can someone tell me about Real Action Heroes? They seem to be Gi joes sort of that even have interchangeable faces? how do they work exactly?

and can you buy just a base figure then outfits? or do you pretty much get a new figure with the costume every time you buy one?

They're action doll figures with a base skeletal structure and fitted with corresponding character costume or clothing. Very life like representations and fairly poseable. Most are 12" tall while some like RAH220's are around 8".

The majority that I know are sold as individual characters and not skeletal base and outfits apart. Not the very interchangeable type as far as I know. Here's the only one I have:

Masked Rider The First

RAH bodies were originally based (the mold looks identical) on the original GI Joe body (license by Takara from Hasbro or vice versa - someone her remind me), or in my youth, Action Man. The hands, feet, forearms, calves etc...can be easilly removed. Medicoms RAH figures also allow for neck+ head removal, whereas my AM didn't. The body shell is also exactly teh same on Takara's Henshin Cyborg, and the same parts are removable, but not the neck. The outer head is removeable though.

Later Medicom created the RAH300 body, which has much more human poseability, but seems prone to breakage - especially at teh hips. See teh clear red Mach Roid for a good example.

RAH220 (22cm) mostly look like a scaled down version of teh RAH300 base body.

I haven't been buying these for a few years now, so I don't know what recent improvements have been made - anyone else know?

Don't know much about the past and present base figure differences. But I know for certain that the poseability is very limited by the outfit or bodysuits and not so much by the figure base. Previously I owned an RAH Ultraman "Type C" which had very constrained posing due to the tight rubber suit.

I've been collecting Medicom since 1999 and regret getting the older type figures. With the amount of humidity in Hong Kong, the clothing on all my figures have melted and come off when you touch it with your hands. They have improved it with the recent releases of using better material. However I still think that Medicom clothing on these figures are a little frail and is not for playing, but displaying.

Sorry for the bad shots.

The ones on the left are old bodies that are not that flexible. Also if you play with them a bit, they tend to have lose joints after a while and cannot stand properly. The figures on the right, starting from the Kamen Guard with the sneakers have the body you see below. I have not had cases of snapping off like others have experienced, but I feel these new bodies look so much better with outfits that are tight fitting. Very realistic.


Below is the stripped body you can buy as well. I use it to get good poses for drawing or figure making. You can also get the female body in different bust sizes. These bodies are very flexible, and stable. Strong enough to hold Bruce Lee poses. These new bodies have much stronger joints and legs as too.

Mikee that masked rider is so cool i can't handle it. Tell me some more info and post a close shot of the whole figure.

These are official pics from medicom but the figure is well represented since they do look that good!

Just a side note, this Masked Rider was a special collaboration between Bandai & Medicom deemed Project BM! I find Project BM versions have more a bit more detail and are also more expensive. More releases are on the way under Project BM and they all look just as good. Check out the medicom page and u'll find more: http://www.medicomtoy.co.jp/index_productlist.html

I'm a big RAH fan, got nearly all the Star Wars ones. The Marvel ones are totally awesome too. The ONLY problem is that the bodies can be frail. Pegs in the shoulder and hip joints are known to just wear out and break, than you gotta get a new body, and usually that's no biggie, but with the spandex clad characters it is, cause' there's no way to get their outfits off with out unstitching them and restitching them.