DUST (ARMOURY) REVIEW - 12/03/03
Armoury is not the most well known 1/6 figure manufacturer, but if they keep up what they're doing now, they may very well join the ranks of BBI and Dragon.  My very first Armoury figure was the French Legion figure.  Man that figure was horrid.  The body joints came loose after about a week and you have a figure that can't stand on his own and legs and arms just wobble about.  The gear was do-able and are good for custom fodder, but not much else.  That was almost a year ago.

It looks like Armoury has significantly improved the quality of their figures with their latest 1/6 female heroine - Koshka Rudinova, a T-A Unit Captain from Paolo Parente's DUST comic.  Here are the front and back artwork of the box.

Though a little anime-ish, the headsculpt looked great and compliments the figure nicely.  The first thing that comes to my mind when I first saw this figure at the 2003 San Diego Comic Con was "whoa, those lips."  I still get that same feeling when I unbox the figure.  The complimentary paint job is well above par on any of Armoury's previous figures with very nice reddened cheeks (not those cheeks!) and highlights around the eyes and forehead.  Looks like something a Japanese customizer would typically paint their figures.  The eyes are also a dazzler as you can see below.  I'm not too crazy about her boyish haircut, but hey, it's something different and "different" is good in my book.

My initial plans when I first saw her at the Comicon was to debox her, use the nude and make the rest of her gear more custom fodder.  It doesn't look like that is going to happen.  Surprisingly, her gear is very well made.  The belt is made of tough, rigid plastic.  Side bag is made of cloth as well as her helmet cover.  Not since Dragon's Vassily and BBI's Wang Hai figures have I seen a cloth cap this well done.  It is padded and sewn intricately with great detail.  My only gripes about her gear thus far has got to be the plastic holster.  While it encloses her flare gun and locks nicely, it's still plastic.  Armoury could have done better had they made the holster fabric or leather.  The scarf looks like leftover fabric they used on another figure or something.  It's a small cut out piece of red elastic and just wrapped around her neck.  I almost tore it to shreds trying to untie her darn scarf.

Alright, bad things are over with.  Let's get to the real juicy stuff - the outfit and her gun.  I hate to admit this, but the outfit is so nicely tailored I had a hard time taking it off.  You see those tiny buttons around her neckpiece and chest area - they work.  I've seen some pretty small 1/6 buttons, but I think Armoury has lost their mind by creating the most accurate 1/6 coat button to date.  It was so small I spent a half-hour with a pair of tweezers just getting three off the buttons unhooked to see what type of body she had.  The neckpiece is completely removable and it's even lined with fake fur.  Holy cow!

A die-cast flare gun is a good thing.  It opens up and doesn't break off as easily as some of Armoury's previous weapons.  Her gloved hands are nicely sculpted and are made of soft plastic - like typical BBI hands.  Like their previous JGSDF figure, Armoury sported the same base body to Ms. Rudinova - which means one very important thing . . . the hands are swappable to BBI's CY 1.0, 2.0 and PB bodies!  Yee-haw!  I can already picture her gloved hands and boots on a few of my other CY Girls already.

For about $60, Armoury's Rudinova figure is a good bang for the buck in my opinion.  The headsculpt, swappable CY hands, die-cast gun, and super cool outfit outweighs the crappy holster and scarf.  But then again, for $60, you can get two CY Girls boxed so it's your call.  I love this Rudinova figure and I'm leaving her the way she is.  I plan to have her pilot my new Fireball vinyl recast.  It is very rare that I leave a figure alone with its original gear, untainted and unmodded, so that's a good sign that Armoury has improved quite a bit from their latest figures.  Well, maybe I'll change her crappy scarf out, but that's about it.  Overall, I'd probably give her a ÇÇÇÇ out of 5.  The Ç is for "Customdawg" by the way.  Okay, that was pretty corny.