RYU

 Aaaahh.....Ryu, wath a fond memorie of videogames and arcade from the 90s. I still remember, as a little kid, seen the Street Fighter II arcade cabinet with an Akiman artoekr of Ryu on one side, it had Ryu´s big back on it while you could see his face on profile. In that moment my heart skiped a beat and i was struck by a sudden realization: "soo, thats it...i am gay then?". As a kid i didnt had any sex tough of course but o just liked Ryu...like...too much, i played with him just to seen his defeat sprite of him liying on the floor with his shirt open and revealing his chest or the victory animation with his fist pointing up and that big cute smile, and that view of his arm pit.

Aaaahh.....Street Fighter V....actually the only good memorie i have about SFV is how no other figth game followed its steps. Sure gameplay was OK but pretty much the rest was a nigtmare that turned figth games into a paying service. The only good thing about it was actually the visuals, a giant stepe beyond the terror that was Street Figther IV. In SFV characters finally looked like Homosapiens, no more Australopithecus beating each other with kicks and fireballs. Soo far SFV is the best visual representation of the World Warriors to date.

And just like Tunshi Studios started existing all of a sudden with an amazing Haohmaru figure last year, IconiQ Studios open theyr doors as well but with Ryu from Street Fighter V in 1/6 scale. I do really struggled a whole lot last year, deciding pre-order him or not...this would have been my most expensive figure to date, never buy anything with this high price before but i finally given up and lived an entire year of waiting, expecting when will Ryu arrive.

He finally did and is pointless to write how excited and happy made me, soo i will go directly to the descriptions here and pictures. He came in a much more heavyer but deffinetly smaller box than the Tunshi Studio Haohmaru. The bix have a really beautifull art of Ryu getting ready for a Hadoken. The art is crispy and the title of the game have a soft texture tough the back of the box is really not specially interesting and the art and presentation are not as pretty as Tunshi´s.

Once open, the inside have a cover featuring Ryu special moves comands and the credits of the people behind this amazing figure: painte by Eleven, sculpt by Leon Enriquez and body engineering by TB League and beyond that everyhing is arranged neatly on two separate blisters, pretty easy to take Ryu out or store him back any time.

This guy is 1/6 scale, soo he is big, real big just like Haohmaru´s or any other Hot Toys or Sideshow figures, of ThreeZero, Medicom, Mondo....but he is much heavyer deffinetly tough he cna stand on his own perfecly thanks to his huge feet and pretty strong articulations on the legs and knes but he have a base just in case and for better display.

I dont know were to start in here....this is a joint effort between IconiQ Studios and TB League, a company who has been doing rubber figures with a stainles steel eskeleton for quiet some time, soo this Ryu have a metal skeletong that makes him really, really, really heavy but he is covered with rubber "flesh" that makes him super flexible with a realistic texture.

He is soo damn soft....soo soft and squishy. Hot Toys used this same technology in figures arms a long time ago, like in the Resident Evil figures and Three Zero did it as well with theyr Guts figure, but non are this squishy and soft and move soo easy. 

Soo Ryu have an articulation on the neck and as well as the base of the neck soo he move his head up and down A LOT. He is articulated on the chest area soo his arms can bend to the front or the back to puff out his chest. he is articulated on the shoulders, boceps soo his arms can turn, elbows, wrists, abs area to crunch as much as he wants, lehs, half tigth soo he can turn his legs, knes and ankles, each one of this are ball joints, metalic ball joints! that move pretty easy but strong enough to keep everything in place and the body dont stop any of this freedom of movement at all!!

Except two areas tough: the legs and wrists. Ryu´s pants are tigth and dont let him open of bend his legs too much without ripping them apart, i guess theres no way to fix that. Also the wrists, his gloves are one sculpted piece, soo the cuffs really dont let him move his hands up or down, just by the sides. I am actually surprised by this since Storm or Play Arts Kai make the cuffs a separate peice for exactly this reason, dont lose the wrists articulation.

Also, Ryu´s body is not your run of the mile TB League body either, this one was done specificaly for Ryu, to caprute perfectly the Capcom´s anatomy in all its glory, soo his hands are HUGE as well as his feet, his thigh are masive.....but nothing like his chest and shoulders. Its not very apparent by himself, he looks perectly Ryu, but once you bring another figure in this scale to compare, is pretty evident that if Ryu was real he would be more beast than man.

