In related news! My S.I.C. Zanki fell over for no reason and the plastic hook in his knee joint snapped! Hooray! It's not like he was my favourite Hibiki figure or anything...*sobs*. And he, along with his box-mate Ibuki, remain the two least stable and worst put-together of my entire collection. Even worse than the Chinese knock-off Gundam model kit I built (badly, as a child).
As much as I adore S.I.C., I am *not* getting another one from before Vol. 40 or so. They just aren't stable. That said, my Ryuga/Alternative duo-pack is perfectly fine. They're hardly poseable, with single-joints that don't fit very well, but at least they don't fall apart literally EVERY TIME I TOUCH THEM. There has never been an instance when I so much as looked at Ibuki or Zanki and one of their bulky metal bits, legs, weapons, or wearable equipment didn't fall off immediately.
Now I think about it...maybe it's just the Hibiki line that took a dive in quality. I haven't opened my Garren/Chalice duo-pack at all, for fear of the same issues as plague my Hibikis. Plus I've heard that the Blade line is really prone to breakage, and I couldn't stand anything happening to my precious Chalice.
I got myself a fresh pack of Act 5 stages for x-mas, so my three Hibiki figures are at least upright and unlikely to spontaneously shatter, for the moment. But Ibuki still has to have sticky tack on his mitts just to hold his trumpet. Sheesh.
