Tag Archives: capcom

Apr 17 2024

Popup Parade (Darkstalkers) Morrigan Aensland and Lilith by Max Factory

It’s taken a lot of willpower to kick collecting scaled anime figures. Not that I was ever huge into them, but I had to scratch that itch every now and then. Eventually I got priced out of it and even Kotobukiya (once the best value in scales) has become too rich for my blood, except for the odd sale here and there. On the flipside, I also gave up prize figures because it’s easy to amass totes full of them and the quality is all over the place. But, I still have to get my fix every now and then and so I’ve settled on Popup Parade as a compromise. Last year, I took a look at their Cowboy Bebop figures as well as their Cammy and Chun-Li from Street Fighter. And now, they just shipped out the Succubi from Darkstalkers, and well you know I had to pick these up!

This pair of succubi come in rather large plastic boxes that can double as display cases once you unwrap the figures inside. With that being said, they are pretty big to accommodate the girls’ wingspans, and I’ve gone on record saying how much I don’t care for the generic style of these. The names of the characters are so understated and there’s very little branding for the license. Sure, there’s merit to be found in the idea that you let the figure do all the talking, but would it kill them to use the Darkstalkers logo and print the names of the characters in a way that it doesn’t look like you’re ashamed of them? Since Morrigan tends to get the most attention in terms of figures and statues, let’s start with Lilith!

Lilith’s origins are a bit too complex for me to get into here, but she’s sometimes referred to as Morrigan’s half-sister, albeit by way of mystical means. She is often represented as a manifestation of Morrigan’s lost innocence, so she’s portrayed more cute than voluptuous, making for a nice contrast when the two characters are displayed together. I’d classify the pose here as museum-style mixed with a little attitude, as Lilith has her hands resting on her hips, which makes me feel like she’s judging me. The coloring on this figure is excellent with the blue leggings having the darker blue bat patterns, the sleeves being slightly more purple, and a gorgeous high gloss crimson finish on her boots and one-piece. There’s some sculpted white fur that leaves her shoulders bare and a white diamond in the center of her chest. The deco is so vibrant and she pops so beautifully on the shelf.

She has two sets of bat-like wings, jutting from her back and head, and these have a leather-like texture on the front and back. The fronts are painted black with the fingers between the membranes painted in red, while the backs are completely red. There are white horns jutting from the tops of each wing and the red paint used on the backs is high gloss, giving them a creepy wet look.

The portrait is right on point with big, adorable eyes and perfectly printed lips and eyebrows. The purple hair is sculpted separately from the head allowing the bangs to hang down over her face and adding a lot of depth. The skin tone leans toward the pale side, but it isn’t waxy as is sometimes the case on these budget figures.

The display base is a standard black disk, which is par for the course with Popup Parade’s figures. What I don’t care for at all is the way the foot pegs are done. As we’ll see with Morrigan, the feet usually peg into the base and sometimes there’s some clear plastic in the gap between the foot and the high heel for stability. Here there are clear plastic platforms that the feet rest on and it doesn’t make any sense. Maybe they were going for a levitating look, but I honestly don’t think that’s the case. Also, one of my figure’s foot pegs will not stay all the way in, so I may end up gluing it.

The way the clear foot pegs are done may seem like a petty gripe, but what irks me so much about it is they went out of their way to design it that way. Still, it’s not enough to completely mar what is an otherwise very nice figure. I dig the pose, the sculpt is great, but it’s the coloring that really makes this figure a win! Plus, she’s currently the only Lilith figure in my collection. Let’s move on to Morrigan…

Unlike Lilith, I have at least a few Morrigan figures, with the most recent being Koto’s own Bishoujo version, so she’s got some competition. Still, I like what they did here. Morrigan strikes a seductive pose with one arm crossed under her copious chest and the other drawn back behind her head. It’s not as playful as Koto’s pose, but I think it works really well for the character. The coloring is appropriate and it looks great, even if it isn’t as vibrant as Lilith’s. You get purple tights with the bat patterns, a glossy black onesie and boots, white, sculpted fur trim around the biceps and a sort of pale orange for her sleeves. And naturally, her chest is practically spilling out of her top!

The four pairs of wings have purple membranes on the inside with black fingers separating them, while the backs are all glossy black and have some excellent leathery texture sculpted in. The purple interior doesn’t really catch the light as much as I would like, but I think some of that has to do with how folded in they are, along with the lighting I used.

I really dig this portrait and a lot of that has to do with the eyes, which remind me of some of the earlier character art. Her blue peepers are perfectly printed, along with the eyebrows and lips. There’s a fleetingly haunting flavor to her expression. It’s seductive and just a bit intimidating, and totally distinctive from any of the other Morrigan figures I have. The turquoise hair whips around behind her head and shoulders, giving the piece some real energy.

And here’s how the foot pegs should have been done for Lilith. They connect to the base perfectly and you don’t have those weird clear platforms under her feet, just between the heel and toe.

