HAOHMARU

I was saying the Tomb Raider figures are the oldest of this blog, but this one is older and still, not the oldest since some Devilman are from the 80s. At the begining of the 90s, SNKmade a game called Samurai Shodown 64, a game that never came out in any home console and never came out from Japan either, making it a game only a handful of humans play or even knew. Ironically, such obscure game give birth to a series of OVAs and action figures, pretty much the only ones of Samurai Shodown.

The serires was made by Epoch, a japanese company that used to focus on fight game characters and did some impresive figures for Guilty Gear Tekken, Dead or Alive or even Vampire Hunter D. The serires for Samurai Shodown had 4 figures: Haohmaru, Hattori Hanzo, Nakoruru and Shiki. My goal was, of course, Haohmaru and took me quiet a lot of troubles getting him.

He is on scale 1/10 (between Figma and NECA) and was sculpted by Yasufumi Matsuda. He can stand on his own perfectly tough comes with an oval and very simplistic black base and is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, wrists, wasit, knes and ankles, tough most of this articulations are totally useless since they dont move a bit. I am not sure if they are glued or just stuck, but i cant move his shoulders, waist, ankles and knes soo the only working articulations are on his neck, biceps and wrists.

But despite this the articulations would be totally useless anyway since he is sculpted in mostly one pose, like a statue with very little movement, the standar for figures back in the 90s.The sculpt is actually good in the face and his body, his muscles are really really sexy and have lots of volume and his face have the rigth shape, tough other areas are a little plain, like his hands with sausague fingers, or how his outfit is not made of different sculpts but just one single piece, wich makes it looks really plain.

Paint is the same, really plain and boring on the cloths but much more defined on the face. If you look at the character design shets from Samurai Shodown 64 is easy to see this figure have the same eyebrows, eyes, the same smile, scar and beard. Tough despite this half of his face is completelly hidden by the tuft of hair on his forehead.

The tugth of hair is really thick and not only covers half of his face, but it also gets in the way of his neck articulation. This is something to be spected given his design, really, that hair of his is troublesome to draw it makes sence is even more troublesome to sculpt. The big ponytail on his back can be removed tough it also gets in the way of his head movement. Really, Haohmaru is soo incrediblly hairy.

Aside of his base he comes with two extra accesorys. One is his sword and i cant say too much about it, both the sculpt and green paint are OK and dosnt stand out but arent bad at all. The katana fits on his hand and he is supposed to rest it on his shoulders, tough thanks to his hair the katana never fully rest. I guess this is OK since the same hair covers it.

His other hand is in a very weird pose, i think he is supposed to be hiding his waist but i cant fit the hand in the rigth spot, but his second accesory is gladlly, a second hand. This second hand is holding a sake bottle with a soft plastic rope. Its easy to swap the hands and this second hand looks much much much much better.

The sake bottle is nicelly sculpted and have a big red kanji that stand out in between all the black and white, also the soft plastic rope rest perfectly on Haohmaru´s shoulder and makes him looks really good.

Overall, the quality of this figure is pretty inconsistent, some sections of the sculpt are really good, some other not soo much, some sections of the paint are great and some other not soo much, and still, thanks to the pose, face expression and accesorys, this figure ooze Haohmaru´s personality and given how difficult he is to get and how this is the only action figure of the character, makes this piece a very special one.

I am not interested in Nakoruru and Hanzo but i would love to get Shiki as well but my ain concern was this guy, the Haohmaru Husbando, who in the end of the year will have a brand new action figure from Storm Collectibles.

DANTE

One of the most unique and memorable games from the last generation of consoles was Dante´s Inferno. Gameplay wise it was pretty standar tough effective and visualy it was also not as brillant as God of War 3 tough i always liked it much more. Picking a poem for the base of a game was brillant and transforming the writer into a studly action hero was deffinetly something to remember.

