Tag Archives: snk

Oct 2 2024

Popup Parade (King of Fighters): Mai Shiranui by Max Factory

I just did an SNK figure review last week when I checked out Tunshi Studio’s Fio from Metal Slug 3 and it’s crazy that there’s enough SNK toys and merch on the market that I could be back with another one already. Honestly, I could keep this going for a while with what I’ve got stockpiled, but let’s not get ahead ourselves. Today I’m popping back to Max Factory’s Popup Parade line to have a look at their newest release of the lovely Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters! Of course, Mai is no stranger around here, as I checked out Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo take on her not that long ago, and eventually I’ll get around to her action figure from Storm Collectibles. Popup Parade became a viable alternative for me when Kotobukiya priced me out of the Bishoujo market with the constant price hikes, but I’m not trying to suggest the two lines are in any way comparable, as these figures are basically a budget line, roughly equivalent to higher end prize figures. Either way, Popup Parade has been hitting the fighting games pretty hard lately. They did a couple of Succubi from Capcom’s DarkStalkers and as well as some ladies from Street Fighter and I guess now it’s SNK’s turn.

The packaging has its ups and downs. On the good side, these boxes are entirely clear plastic with some inserts to make up the back and part of the front. They are collector friendly and show off the figure well, especially if you remove the plastic wrap from around the figure. On the downside, there’s no real artistic value to the package presentation and even the franchise branding is almost non-existent. I do actually save these boxes to store the figures when they aren’t on display, but the only reason I make the space to be able to do that is because I don’t buy a lot of these. Some of them can be really big, but Mai’s is fairly economical.

NIPPON ICHI! Out of the box, Mai is just about ready for display. You just have to peg her feet into the base and she’s ready to make your shelf look a lot prettier. The composition here is about as conservative as you can get, and that’s not a complaint. It’s not like there are a ton of Mai statues in this price range, so I’m happy to get her in a very iconic and familiar pose. She stands triumphant, with her left hip tossed to the side and her left hand resting on her ample caboose. Her right hand holds up her Kachousen, offering her opponent a taunt. The sculpting here is excellent for a figure in this price range, with great little touches like the detailed wrappings around her wrists and feet. The sculpt can be a little soft in areas, particularly around the shoulder cords and the tails spilling out the back, but I think it suits the theme.

The colors here are beautiful! The red and white of her kunoichi outfit pops brilliantly and her skin tone is warm and soft with some shading to bring out the contours. It’s also completely lacking that awful waxiness that you often see in lower quality prize figures. I’m even going to go so far as to say I like the skin tone on this figure a bit better than what Koto gave us, and that’s not just crazy talk. The paint lines are all very clean and I love that they used a high gloss for the red and white balls at the end of her costume tails.

The portrait is very well done. She offers a little smile and a knowing side glance, all perfectly printed. The hair is particularly nice, hanging over the edges of her face and pulled back into a snaking ponytail that cascades from the back top of her head. For what is largely a passively pose, the hair offers a little bit of dynamic energy.

The base is a raised circular platform cast in a smoked black plastic. It’s got a slight transparency to it, but sitting on the shelf it looks solid black. Simple and serviceable, as is the case with most of these Popup Parade figures. I don’t mind getting a diorama style base, but with lower priced figures like this one, I find that simple is often better. Plus, the figure is certainly nice enough that it doesn’t need any additional window dressing in the base.

Here’s Mai with some of her Popup Parade Capcom peers. I think she scales ever so slightly bigger, but they’re close enough that I will have no problem displaying them together for a little SNK vs Capcom action.

Occasionally, Popup Parade has disappointed me, but that’s certainly not the case here. And at just a little over $40, this lady certainly has nothing to apologize for. She doesn’t have the depth of sculpt as Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo, but then that figure costs three times what this one does, so all things considered I think this Mai can hold her own. Indeed, some may even prefer this one as it’s styled more on the game art and less on the Bishoujo style. And I actually like her more than a few Mai’s that have been produced by lesser known companies in the $100+ range. So, if you want something to brighten up that shelf in your game room, and don’t want to blow a lot of money, this Mai is just the ticket!

