that era, Saigo Takamori? And yes, that person figured prominently during the Boshin war (and in Yae no Sakura!) and was one of the architects of the new government as well as taking part in crushing Aizu. Saigo did not die in a glorious charge but ended up committing seppuku and having his head cut off by an underling to finish the ritual suicide, when all hope of victory was lost. He also did not wear traditional armor but favored western uniforms by this time (and his men were well equipped with rifles, unlike in the movie).

The Tom Cruise character is based mostly on various French Army officers (especially Jules Brunet) who were advisers to the Shogun (so part of the Boshin war proper) and who were supposed to leave for France once fighting broke out but chose to stay and fight side by side with their Shogunate allies, fighting at Toba Fushimi, Edo, and finally in Hokkaido with the Shogunate forces' last stand (after Aizu had already fallen). He was evacuated before the final collapse and went on to further service in the French army including during the Franco Prussian War, retiring a General decades later.

Despite some of the historical fudging, I too really like the movie and recently watched it again.

Thanks a lot for that super interesting input, I had no idea about those french army advisers! I too like a lot that movie anyway, it's visually very good! Did anyone get to see the documentary titled "samurais" on Netflix? Its actually very good.

Thank you all for the comments!

tankgirlfuzzy wrote:That's a very nice figure and some nice pics of your new purchase! Although, as with all factory rooted hair, it's a bit poofy and thick and could stand a bit of thinning out and restyling, but I realize not everyone wants to do that kind of thing.

This second run looks like it is actually a V2 with updated/improved clothing and armor. I bought the first run knee pads loose for my Yae and they are slightly different from the ones on yours, which has a stitched border and looks like all cloth (mine was foam).

Did you know this movie was based on the Satsuma rebellion of 1877, and that the Ken Watanabe character was one of the most famous historical figures from that era, Saigo Takamori? And yes, that person figured prominently during the Boshin war (and in Yae no Sakura!) and was one of the architects of the new government as well as taking part in crushing Aizu. Saigo did not die in a glorious charge but ended up committing seppuku and having his head cut off by an underling to finish the ritual suicide, when all hope of victory was lost. He also did not wear traditional armor but favored western uniforms by this time (and his men were well equipped with rifles, unlike in the movie).

The Tom Cruise character is based mostly on various French Army officers (especially Jules Brunet) who were advisers to the Shogun (so part of the Boshin war proper) and who were supposed to leave for France once fighting broke out but chose to stay and fight side by side with their Shogunate allies, fighting at Toba Fushimi, Edo, and finally in Hokkaido with the Shogunate forces' last stand (after Aizu had already fallen). He was evacuated before the final collapse and went on to further service in the French army including during the Franco Prussian War, retiring a General decades later.

Despite some of the historical fudging, I too really like the movie and recently watched it again.

You are totally right the hair is not good on that figure. I will try to fix it a bit but not sure how good I'm in stuff like that. But I have no fears lol

And thank you very much for the great background check and information!! Always excited to learn about stuff like that from real history. I'm not very well equipped in asian history so this was a good read. Always wondered what parts of the movie were closer to reality than others.

Glad you found it interesting! As you may or may not know, I'm deep into Meiji era Japanese history these days (see Yae thread), so always cool to see things that relate to my current interest.

About the hair, please check out my Eowyn and Aragorn threads over at OSW. I discuss pretty extensively how I cut and style rooted hair, and the Aragorn is somewhat similar to the Algren style, so it may help you.

Someday I'll repost that material over here, but it's going to be a lot of work and I only have so much hobby time!