SNOW VILLIERS

 

Last entry was about the last figure that closed my Play Arts Kai collection: Gladio from Final Fnatasy XV. Now lets go backward to the past, to the very first figure that started the Play Arts Kai collection: Snow Villiers. I cant stop to feel nostalgic with this figure...the times when Final Fantasy XIII was released. I know that game gather a lot of hate but i actually loved it back then and now, 10 years later, is much more impresive than Final Fantasy XV itself in many departments.

The game wasnt perfect, sure it had its issues like a messed up narrative, linear progress and weak villians, but it still boast a lot of personality close to the core of FF. And it started the Play Arts Kai line, the premium quality action figures directly from SquareEnix.

The starting set consisted on Lightning, Snow and Vainille and of course, my main point of interest was the beedcake of Husbando Snow. He was really really tall for back there standars, a trully huge figure, tough with the time, the Play Arts got bigger soo compoared to Gladio and Nyx, Snow is no longer as bigger as it was back then. And he can stand on his own.....kinda....the thing is, his ankles articulations are very lose soo he tends to fall pretty easy and find his point of balance is not as weasy as it seems.

The figure came with this....ugly and horrible looking base with a strange "H" shape and an articulated arm with a claw in the center. The base not only was pretty ugly but didnt help him stand at all soo i got rid of it.

He is articulated on the head, chest, stomach, shoulders, niceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes, ankles and half bot as well as two extra articulations on the back of his long jacket. All this articulations works really good except the ones on the ankles, that are really lose, the rest are fine and is very fun to pose him around given the nature of the character. The best part are the articulations on the back side of his old jacket since it could be easyer to give him a one piece jacket, but instead Square divided it on secttions with movement.

Also, i hate the look of the shoulder articulations. There is a big gap between the torso and the arms, it looks very...."toyish" and this articulation was in fact an eternal issue on this line. Also the wrists only have a cut articulation soo the hands are really stiff.

Sculpt is good tough really simplistic. His half beard is sculpted tough his hair looks kinda like gum. His costume is nicelly done, the jacket have its buttons and every piece of cloth is a different scuped piece: his jacket, his vest, the chain on his waist, the blue cloth hanging from his belt, his baggy pants and the super detailed boots. Both the end sides of the jacket and the cloth from the belt are made with sift plastic soo they are nice to touch.

The only things that mess with the sculpt are the shoulder articulations and the end sides of the jacket and the sleeves, they are supposed to look old and tear apart but they looks like made of cake...

The pain is nice too, with different yellows and blue shades on the jacket and some soft shadows on his chest and face to give them volume. The blue eyes are very nice tough they are extremelly anime looking. The Lu´Cie tatto on his arm is sharp and clean. The rest of the body is cast on the color of each piece soo theres not too much paint work in here.

In the accesory department he is lacking tough since he only have a pair of extra open hands. Its easy to exchange the hands tough they are still not very expressive thans to the simple articulations on the wrist and given the nature of the character, is difficult to expect some more xtra items for him.

In the end tough, both the sculpt and the brigth colors make it looks too....anime...too cartoony. I like this figure a lot tough it dosnt looks as beautyfull and perfect as he looked in the game... the game looked soo realistic yet this figure looks almost 2D.  A fun and nice figure but with some flaws, just like the game.

GLADIOLUS AMICITIA

In 2017, with the release of Nyx Ulric, i decided to give up on Play Arts Kai entirelly, the series of figures reached a price point beyond logic tough i was still missing a few figures i wanted: one of them Gladiolus Amicitia. But years later, on a small japanese toy store i was surprised to see him there, waiting on a shelve and at release price - much more cheaper than Nyx Ulric. It was destiny.

When Gladio was released i had aother stuff to pay soo i didnt preorder it and didnt expect to find him at all after than thanks to all the bootleg wave of Play Arts Kai that flood the market since then (dear god...they are really hiddeous bootleg) soo i get Gladio without second toughs and i dont regret it.

Gladiolus Amicitia is one of the biggest and heavyest play Arts Kai, matching in size Nyx Ulric and the MGSV characters (isnt Gladio supposed to be taler than Nyx??) and he have troubles standing on his own....despite his big feet and strong frame, he tends to fall, maybe because of the shape of his feet?? Nyx have military boots and can stand much better. Tough Gladio comes with the standar weird shaped PAKs trademark base, i didnt consider using it most of the time.