At about $34 each, these ladies fall on the lower end of Popup Parade’s spectrum, and it’s hard to argue with that considering how nice these turned out. It would have been cool to get some kind of connecting bases, but that’s not something this line seems to do. And that’s OK, because they still look great when displayed on the shelf together. I’m happy to finally have Lilith in my collection, although I’m still keeping an eye out to see if Koto’s Bishoujo version ever goes on sale. In the meantime, if Max Factory releases more Darkstalkers characters in this line, I’d definitely be down for adding more!

Mar 20 2024

Mega Man by Jada Toys

A short while back, Jada Toys started trying their hand at the 6-inch scale action figure market with a selection of Universal Monsters. These were really quite good, especially for a company’s early effort and I think the only thing that really hurt them was the fact that veteran NECA Toys was doing the same figures at the same time, and infinitely better. But, Jada persevered and wound up giving us what I thought were some of the best figures of 2024 with their Ultra Street Fighter II line. And it looks like they’re continuing to cozy up with Capcom, because now they’re tackling The Blue Bomber himself, Mega Man!

It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of Mega Man as a game franchise. It perfected run-and-gun side-scrolling action and managed to create an intensely difficult challenge, while rarely feeling cheap and unfair. That didn’t stop me from wanting to snap a few controllers in half while playing, but more often than not, when I die playing I’m willing to concede that it’s entirely my fault. The first assortment of three figures includes Mega Man, and the bosses Ice Man and Fire Man. I decided to give Mega Man his own slot today, but both Ice Man and Fire Man are on their way to me, so I’ll likely check them out together in the near future. The figure comes in some snazzy packaging with a big window to show off the figure and accessories. You get some beautiful character art and Mega Man’s power meter fully powered up, which I thought was a great touch. It’s all collector friendly, so let’s cut some tape and bust him out!

And dang, doesn’t he look great! Mega Man stands shorter than the Street Fighter figures, but I’d still consider him to be about 6-inch scale. There’s actually not a lot to say about Mega Man when it comes to his sculpt. His body is smooth and lacks any sculpted details, letting the wonderful proportions do all the work. And that’s not a complaint, as it’s right in line with the cartoony character design. There’s an excellent use of pale matte blue for the torso, upper legs and biceps and high gloss blue for the lower legs, lower arms, feet and hands. I love his triangular body design that goes from his narrow shoulders down to his giant feet, and he’s got a little swell to his forearms. My figure does have an unfortunate blue mark on his chest, which I’m hoping will come out with a little rubbing.

You get two different heads: One whimsical and grinning, and one with his battle face on. Both of these are quite good with the same two-tone blue deco for the helmet. He’s got his headphone-like ear pieces and the raised mohawk-like crest running up the center of his helmet. All the facial features are sculpted as well as painted in. Punching in close reveals that the sculpt and paint are a bit at odds with each other, but it’s not something I notice with the naked eye.

The articulation here is pretty damn great for a short and stocky character. He’s got rotating hinges in his shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. There’s a ball joint in his chest and another in his neck. The feet have a pretty wide ranging lateral hinge to keep his feet flat in most stances. The hands are on hinged pegs to allow you to swap them out between the set of fists and open hands. I honestly did not expect this little guy to be so much fun to pose and play with, but he sure is!

The Mega Buster can be swapped out for the right forearm by unpegging the arm and pegging the Buster in. And yeah, this will likely be the way he’s displayed on my shelf most of the time. The cannon has the same high gloss finish as the arm piece it replaces and you get a sculpted power meter painted yellow as well as some red paint inside the barrel.

The final accessory in the box is the Mega Buster Blast effect part and a stand to display it on. The effect part uses the same style stand as we saw with the Street Fighter figures, with a clear post divided up with two hinges. One end plugs into the base and the other into the blast piece. It’s kind of elaborate for what it does, but it works fine.

The last Mega Man figure I owned was probably the one Jazzwares put out around 2004. I remember finding him at a KayBee Toys Outlet and taking him home. It was a lot bigger and it was a decent enough figure for its time, but Jada’s release really approaches a level of perfection. I think he’s the perfect size as he’s chunky enough to have all the articulation he needs and be fun to play with, but small enough to scale well for posing with the Ultra Street Fighter line. Or you can even bring him in to beat the hell out of some Marvel Legends, Marvel Vs. Capcom style. Either way, Jada really seems to be killing it with their current crop of figures and I’m excited to see if their partnership with Capcom branches out even further. In the meantime, I’ll likely be on board this Mega Man train for as far as it goes!

Jan 3 2024

Darkstalkers: Morrigan Aensland Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

Before any of you Koto fans get your hopes up, I’m not really starting to collect Bishoujos again. No, seriously. I’m not! It just so happened that a few of these went up for deep discount during the Holiday Sales and I got weak. That’s why I picked up Mai from King of Fighters and that’s why we’re here today with a certain busty succubus from another fighting game franchise. Truth be told, there isn’t enough Darkstalkers merch out there and I’m pretty much compelled to buy anything Morrigan related that isn’t in the $1000+ range. Now if that happens to go 50% off, I’d be in real trouble. It’s actually been almost ten years since Morrigan last graced FFZ, and it’s long past time I remedy that!