The head sculpt is amazing, the best any Ryu figure ever had and put to shame the Storm Collectibles sculpt. The strong jaw, the cheek bones and square nose are perfect but the best part are his manly and strong eyes, his gaze is soo penetrating and yet soo peacefull and contemplative. Is easy to see black pupil and brown iris and cornea as well as the perfect paint in the eye lids. The eyes looks wet soo that gives them a pretty neat shine that makes them looks alive.

The other amazing part is his hair, the sculpt is pretty spiky and each strand is pretty sharp. The bandana is sculpted but in the back and inder the hair, it transitions into a bandana made with pretty thin fabric with a wire inside soo it can be posed with total freedom.

The paint job on the head is fantastic, with his eyes full of details i already mentioned but the skin tone being really natural and having only subtle darker shadows in some sections to enhance Ryu´s chiseled and sharp face features and i am including here the lips as well, since they loosk pretty natural. The body tough has no paint soo it depends entirelly of the skin color of the rubber but it matches perfectly the head.

Ryu´s dogi is made with cloth, is soft but a little too clean for my licking, tough the tattering on the sleves area and the end of the pants looks good but demands to be moved with caution soo the fraying threads dont fall apart. 

His pants are tigth and have an lastic to keep them up as well as wrinkles stitched in the knes areas, soo the pants have some room for the knes to bend. This detail looks kinda weird but is a clever way to give some lextra freedom to Ryu,s legs. Remove them is quiet a challengue given how masive are Ryu´s thighs but the top of the dogi is big enough to not limit any of his torso movement.

There is a wire inside the neck and chest area soo the dogi can be posed as well, open up or close around Ryu´s body and the black belt is also wired. The belt have kanjis FURINKAZAN enbroided in golden thread. This is a military philosophy that Ryu follows like his path: swift as wind, silent as forest, fierce as fire and stable as mountains. 

Despite such an spartan design, Ryu have some neat little details on his persona that IconiQ Studio reproduced here perfectly with an amazing artcraft.

 I already mentioned his base, that is not necesary but is really helpfull just to be sure this heavy boy dont fall. The face have exactly the same design as Tunshi Studio´s Haohmaru: A circular plataform that looks like an arcade button with a circular space in the center with the game logo, tough unlike Haohmaru´s, this base is black and instead of a wooden plaque in front it have a metalic plaque with Ryu´s name and Street Fighter V Champion Edition on top. There is a metalic rod in the other end of the base with a clamp to hold onto Ryu´s body. The clamp is not that big to fully hold Ryu tough and the metal rod is flexyble and moves almost like a tentacle (how a metal rod can be flexible??? I really dont know) but te insturctions manual says its not designed to hold him on air, soo Tetsumaki Sempukyaku is out of question (or any other jumping pose) or an airborne Shoryuken.

This makes me question, wath other base to use for aerial poses? This guy cna really kick around, specially with no pants, but thanks to his heavy weigth find a base for him will be a real challengue.

He also comes with a second head with a fierce expression. The sculpt quality and paint here are as high as in the normal head and is really easy to change. The teeth sculpt and paint is amazing as well as the fiery look on his eyes tough he is looking at his rigth and that limits the posing a lot. I really wish they give him moving eyes (some figures have them!!!) but i guess thats ask too much? Also this face expression is when he is about to shot a Hadoken soo a third head with an open mouth for "after the Hadoken" would have been a good idea as well.

Then theres a small army of hands, aside of his closed fist he have a pair of open hands, focusing hands, claw hands, Hadoken hands and an extra of Hadoken hands joined for the exact moment of the fireball shooting. The focusing hands are very helpfull for posing him calling someone and the claw hands for fierce poses tough, i must add, in the game the gloves are extremelly old and missing a lot of the red material already, soo they show this white sections and are full of scratches. Here all the gloves are pretty new and shiny, the sculpt is good as well as the paint but they are missing some age effect.

Change the hands is pretty easy, just hold the shoulders and pull them and they come off inmidietly. Put them back on not soo much....theres a metalic ball to insert on the holde on the hands but problem is, the squishy flesh of Ryu push them off pretty easy. Even when you hear the "pop" of the insertion of the ball joint in the hand, just move his arm a little and the "pop" can be ehard again and the hand is lose. At the same time, that same squishy rubbery texture keeps somehow the lose hands in place soo...its a pretty ironic dicotomy how the arm push down the hands but at the same time keeps them there.