Back then NECA was at its best and they get the brand of Dante to produce action figure. Only one figure was made, the main hero, but it was on very limited quantitys. I am not sure but it seems the figure was given as some kind of promotion and didnt sell to the public until one year later and in a very limited quantitys. I only saw Dante once, i bougth him and never saw him again.

Also, this figure is one of the best figurea NECA released if not the best, the quality is stunning. Dante is the same standar scale as the rest of NECA and McFarlane action figures and he can stand on his perfectly. Unlike the rest of the NECA figures, he is totally articulated!!! Neck, abs, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles!! He is not a statue at all!!

Also, all armour pieces of Dante are made with soft plastic soo he have total freedom of movement. The mail that cover his head is also made with soft plastic soo his head can rotate fully. Despite the material, the mail, the crown, the armour pieces, all have a pretty defined and sharp sculpt and a very realistic metal paint.

Dante´s face is stuning!! NECA gives him a fully realistic skin texture, with beard included, wich is amazing given the scale. The paint is also brillant, extremelly natural, with a shadow on hsi beard but is not overdone, or slopy at all. Even his small eyes are perfectly defined. His torso have also an extremelly realistic skin texture as well as paint. This is guy have one of the sexyest pecs i ever seen on any figure, hsi nipples are soo crazy real is imposible not to touch them...

The cloth rags on his chest have the same printing of the game and theres blood all around but just the rigth color and amount of blood. This character is actually as gory as he is sexy. Instead of give him plastic rags hanging from his wrists, NECA give him actual cloth rags, this gives to the figure ar extremelly spectacular look given how natural they are and how they dosnt get in the way while posing Dante. They even have tiny crosses at the end!

He comes with an extra had that is very similar to the standar one, soo i dont know the use of this, but he also comes with his death scythe and is as amazing as the character himself. The scythe is totally made with soft plastic and a wire inside soo it can be posed around Dante or put totally straigth or just modifyes to give more balance to the figure. Again despite the material, the scythe have a pretty detailed sculpt that looks like bone and the paint is also perfect for it.

The head of the scythe can be removed and the blade can move a little bit around for adjustment. This way the sycthe can fit easy on Dante´s back or put on his hand as blade (actually i never understood how this scythe works, it seems it can take different forms).

His last accesory is his cross, a silver cross that Dante can hold on his hand or hold it on his leg with the help of a couple of soft plastic belts. Its amazing how effiscient all his accesorys can fit and be used.

Again, i really cannot think on anything bad to say about this figure, not nly he is one of the most handsome figures but also he is well beyond the quality NECA had back then, with an exquisit sculpt and perfect paint, spectacular mix of different material, perfectly executed and usefull accesorys as well as totally usefull and strong articulations. Perhaps the only bad thing about this figure is how rare it was but its one of the jewells of NECA deffinetly.

SUCCUBUS

I been thinking about it and it seems 2D videogames dosnt get too many figures at all (aside of Mario). Some jewells from the 80s and 90s have just a couple of figures if they are lucky (Darkstalkers, Samurai Shodown) and one of them is the great Castlevania. Is weird how crazy popular it was but totally untouched by the toys market.

The only company that pick up the Castlevania name was NECA at the begining of the century (the new Dimaond Select figures dosnt count since they are based on the series, not the games) and make only one single series of four figures: Simon Belmont, Alucard, Dracula and Succubus. I still dont understand why they did Simon and not Richter but anyway....i only got one figure, the Succubus.

It is odd how crazy detailed this figure looks and how she actually looks like a bunch of pixels on the game, with not even a face, but this figure is entirelly based on the awesome Ayame Kojima artwork. She is on the standar scale of action figures soo she atches the size of most figures of most brand (bigger than Figma) and cant stand on her own thanks to her high heels, but she comes with a pretty simple yet discrete base.

She is only artiulated in seven points: the head, shoulders, boots and wings and the wings and boots articulation are totally useless thanks to the sculpt and her head dosnt move much thanks to her hair soo basically, her only usefull articulations are on her shoulders. Back thin this was in vogue, all adult collectible figures used to be mostly statues with limited movement following McFarlane style and NECA was no exception.

