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.