He is articulated on the head, neck, chest, wrists, shoulders, elbows, waist, legs, knes and ankles, all articulations works fantastic since his outfit is extremelly simple, nothing gets in the way of his movement, except on the ankles; the pants dont let his feet move too much but thats all, everything else works fantastic and his ball joints are actually....huge.

Sculpt is really good, his mohawk hair, beard, the shape of his face, is extremelly close to the in game model. His outfit while simplistic, it have different textures; like his pants and jacket have this rugged leatherish texture while they have some soft and silky lines here and there, or the "snake" skin like boots.

The paint, again, is really simple on his costume, the pieces are cast on gun metal black with some darker tones here and there and the skull bottons. His flesh have just one single skin tone (thanks good) and have the eagle tatto printed on his arms and chest tough i dont like how the ball joints cut the tatto, i guess it cant be helped.

The beard is painted on a very natural way as well as his thick and plump lips and his brown eyes are painted perfectly and very detailed (Play Arts Kai always did a perfect job with the eyes of all theyr figures). This is the kind of figure that makes you question reality and ask youself hows possible a piece of plastic can be this handsome?

My favorite part is his hair, since is made with different strands of soft plastic, not only they dont stop his neck movement, but they also flows on his back in a very cool and seamless way. This and the soft plastic jacket makes me wish they use this same aproach with Nyx Ulric.

Gladio dosnt have too much accesoryes actually wich is no surprise given he dosnt use anything on the game either. He have just a pair of hands for gripping a sweord and a open pair that can be exchanged pretty easy thanks to his huge ball joints.

And lastly, he have his HUGE sword. I wonder if the sword have some kind of history behind or a name? The game dosnt mention anything, but this sword if the same size as Gladio (why are japanese soo obessed with giant swords anyway???) and the scult is really amazing. Not only it had a weird square shape on the end, but it also have a pretty awesome skull at the center with wings on the sides., an extremelly cool and beautifull design that wont work at all on real life. 

The paint is also very effective, black at the center, silver at the sides and metalic gold on the skull and details, this is really an impresive weapon that is actually impossible to apreciate in game. The grip of the sword can be removed soo it can be inserted on the gripping hands and later the rest of the sword can be put on place for easyer posing.

I am actually in awe that such huge accesory is soo easy to handle and used, again, i wish Nyx Kukris had this same system and not only that.....but this HUGE sword actually helps Gladio to stand since it keeps his balance....he cant stand on his own but once he have the sword on his hands, nothing can make him fall. That is a first time for me after soo many figures.

In the end this is an extremelly solid and almost perfect Play Arts Kai figure, proof that close to end the serires, Square really found its way to perfection for action figures. My only issue is the lack of accesoryes, is weird theres no extra head in here or an extra shirtless torso just like Man on Fire from MGSV but that would be ask too much maybe?? 

I dont regret this guy open my PAK collection if just brieflly, he is one of the best figures of the serires as well as the best part of the entire game.

HAOHMARU

 

In all 2020 i didnt had that much troubles to gte figure until christmas, when Storm Collectibles released this Hohmaru. Holly shit he was soo extremelly difficult to get, i literally bougth him four times and yet i wasnt able to get him until a couple of days after christmas. I never tough Storm Collectibles figures were soo difficult to get tough it was worthy. It was worthy to buy the second figure of Haohmaru in 25 years.

Storm Collectibles has been doing an amazing job at brining the best icons of the fight games genre into figures, it takes them years to release a single figure, but it never dissapoints and this is no exception. Haohmaru is in the same scale as the rest: in asian size since he is smaller than Terry Bogard and the same heigh as Ryu from Street Fighter. I am not very sure wath to think about this...

He can stand perfectly on his own and since he is not one of the golden boys from Street Fighter, he dosnt have a base. He is articulated on the head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, legs, knes, ankles and feet. All articulations work fine and since but his neck and upper part of his outfit are made with soft plastic, nothing restrict his range of movement. Tough, given the think shape of his legs, it dosnt matter how much you move them they dosnt looks that synamic, also the articulation of his neck gets really lose pretty fast thanks to the weigth of his hair.