Sep 23 2024

Metal Slug 3: Fiolina Germi by Tunshi Studio

Holy crap, it was a little more than a year ago when I checked out Marco Rossi from Tunshi Studio’s line of Metal Slug 3 figure series. I’ve been meaning to dip back in and check out the Rebel Soldier, but it’s easy to get sidetracked when toy blogging. In the meantime, a couple new Slug figures arrived a short while back and my, my… what have we here? It’s a couple of ladies! And we all know it’s ladies first, so I’ll stick the Rebel Soldier on the back burner and check out Fio! I gassed on for a while last time about what the Metal Slug series meant to me over the years. Once an unattainable luxury, the first one of these games I ever owned at home was Metal Slug X on the PlayStation and it was good enough for me. Of course, now I can play the series on various consoles and formats, some legit and others not so much. But I never let that rob me of my appreciation, as rarely a week goes by where I don’t fire up one of the Slugs hear MISSION START! and put a huge smile on my face, thinking about what wonderful times we live in. Plus… Metal Slug ACTION FIGURES!!! Who could have ever imagined that!

As we saw last time, the packaging and presentation for these figures is absolutely off the charts. The roughly 6-inch scale figure comes in a heavy-duty cardboard box that resembles the character compartments on the Soldier Select screen of the game. Fio peers through the window and there’s a folded front flap, secured with magnets, that opens to show the figure and gear through a full sized window. Inside, Fio comes in clear plastic tray with a little compartment up top for an instruction booklet that includes a walkthrough of the articulation. And there’s a second nested tray to hold the insane amount of stuff this little lady comes with.

The line makes use of a super articulated body with actual softgoods clothing, which is so unusual for this scale. And yet Tunshi pulled it off quite admirably. The tailored outfit consists of an abbreviated white tank top, a yellow tactical vest, orange shorts with khaki trim, khaki sleeves under her knee guards, and brown socks feeding into her sculpted boots. For the most part the stitching is immaculate, although there is a stray thread here and there, mostly on the shorts. She’s got a brown pleather belt with a fanny pouch, pleather wrist bracers, and the plastic kneepads are held on with elastic straps. I think the costume looks great, although it feels like Tunshi took a few liberties with the coloring. Perhaps, they sourced some art I’m unfamiliar with, but I recall her outfit being mostly khaki. Still, the colors make for some nice variety and I don’t mind.

You get two head sculpts to choose from, although the second one is pretty specific and we’ll check it out later. The stock head is adorable with some really impressive paint work on the eyes, especially for this scale. The glasses come packaged off the figure and you get a pair for each head. Getting them on was a bit scary, but once they’re on they remain in place with no worries. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving it a nice depth as it frames her face, and the ball cap is plastic, but has such impressive texturing it actually looks like it could be cloth. Her sculpted hair spills out the back of the cap in a short ponytail.

Tunshi’s system of articulation is excellent, with double-hinges giving tight bends in the elbows and knees, swivels in the biceps and upper thighs, and a ball joint under the chest. The joints are smooth and easy to work with, but the shorts do inhibit the range quite a bit in the hips. The costume does strategically cover a lot of the figure’s jointing, with only the elbows and upper arm joints exposed. On a side note, I believe Tunshi is selling the bodies alone now, which is pretty cool if you’re into customizing. As for Fio, you get four pairs of hands, but these are mostly intended to interact with different accessories, rather than being gestural. I would have liked some relaxed hands and fists, but you’re already getting a lot in this box so I’m not going to complain.

I mean, just look at it all! It’s a mix of useful accessories and window dressing, but there are just so many great little plastic references to the game in here! And as near as I can tell, only the grenades are recycled from Marco’s stuff, and there you only got one, here you get four! Let’s run through the other goodies and we’ll start with the weapons!

First up, Fio has a revolver and this is such an amazing little sculpt, giving off a bit a Wembley Service Revolver vibe to me. It has a black finish with brown checkered grips and there’s even a loop in the handle for a lanyard to be tied to. Fio’s gun hands have a straight, but bendable trigger finger, so she can practice proper trigger discipline! I love that, because these hands can also double as pointing hands.

But, there are truck loads of Rebel Soldiers in Fio’s path, so she needs more firepower than a wheelgun. Thankfully, she comes with a submachine gun! This is cast in black plastic, feature some very nice detail right down to the cocking handle on the receiver. The magazine is removable and if you look close you can see the tiny exposed rounds at that top of the magazine are even painted gold.

As for melee weapons, Fio has a PR-24 style police baton, which can be converted into a combat axe and that is freaking badass! The axe head simply slots and tabs in for quick and easy conversion.