Koto always does a nice job with these boxes, serving up some wonderful character art and providing ample windows on the front, top, and side panel to let the light in and see what you’re getting. They’ve also started making the boxes a bit more durable, which is nice as I do tend to keep these. The statue comes wrapped in a lot of plastic, but if you unwrap it and put her back in the box, she displays really well in it. Morrigan is all assembled and ready to go, but she does have some rather fragile points and a modicum of care should be spent unwrapping these, as I could easily see them snapping.

And oh boy does she look enticing! Clad in her classic trademark outfit, Morrigan dons a matte black one-piece with ruffled white top and her ample bosom nearly spilling out. Hey, you can’t be a modest succubus, it just doesn’t work! Below that, she has mauve tights (and I do mean tight!) with printed bats, and black high-heeled boots, Her arms are adorned with long orange sleeves that end in loop between her fingers. Meanwhile her batwings jut from her back, flanking her on either side. All of the costume is executed beautifully, but I really have to give extra props to the texture work on the outside of the wings. It’s not something I expected to see, as a smooth surface would have been more evocative of the animated aesthetic, but I really dig it and I’m glad that Koto decided to go that route.

The pose is quite iconic and designed to showcase all of Morrigan’s best assets. She is in mid stride with her right foot out in front of her left, while bent forward to simultaneously show off a little succubus T&A. And not to get too inappropriate about it, but man the way the one piece practically disappears between those cheeks is some A-Level sculpting! I will confess, I would have liked to see her posed in one of her victory stances, like levitating with her legs crossed, but this works fine. And as always, the coloring on these statues is just lovely. The range of black and purple and blue-green makes this statue pop, and her skin tone is warm and even with some shading to catch the eye.

The head sculpt is playful and a lot more in character than the last Morrigan statue I reviewed. Here she looks like she’s jumped right out of the game. The sculpting on her mouth is absolutely fantastic with a hint of teeth showing up top and her tiny pointed tongue slipping out. The hair sculpt is also outrageously good as the strands of super vibrantly colored blue-green hair whip all around her head. The eye printing is colorful and precise, and her head wings are as adorable as ever with some gorgeous deep purple paint on the membrane. This portrait is a perfect victory!

You never know what kind of base you’re going to get with these figures. Sometimes just plain disks and sometimes a more environmental affair, like this one here. It’s a stony floor with some excellent paintwork creating a vibrant glow where Morrigan’s feet touch the ground and reverting to a grayish-blue stone color around the edges. I do dig it a lot!

Go back through my old Koto Bishoujo reviews and you can see that I almost always ended them by calling these the best value in statue collecting. Well, those days are done and these now sell for about twice what they did back then. Case in point, Morrigan here retailed at $129 and while the quality is definitely there, it’s just beyond reach of what I’m comfortable paying for these. I picked up Morrigan on sale for $79, which was right about the price of these figures when I decided to start tapering off. I’m happy to have her in my collection and she will get a prime display spot in my Game Room. And I’ll keep an eye out for Lilith to see if she happens to dip in price at some point too, otherwise I’ll be content to own the Pop-Up Parade figures of this pair when they eventually ship next year.

Jun 23 2023

Ultra Street Fighter II: Ryu by Jada Toys

I would never consider myself an expert at Capcom’s Street Fighter series, it’s still been an enduring thread running through most of my video game playing years. I dabbled in it back in its early days, I tried to get good when it came home to the Genesis and SNES, but it probably wasn’t until Street Fighter III on the Dreamcast that I really started to dig in. Of course, there have been many lines of mech for Street Fighter over the years, but I think SOTA Toys line of figures tends to be looked back on the fondest. Storm Collectibles has a line going, but at around $100 each, I had to shy away from those, in favor of their Golden Axe figures. But now, Jada Toys is producing figures at a much more appealing price point and the first one of these has landed. Let’s have a look at Ryu!

My first indication that Jada knew what they were doing is seen in the package design, which is so fun and stylish! You get a little arcade cab-style box with the dual joystick set ups and the health bars on the top for two players. Ryu can be seen in the “screen” which is a clear window set against a pixelated background from the game. The box is collector friendly and gives you a great look at the figure and all his accessories. I’ll definitely be displaying these in the packages!

Out of the box, Ryu feels rather unique in hand. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time with either Hasbro or McFarlane these days, but I really enjoyed exploring what this figure had to offer when I first started messing about with him. Ryu’s classic character design comes through in the sculpt, and there are some nice flourishes like the cloth material texturing that runs through every bit of his costume. I expected the belt and below the costume to be all one piece, but as it happens the entire top is worn by the figure and actually belted, so that’s pretty cool. The costume is sculpted as part of the legs, but the way the ragged cuffs hang down over the ankles makes it look like the figure is searing pants as well, and that makes for a great effect. You also get some texturing on the belt and some Japanese symbols in gold. This figure takes every opportunity to flourish with what is a pretty simple costume design.

