hi folks,
this is a semi-ramble about whether it is wise to commit to a line of figures with only one of them been released so far, as well as a small review from my first unboxing.
apologies for not having made photos of my own right now, but with everything on display in my room, i didn´t have a good spot for showcasing the figure.
the figure stands at about 6,6 inch / 17 cm in height and comes with translucent stand that comes in handy when displaying him jump kicking for example.
joints and ankles seem sturdy enough, though you should heat up some with a hair dryer just in case, especially the elbows.
thighs, knees and shoulder joints give a nice resistance out of the box without being stuck, at no point did i have any trouble standing him proper on two feet and keeping a pose, so no fear of him shelf diving any time soon or toppling over.
while his elbows allow him for a good range of motion and a variety of stances from the source material, its the shoulders, especially the "armpits" that look off.
why medicos opted for this kind of joints i don´t understand for a normal ball joint would have worked just as well without making it look like half his upper arm is missing.
so far i couldn´t see any benefit in terms of range of motion, instead i skip certain poses to not show the missing part.
you could argue having the ability to shift shoulders back and forth a little bit, but then the shoulder muscles would bulge over the clothing.
the figure comes with a good assortment of various hands as well as special effects and a second head.
hands come off easy at the wristpeg even without heating (but without feeling loose) definately a plus when switching for various fight scenes.
and while the head sits on a ball joint its the neck below that gives him his range of motion. the hair seems to get in the way when you just want to turn the head, but the neck itself is ball jointed below, so it still looks natural.
chest and hip is pretty basic movement, good range though given the design of the jacket.
unusual (at least to me) is the loose hip part of the pants. but when i compare it to the neca ratking figure, where his "diaper" flakes off due to being put firmly over the crotch area, i definately prefer this solution right here.
the legs themselves do an almost splits pretty well so if anything the movable crotch is a boon
a bit of a bummer with my figure are slight paint imperfections, something i didn´t see in youtube reviews so far. i´ll add pictures of them later.
overall the paintjob is well done, proper shading and even small details are highlighted properly.
but with a quality figure in an upper price range i simply expect brown leather straps to no be colored flesh tone.
and that´s what my rant right now is all about.
being a huge fan of hokuto no ken since my early youth i was very happy to see the promise of good quality figures, even if they ain´t 1/6. so far my pain threshold for 1/12 figures was about 50€ a figure max, passing on storm collectibles mortal kombat line for i couldn´t see me paying 90€ each in a line with so many "essential" figures.
medicos made me eat my words when i first saw their planned product line with kenshiro and raoh in production and more figures planned down the road.
all in all i paid 100€ each as a pre order with raoh coming around june/july.
what i realise now(to late maybe) is the lack of affordable cannon fodder, a staple of the series.
a "proper" display simply demands for rows and rows of thugs, punks and goons to be swiped away with their heads and guts exploding all over, but where are they ?
even if they´d make some, 100€ figures are impossible for me to army build anyways.
what i´ve tried so far is mixing kenshiro with revoltech figures
with so-so results.
quality / cost ratio with revoltech seems pretty good considering they are available here at around 35-45€, much cheaper in japan at the time of their release back in 2009(i guess)
first thing thats obvious is the difference in size though, kenshiro is towering over them standing straight.
one can mask this with displaying the cannon fodder squatting in agony as their body obliterates, to a point, but the difference is still there.
being 30$ figures from the start, i can´t blame the difference in quality and visible articulation gaps in revoltech figures, but the lack of a thigh ball joint in general is what keeps me from collecting them in the first place.
for what ever reason they decided to not use a ball rather than a simple peg you could twist at the thigh and hip in a certain angle to allow moving the legs outward or squatting.
fist of the north star has a very lenient style of portraying a characters size, sometimes towering the main character in one frame by 5 meters only to "shrink" in the next scene.
humans in general aren´t limited to the usual 6-7 feet in this universe but reaching humungous proportions both in size and muscularity.
for certain characters i´d even had to mix in 1/4 scaled figures if i wanted to match their size as depicted in the anime.
all in all i´m having a blast with both figures, hitting some iconic poses of the anime but i don´t see me calling it quits with just the "hero" and antagonist in a final battle scene.
affection and nostalgia for the source material aside, is it a good figure? absolutely.
is it worth 100€? i would say no, unless you´re a very enthusiastic fan of the series. coming from the era of dragon 1/6 figures for 60€ and even paying 500€ for a 1/6 power armor figure, a purely personal consumers perspective would have wished for a 100€ two pack at least with a main char and some small fry to spruce things up a little.
so where you ever "stuck" with a figure you really like from a line that didn´t or doesn´t seem to provide enough "companions"
kind regards
tjolnir
this is a semi-ramble about whether it is wise to commit to a line of figures with only one of them been released so far, as well as a small review from my first unboxing.