Fio also comes with the special weapon, Iron Lizard and the Power Up that can be collected in the game to grant you the weapon. The Power Up Box is a recolor of the one we saw with Marco with to letter I’s that stick to the box with magnets. The Iron Lizard itself is a fantastic representation of the goofy remote control bomb seen in the game and includes a blue thrust effect part that can plug into its tail pipe.

The rest of the weapons are window dressing for your display. You get a couple of large howitzer rounds, a cannon ball, and a crate with a top to store all those grenades in. But, how about a picnic?

…Fio’s got you covered. She comes with a yellow picnic blanket and a little ziploc baggie containing her lunch: a sandwich and a bunch of bananas. There’s also a red ruby in there! And here’s where that second head comes into play, as it’s intended to depict her eating her lunch. Yes, we got a sandwich-eating head! This one is mostly the same in terms of the hat and hair, bur her eyes are closed and her mouth is open and about to take a bite. Yup, it’s very specific, but I’m sure people will think up other uses for it. Like yawning because she’s tired from the fight… what were you thinking?

And our last stop is the stand. This is identical to the one we saw with Marco and includes a flexible support with a spring-loaded waist-grabber that supports the figure really well for action poses. The base has a sculpted wood paneled surface, which can actually slide out, maybe in case Tunshi decides to offer options on future releases.

You also get a clip so you can secure two display stands together and they look really good connected. There’s plenty of room between each figure and when I find the proper space, I’ll likely be connecting all the displays like this. I think it would have been cool to get an optional Metal Slug name plate, but you do get licensed branding on the bottom of the base.

What could possibly be the downside to such an awesome figure? Well, the price is steep! At $140, it’s probably not unfair to say that these are priced at more than double the high range for this scale. Indeed, these are without a doubt the most expensive figures I ever purchased in the 6-inch range. Granted, you’re getting a really nicely designed body, fully tailored clothing, and a crazy amount of accessories, so I can definitely see where the money is going. Toss in the fact that these are imports based on a videogame property that is still somewhat niche here in the States and I can’t complain. I couldn’t have even hoped to ever own premium figures like this based on Metal Slug back in the day, so I’m more than happy to invest in the line. I promise not to go so long before revisiting with this line, and next time I’ll jump back to look at the Rebel Soldier and after that it’ll be Eri’s turn!

Nov 6 2023

King of Fighters ’98: Mai Shiranui Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I already talked about the cornucopia of King of Fighters merch that’s been hitting the shelves, back when I looked at Storm’s Blue Mary figure and a lot of that merch mostly seems to be centered around KOF 98, which works for me, because it’s definitely the game in the series I played the most when it was released as KOF Dream Match 99 on the SEGA Dreamcast. Of course, since then I’ve collected a ton of KOF releases for just about every platform imaginable and have access to the actual arcade games on my Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro so it’s a pretty great time to be a fan of the franchise. And even Kotobukiya is getting in on the action with 1:7 scale statues in their Bishoujo series.

Here she is in the box, which features some colorful artwork and some generously sized windows to let in plenty of light. Indeed, once you remove the plastic wrap, she displays really well in the package! The box also feels a lot more durable than the super thin cardboard they were using for a while. Some of you may know that I have a pretty sizeable collection of Koto’s Bishoujo statues, most of which have been reviewed here on FFZ, and I was fond of ending most of those reviews by stating that these statues were the best value to be had on the statue market. Well, those days are long gone as the retail price of most of Koto’s releases have doubled in the last ten years or so. I can remember getting most of mine back in the day for around $59-69.99 and nowadays most release at over $120. Yikes! The quality is still there, but because of the price hike, I’ve pulled back on collecting them and even let some of my Street Fighter Bishoujos go. Heck, the last Bishoujo I reviewed was Ibuki from Street Fighter and that was six years ago! But, here we are today and Mai turned up at a pretty deep discount a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t resist.

Sporting what I would consider her most iconic pose, I can practically see her going through the fluid motions of her idle animation and hear her exclaim.. NIPPON ICHI! Her pose places her left hand upon her jutting backside while her right hand clutches her butterfly fan. She sports her red and white kunoichi regalia, which is sculpted separately from the body to really give the figure some wonderful depth. She has has heavy braided cords that cross her back and loop under her arms, while the split running down the middle front of her top can barely contain her great assets. It’s belted in white around her slender waist and spills down between her legs, stopping at her knees in the front, but bisecting into two flowing forms out the back, each girded with a giant ball. The outfit is rounded out with a pair of red and black tabi on her feet. Koto did a wonderful job capturing the flow of the outfit as well as the sensual curves of her amazing body.