Soo this bad girl is sculted in basically one single pose tough she dosnt looks stiff or anything,she is leaning to one of her sides and you can notice the weigth of her wings and how proud she stands. She is....barelly dressed with a tiny thiny almost invisible bikini and long high heel boots and a corse, she looks like a hooker, wich is totally perfect for someone like her.

Her face expression is cold and...well, kinda dead and with her pale color skin she dosnt looks too healty, her hair is beautyfully sculpted with flowers and the details on her gloves and corse are really well sculpted. The paint tough is kind of messy since the g-string is a little sloppy and theres a few sections were its obvious the paint didnt behave like it should.

Her wings are made with translucent brown plastuc with some black shades and sculpted veins, this gives them a pretty natural leather look and are one of the best parts of the figure. They have the perfect shape and size tough its a shame they cant fully open.

There is one detail here tough, since she is topless and NECA follow her original design and even show her in different conventions with her boobs out, but once the figure was released to mass market, it seems they doubted and put her a weird half bra on top of her boobs. The looks is awkard, soo i removed it and, evidently, they sculpted and painted her tits under it as it should.

Sadlly, they used glued the boob cover soo by removing it, her boobs lose some paint. I should pait that section but i am not expert, and by pointing it it would looks like her boobs have a different color over the rest of her body, something even much more awkard.

She dosnt have too many accesorys, only two. One of them is an axe, a very cartoony axe that fits perfectly on her hand, but while is temptting to give her the axe, is evident this is a weapon for Simon, not her. Is weird when they add accesorys of other figures really since i dont have Simon.

The other accesory is a Fleaman, one of the most classic and super anoying enemies from the game. He is small and incrediblly gross and disgusting, with blue veins covering his skin and deformed teeth and white eyes, a big hunchback, he dosnt looks human at all. Its pretty cool to see how sick and horrible this guys really look since in the game they are kinda cute.

I really dont know why i didnt get the ther figure sof this series, probablly because she is the most colorfull of the collection but i would love to have Simon and Dracula to make her company, tough this figures are crazy expensive by now.

LARA CROFT

After Playmates did an awesome job doing figures of the original 90s Tomb Raider trilogy, NECA took the torch and made some figures of Lara based on her reboot on the PS2. Really good figures actually but i sadly, didnt get them. Later, when Tomb Raider was rebooted once more by Square, it was this same company that started building Lara figures on its Play Arts Kai line.

The very first one is actually very special because, despite this Play Arts Kai being soo expensive (over priced actually) this specific figure was totally free!! She came with the Tomb Raider special edition pack alon side litographies, posters, DLC, and OST and a comic book. Rigth now i find it hard to belive that a figure like this was given for free for those who get the game, its a shame such good times are gone for good...

Lara is in the smallest scale of the Play Arts Kai spectrum, she is shorter than the Resident Evil or Final Fantasy characters but since she is all alone, i guess theres no problem with the scale. Also she is in perfect scale with Nathan Drake soo i am perfectly happy with that. She can stand on her own perfectly and dosnt comes with any base.

She is turbo articulated: her head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles, boot and her ponny tail. Each one of this articulation works fantastic and have a big range of movement, thanks to Lara´s simple outfit, pretty much she can achive any pose without broking her silhouette. Also, thanks to her light frame, she is really good at keeping her balance and not falling down.

The sculpt is really good, based on her last reboot, she is just using her cargo pants and a plain shirt with lots of bandages and a green necklace. Her face is pretty, REALLY pretty. This may be one of the prettyest figures Square released if not the cutest, with those thick lips, its easy to recognize her.

The paint has been always the weak spot on Square but this time around is really good. Her soft pink lips and big almost anime eyes are smoth and perfect and makes her look like a model. Tough the rest of her body is really dirty, with mud all over it and some blood, her face is a little bit too clean if you ask me but is nothing to be worryed to. Also her shirt, thanks to the different grey tones and soft browns, looks like is weet and tigth over her torso.