The sculpted musculature under the costume is well defined. You get some visible veins in the arms, and the hands and feet both have some pretty sharp sculpts in the fingers and toes. Even the red gloves have some excellent texturing and the red adds a nice pop to the figure’s colors, even though they probably shouldn’t be red. The bare skin is all achieved through colored plastic, and there’s a bit of a plastic sheen to him, but I don’t find it all that distracting.

Ryu comes with two heads: A rather determined looking pre-fight expression and a holy-shit-imma-gonna-kick-yo-ass expression, and I think both of these look great. The faces on both are painted so they have a bit more of a matte finish to them than the rest of the body, but again I don’t find it all that obvious or distracting. The painted skin and the printed eyes all look fine with the figure in hand, but as you punch in closer it tends to look like pancake makeup. The sculpted hair hangs down over the red bandanna to add some depth to the portrait, and I also love how his eyebrows overlap the bandanna as well. The bandanna ties hang down on the first head and blow off to the side on the second.

Obviously, articulation is going to be important on a Street Fighter figure, and I’m happy to say that Jada really brought a lot of it to the table here. I don’t have any first hand experience with SOTA’s offerings, so I can’t make comparisons. Storm’s will certainly offer more, but that’s to be expected with bigger figures at a much higher budget. The arms have both rotating hinges in the shoulders as well as butterfly joints. The elbows are double-hinged, there are bicep swivels, and you get hinged pegs for the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint at the waist and another under the chest, and the the neck has a ball joint at the base and again up in the head. Many of the joints have a ratcheting effect, which makes them pretty strong and an absolute pleasure to work with!

I’ve got to say that the balance on this figure is absolutely amazing. He can balance on one leg pretty easily without assistance.

You get two pairs of hands with Ryu: One set of fists, and one pair for palm strikes or performing a Hadouken. You also get the Hadouken effect part and a stand for it. The effect part is absolutely gorgeous with a iridescent swirl of blue energy inside it and you can even see Ryu’s hands in it as he projects it. The stand plugs into the bottom and it’s hinged in two places.

At $25, Ryu feels like a pretty solid value when compared to what other companies are offering, and this figure just does so much stuff right. The articulation is well thought out and well implemented. The use of colored plastic over paint makes him look clean and vibrant, and everything here just screams quality and polish. I was originally going to just cherry pick this line, but with Ryu now in hand, I think I’m going all in!

May 8 2023

Popup Parade (Street Fighter) Chun-Li and Cammy by Max Factory

It’s been a while since I hung up my hat on collecting prize figures. I don’t really watch a lot of anime anymore and I had to start trimming out some areas to keep my collection from getting even more out of hand. With that having been said, the not-so-local comic shop did a “buy one and get one at half-off” deal on their Pop-Up Parade figures, and much to my surprise it included some new releases, so I fell off the wagon. Today I’m going to check out a couple of ladies from Street Fighter, Chun-Li and Cammy.

I think Popup Parade is meant to bridge the gap between prize figures and scaled figures, at least in terms of quality. But despite the high pedigree of Max Factory, to me these will always just be middle of the road prize figures. I owned Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo versions of both Cammy and Chun-Li, but the last time I moved, I was keen on culling a lot of my collection and I wound up selling off my entire Koto Street Fighter Collection. I can’t say as I regret it, as I got decent money for them, but when I saw these I decided I wanted some of these gals on a shelf in my Game Cave again, so here we are! The figures are roughly 7-inch scale and come in plastic packaging that really lets the figures do all the talking. There’s absolutely no character art anywhere to be found and even the character names are pretty low key. The figures display really well in their packages, although Cammy comes with her braids detached. Let’s start with her!

Sure, I love playing Cammy in the Street Fighter series, but she’s also star of one of my all-time favorite Dreamcast games, Cannon Spike, so not having her represented in my collection was criminal. The pose they chose for her here is pretty subdued, but I think it captures some of her best um, assets. The statue is best displayed with her body facing about two o’clock, her head partially turned and gazing over her right shoulder, and those ass cheeks on full display. It’s good to see her in her OG Street Fighter II costume, sans camo on the legs and with the additional tactical web gear and a leg pouch.

The colors on this piece look great, with bright matte green for her one-piece, glossy red for her gauntlets and matte black for her kicks and gear. You can even see a bit of her red socks peeping out the tops of her boots and a touch of silver paint on the buckle for her cross-strap. The skin tone is where a lot of these prize figures tend to falter, with it being waxy, but it’s nice and smooth here and not bad at all. The base is a simple black disk, which the foot pegs insert into.

The portrait is excellent, looking like it’s been grabbed straight from a character select screen. The eyes are printed perfectly and the I particularly love the way they blended the hair sculpt with the rest of the head. She has a scar on her left cheek and her long braids snake down past each of her shoulders. Her beret is a separate sculpt and worn on top of the head.

I love pretty much everything here. The sculpt is solid and the colors are beautiful. The paint lines could have been a little sharper, especially around the edges of the fingerless gloves, but overall I’m pretty happy with the way this one came out. Let’s move on to Chun-Li!