As is always the case with Koto’s work, the colors are gorgeous. The whites feature a clean matte finish while and the red pops with a vibrant glossy sheen. The plastic they use for the skin holds a beautiful warm tone with some added shading to bring it to life, with none of that waxy finish you get on lesser quality statues.

The portrait is spot-on with the Bishoujo style matching the KOF artwork quite nicely. Mai looks up and off to the side with a thin smile on her lips. Her hair features a top knot that cascades down in a ponytail while her bangs part to perfectly frame each side of her face on the front. So beautiful!

For the base, Koto went for more of a diorama style than usual. I’ve been used to seeing either stylized logo bases or just plain generic black or clear disks for a while. This one is just a section of a street with a manhole cover. It looks OK, but it’s nothing special.

There’s no doubt about it, Kotobukiya still knows how to put out quality figures, and unfortunately they know it, so those prices keep going up. Mai retails for around $120, but I nabbed her for $80. It was still a bit more than I felt comfortable spending, but she went up right before I was going into a spending moratorium for a while, so I decided to splurge. Ultimately, I’m glad I picked her up as she looks gorgeous, but I really wish Max Factory would give us some KOF PopUp Parade figures so Koto’s wouldn’t tempt me so much. Koto also did a Bishoujo of Athena from KOF 98, but I’m not a big enough fan of hers to get her unless she went on a serious clearance sell-out price. And, of course they did a female version of Terry Bogard, and I swear the first release pre-dated the SNK Heroines game that gender-swapped Terry. I wasn’t interested in it back then, but now it’s actually branded under the game and I kind of want her, but it’s not a $130 kind of want.

Sep 29 2023

King of Fighters ’98: Blue Mary by Storm Collectibles

SNK has had an interesting couple of decades since it’s bankruptcy and well… whatever the state of the company is these days. And yet in a way, it’s been enjoying a renaissance with there being more ways to access the Neo Geo library now than probably ever. Even legally! We’re also getting a decent number of toys and collectibles as well. I’ll refer you back to my look at Metal Slug 3’s Marco Rossi figure if you want to hear me gushing on about what it was like to live in envy of Neo Geo owners in the 90s. And yeah, most of that envy was aimed at Metal Slug and the shoot-em-ups, but it certainly applied to the fighting games too. Case in point, it wasn’t until almost 10 games into the series, when Dream Match ’99 arrived on the Dreamcast that I was finally able to play a decent port of a King of Fighters game. And boy was that a blissful weekend spent with that game and my ASCII Arcade Stick. Good times! And now, Storm Collectibles has been releasing figures based on the KOF 98 roster. I pre-ordered late in the game and all but Blue Mary got cancelled. I sat on her for a while, trying to decide whether to keep her or not, when just this past week Storm announced reissues of Terry Bogard and Iori. I was able to get these pre-ordered (along with Mai!) and now I’m excited to get Mary opened knowing the others will eventually be on the way!

Storm does a wonderful presentation for these figures. Mary comes in a big window box with the game logo on the front, along with a shot of Blue Mary. The window is huge and shows off the figure and some of her extras, and there’s a printed backdrop based on one of the level backgrounds behind the tray. Everything is collector friendly.

KOF 98 was Mary’s second appearance in a KOF title, but the character actually premiered back in Fatal Fury 3. When I play Dream Match 99, I tend to gravitate toward Terry first but I’m quick to take Mary or Mai for a spin when I’m feeling adventurous. And it’s probably because of how many hours I burned on Dream Match 99 that this version will always be Mary’s most iconic look to me. Casting off the jacket from the Fatal Fury series, she dons her mid-riff exposing red top, blue baggie pants and fingerless gloves, and a pair of reddish-brown sneakers. The whole ensemble is rounded out by a loose brown belt that rests on her hips. It’s a simple character design that makes for a great looking figure.

And as always, Storm did a beautiful job sculpting this figure. Her top is part of the upper body, but it still hangs down over her midriff hiding that joint. The pants go light on the rumples, but bag up down by the highly cinched ankle cuffs. The ringed stars on the thighs are sculpted on as is the smaller black belt with the gold buckle. The wider brown belt has a peg to secure it, but the peg is too soft to go in and hold there, so I just let it float off one hip or the other, which works well enough. The colors on this figure are absolutely gorgeous and she pops just like the original pixel art. The vibrant blue and red compliment each other perfectly, the skin tone looks good, and the added orange on the stars is nice. I think the boots could have been a tad more brown, but that’s just me nitpicking.

