SOL BADGUY

 Oh Storm Collectibles!! The brand that was born as the dream of any fighting game enthusiast, the one that will give us action figures of Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Darkstalkers, Guilty Gear, Tekken, Fighting EX Layer, Soul Calibur, all in the same scale with extreme quality values but it soon transform in the brand that keep us all waiting 5 or more years between characters release.

And just like that they release Sol Badguy from Guilty Gear Strive, with a delay of 8 months (nothing new for Storm) and no news soo far if they release any other character at all tough theres chances they release Ky Kyske.....someday in this century.

Sol is in scale with most modern action figures, the perfect size for croosovers with the restof the Storm figures as well as figures of other brands and he can stand on his own perfectly until you display him with his sword. That sword needs a base of its own but thats another story and of course, theres no base to be seen in here since they sold them separatelly.

He is articulated on the neck, chest, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees, ankles and half foot. All ball joints with a lot of movility since the chest arwa as well as the jacket are made with pretty soft plastic soo he can have freedom of movement on the upper torso and the ...loincloth thingy he uses on his waist is also made with soft plastic.

Still, each time his arms are rised, the oversized jacket cover his face and needs a lot of adjustment, same for the waist piece that, despite being made with soft plastic, its pretty anoying and really gets in the way of the legs movement. Also the thick legs and arms dosnt let him bend his knees or elbows too much and the pants block almost entirelly the ankles and half shue movement. The articulation on his shoes barelly moves at all actually.

In the end this figure is not as articulated as it seems.....the articulations are there but the big puffy outfit really gets in the way. His hair is also movable but only uses a basic peg, not a ball joint soo you cna put his hair flowing to the wind, it only loves left and rigth and that also limits the display options. I wish they add different hair flowing with his motion like they did with Terry or Haohmaru.

Now it comes the difficult part....being thorn by a figure quality and a personal opinion, because this figure sculpt is really really good. I love the carved details on his pants as well as how the pants flow around his legs, specially in the lower part, they looks pretty stylish. The jacket is amazing with all thise big buckles and the carvings in the back with all those belts as well as the wrinkles on those big oversized sleeves.

The loicloth thingy he is wearing (i dont know how to call it) with the big "FREE" buckle in front is a floating piece with conects with another red......i dunno, half belt? that only covers his back side. This piece can be moved around at pleasure and looks fantastic but it deffinetly demands a lot of adjustment.

The face tough....is not bad at all, with pretty delicate face features  and a pretty soft smile. His hair tough dosnt really liiks as stylish as in the game, with in 2d his hair looks like a spiky anime messy hair, in here the hair is just a big chunk of plastic specially the firelock part. I hate that forelock he is using and with all honestly it makes him look derp.

I am not sure if its the face expression, face features, the paint of that stupid hair but it makes him looks pretty childish.....pretty young....kind of dumb and thats a bummer because Sol always had this beastly vibe going on, with a fierce face expression, almost brutish.

The coor is nice too, just like always with Storm each section is cast on the dominant color plastic soo it keeps the paint at minimum to give it a pretty clean look (this is specially basic with the soft plastic sections). The back in the belts and gold in the bucckles and buttons looks perfect as well as the silver in some tiny sections.

 Actually theres a lot of gold and silver decals here that represent most of the paint as well as the black in the "FREE" text on his front and the black on the engravings on his pants, all finelly painted. I love tough the super tiny text all ver, like the "RIOT" on the back of his jacket and the text on the back of his floating piece and the red pieces behind his shoes. The text is soo tiny i cant read it but looks pretty impresive!!!

The pants have a little bit of shadows but not much, they are just 95% plain white and theres nothing more on the rest of the figure, theres no shadows or high ligths here, just the basic base color and unlike the other Storm figures, theres no texture at all in here and this includes his skin. Theres no texture just plain skin color and the same goes for his hair, just chocolate brown all over. This really makes him looks kinda....plain, pretty cartoony. I mean i know he is cartoony in the game being 2D but it clashes with the other Storm figures.