Chun-Li has a much more kinetic pose with her left leg drawn up and her hands at the ready, she’s definitely preparing to go a round or two. This figure sports a far more complex sculpt than Cammy, but that’s down to the costume design. There’s just a lot more going on here, which gave the sculptors a lot more to work with, and I think they did a beautiful job! I particularly love the way the tail end of her qipao kicks up in the wind. Some of the fringe on her dress is sculpted and while the sculpt on her boots is a little soft, it’s still got a lot of detail. You also get some nice muscle work, particularly in her famous thighs. I also really dig the sculpt on her poufed out shoulders.

Once again, the coloring here his superb. The electric blue of her qipao contrasts nicely with the gold leaf paint on the trim. There’s some shading in her stockings and some sharp silver paint on her spiked wrist cuffs. As for the quality, most of the paint here is sharp and clean, so I’ve got no complaints.

As with Cammy, the portrait here is very well done, and quite complex when you include the hair and the hair ties. The eyes are printed perfectly and she has an ever so slight smirk to her simple line of a mouth. She even has a pair of pearl earrings.

Chun-Li is easily the more interesting figure to look at, just because there’s more to take in, and as such it feels like maybe you’re getting a little more bang for your buck here. A such, I think she edges out Cammy as my favorite of the two, which surprised even me, because I tend to like Cammy more overall.

The figures retail at about $35, which puts them at the upper range of most prize figures. The quality is certainly there, so long as you aren’t expecting anything approaching a proper scaled figure. However, I think there are definitely better values out there when it comes to these types of figures, and I’d argue that companies like Banpresto are delivering a bit more for the money. I’m reminded of some of their recent One Piece figures that are slightly bigger have possibly more complex sculpts, and retail for about $10 less. Still, if you want a nice version of Cammy or Chun-Li for your shelf, these will certainly fit the bill nicely.

Jul 3 2020

Aliens Vs Predator Arcade: Chrysalis Alien by NECA

With only time for three reviews a week, my backlog continues to pile up and stretch way back into last year. One of the areas of my collection reviews that has suffered most is NECA, and I really feel like I need to throw them some extra love in the coming weeks. Way back in January I had a look at their Arachnoid Alien and Razor Claws Alien from Capcom’s 1994 Alien Vs. Predator arcade game. But there was one alien missing! At the time I couldn’t find the Chrysalis Alien anywhere, but just when I had given up all hope I spied him out of the corner of my eye while I was making a cat food run to Target. So let’s finish off this Xeno Trio and open him up today!

The packaging is right in line with what we saw last time. You get a collector friendly window box with a personalized portrait on the front. The interior tray is printed as a pixelated image to reference the video game… how cool is that? Yup, I love the colors and presentation here, but I simply do not have the space to line these boxes up on a shelf, so this box is going to have to go bye-bye once I get Mr. Chrysalis out of his tray.

If you read my previous review then you know I really liked Razor Claws and Arachnid, and yet it’s still easy for me to see why Chrysalis was the hardest to find. He really is that good! Even on a shelf of Xenos, his design stands out thanks to the armor-like carapace on his head and forearms. His body is a grayish-blue color with a nice black wash to bring out all that amazing detail in his exoskeleton. And despite the unique features, the rib-cage and the exposed ribbed panels on his legs and torso all perfectly evoke the Giger design that runs through every type of Xeno. This guy is also distinctive for not having some variation of those tubular protrusions coming off his back, instead it’s shrouded in two plates of reinforced exoskeleton. I find myself getting lost in this fella’s anatomy, turning the figure over in my hands, and marveling at the beautiful sculpting.

Chrysalis’ meat-hooks may not be as pronounced as Razor Claw’s, but he still features some sharp bone-colored claws, as well as raptor-like talons on his toes, and a scythe-shaped blade at the end of his long tail. Those bone-like guards on his forearms look to be perfect for deflecting Yautjan blades and his claws seem adept at ripping Predators and humans to shreds. His articulation includes the usual collection of rotating hinges, which make him an agile hunter, even if he can’t exactly roll up into a ball for the goofy spin-attack he employs in the game. His long tail includes a wire so it can be bent in various configurations, and while the tail can come in handy to support him in some extreme poses, he’s surprisingly well balanced on his own two feet. I didn’t have to use a stand for any of my shots.

The head sculpt is quite familiar, even if it is partially hidden under that impressive bone dome. The carapace features a raised crest running down the center like a spine and a mass on the front, which is probably perfect for ramming his pray. As always, he sports a toothy grimace, the jaw is articulated, and there is a secondary mouth in there that can be pulled out. I love all the sinews and details NECA sculpts into the Xeno mouths, and this fella is no different.

The Chrysalis Alien makes a fine addition to this amazing threesome of Aliens. It’s fun to just line them up on the shelf and explore all the little differences between them and see just how diverse Xenomorph anatomy can get. I’ve always been a fan of NECA’s video game figures, but since a number of them tend to be simple repaints, I have to pass them over because I can’t spare the space for repaints.  But here, it’s cool to see them craft three new Xenos around their appearances in this token-munching coin-op, and even cooler that they matched them up with three Predators from the game as well. And yes, I hope to be swinging back around to check out those Preds in the next week or so. Not to mention the human characters from the game as well.

