NYX ULRIC

When Square shown pictures of the Gladio Play Arts Kai i was sure i was gonna get him, tough later on i had to cancell the pre-order given i tough he was too expensive for wath it was and i had other stuff to spent money on back then. When they shown pictures of Nyx Ulric that was a totally different story.

He was more expensive than Gladiolus yet i had to get him, not only because he was my FF husbando, but because it was pretty rare they release a figure of him. I was sure Square was going to forget all about the character and store him in some kind of dark corner to never been seen again (like they actually did).

I had to support my husbando even if i spent all the money of my birthday on him!!!!

I was planing to make him my last Play Arts Kai and soo far it has been like that, he is my last one and the most crazy epxnesive one i got, thats why i keep his box intact unlike my other Kai figures. Tough i take him out for sure once in a while to have a lot of fun with him.

Nyx Ulric is HUGE. One of the biggest Play Arts Kai, bigger than the FF XIII characters and the same scale as the MGSV figures. He is big and very heavy tough he can stand on his own perfectly thanks to the strong joints on his legs and his big military boots.

Mr. Ulric here have a trully fantastic sculpt, with a huge amounts of details and an amazing complexity. While i find Gladio sculpt kinda lazy (he is shirtless), Nyx is the opossite and features some amazing engravings on his uniform and the holster of his weapons. He have his plastic body with a plastic shirt with belts and his coat on top AND his shulder covering above all. Each layer of clothing is sculpted in an independent piece, wich gives him an awesome deept.

His face have the same details the MGSV figures have, with a soft transparency on the plastic and each one of the hairs on his eye brows and beard painted, the wrinkles on his lips, the tattoos, the bags under his eyes, the tiny scars on his forehead and cheeks, everything sculpted and highlighted softly with pretty discret painting.

Now here is the thing: in some points of view and some light sources, he looks exactly like Nyx, in some others, he dosnt. It took me a while to figure it out but i find the issue, his face is a little bit thiner as it should. his eyes are a little bit more close than they have too.

I dont know if this was a mistake in Square side or if they have some legal concerns about the portrayal of the character, ince Nyx is modeled after a real person - Johan Akan - but wathever is the reason, is unfortunate because this sculpt os 90% faithfull to the character. Just make his mouth and chin wider (more squareish) and it will be 100% Nyx/Johan.

The paintwork on the body is good, tough he is dressed in all black, theres some grey and blue tones here and there to give him volume and silver for the metalic parts of his outfit. The chain on his chest is metalic to gives him extra realism and the light purple on his arm and vibrant purple on the silk on his back gives him pure royal elegance.

He is also rich in textures, with soft feel on his coat and reptilian scales on his shoulders and also full of tiny details that appeare each time you see him, like his head phone or the tatto on his neck and his dreadlocks.

He is articulated on his head, neck, shoulders, middle arm, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, middle legs, knees, ankles, middle feet/boot and the purple fur on his arm is articulated as well (!!) and the purple silks on his back have 3 independent articulations as well. All of them works perfect and gives a lot of freedom for a lot of poses except for a couple of exceptions: his legs and his neck.

Since his coat is made with hard plastic, this limist a lot the range of movement on his legs and the collar of the same coat limit a lot the articulation on his head as well. Many parts of the figure are made with soft plastic (like the silks, the shoulder pads, the reptilian skin) but he is made mustly with hard plastic. This makes him feels very high quality and makes him heavy, but in this case it trully block his movement range a lot.

His accesoryes concist on extra hands, a pair to hold his weapons and a pair of open hands. The hands can be exchanged easy tough put the weapons on his hands is EXTREMELLY DIFFICULT!!! The hands are made with (again) hard plastic and they are almost closed around his weapons. Introduce the weapons between his fingers is a strugle and i fear the weapons can break any time.

Said weapons - a pair of kukris - have different sculpt and painting to show they are made in different places -Galahd and Insomnia - and boast intrincate sculpting and a pair of charms that hand from them in a metalic ring.

His other accesory is a complete hooded head with mask. The hood is clean and sharp but the most amazing thing is the mask with the horn. Is really complex and elegant and the best part is that it features a complete Nyx head underneath, soo you can see his beautyfull blue eyes shining under the mask, looking at you.

To assemble it, you need to remove Nyx head (easy) and the closed hood with the mask from his back (i love details like this!!!!) and put the masked head on….or soo it say the instructions, since the collar of his coat is made with hard plastic, is almost imposible to fit the head on the peg, soo it pretty much levitates over his shoulders.

The hooded head looks amazing and cool but it tends to fall easy and it moves even less than the unmasked head thanks to how restrictive is the hard plastic.

Nyx also comes with the standar Play Arts Kai base, wich is absolutelly useless since the guy can stand on his own and thanks to his weigth, the base is unable to support him on any kind of dynamic pose. I can say i wont miss this bases.

This guy is not perfect thanks to a technical issue (the hard material used on his coat) and a strange aesthetic choice (narrow his face a little bit) but i am actually pretty happy with him, since this is pretty much the only recognition Square has given to this poor guy after the movie release.

Sure he was expensive, but as the only collectible i have of FF XV and the last figure in this toy line, i say it was worthy and the fact he is a husbando makes him extra special. I know i take a lot of pictures of Mr. Ulric here but bear with me, i had a lot of fun playing with him.