Creepy twins rendered creepily
The packaging is no frills and small. Inside a white box with blue text and imagery you’ll find a folded cardboard tray the brothers have been trapped in with a plastic baggy of goodies. Those goodies are:
1) 2 x sets of 5 pairs of fixed posed hands
2) 2 x Microman action base (clear base with a peg in it)
3) 1 x Creepy large-mouthed pet thing
These Microman figures were a mail-away promotion as part of the DMZ-04 Rabidly Dog release. When the world economy collapsed their release date was pushed from November 2007 to March of 2008. I can’t seem to find out how much they cost originally but they were readily available for a long time after release for very little money… as two Microman figures should be. They’re long since sold out everywhere so it may be hard to locate them for less than $40.
Ignoring the obvious joints of the Microman body, the faces themselves are a good likeness. In a perfect world they’d look a little more slender toward the chin and have more forehead exposed but at 1/18 scale this isn’t bad. There’s a peculiar smirk on their faces that’s off-center but seems to work in capturing their strangeness from the show. It’s worth noting that while incredibly similar there were two different head sculpts used to create a mirror effect. Their outfits are good likenesses although i think the upper part of the frock might be a little large. There are two big weaknesses here. First, the hands are disproportional to the bodies (particularly the hands that come installed). Second, the skin tone on the face does not agree to the skin tone of the hands/arms.
The Microman figures these characters are based on offer a huge range of motion at the expense of some fairly obvious joints. If you can look past the physical shortcomings the articulation can make Microman figures pretty fun. The suits of the brothers is made of a soft rubbery plastic that is flexible but does limit the upper leg movement.
Overall, this is definitely only for hardcore Votoms completists. I find it hard to believe anyone was ever a huge fan of the brothers although they are entertaining in their own way. I think a Gotho/Cocona/Rochina gift set would have been a lot better for diorama building. For those of you wondering “Which one is Aaron and which one is Gurran?” Aaron Schmittel wears brown. If you’re completely unfamiliar with these characters, they are two scientists who serve a secret organization in helping create biologically engineered perfect soldiers. They don’t appear to have been involved in the creation of Proto 1 (Fyana) but they played a part in the creation of Ypsilon and use Proto 1 and Chirico to try to awake the perfection with Ypsilon. Spoiler alert: When Ypsilon is killed they realize that Chirico is a perfect soldier and so they follow him to Quent. When they arrive at Wiseman’s space station they realize there is much more going on than developing a perfect soldier and set out to better understand why Wiseman has chosen Chirico. After Chirico receives omniscience for agreeing to be Wiseman’s successor and Wiseman dispatches Aaron and Gurran’s commander Wiseman forces the brothers to become Chirico’s servants. This turns out to be a mistake as Aaron quickly betrays Chirico and tries to incite a mutiny as he deems Chirico unworthy of Wiseman’s power. When questioned he pulls a gun and receives a bullet through the chest for his efforts. Gurran swears loyalty to Chirico and ultimately meets his demise protecting Chirico’s route to Wiseman’s base.