And i almost forget!!! Is imposible to pose him with his basic in game stance since his arms cannot joint that much holding the sword in a perpendicular angle and his front hair gets in the way. I guess theres a litmit even for the best of articulations.

The upper part of his outfit is made with soft plastic as i already said, as well as the red band on his waist. The band can be removed soo he can be shirtless wich is something i really really apreciate tough his neck part is a little thin, is obvious he wasnt designed to be shirtless.

The sculpt is magnificent: the veins on his shoulders, the soft and skin like texture on his chest, his sandals, every single element is perfectly sculpted and the soft material helps a lot giving it texture. His face is also pretty handsome with a hard and serious expression and even have a small scar on his chin, something from the original Samurai Shodown 64 design.

The sculpt on his hair was the thing that worryed me the most tough but each strand of hair on the front of his head is perfectly sculpted and dosnt cover his face tough it deffinetly cast a shadow on him. Its not obvious with the flash of my camera, but he looks really dramatic with only part of his face uncovered and with his fierce expression.

His great piggy tail have the same deffined and sharpt sculpt and follows the shape of his back pretty nice soo it rest on the back and dosnt obstrict his head movement. I have to say tough that i was expecting a ball joint articulation on his hair but it only have a basic cut articulation that rotates.

The color is also amazing, extremelly clean and efficient since the entire figure is cast in plastic of the base color of each section soo theres not a whole lot of color in here except on the black parts of his outfit and the brown and red on his sandals as well as his face: a very soft paint to define his mouth and scar and utterly perfect paint on his eyes. I love his despite the small size his iris and every single part of his eyes are perfectly deffined, with no paint invading any other area.

I have to say tough, he dosnt looks at all like he does on his game. He dosnt looks cell shaded or have any cartoony shapes, he looks more like the Soul Calibur Haohmaru, with very realistic body shapes and his hair, while big, is really not as bestialy huge as he sports it on his games. Again this is a more realistic take in order to make him fit with the rest of the figures of Storm: Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Street Fighter.

I actually like a lot this aproach to the point i actually wish the last game goes for this look better.

His accesoryes consist on a group of extra hands, for sword holding, open hands and claw hands, all made with softich plastic and can be exchanged pretty easy. He also comes with an extra back mane of hair that is sculpted like is floatinf on the air, perfect for battle action posses tough this piece make his neck articulations to be lose.

He also comes with two extra heads: one with an smirk and other with a fierce expression. The smilining one is specially sexy and mischevious while keeping the hard and steel expression ons his eyes. The snarling expression is also perfect and both heads cahn be exchanged pretty easy and they have a rod on the back to use the big hair piece of choice.

His other accesory is a sake bottle, wich is big, round and very colorfull, pretty manly and perfect for Haohmaru. The bottle can hang from his red belt or being hold by his open hands and gives him a lot of personality, just like with the Epoch figure.

His other accesory and most important is of course, his katana. The katana is quiet thick, solid and have ana amazing sculpt on the tilt and great gold and silver painting, with kanjist engrabed on the blade, it dosnt feels cheap at all (like Lion-O Sword of Omen). The sheat comes in a vibrant blue tone with a red cord around made with soft plastic and just like the sake bottle, it can be hold bi Haohmaru´s hands or hang from his red belt. It gets on the way of the articulations sometimes but it belong to his waist deffinetly.

His other accesory is an effect made with transluscent plastic, in yellow and orange, that fits in the blade of his katana soo it looks like a wind cut. While the effect is easy to fit on the sword, its actually kinda heavy and a little difficult to handle, almost like a thick flag. The effect is great but i wish they added more...like a whirlwind to put in front of his cut but of course, this is no Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, soo Storm wont spent more resources on Haohmaru beyond the bare basic.

And lastly, he comes with a background print of the Gairyu island, with mouth Fuji and the ocean. The opacity of the print is a little low tough and i wish it was stronger, but this kind of details are wath makes Storm Collectibles soo good.

