TERRY BOGARD

The King of Fighters never had a lot of merchadise despite being stuningly popular (like all no-Street Fighter fighting games), it only had one single action figures serires in the 2000, with 3 figures and he quality was pretty questionable even to back then standars, soo when Storm Collectibles anounced they pick the licence i was really excited. While my interest on Kyo and Iori is almost non existant and Rugal - the boss everyones hates - was an odd choice to start the serires, i was very happy when they show the prototype of Terry Bogard.

Terry from Fatal Fury was born just months after Ryu, Chun Li and Ken and is one of the blueprints of modern fighting games. He was participating (and winning) in the King of Figthers tournament years before Kyo and Iori existed soo he is now as relevant as he was mythical back in the 90s. It was pretty torublesome getting him thanks to the Covid thingy going on now but i was able to get him before his price tag started to rocket.

Terry comes in a pretty big box, his box is actually bigger than Kyo or Iori but it is because he is pretty loaded with accesoryes. He is in the same scale as the other Storm Collectible figures or NECA, a pretty descent size to give him weigth and presence but not too big. He can stand on his own perfectly tough many of his most iconic and dynamic poses demand a base but of course, he is NO Street Figther soo Storm didnt care to add a base.

He is super articulated: neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles and feet. All this articulations have totaly freedom of movility since his chest piece and outfit are made with soft plastic, there is even certain movement to move his neck under the soft plastic skin. His legs are a little stiff tough, more exactly his knes, they dont bend as much as expected making some poses a little difficult to achive but is not too bad either.

Each section is cast in its main color soo theres not much painting application in here, this gives him a pretty clean and natural look and a little cartoony too, all the shadows on the figure are natural and the painting is at the minimum: the star on his back, his snickers, his belt and some soft blue shades on his jeans and of course, his face.

All paint is perfect but the paint on his face is just unreal. The paint appilcation is trully perfect, his mouth, his eyebrows, his blue eyes are even weet looking and when he opens his mouth you cans ee every single teeth sculpted and perfectly painted, including his tongue. Really, his face is just beautyfull despite being hidden all the time under his cap or the shadow the cap cast on his face, wich gives him a pretty misteryous look.

The sculpt is perfect as well, he is really handsome tough not femenine, pretty realistic looking but still stylish with a little bit of anime, pretty close to the design of Shinkiro. The rest of the body us also very good, specially on the chest area and those sexy pecs under the tigth shirt, but despite of that theres not a whole of details to notice here aside of the nice and soft texture he have. Terry is actually a pretty simple design, a character that screems 90s cartoon.

He has a lot of accesoryes, like a full army of hands. This hands are extremelly easy the swap unlike Ryu´s, whos ball joints keep falling appart and moving around while changing his hands, for some reason Terry´s wrists articulations are pretty strong and easy to handle.

He also have four different heands, no face plate, but whole heads!! A serious one, another one with a soft smirk, another one with a fierce look and a last one screaming. The last two make Storm sculptors and painters really shine and all heads can be exchanged pretty easy as well. Another accesoryes for his head are his horse tale hair. He have four different tough i cant see the difference in two of them....two are his hair hanging naturally and another two are his hair suspended on the hair for dynamic posing. I find thise hair pieces kinda anoying but they are very helpfull for the display.

For some reason he also have an extra jacket/vest, one with the ends sections moving, again for dynamic poses. The process to change the jackets is kinda stressfull tough since his arms must be removed completelly from his joints and adding them back is kinda dangerous since the joints inside his torso are conected only by small plastic rods. Broke one and is game over. Not only that but i have the feeling the joints themselves will be all lose and soft if i keep removing over and over his arms soo i suggest dont change the jacket too often.

One of the best parts of the Storm figures are the attack effect they add as accesoryes, from Hadokens to actuall skeletons or blood for Mortal Kombat characters. Thsi time tough, Terry have 3 different effects and i dont think any other figure had this much before. First of all he got his Burn Knukle; a piece of blue transluscent effect that fits perfectly on any of his fist soo he can throw himself full power to punch his rivals.

The second effect is the Power Wave, a yellow and orange spark thingy that goes on ground level. Since this attack moves is not neccesary to fit on Terry´s hands. And the third one is the Power Geyser, a much more bigger and stronger version of the second attack and is trully is big!! A huge explosion coming from the ground, this piece is taller than Terry himself and is one of the reasons why his box is soo huge!!

All 3 effects comes in transluscent plastic soo the catch the light ´retty nicelly and the Power Geyser is completelly hollow soo it would be easy to add a led light inside!! I really do love this attack effects Storm produce, they are a dream come tru for this kind of figures. Also, there is one single extra effect: 1/4 of Rugal´s Gravity Smash. I cant say much about it and dont even take photos because is very incomplete and is for Rugal soo i dont plan to get the whole thing.

And lastly, the last accesory that is tradition of Storm Collectibles: a printed background image. The background is the first battle version of the Spain stage, on the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra. I got mixed feelings about it being super pixelated but i guess its OK, true to KOF 98 tough i never associated Terry with this stage before.