Jan 15 2020

Aliens Vs Predator Arcade: Arachnoid Alien and Razor Claws Alien by NECA

My Toy Closet has become something like an archaeological dig these days. So much so that I’ve really pulled way back on what I’m buying and trying to take the time to unearth the unopened treasures that lie under the levels of cardboard strata. This past weekend I unearthed a particularly interesting box of NECA goodies, a lot of which center around Capcom’s 1994 beat-em-up classic, Aliens Vs. Predator. In an effort to clear out this box, I’m going to try to check some of this stuff out each week until I get to the end. There are eight figures in the series total and today I’m starting with two of the three Aliens released from the game.

And here’s Arachnoid and Razor Claws in their boxes. You’ll notice that Chrysalis Alien is unaccounted for and that’s because I haven’t been able to find him at Target, or online for a decent price. I may wind up over-paying for him at some point, but for now let’s just have a look at this gruesome duo. They come in collector-friendly window boxes, which I dig a lot more than the sealed clamshells. I’m going to start with Arachnid!

So, this guy reminds me a lot of the Xeno Warrior from Aliens, but with enough key differences to set him apart. I believe it’s a new sculpt, but I don’t own all the NECA Xenos, so I won’t stake my (admittedly next to worthless) reputation on that. As with all of NECA’s Aliens, there is some absolutely amazing detail work in this sculpt, which really brings out the Giger flavor in the design. Why he’s called an Arachnoid, I don’t know because there really aren’t any arachnid influences that I can see. He does have fairly typical arms and legs, the usual exposed rib-cage, and a pretty basic segmented tail. This fellow only has four of the stalks protruding from his back and he has bone-like loops hanging off his forearms. The coloring features a very pale blue with a black wash to pick out all that lovely detail.

The head sculpt features the usual elongated head. The cranium is overall pretty smooth, but it does feature a spiked ridge running down the center. The front half is blue, while the back half is decidedly cockroach colored. The mandibles are the usual mess of sinew webbing and the jaw opens to reveal the secondary mouth, which can extend out past the jaws.

I dig this guy a lot, but if you’re looking for something vastly different than the regular Xeno’s I don’t know if this one will scratch your itch. He’s definitely got a lot of unique stuff going on, but I really had to compare him to my Alien and Aliens Xenos to pick out all the differences. Still, I’m sure the die-hard fans out there will spot the differences a lot easier than me. The coloring adds to his distinctive look, and helps makes him stand out as a video game character. With all that having been said, he takes second place in this pair to my favorite…

 

 

Razor Claws is just so damn awesome on every level.  He features a completely different body sculpt, with a lot more sharp detail, particularly in the legs. The structure of the torso still shows off the rib-cage, but with an entirely unique structure. Of course, the biggest differences here are found int he giant razor clawed hands and the tail, which possesses a cycle-like blade at the end. This fellow still only has four tubes coming off his back, but these are longer and taper to points at the ends. He’s also missing those extra toes that the Arachnoid has, and he has pretty powerful looking talons jutting out from the front of his feet. The coloring here is also gorgeous. He has a reddish and almost pink finish and just like his comrade, the black wash brings out all the exquisite detail in the sculpt.

The head is also completely different, with a totally smooth cranium, tusk like horns protruding from his chin, and the same articulated jaw with the secondary mouth that extends outward. The cranial plate is somewhat translucent so you can just make out some of the detail that’s going on underneath it. Overall, it’s a simpler styled head than the Arachnoid, but my personal taste makes it my favorite of the two.

And I can say that pretty much about the entire figure. Not only does this Xeno look a lot more distinctive than his Arachnoid brother, but he also looks like an absolute killing machine. Between those shredding claws and that extra blade on his tail, this fellow looks like he’s just designed to leap on Colonial Marines and eviscerate them in a matter of seconds. Plus, there’s just something about the coloring that really does it for me.

I’m always looking to add some new Xenomorphs to my collection, so even if I wasn’t a fan of the quarter-munching arcade game, I would have still been all over these. But the fact that they are realistic interpretations of the 16-bit pixelated game characters makes them all the more sweeter. And even if you aren’t looking to collect all the Arcade figures, I think these fellas would be right at home in any NECA Aliens collection. They look fantastic together, and I just know I’m going to wind up dropping a lot of money to pick up the last one and complete the set. Next week, I hope to be back to check out the Predators in this line!

Sep 12 2018

Street Fighter: Ibuki Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

It’s been over a year since I last opened and reviewed one of Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo statues, and it’s been twice as long since my last Street Fighter Bishoujo. I haven’t given up on these wonderful works of art, but with the prices climbing higher and higher and my display space running out, I’ve had to be a little more picky about the ones I pick up. Nonetheless, Ibuki here has been on my want list ever since she was first revealed and I’m lucky that even after waiting all this time, I was still able to get her at a good price. The economy of Kotobukiya on the second-hand market isn’t always so kind.