Overall, it was a long wait, a lot of hard work to be able to get him and he wasnt cheap, but everything was worth it. This figure is really brillant, fun and memorable. I wish it had more battle effects but neyond that, i cant really wish anything more for him. This is a HUGE improvement over the Epoch figure in every way and i am really excited to have a Genjuro paired with this guy. Sadly, it seems Storm is making Nakoruru first soo i am not sure if i will gert her but by now, just with Haohmaru, i am pretty happy.

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES

Yes i ended getting the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PS3 despite the bad reviews it had. In the end it wasnt such a bad game, it was just mediocre and had a couple of nice horror moments here and there. Tough the best thing of the game was deffinetly its special edition that includes some patches, blueprints, photos and the main dish: a figure.

More than a figure it was an statue that came in a pretty cool transluscent display box with Xenomrph printed all around, just like with Batman Arkham City, this figure is best display on its case. I have no idea wath company produced this statue, but its not really big, kind of an average action figure but considering the size of the Power Loader and the Xeno, the scale is kind of tiny.

The scene shows a colonial marine (i dont think he is a particular character) inside the Power Loader battling against a Xenomorph in a plataform. The scene is really good looking and nicelly designed since like any good statue, it can be displayed from many views of points and looks good, focus on the action or one of the tw characters.

The base have the title of the game on the bottom and the overall sculpt of the statue is really detailed, mostly of course in the Power Loader since its full of details, bolts, anthennas, pivots, lots of tubes (the view on the back is really spectacular) and even the small red siren on the top.

The Xenomorph is really nice too, with legs steping ont he legs of the big machine while one of her claws is about to strike the marine in any moment, the sculpt is detailed anough for the size (specially on her head and spectacular looking long tail) and then it comes the marine, with an OK sculpt but i guess it makes sense since he is the character under the robot mechanism and under the Xenomorph attack, soo he is actually pretty difficult to see.

The paint is really really good on the Power Loader, with brigth yellows combined with rusty tones, signals of extreme use, black stripes, logos and red markings, the paint job is really exquisite and vibrant. The Xenomorph is a little ligth on the paint department, just black with some blue tones in the rigth lace to give it volume, he have a weird drawing effect on him but i guess he is perfect as it is.

Then it comes the marine, who is again, the weakest since his face is all sloppy painted and not very detailed. His body is OK, with a camo patern and metalic tones but since hs is inside the Power Loader, i guess it was a reall challengue to give him a much soficticated paint.

Despite the weakest parts on the piece, this little statue looks fantastic and is deffinetly the best thing that came from the boring Colonial Marines. I miss those times when even weak games had fantastic special editions to a cheap price like this one.

BATMAN

 

Now this is the Batman i fall in love with!! Speaking of those good times when videogames not only were better than now, but they also offered much more for a much lower price, its imposible not to talk about Batman Arkham City. The game wasnt only brillant, but that beauty was on its outsde package as well: a square perfcet transluscent box with a Gotham landscape inside and Batman and Joker images on the outside, with a little shelf in the bottom with the game and an artbook, and at the center of all, this figure of Batman.

This is one of thsoe rare scenarios where the figure looks really good both outside and inside of its package. The figure - a statue actually - is not that big actually, its shorter than your average action figure but since Batman is crouching his overall scale is bigger soo the details really shine, and wath details he have!!

He is at the corner of a roof, getting ready to jump and punch someone but still looking very depredatory and manly, you can feel the motion of his movement and yet he looks solid as a mountain. Like i said at the begining, i am totally in love of this Batman design, this is the exact image that appeare on my mind when i hear "Batman" soo i am not impartial to really like this.

Every detail is present, like the puches on his belt, the bolts on his outfit, the texture with little holes on the suit, his generouse muculature and how the cape huge his body soo perfectly thanks to the sift plastic material.

Paint is as perfect as the sculpt tough for some reason he is black and white but is difficult to notice since his only color part would be his face and his belt. I do love the grey shadows and white tones that give a lot of volume to his muscles, its actually quiet easy to take pictures of him.

He is posed on top of a big corcular base with the Arkham City logo in red. Really stricking for a black and white figure and  under the base is signed by Kotobukiya. No wonder the high quality of this statue, just like theyr Bishoujo line and the rest of his products. I can say with confidence this is one of my favorite Batman figures i ever seen.