Tag Archives: namco

Dec 13 2024

Pac-Man: SoftB Sonic Figure by Bellfine

Some quick behind-the-scenes talk before today’s review! As you’ve probably noticed the midweek reviews haven’t been happening. As much as I’m trying, the demands on my time right now are too great to keep them as part of the regular rotation. It was even tough for me to get back to do this review today, and the only reason I could is because it’s a quickie. And as I move forward, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. In addition to fighting for free time, I am also contending with having more and more of my collection getting packed away not not accessible. So, please bear with me and I’ll keep doing my best to continue to get something new here each week, even if it’s just me stopping by to talk about how things are going. At some point in February FFZ will have to go on hiatus, but hopefully it will only be for a few weeks while I get moved and settled.

OK, so a while back I checked out a pretty amazing giant vinyl Sonic The Hedgehog figure by Bellfine and commented how their Pac-Man figure was undoubtedly going to wind up in my collection eventually. Well, it did indeed just a short while later and he’s been chomping at the bit to get his time in the spotlight here. Honestly, the reason it’s taken so long as that there’s only so many ways you can photograph this guy, making for a pretty short review. But, since I’ve been crazy busy this week without a lot of time for taking pictures, he seemed like a quick and easy way to end the week!

Here he is in his massive window box and it is indeed a sight to behold. I’ll definitely be displaying him in the box, as the interior tray creates a really nice environment with the maze pattern and artwork. I’m sure I’ve talked about the early 80’s Pac-Man Phenomenon here before, but it’s worth repeating just how ridiculously invasive Pac-Man merchandising became. Even if you never set foot in an arcade, Pac-Man was everywhere! There were books and stickers and trading cards, novelty candy, ballcaps and shirts, gumball machines and board games and puzzles, plushies and keychains, there were ice cream treats and canned pasta and breakfast cereals. Everywhere you looked, Pac-Man was there, heck he even had a hit record and a Saturday Morning cartoon. I can still remember my Dad taking me to a giant flea market in NJ and one of the sellers having a whole table of bootleg Pac-Merchandise. I walked away with a massive poster-sized die-cut sticker sheet reproducing a lot of the stickers found in the wax packs. Sadly there weren’t any decent toys and that always made me sad. I can even remember making figures based on the cartoon out of Play-Doh as a substitute. Since then we’ve had some companies step up with some toy-like collectibles, particularly SH Figuarts, but I wouldn’t really call today’s figure a toy.

Like their Sonic, this is just a giant vinyl statue and he looks great. He stands with one hand on his non-existent hip and the other outstretched with a big dot-eating grin on his face. The Pacster has been depicted a whole bunch of different ways over the years (look it up, because some artistic interpretations are quite surreal!), but this is based on what is easily my favorite official artwork. Apart from the big toony boots and mittens, the detail is all in his giant face. The eyes and eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted and you get a big red tongue inside his wide black void of a mouth. I dig how his eyebrows actually form peaks almost like cat ears and his long Pinocchio-style nose. Considering all the artists had to go on was a yellow pizza missing a slice, this is a delightfully creative and endearing rendition of the famous Dot Gobbler, and tends to be the official style NAMCO tended to use for marketing.

The vinyl holds the colors really well as he is a super bright yellow with orange mittens and red boots. The black facial features offer a nice contrast to the yellow and there’s really nothing to nitpick here when it comes to quality of paint or execution. He does have a large round seam on his back, which I’m sure is necessary for the molding process. I do think it would have been cool to have them put a power pellet or something in his outstretched hand, although I could probably just make something work with a yellow Ping-Pong ball.

And if you want an idea of scale, here’s this big boi holding the SH Figuarts figure!

Pac-Man merch will always tickle my nostalgia bone something fierce and I’m always happy to see companies putting it out there. And I have to say, this Big Daddy Pac is easily the showpiece of my modest collection of yellow chompers. This particular guy has been off the market for a little while, and I really couldn’t find any examples of what he’s selling for these days. I recall paying around $100 for him on Amazon back around June. But, Bellfine is releasing a half-sized version early next year to go a little easier on the wallet and on the space he takes up and who knows, maybe I’ll end up with that one as well!