Koto has been using black boxes for the Street Fighter releases, which really sets them apart from the white packaging of the DC and Marvel lines. There’s some wonderful artwork from Shunya Yamashita, on which the statue is based, and you get windows on the front, top, and side panels to let in the light and allow you a good look at the figure inside. Everything is collector friendly, and the only assembly required is plugging Ibuki’s pony-tail into the back of her head. Ibuki made her debut in Street Fighter III and I first encountered her in Street Fighter III: Double Impact on my beloved SEGA Dreamcast, where she became a favorite new fighter of mine.

And here’s Ibuki on the scene and looking mighty fine. She stands gracefully on the toes of her left foot with her right leg drawn up behind her. She counterbalances with her left arm oustretched and fingers held up, while her right hand is drawn to her neck, with a kunai, ready to strike. This line has offered some superb poses and Ibuki is yet another example of that. It’s a beautiful mix of elegance and kineticism and I think it captures the character perfectly, while also allowing for a few different “sweet spots” from which to admire her.

Koto’s Bishoujo statues often tend to feature colorful, glossy, and eye popping decos, and Ibuki here features none of that. Instead, you get various shades of brown, a little white, and a fair bit of skintone. It’s not a criticism, but just a fact of the character’s appearance, which is very faithful to her debut appearance. Ibuki is clad in a brown dogi, which consists of a sleeveless top and frayed shoulders, baggy pants with cut-outs at the hips, and which end just below her knees, all tied with a bow at the front of her waist. The outfit is rounded out by a pair of wrist bracers, a tight head scarf, and bandage-style wrappings on her arms and feet. It looks great, and I love the complexity in the outfit’s sculpt. From certain angles it almost looks like the dogi could have been sculpted over the figure itself, and that’s pretty cool.

The portrait is excellent. Ibuki offers a confident and playful smile with perfectly printed eyes and painted lips. The real showpiece of this portrait, however, is her distinctive hair. She has three long strands protruding from her window’s peak and hooking forward in front of her face, while two longer strands protrude from her knot-top and arch their way down and across her back. This is my first 3D representation of the character and I wasn’t sure how well this coif would translate, but the wizards at Koto did a fine job with it.

The base is a simple clear disc with a slope to support Ibuki’s foot. As usual, you get two different inserts to display on the base, one is a simple Street Fighter logo and the other features character art. These days I tend to display these statues with the character art, but I think either one looks great.

Ibuki here released at just under $60 and I was able to get her for a little bit less. I was often fond of saying that Koto’s Bishoujo line is one of the best values in collectible statues on the market. And that was back when you could get a figure like Ibuki for that price. Nowadays, they tend to release in the $70-90 price range, and while I still think they’re worth the price, the sense of good value is rapidly dissipating. I get it, prices go up, but that’s quite a jump, and with so many things competing for my collecting dollar these days, it means that I won’t be able to pick up as many as I used to. Recently I had to pass on the second versions of Chun-Li and Cammy, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still be turning up here from time to time. Indeed, all Koto has to do is put Elena up on pre-order and I’ll throw down some cash for that release right away!

May 11 2015

DarkStalkers: Morrigan Aensland Statue by Capcom

[My apologies about last week’s kerfuffle, but with all I had going on at work and at home, I was not in a good place to be creating content and in retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t try. Things should be back to normal now… Enjoy! -FF] 

One of my big pet peeves is that there isn’t enough DarkStalkers merch out there. Seriously, this is the kind of thing that sometimes keeps me up at night. It may not be one of Capcom’s hottest properties these days, but I love the character designs and some of their wacky and creative attacks. And let’s face it Morrigan and Lilith should be ripe pickings for any one of a dozen manufacturers of big-busted, anime-themed hawt chick statues. I’m still hoping that Kotobuikya’s relationship with Capcom might net us some proper Darkstalkers Bishoujo pieces one of these days. Nonetheless, I stumbled across today’s statue on the InterWebs without even knowing it existed and the price was certainly right so I gave it a chance.

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The box is quite large as this is a rather large statue, landing somewhere between 1:7 and 1:6 scale. It’s just a bit too big to really fit in with Koto’s Bishoujo’s and definitely projects its own presence on the shelf. The box art features some great illustrations and pictures of the statue itself. There’s a window on the front, but the statue is wrapped in so much plastic that you really can’t get a great look at the goods inside. Below the window is the priceless tagline that identifies Morrigan as “The Labido Roming The Shadows!” Gotta love it! I’m going to assume that this piece is actually produced by Capcom, although I find that rather surprising, especially since the bulk of the Figure Builder Creators pieces seem to focus on Monster Hunter rather then anime girls. Anyway, I’m pretty curious to see what’s inside the box, so it’s time to free this Succubus!