You get a whopping four different heads, which is pretty impressive. These include smiling, pissed off, playful wink, and dynamic wind blown hair with a shouty mouth. All of these are wonderfully expressive and work for some pretty fun poses. I think my favorite are the last two. The wind blown look to the hair is great. My only nitpick on any of these is the seam running across just above her hairline. It’s not really a big deal, but since there’s no face plates to swap, I think they could have done a little better with that.

If you’ve played around with any of Storm’s figures, you should know what to expect from the articulation here. Mary is very agile and limber, just as she should be. The elbows and knees are fabulous with double joints that give you all the range of motion you can ask for. Hips allow for plenty of movement, there’s a ball joint under the chest, and you get rotating hinges in the ankles and hinges just behind the toes of the boots. Lateral crunches in the shoulders enhance those rotating hinges, there are swivels in the biceps and pegged hinges in the wrists to allow you to swap hands. How many hands? Five pairs total! You get a pair of finger pointing hands, fists, relaxed hands, slightly more relaxed hands, and grapple hands. Not bad!

Mary comes with one effect part and it’s a giant energy circle from slamming her opponents into the ground. Alas, I only have Mary right now, so I’ll have to wait to get some real use out of it. But it’s a great looking piece with a translucent effect starting relatively clear at the ground and working up to a fiery red-orange along the tops of the flames.

The illustrated backgrounds Storm includes with these figures are also a nice bonus and they stand pretty well if you want to use them as a display behind your figure. Mary comes with the US Train Yard Stage which is wonderfully recreated here right down to the pixelated edges on the art.

Storm’s figures sure ain’t cheap, and Mary goes for about $105, which is no doubt a lot of money for a 7-inch scale figure. Heck, it’s even a lot by this line’s standards as both Terry and Iori reissued at under $100 each. But it’s hard to argue with quality and Storm never ceases to deliver on it in spades. Mary is a ridiculously fun figure to play with, thanks to the smooth jointing system, near perfect balance, and the crazy range of motion you can get out of her. And the passel of extra heads and hands certainly adds to that value. She’s hard to put down and she’s been standing on my desk ready for action since I opened her. It’s great to see KOF figures on the market and I can’t wait to expand my character roster.

Aug 2 2023

Metal Slug 3: Marco Rossi by Tunshi Studio

Much of the last half of the 90’s for me was being teased by pictures of the Metal Slug series in gaming magazines and knowing that I’d never be able to play it. Scratch that, I actually did get to play the first Metal Slug in an electronics store that had a NEO GEO AES demo unit on display. I played that and Cyber-Lip and then found how much they cost and that ended that pipe dream. About five years later my dreams came true, and by that I mean I got Metal Slug X for the PlayStation. It was a stripped down, tweaked and modded version of Metal Slug 2, but I didn’t give two shits because I was finally playing a Metal Slug game at home. Yeah, you kids with your emulators and digital downloads have no idea what it was like in the Gaming Dark Ages. Fast forward to now and I have close to a dozen legit ways to play the entire Metal Slug series in my Game Room. What could possibly be more incredible than that? How about Metal Slug action figures! Enter Tunshi Studio, a company I never heard of. They revealed a series of 1:12 scale figures based on Metal Slug 3 and despite them being pricey releases from an untested company, I pre-ordered the first two: Marco Rossi and a Rebel Soldier. I was originally going to look at both figures today, but by the time I got through all the stuff included with Marco, I decided to spit them up.

Here’s the packaging and it is one inspired presentation! The box is made to look like the compartment on the Soldier Select screen with Marco looking through the window. It’s made of very heavy cardboard stock and has a magnet that secures the tri-fold front flap. Inside, the figure comes in a nested clear plastic tray with a little compartment up top for an instruction booklet that includes a rundown on the articulation under the softgoods outfit. YES SOFTGOODS! I actually swapped the heads before taking this packaged shot, so let me swap them back and we’ll take a look at Marco as he comes out of the box!