May 29 2024

Soul Calibur VI: Taki by Storm Collectibles

Storm Collectibles is without a doubt my premier go-to for video game figures these days. From Golden Axe to Mortal Kombat to King of Fighters, they are crushing it with their releases. And a short while ago they started digging into one of my favorite fighting franchises, Soul Calibur! I was first introduced to this series in the lobby of the local AMC movie theater, but I truly fell in love with it as a launch game for the SEGA Dreamcast. It was probably the first time I ever played a home port of a game that was actually significantly better than a current arcade release. The franchise has remained pretty consistent over the years with Soul Calibur VI hitting my PlayStation 4 in 2018. Wow, has it really been so long? Storm started this line with Taki and Mitsurugi, and today we’re checking out Taki!

Taki, the beautiful and heroic ninja warrior, has been with the series all the way back to Soul Edge, making her a good pick for one of the premier figures. Sure, I would have preferred Sophita, but that’s just because I really dig Sophitia. Taki comes in a collector friendly window box, which is pretty standard stuff for Storm’s game figures. The character art does obscure nearly a quarter of the window, but you can still get a pretty good look at what’s inside. It’s a little more compact than some of their other packages, and I appreciate that because I’ll likely be keeping this box!

Out of the box, Taki dons her modern look from the 6th installment, which definitely shares design beats from her earlier appearances, but also reflects the better detail in the costume that improvements in graphics allowed. So, let’s get the obvious out of the way first, Taki is sporting some fully erect nipples on her rather profound chest, and all I’ll say is that it was an interesting choice to go with. Yes, they are sort of there in the game’s character model, but I don’t remember it being quite to this extent. I’ll have to do some research this weekend and play some of the game to see. With that aside, she has her trademark skin tight crimson body suit with a brown leather half-jacket complete with boob window. She also sports some demon hunting armor bits on her shoulders, knees, lower legs, and left arm. On her back she carries her swords, Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru in their scabbards.

There is some absolutely gorgeous detail work in the armor pieces, as well as the ornamental work on the scabbards. The armor is mixed between silver and more tarnished finishes, all of which are dry brushed to give them some weathering. I really love the demon head shoulder pieces, as well as the one that clasps her jacket together under her neck. The jacket is a rich chocolate brown with some soft stitching in the sculpt, you also get some braided detail in the straps for her sandals. Other wonderful little touches include the gold band around her left bicep and the little studded bangles around her right wrist.

There are two heads included, one with a neutral expression and one with a shouty expression. Both of these are well done with immaculate paint for the eyes and lips. The hair is a separate sculpt and it falls beautifully down each side of her face, with some strands over her forehead and eyes. The back is tied into a ponytail, jutting out rather high off the back of her head, and secured with an adorable little devil horns fixture.

You also get the demon mask, which is cast in soft plastic and painted with a bit of silver dry brushing to show wear. This piece fits over the lower half of the face and is held on with friction. It works OK, but I find that it does slip a bit now and then. Because the mouth area is open you can still get the benefits of using it with either head and see the difference in the mouth. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to display her with or without the mask yet.

As for posability, well Storm delivers that in spades. Their bodies continue to feature one of my favorite systems of articulation in this scale. The jointing works smoothly and the double joints in the shoulders and elbows offer a great range of motion, as do the ball joints in the waist and under the chest. The ball joints in the ankles help to keep the feet flat on the ground, or you can use the articulated toe hinges for a more dynamic footing. The balance is definitely there too, as I had little trouble keeping Taki upright in any number of poses. She’s just an absolute pleasure to play aroune with.

Of course, Storm is big on hands. Lots and lots of hands! There are six pairs here total, which include fists, relaxed hands, gripping hands, and three different types of gesture hands. Getting some of these on for the first time can be a little fiddly as the wrist peg is super small, but ultimately it works fine. The bangles on her right wrist are separate pieces, so you do have to be careful not to lose them when changing that hand.

Finally, Taki comes with her two swords, Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru, which we’ve seen fit easily into the scabbards on her back and work with the two gripping hands. The differences in the two weapons is pretty subtle, but they have great paintwork and sculpts on the hilts and the short blades are painted silver.

As one of Storm’s debut Soul Calibur figures, Taki really delivers on the whole package. You get a fantastic sculpt, great paintwork, and superb articulation. Even nipples! These figures feel so great in hand with smooth joints and that are easy to work with and make for a fun figure that’s hard to put down. She retails at $100 and is still available at the time I’m posting this review. I believe she’s still a Big Bad Toystore Exclusive in the US, as BBTS continues to be the only licensed distributor for their figures in America. We’ve yet to see any forthcoming releases, but I’m looking forward to digging into Mitsurugi in the next week or so. Hopefully Storm will be going deep on this line!