Special mention goes for the Hadoken hands, those jointed hands are IMPOSIBLE to use!!! It took me like 3 full hours to put them for this photographys!! Ryu´s skeleton can join his arms perfectly, but his big rubber pecs and biceps keeps the arms away!! I dont know how i did it here actually and after a few minutes, his arms open up and the joined hands fall off. 

This is quiet a shame tough since having him shooting a Hadoken looks fantastic, but will kill his shoulders joints in any moment!! Sadlly, i dont think i will ever pose him with them ever again.

His other accesory are an extra pair of feet, bending in the middle soo hes like giving a step forward. The sculpt is amazing as well as the skin texture, you can see the wrinkles on the base as wlel as the veins on top. Problem is....again, removing Ryu´s feet is an imposible task. The feet are made with pretty dense and hard plastic (soo he dosnt keeps falling over) and the metal ball of the articulation is buried very deep. 

I pulled for hours but i am really afraid to broke the leg of kne articulation if i keep pulling. Someone told me i should use hot water or an hair dryer but that would melt away his entire leg. Sounds like a job made with quirurgic exactitud and the risk is too much, at least for me soo i wasnt able to take pictures of this extra feet on use and i dont think i will ever use them.

Another accesory is his bag, made with cotton fabric and a black lace. Tough he have no specific hands for him to hold it and i wish the lace was longer, the bag is stuffed with cottong soo its very squichy and soft, almost like a small pillow. This bag is one of the biggest misterys of Street Figther since i always wondered wath he carrys there?? He is been using the same dogi for 30 years soo wath are Ryu belongings?

Ryu also comes with a Hadoken effect, a fireball just like the Play Arts Kai did 10 years ago. The ball is nicelly sculpted in trabsluscent and soft plastic and all the buubles on it makes the ligth reflects and gives it a particle effect just like in the game. Ans yes, it dosnt looks like a fireball but looks more like water to me. Its made in soft plastic and for some reason is kind of sticky too.

It also have a translucent plastic rod that goes inserted on the Hadoken and then the other end inserts on a small round transluscent base. If you took the foreball the round base keeps falling, but it does a good job keeping the ball on air and with a led ligth, it would looks amazing!!! But sadly, this effect wont be used too much since the Hadoken hands dont work!!!

There is also a pair of gloves....this is the very first time one of my figures comes with gloves tough, this gives a nice idea how high end this figure is. The gloves fits nicelly and they keep away all dirty of unclean hands away of Ryu´s fantastic skin tough this is a figure that screams to be touched...aside of the pretty evident reason, the texture of the squishy skin is really confortable to touch soo using always gloves is really criminal.

Lastly, while the box art isnt as pretty as Haohmaru´s, it can be detached completelly from the iner box with the help of magnets and spread like a folding screen, inside theres Ryu´s scenario from SFV, the Suzaku Castle. The print is crisp and in HD and given how huge it is, the entire scenario is present. Also thanks to its folding screen nature it can be wrapped around Ryu or fully open behind him to form an spectacular display for Ryu alone of having him battling another 1/6 scale opponent.

This post is a gigantic text wall but really, despite the simplicity and elegance of Ryu´s design, tehres way too much to say about this figure, soo many new details to find each time i see him and way too many poses for him as well. Took al this pictures was extremelly easy (except for the Hadoken hands) and this is one of the most photogenic figures i have.

IconiQ Studio is now working on Ken but while having both Street boyfriends together sounds fantastic, i never found Ken specially interesting. Chun Li tough would be very interesting but in the end, Ryu is more than enough to satisfy anyone.

Despite some shortcomings (Hadoken hands and extra feet) this is one of the most amazing figures i ever seen. The quality towers against anything else and is perfect for Street Fighter fans, figting games fans or gamers in general given how iconic is Ryu, he enbodys perfectly the spirit of figthing games and looks soo perfect along side Hohmaru.

Really, somehow Haohmaru and Ryu have the same build and are perfect for some Capcom vs SNK battle scenes. Now i just want a Terry and a Ryo Sakazaki and maybe a Sol, a Mitsurugi and a Jin Kazama....but instead IconicQ Studio is making Silent Hill, wich makes me in an even worst position because i really want that Red Pyramid Thing and Bubble Head Nurse with this same quality.