This is the most expensive Storm Collectibles figure i ever got but is also the most loaded with accesoryes and while he is kinda simplistic looking he looks fantastic battling Ryu´s figure. I wish really wish Storm do a Joe Higashi but i doubt they ever touch him but it seems they will make Orochi and Geese Howard and i am really REALLY interested on a Geese to make some company to this Terry.

RHINO ALIEN

Collecting figures has been very difficult in the last months thanks to the pandemic and add the crazy tax Mexico add to any online transaction and things are unreal hard and it seems they will not get better anytime soon. Despite of that i been able to get some of my preordered figures little by little and one of them is the Rhino Alien from NECA.

Part of the Kenner tribute, this guy is based on the very first 90s Alien action figure serires, a Xenomorph brith from a Rhino. Is not the crazyest ideas at all (not as wacky as the scorpion version) and the resulting figure was an extremelly cute little guy with chuby legs and a horn, cast on orange transluscent plastic.

NECA rebuild that character to creat this beast, using modern technology for impresive sculpt, articulation and paint (and price) for a monster that is not cute at all. The Rhino Alien is actually pretty huge and bulky he dosnt comes in a clamshell like the rest of her sisters, instead she comes in a big deluxe box perfect for the share weigth of the creature.

He is designed to be on all four tough he can stand on two legs with no problem at all. When in four he is a little bit taller than a standar human action figure, when on two legs this creature is towering, a head taller than the rest of the Aliens and even the Play Arts Kai figures. While on two legs tough is pretty easy to lose balance soo its better to have this creature on all four tough i love how unconfortable and awkard it looks on two legs, almost like a werewolf.

This Xenomorph is articulated on the jaw, neck, shoulders, double elbows, wrists, fingers, chest, legs, double knes and ankles. Unlike the Mantis Alien, this one use ratchet joints, soo the articulations are much more resistant and stronger tough is very limited in movement thanks to his design: the pipes on the back prevent the head to move to the sides, the spikes on the shoulders prevent the arms to move out and the big wings like construct on the legs always clash with his tail thingy.

Also, despite all the articulations, is pretty tricky to pose this Alien on all four. Like i say, the hips clash with the gothic designs on his legs too move the legs up front is pretty difficult, and the knes have the same issue, also while the arms are pretty long it requieres a lot of strugle to make all four limbs rest on the ground. And as a side note, his elbows articulations are kinda soft soo i am wondering how long they will resist support such heavy weigth...and the wrists dosnt give me a good feeling either. Despite being the bulkyest Alien, this can be more fragile than it seems.

Also, the original Kenner figure had this big hooves but this version have smaller feet and "normal" Alien hands with long and articulated fingers, again this makes me wonder if it was a good choice for such a heavy character.

The scuplpt is brillant, super detailed and full of intrincate design all over, mixing the organic with the mechanic perfectly. The abdomen is made with soft plastic for some reason and it have the big ribcage over it, wich means you can see theres something behind the ribs, almost like looking at a boiler with figure inside, the orange inside and the black ribs have a very spectacular effect. His legs also have a trully fantastic redesign with a very animalistc design with backward articulation and the tail looks menacing and pointing.

While the front of the creature is really good looking, the back is also worth nothing with thise big pipes behind. This pipes were present on the original Kenner figure and pretty much each section was present, but while the original was chuby and cute, this version is totally twisted, pointy, spikey and overall, much more menacing and violent looking.

The color is divided into two: gunmetal black in front and transluscent orange in the back. The metalic black starts to fade slowlly by the sides leaving the back totally orange. Add some ligth and this orange shines like its on fire and if the creature is on all four legs is gonna look like its front side is made with coal and his back side is burning on fire, almost like a creature made with molten lava.

If the design wasnt twisted and demonic enough, the color make it looks less like an Alien and more like a hellish demon.

His mouth have silver fangs around the checks and big upward fangs like a wild pig and a huge rock like horn where the eyes are supposed to be. The horn is intense black color and is actually pointy. The jaw opens to let his second mouth slide out. Sadly he is looking at the ground, soo this second mouth is a little useless compared to the big horn in front.

His skill is all cracked up and remidns me a cockroach too much thanks to its soft orange tone. For some reason this dome can be removed ro reveal his insides. The dome is only keept in place by the horn at the end of the head, but it dosnt move too much and the inside looks....well, kinda organic, like an orange brain. I guess the guys at NECA didnt want to lose the sculpt they did in there.

The monster have no base tough i wish they give him one....with a rod to conect on its chest or abs soo it can relive the weigth from the legs and arms but i guess is not that neccesary...i mean, if they didnt give a base to the Mantis Alien its pretty obvious this one can survive without one much better and theres no other accesory aside of his removable dome and the Dark Horse comic reprint in high quality paper.

Overall, this is quiet and impresive toy that looks really spectacular in any way its posed tough i still fear his articulations wont rests the weigth but i guess only time will tell. NECA did a great job like always and went beyond delivering such a perfect creature.

Now i am missing only the Gorilla Alien, now i really need him but there is also two other Aliens NECA hasnt anounced yet: the Bull and the Winged Alien. Bull was my favorite over the Rhino when i was  akid since he looked more demonic and evil, tough if NECA inyected such evilnes into the Rhino i really want to see wath they can do with Bull, and the Winged Alien....i dont even want to think how expensive and big that thing would be....