I am really impressed with both the sculpt and paint in this figure, is trully perfect.

She is equiped with an army of little hands to hold all her accesoryes and they can be exchanged pretty easy. She is heavylly armed tough and comes with a standar pistol, that can fit on the holster on her leg, a shotgun that fits on the holster on her back, a piolet used to climb, tough Lara uses it as weapon, and finally a bow and an arrow.

The pistol and shotgun are nicelly sculpted and fit on her hands perfectly, but my favorite weapons must be the piolet and the bow. I love the piolet design and its strong red color, it stands out over Lara pretty nicelly. The bow is really spectacular tough since its all made with hard plastic, is really tricky for Lara to hold it. The arrow is also rpetty tricky since the plume needs to fit in between her fingers, but with patience it can be done.

Overall, the quality of this figure is really impresive and if we consider it had the best price on the world (it was FREE), this makes her probablly the best Lara Croft action figure. Mmmmm...OK i am not sure if its the best tough considering she is heavylly redesigned, but she is deffinetly one of the best Play Arts Kai for sure.

Years later Square released another Lara, in a bigger scale and in her winter outfit and with a crazy high price, soo this one keeps being the winner for me. Besides she looks terrific along side Nathan Drake and thats good enough for me.

LARA CROFT

With Tomb Raider being soo crazy popular at the end of the century, Playmates not only was able to make a big collection of figures based on each game, but they also did a trilogy of deluxe figures based on the original trilogy of games, sometthing that really beneffits the display.

The third figure of the collection, based on Tomb Raider 3 of course, is all about alines and the Area 51, the most popular level of the game and have a pretty different color palette and is deffinetly the most "actiony" scene of the series.

This time Lara is smaller, but this is thanks to the pose since she is not standing still but runing. She is articulated on the neck, shoulders and elbows wich hels to give her a couple of different poses but nothing more. She cant stand on her own tough again, she is tigthly standing on her base thanks to screws on her boots.

The sculpt is really good, pretty faithfull to the model of the game, she almost looks squareish in some parts. Its almost easy to see the triangle boobs on her. The paint is also fantastic, pretty clean and strong giving her a vibrant looks and the details are all perfect, even the piercing on her belly button.

Instead of the green tank top and short, she is using a grey tank and camouflage pants, blue pants. She looks more fitting for a stealth missing but not too much since she is still pretty light on the equipment department. The different materials are gone tough, the holsters are now fully plastic as well as her hair and gone are her soft transparent glases.

She comes with her standar silver guns tat fits on the holsters but she also comes with a pair of uzis. She can hold all her weapons on her hands this time tough wich adds a little of customization to the display.

The base is really good looking, with with a clossing door - and Lara´s feet coming from it - lots of signs, red lights, the Area 51 logo and gunshots and explosion marks. Theres even empty shells on the floor and everything is perfectly sculpted and painted. Again, this is the most action oriented statue of the collection.

While i miss the soft hair and holsters and i am not of a fan of the grey urban color palette, is hard not to like all the details on the background and the dynamic pose. Out of the 3 figures i am not sure wich one is my favorite...probablly the one from the first game since its the basic image of Lara (green top and shorts on the jungle) but Playmates did a great job giving each game its own diorama, all very different but sharing the same high quality.

LARA CROFT

At the end of the century Tomb Raider was extremelly popular even tough the games were kinda....awkard, even for back then standars, but wath made them popular was the heroine Lara Croft, a character that is still remembered now even with a lot of new versions of her around. Back then too, Playmates made a lot of action figures based on her and they did a great job adding dioramas and playsets as well.

I never own any of the "standar" figures but instead i got the "deluxe" figures that were more like statues. The figure of the first game had Lara on her original outfit surrounded by ruins on a jungle but the figure based on the second game was very different.