And, hot damn! This guy looks amazing! The super articulated body reminds me of the bodies that Storm Collectibles are putting out, and that is very much intended as a compliment. These joints are easy to work with, move fluidly, and include double hinges in the elbows and knees. The figure is dressed in a pair of baggy green trouser fatigues, a white sleeveless t-shirt and an orange vest with double pockets on each side. He’s got a belt, wrist bracers, and some absolutely phenomenal sculpted boots. Normally I would not have believed softgoods were a smart move for figures in this scale and license, but boy does it work beautifully here. The tailoring is pretty clean, but there are a few loose threads I may trim. I like that the pants are baggy so as not to inhibit his articulation.

You get two head sculpts, with the first being a somewhat neutral expression. I think the sculptors did a great job translating the rather unique 2D art stylings of the game to 3D plastic. Marco has a determined, downturned mouth, a pointy nose and eyes that look like they have seen some serious shit. And believe me… they have! The sideburns look great, he’s got a dirty white headband, and that ridiculous lock of hair that zig-zags its way over his forehead. There’s some nice shading on the skin and the yellow hair is bright and snappy.

With that having been said, this second head is the one I’ll be going with most of the time. The mouth is wide open showing off his teeth in an exclamation of joy at the sight of everything exploding around him. Marco looks like he enjoys his work and revels taking on this new threat in the game’s third installment.. Spoilers… it’s aliens… again.

In addition to the two heads, you get a passel of hands. These include fists, a pair of accessory holding hands, a left thumbs up hand, and a right trigger finger hand. All of these are super easy to swap out.

Marco also comes with a softgoods backpack as part of his outfit. This attaches using legit shoulder straps and looks great on him. It’s a fantastic bonus that really adds a lot of value to the figure.

If you guessed this figure comes with guns, you’d be right! You actually get two, which may seem light considering the number of weapons in the game, but most of the weapon upgrades you pick up just convert your rifle into firing something new. Also, I think Tunshi spread them out a bit as incentive to buy more figures. First off, Marco comes with his semi-automatic pistol, which is his default weapon in the game offering unlimited ammo. It’s cast in black plastic and has some excellent detail in the sculpt. There is no articulation or removable magazine.

Next up is HEAVY MACHINE GUN with the multi-purpose under-the-barrel tube. This is another great sculpt with some sharp detail. The pump actually slides and the stock and pump are both cast in brown plastic and you get a little more brown on the grip. Marco comes with a wide grip left hand so he can cradle the pump in it.

You also get a HEAVY MACHINE GUN effect piece that plugs into the barrel and looks really damn cool! I should note that the HEAVY MACHINE GUN is a power-up in the game, activated when you pick up the container marked H, and as you can see you get the power up icon as well. This is actually a blank with a magnetic H included for each side. It definitely gives it a more premium feel than just printing or a sticker.

Marco’s secondary attack in the game is his stock of grenades and you get a lovely potato-masher style stick grenade to toss at those enemy bosses. Luckily he gets more than just one in the game.

The final weapon in Marco’s arsenal is a combat knife, which is his default attack when he gets close enough to an enemy to shed blood. Or white sweat if you’re playing the US version. Once again, this is a beautifully detailed piece with a painted silver blade and a serrated back edge.

Moving into some basic equipment, Marco comes with a walkie-talkie and a field canteen. Both of these work well with the left open grip hand.

You also get a whole pile of other extras and a box to keep them in. The biggest item here is the rocket for the RAWKET LAWNCHAIR upgrade. I think Tunshi missed an opportunity here because the blast effect part isn’t compatible with the tube under the gun and it isn’t removable, so it’s hard to really incoporate this piece into the display. Other bits include a magazine, an ammo belt, a medal, a lump of shit (no really!), and eleven metal cartridges.

And finally, you get a really nice display stand with a bendy support post and a waist clip. The base has a sculpted wood planking cover that can be slid in and out and there are clips so it can be attached to the bases of other figures for one continuous display.

At $145, Marco was certainly not cheap, but I can definitely see where the money went. The body is excellent, the softgoods look great, and there are just a ton of goodies in this box for play and display. Plus, when considering price, I think you probably have to factor in the limited appeal of this niche market. Metal Slug has definitely reached a wider audience in the last ten years or so, but it’s way past its heyday, so I have to imagine that the production on these figures isn’t huge. The first assortment included Tarma Roving, who’s outfit is mostly a palate swap, a Rebel Soldier and a Rebel Soldier two-pack with some exclusive accessories. I’ll be checking out the Rebel Soldier in a week or so. I haven’t picked up Tarma yet, but I probably will. I might even go for the Soldier two-pack, since it has some exclusive extras. I do have the two ladies, Fio and Eri, on pre-order.