JIN KAZAMA

 Storm Collectibles has been fullfiling the dreams of many fighting games fans by producing high quality action figures of the best fighters, with amazing articulations, sculpt and even combat effects. Thats it if Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter are your favorites, because if you like other games, Storm is an endless pit of frustration, teasing no MK/SF for characters for years and releasing them one by one each 2 or 3 years.

It took me a long looooong time of harrasing Storm on theyr social media accounts about the next Tekken 7 character that was teased like...5 years ago and was launched just this month: Jin Kazama. Jin was my introduction to Tekken back in 1998 soo he wasnt not only my crush, but for me it represent the spirit of Tekken pretty nicelly: a badass character that looks modern while keeping with traditional martial arts roots.

Soo it was a long wait...a very long wait and it will be longer until Storm produce Devil Jin, i wish he was the first to be released instead of Heihachi, but Jin is out and in my hands finally. He is pretty much the same scale as the other characters, same size as Kazuya and Heihachi tough taller than Ryu and unlike Kazuya, Jin can stand perfectly on his own and keep balance all the time.

Of course he is not a "street fighter" soo Storm didnt give him a base at all. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, wrist, legs, knes, ankles and half feet, with a double articulation on the shoulders. Pretty much everything works perfectly, just like the rest of Storm figures and unlike Kazuya, Jin have a kind of extension on his feet socket soo the feet and the pants have a little empty space. This gap let him move his feet on all directions, fixing the issue Kazuya had.

Thanks to his simple outfit (hes close to be nude) there is nothing that prevent the movement of the articualtions. Also the chest area, gloves with arm pads and red pads on his feet are made with soft rubber plastic soo he can move his arms and feet with absolut freedom. Aesthetically i still dont fully like the piece between his chest and shoulders but i am getting used to it since its better this look than the Play Arts Kai style.

Moving him around is such fun...specially since he can keep his balance all the time. The sculpt is really good, i like a lot the fabric texture on his pants as well as the skin like texture on his skin since they are not overdone and nice for the touch tough i have to say i find him not as curvy as i was expecting. For some reason Storm figure have a wide waist compared to the in game models.

Also, while i like a lot Jin´s hair style and his eyes are relaly good, his nose is actually too thin as well as his jaw line and his mouth is too small. From a distance is easy to recognize him but from a closer look, he looks kinda odd. His jaw whould be stronger deffinetly.

Paint on the face is perfect tough, specially on the eyes tough is difficult to see them thanks to his hair. The skin tone is lighter than Kazuya´s and darker than Heihachi and of course, theres no paint there, the body is cast in skin tone wich gives him a pretty natural look. The tatto is on his shoulder tough is cut in hald thanks to the articulation but both parts match each other perfectly. The flames on his leg are strong and vibrant as well as his arm pads and gloves, i really love his color choice.

His accesorys are a bunch of extra hands, aside of the closed fist he have open hands, claw like hands and an extra pair with two extended fingers. Hands are easy to swap tough thanks to the rubber gloves and pads, its a little tricky to insert the hands. 

The other accesorys are a pair of extra heads. One growling and the other one screaming. They can be exchanged pretty easy and this two portraits looks much more like Jin Kazama than the base head since both have a wider mouth. Again, the level of detail is stuning, since each teeth is sculpted and painted independently.

Lastly, there is an effect part and this one is one of the largest i see on the collection. Its a kind of...meteor thingy that looks like a squid with yellow and read, made with translucent plastic. Of course this thing is supposed to be a red lieghtning coming from his fist soo the entire arm can be inserted between the "bolts of light" to give the effect of a super charged punch. It looks pretty cool and Jin can keep is balance with this accesory on tough it can block the view a lot at certain angles.

Also, one last thing: a printed background with the G Corporation heliport. The print is nice and i dont think if is the best background for Jin but the tones have a nice contrast with Jin in front and at least is not as damn dark as Kazuya´s volcanic landscape.

Overall i am really happy to have Jin. I am really happy Storm is still doint Tekken even if they takes them 5 years between each figure. He is not perfect thanks to the strange thin face on the base head and i still think he have a few extra pounds on that waist, but is a lot of fun to make him play around with his father and grandfather and this guy makes the serires a huge improvement over the failed Taf 2 Play Arts Kai line.