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Before I get into how great this piece looks, let’s talk about the perfect storm of frustration that was the assembly process. The statue comes in four pieces: The figure itself, two wings, and the base. The wings are tabbed with individual shapes so the right will only go into the right slot and vice versa, which is all well and good, but the tabs are such a tight fit, I couldn’t get either wing in more than a tiny bit before running up against resitance. Add to that two more factors: One, the wings are super thin and feel super fragile. Two, both tab slots are just below Morrigan’s windblown hair. It’s difficult to get a hold of either of the wings’ base to safely apply pressure and even when I had a good entry point all the force I could muster was not getting those wings all the way in. I eventually resorted to boiling the tabs and that got them most of the way in. Now normally a little gap from the pieces not seating right wouldn’t bother me, especially in this case since those parts are only visible from the back and mostly obscured by her hair, but the stand is designed to cradle Morrigan’s butt (giggity!) along with two slots for the wings at a very specific angle. If the wings aren’t seated perfectly, it’s tricky to get her cheeks to stay in that cradle. The result is that the figure will tilt backwards at an angle, and since this statue already has Morrigan arching backwards and looking upward, it’s really noticeable. With a lot of work, I was able to strike a happy medium and get her cradled OK, but I really wish this whole process went easier. If you thought reading about all that was a lot of bother, just be thankful you didn’t have to endure it.

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With all that worry out of the way we can finally step back an admire what a beautiful statue this is. The sculpt manages to capture all the ridiculous curves of Morrigan’s sumptuous succubus body from her rounded hips to her dramatically over-sized breasts. Such things are certainly not unusual in the world of anime-inspired statues, but this one makes any one of my Bishoujos look tame by comparison. The pose also goes a long way to accentuate what is already a pretty obviously killer body. Morrigan is in mid flight, arching her back, and pushing her chest up with her head raised upward and tilted to the side. While the pose works really well to compliment the sculpt, I’m not sure exactly what they were going for. I suppose it’s supposed to be seductive, but it almost looks like she’s swooning or even going for a little damsel in distress expression. It also kind of looks like she’s stretching, so maybe she just woke up from a long day’s nap and is ready for a night on the town. Nonetheless, as confusing as the pose may be, I still dig it a lot.

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Morrigan’s outfit is achieved through both sculpting and paintwork. Starting at the bottom, she has a pair of high heeled boots, which are painted in high-gloss black. Her trademark stockings are painted on with the purple bat emblems scattered about her legs. The base color of the stockings can look more orange under some lights, but in person it’s more of a pinkish-purple. I think it would have looked better with a more definitive shade of purple, but as it is it certainly makes things more colorful. Her one piece is sculpted with a heart shaped cut out in the middle to show her mid-riff and the top is sculpted so that it can barely contain her boobs, and it’s all painted with the same high-gloss black as her boots. The outfit is rounded out with some feathered fringe around her shoulders and sleeves painted to match her stockings. The glossy black does a nice job of contrasting with the soft skin tones of her body and all in all I’m satisfied with the paintwork here.

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Of course, you also have her two sets of wings, two large coming out of her back and two smaller ones protruding from her head. As troublesome as it was to get the wings in, they look absolutely fantastic, even with the notable gap between wings and body. The purplish-pink paint used for the membrane carries a pleasing animated effect and the black paint used for the rest is neatly applied. Still, the wings are pretty thin in some areas and thus probably quite fragile.

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Last up, we have the portrait, which is certainly attractive, but also has a somewhat unsettling otherworldly vibe going on. I’m not sure if it was intentional or just the way the statue came out, but it certainly is interesting. I attribute a lot of it to the paintwork in the eyes, which are somewhat haunting. Her mouth is especially nicely done with her lips slightly parted and showing just a glimmer of teeth. The hair sculpt is a tad chunky in the bangs, but I think they did an overall good job of creating a crazy windblown look to it and the way it tapers from powder blue to purple at the ends looks good.

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And then there’s the base, which remains my big bone of contention with this statue. Beside the fact that it isn’t engineered all that well (as outlined in my assembly rant) the somewhat primitive style is a bit at odds with the beauty of the figure. The bats are clearly just intended to be thick 2D representations and the moon is heavily textured with a less than stellar looking paint spray. The idea of the imagery is OK, but I just don’t care for how its executed all that much because the decor on iit looks almost intentionally fake like cut-outs.. Is it a dealbreaker? Nope, not at all, but in this case I think something simpler might have worked better. I will concede, however, that while the way the statue balances on the stand isn’t all that well executed, it is nice to be able to take her off and have a figure that is in no way marred by a post or socket. That leads me to wonder whether this piece might look better on a traditional Sixth-Scale figure stand. I may have to try that at some point.

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Morrigan set me back $70, which is a bit much for what was essentially an impulse buy of a piece I had never seen reviewed or in person.On the other hand, for a statue of this size it feels like something of a bargain. If it were any other property, I probably wouldn’t have gone for it, but, such is the result when DarkStalkers statues or figures are such a rare breed. She may not match the quality or craftsmanship of a Kotobukiya or a MegaHouse piece, but I do think she was well worth the money. She’s big, colorful, and ultimately impressive, and as a fan of the property (and boobs) she was impossible for me to turn down, and in the end I’m mighty glad I splurged on her. I said SPLURGED on her. Get your minds out of the damn gutters, people!