This Lara from Tomb Raider 2 its on the same huge scale of the first one but unlike the first, this one cant stand on her own thanks to the pose of her legs, tough in the base she will never fall thanks to screws on her feet, but....she somehow is leaning to the left, i dont know if its because of the material or the time.

Despire this leaning issue she is pretty much perfect, with the imposible curvy shape, huge eyes and big lips, a design 100% from the 90s, the sculpt is solid, really perfect and the paint is sharp and clean, perfect for a cartoon character like this. She is articulated on the neck and shoulders only soo she is even more statuesque than the figure of the first game, and again, her hair is cast on sift plastic soo the her braid dosnt get in the way of the head movement.

The leather hostlers and metal bucklet are now gone and are made of plastic, and her guns can be removed tough she cant hold them on her hands. Instead she is holding a harpoon, a much bigger weapon with great detailing but that cannot be removed from her hand.

She is also using a grey and blue swimsuit with the logo of Sola on it and sporting a more relaxed and casual pose, perfect to show her rock abs.

The base is a dock scene from Venice, with barrels underneath and one and a half wall surrounding her. The sculpt and paint are really good on it, i like a lot the cracks on the paint and the barrels underneath show how much Playmates care for details and to make the display as spectacular as they could. The logo of the game is this time behind her instead of the front (and yes, theres dust around the rope on the floor, this figures has been with me for 23 years).

Overall, a pretty excelent figure for the character, with the same quality of the first game figure but with a very different athmosphere thanks to the color palette and pose. I wish i could change her guns for the harpoon and the leaning detail is anoying, but despite this she looks fantastic on display even 23 years later.

LARA CROFT

This is deffinetly the oldest subjetc on this blog (tough that could change)!! In 1996 Tomb Raider enjoyed a popularity that soo far never had again. Lara Croft was a star and as such she had a lot of action figures, tough the quality of this figures was really good thanks to Playmates, the people behind the Teenage Ninja Turtles.

Playmates released action figures that included not only accesoryes, but a diorama display like a playset, including enemies and even vehicles. It was pretty impresive back then tough i never had any of those. Instead i got the big scale deluxe figures that didnt uncluded enemies but had a much bigger scale.

Lara Croft is really big, as big as a modern Play Arts Kai, wich made her gigantic for back then scale. She can stand on her own tough theres no reason to remove her from the base since it helps a lot for the display. In fact she is united to her base with screws soo she is pretty sturdy.

She is articulated on the legs, neck, shoulders and elbows, pretty minimal articulations was the standar back then and only let her get a couple of good looking poses but she is almost like a statue. The sculpt is really good, pretty damn close to the game model, with the long legs, super thin waist and huge boobs, big eyes and lips, in a very cartoony design.

The color is minimal tough since each piece is cast in the main color, soo this give her a pretty vibrant and clean look, again very good for such a cartoon style and each colored section (like the eyes) is perfectly defined and clean. Her hair and glases are made with soft plastic soo her braid dosnt get in the way and her head moves with freedom, also the glases are transluscent.

The holster of her guns is also made with soft plastic soo it gives a look of leather and the buckle on her belt is real metal. For a "kids" toy for havins soo many different material in such a huge scale was really a luxury, this was trully a delixe figure back then.

Her only accesoryes are her silver guns that can be removed from her hands and fit on the hostler, but theres not too much point of doing it.

Her base is as awesome as expected, with part of a wall, a column with ivy and a giant stone with the title of the game in front of Lara, the base is both well sculpted and have a great painting, this time in a no-cartoony way but with different shades and shadows. This is supposed to be the jungle soo i wish it had a little bit more of nature on it but i dont know...it still looks really good.

Overall, maybe this figure looks a little simple compared to modern figures but for those who played Tomb Raider in 1996, this figure is like an exact copy of the image we had of Lara back then and thanks to her great base and huge scale, she stands out in a spectacular way in any videogame collection.