apologies for not having made photos of my own right now, but with everything on display in my room, i didn´t have a good spot for showcasing the figure.
the figure stands at about 6,6 inch / 17 cm in height and comes with translucent stand that comes in handy when displaying him jump kicking for example.
joints and ankles seem sturdy enough, though you should heat up some with a hair dryer just in case, especially the elbows.
thighs, knees and shoulder joints give a nice resistance out of the box without being stuck, at no point did i have any trouble standing him proper on two feet and keeping a pose, so no fear of him shelf diving any time soon or toppling over.
while his elbows allow him for a good range of motion and a variety of stances from the source material, its the shoulders, especially the "armpits" that look off.
why medicos opted for this kind of joints i don´t understand for a normal ball joint would have worked just as well without making it look like half his upper arm is missing.
so far i couldn´t see any benefit in terms of range of motion, instead i skip certain poses to not show the missing part.
you could argue having the ability to shift shoulders back and forth a little bit, but then the shoulder muscles would bulge over the clothing.
the figure comes with a good assortment of various hands as well as special effects and a second head.
hands come off easy at the wristpeg even without heating (but without feeling loose) definately a plus when switching for various fight scenes.
and while the head sits on a ball joint its the neck below that gives him his range of motion. the hair seems to get in the way when you just want to turn the head, but the neck itself is ball jointed below, so it still looks natural.
chest and hip is pretty basic movement, good range though given the design of the jacket.
unusual (at least to me) is the loose hip part of the pants. but when i compare it to the neca ratking figure, where his "diaper" flakes off due to being put firmly over the crotch area, i definately prefer this solution right here.
the legs themselves do an almost splits pretty well so if anything the movable crotch is a boon
a bit of a bummer with my figure are slight paint imperfections, something i didn´t see in youtube reviews so far. i´ll add pictures of them later.
overall the paintjob is well done, proper shading and even small details are highlighted properly.
but with a quality figure in an upper price range i simply expect brown leather straps to no be colored flesh tone.
and that´s what my rant right now is all about.
being a huge fan of hokuto no ken since my early youth i was very happy to see the promise of good quality figures, even if they ain´t 1/6. so far my pain threshold for 1/12 figures was about 50€ a figure max, passing on storm collectibles mortal kombat line for i couldn´t see me paying 90€ each in a line with so many "essential" figures.
medicos made me eat my words when i first saw their planned product line with kenshiro and raoh in production and more figures planned down the road.
all in all i paid 100€ each as a pre order with raoh coming around june/july.
what i realise now(to late maybe) is the lack of affordable cannon fodder, a staple of the series.
a "proper" display simply demands for rows and rows of thugs, punks and goons to be swiped away with their heads and guts exploding all over, but where are they ?
even if they´d make some, 100€ figures are impossible for me to army build anyways.
what i´ve tried so far is mixing kenshiro with revoltech figures
with so-so results.
quality / cost ratio with revoltech seems pretty good considering they are available here at around 35-45€, much cheaper in japan at the time of their release back in 2009(i guess)
first thing thats obvious is the difference in size though, kenshiro is towering over them standing straight.
one can mask this with displaying the cannon fodder squatting in agony as their body obliterates, to a point, but the difference is still there.
being 30$ figures from the start, i can´t blame the difference in quality and visible articulation gaps in revoltech figures, but the lack of a thigh ball joint in general is what keeps me from collecting them in the first place.
for what ever reason they decided to not use a ball rather than a simple peg you could twist at the thigh and hip in a certain angle to allow moving the legs outward or squatting.
fist of the north star has a very lenient style of portraying a characters size, sometimes towering the main character in one frame by 5 meters only to "shrink" in the next scene.
humans in general aren´t limited to the usual 6-7 feet in this universe but reaching humungous proportions both in size and muscularity.
for certain characters i´d even had to mix in 1/4 scaled figures if i wanted to match their size as depicted in the anime.
all in all i´m having a blast with both figures, hitting some iconic poses of the anime but i don´t see me calling it quits with just the "hero" and antagonist in a final battle scene.
affection and nostalgia for the source material aside, is it a good figure? absolutely.
is it worth 100€? i would say no, unless you´re a very enthusiastic fan of the series. coming from the era of dragon 1/6 figures for 60€ and even paying 500€ for a 1/6 power armor figure, a purely personal consumers perspective would have wished for a 100€ two pack at least with a main char and some small fry to spruce things up a little.
so where you ever "stuck" with a figure you really like from a line that didn´t or doesn´t seem to provide enough "companions"
kind regards
tjolnir
i skipped mortal kombat storm collectibles for their price range, which i don't regret counting the "essential " figures and the opportunity to build them in 1/6 without compromising the look. worldbox did a good sub zero, kung lao and scorpion, leaving me customizing a shao khan, baraka and kano because "why not"