The smile is also delicately painted as well as his brown eyes, they are perfect tough i for the deeling the eyes looks a bit asian and they deffinely dosnt looks fierce or fiery at all.

For the accesoryes he comes with a bunch of hands. Aside of the closed fist he have hands to hold on his weapon as well as a pair of open hands, claws hands, and hands in a claling gesture. They are made with soft plastic and botht eh sculpt and paint is perfect and they can swap pretty easy as well. Having this many options really helps to catch the character personality.

He have two extra heads aside of the base smiling one: one with a mishcevious smirk and another one shouting. The smirk matches perfectly the official artwork of Sol for strive and the tiny teeths are impresivelly painted. The shouting face also have the perfecly painte tiny teeth as well as a nice pink on his tongue and inside of his mouth. They are easy to exchange and the quality is pretty good but, again, non of this faces express Sol beastly nature.

There is also 3 pony tails. All 3 are the same. For some reason i cant understand Storm tough given each head a replica of the same hair would be a better idea than make 3 different pony tails with a different sculpt...

And then theres Outrage MK.II, Sol´s weapon. I call it weapon because i cant see too much of a sword here, Fireseal and Junkyard Dog still keep that sword look to certain degreeg but with this weapon i am not sure how it works since its not aerodynamic at all, is rpetty ehavy and have no edge, but oh well...

This thingy is really amazing, almostthe same size as Sol and thr scult is pretty sharp and stylish, with the black belt in the middle made with soft plastic. While Sol have no texture at all, this item have a metalic texture all over as well as scratches and identations of past battles that makes it looks strangelly realistuc, more soo than his owner.

The center piece have metalic red with the name and logo of the weapon marked on it and it really complements with the back and intense yellow surroinding it. Theres a bandage made with soft plastic and painted in white with the end section in orange that make this weapon looks pretty damn cool.

The bandage is not bendable but its soft texture makes it easy to move around tough it demands being delicate with it, specially on the section where Sol holds it since the handle is not specially big and the hand frot a lot with the bandage risking it. Also this weapon is soo super heavy and mess with Sol balance a lot even on th most basic and unactive poses.

And finally there is an effect that make Sol´s bog to be as huge as Terry´s: a big fire effect ceated by Outrage MK.II, more preciselly the Gunflame. This effect is really big and take a lot of space and while its extremelly simple looking - just a hollow transluscent orange plastic with some shades of red and yellow - is pretty effectve and looks really really good, not only as a Gunflame but also as an enviroment element for the display.

And of course, theres is a background and given the size of the box is pretty big and shows the Lars Canyon. Not only the print is pretty good, but the material is much better now and keeps the background standing perfectly. The colors of Lars Canyon are pretty soft, with browns and blue in pastel tones and that makes Sol stands out beautifully againts the background. Also the back side have a red stony texture with the logo of Guilty Gear Strive soo it can be used as well as background, but dosnt looks as good as the Lars Canyon.

I am really torn with this figure....the sculpt is brillant, the paint is amazing, the accesorys are nice and the articulations works wonderfull but in the end, i dont think this is very representative of Sol. It dosnt have the correct anatomy with the huge hands and feet, it dosnt have the big pecs Sol have and is very flatchested, but also the face and hair makes this figure looks very dumb and youthfull.

Even with the fire effect i cant see any of the beastly and brutish look of Sol Badguy in here. Tough i dont know if i can blame Storm for this since, overall, the design on Sol Badguy in Strive is pretty inferior to his original design. The hair change and oversized jacket and pants really dont suits him, Sol Badguy was like a mix of kinks and fetishes, like a male version of Bayonetta but this new design make him looks more like a shonen character from Naruto.

I dunno, Sol has been one of my favorite videogame characters for 23 years and while the quality here is top notch, Storm really droped the ball in here.