Merchandise of local IP tend to be cheap throwaways, but the folks at Monsta wants to change that.

The folks at Monsta not only understood that an animated series needs merchandise, but they also understood that the merchandice has to be made to a standard where even non-fans could appreciate it.

When I recently visited Monsta in Cyberjaya, Nizam Abd Razak (its CEO), showed me the FGURA of Mechamato. The 6-inch action figure was impressive. It was well designed, well made, and on a toy store shelf, could stand toe to toe with the biggest players in the industry.

Nizam explained that Malaysia could design and make quality action figures all along, it’s just that we’ve been using the skills and capability to make them for others and not ourselves. The fact, blow my mind.

The Mechamato FGura is solid, weighty, and feels high quality. The detail, design, and paint job on the action figure are better than some of the action figures with bigger price tags at toy stores. The paint application is above average, especially where it counts the most, the face. But there is some overpainting near the silver parts.

When it comes to design the proportion of the figure works, despite Amato’s large head. It also has a lot of moulded detail that is just begging for panel lining.

Showing their attention to detail, the folks at Monsta designed the action figure to have multiple hard points — holes where accessories can be attached. Only one accessory is included with the toy, but this design promises that there will be more in the future.

For possibility, the Mechamato FGura only has five points of articulation. It’s not much, but a standard for larger figures like this. It uses what feels like well-made ball joints (which are strangely all skin coloured), so the toy is very playable but not posable. Still, it looks handsome on a shelf in a static pose.

At RM49.90, the Mechamato FGura is an easy buy to play, collect, display or just to support the Malaysian animation industry. It’s way cheaper than most figures by big international companies and is just as good or even better in some cases.

I’d get this action figure just to have one, to be able to say I got in at the ground level, and as an example of a Malaysian action figure we could be proud of. I might even get the Boboboi version of the FGura just because they are that good.

You can get your own Mechamato FGURA from the Monsta Official Online Store.