MOOOOORTAAAAAL KOOOOOOMBAT!!!!!!

Yeah, I couldn’t resist. Mortal Kombat and I have deep roots. I can remember being wowed by it a couple times in the arcades, but I really bonded with the game at home on my Sega Genesis. Oddly enough, I never owned it, but damn I must have rented that game from the local video store enough times to pay for it five times over. After that, the game wouldn’t turn up in my library until Mortal Kombat Trilogy for the PlayStation and then the game and I parted ways for a while. Now, Mortal Kombat X has hit the consoles and while I’m still debating whether I’ll pick it up (because I need another fighting game like I need Jax putting his metal fist up my ass), but when I saw Mezco’s figures, I had to jump on board.

The first wave of figures consists of Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero and I’m looking at the first two of those today, as I’m still hunting Raiden. Oddly enough this is the exact same character selection that Jazwares used for their line back in 2011. And just taking note of that reminds me of how happy I am to see this franchise in more capable hands. Granted, I don’t own a lot of Mezco’s figures, just their fantastic Mega-Scale ThunderCats, but if they keep this one going, that’s about to change. One look at these figures and I knew that we were in for something special. The packaging is stylish, with the MK symbol embossed into the bubble, but not much in the way of artwork. The back shows the figure, offers a little character blurb, and shows you the accessories that are included.

While starting life as mere palate swaps of each other, it’s nice to see that these foes have evolved into their own distinctive looks. I don’t think there’s a single shared piece between these figures and the detail in the sculpts is absolutely fantastic. Every single strap and buckle is meticulously recreated in Scorpion’s costume and on Sub-Zero you get beautiful little touches like the throwing knives sculpted into his wrist bracers and hanging off his chest. You can easily make out the fine threaded texture on Scorpions vest as well as the quilted stitching on Sub-Zero’s. What’s more the paintwork is precise. Even the coloring is great. That blue on Sub-Zero is so vibrant and I really like the mustard tone they used for Scorpion as well. Individually, these look great, put them together and you’ve got action figure magic!

The articulation on this pair is identical. Their arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and have rotating hinges in the knees and ankles. You get swivels up at the tops of the thighs and the ankles have lateral rockers. There are also ball joints in the waist and neck. The joints are rock solid, with none of that shitty, brittle, clear plastic crap that DC Collectibles and Funko has been so fond of. Nope, these are really fun figures to play with and absolutely no worries of stuck or snapping joints. Imagine that!

As for accessories, both figures have a second pair of swappable hands, but aside from those Scorpion comes out on top with two swords and two chained spears, which cleverly attach by slipping rings over the wrist pegs when swapping the hands. These pieces look great for recreating that perfect “GET OVER HERE” pose. Scorpion also features a removable mask. I think the only missed opportunity here was a way to attach the swords to his back.

Sub-Zero comes with his Frost Hammer and Frost Sword. Both are very nice pieces, sculpted in a frosty blue plastic and look like they were chiseled out of ice.. I’ve got no beef with what’s included, but it feels like maybe we should have gotten a couple of other effect parts with him to better balance out the extra stuff that Scorpion came with.

It looks like the going rate on these is around $20 a pop, at least that’s what I paid for them. That’s right about where figures in the 6-inch scale collector market is hovering these days. These are certainly in league with the better sculpts that DC Collectibles is turning out, and again without any of the fragile joint anxiety. I’d also argue that they’re a confident step up from anything Hasbro is doing in the scale these days as well. I’ve given up trying to stumble on Raiden in the wild, so I’ll likely be ordering him off the InnerWebs, so expect to see him here soon.

ADDENDUM:

Yup, you can indeed put his swords on his back. Check it out…

I love this. It’s very clever. But, come on, Mezco, you could have mentioned it on the package because I would have never figured this out.