TAKI

 Both the title Soul Calibur and its characters have an important place on the figth game comunity, for more than 25 years the tale of the two swords have been stuff of legends but somehow, that egend never arrive to the toy world. In soo long no company has ever done Soul Calibur figures aside of McFarlane that release a small collection of mini figures, based mostly on the creatures of the second game. But at last Storm Collectibles has come to the rescue and is giving us wath many fans has been wishing for soo long!!

It took them theyr times, years since the pre-order started but finally the Soul Calibur action figures are out. They didnt choce Siegfried or Nightmare or Sophitia tough, but Heishiro Mitsurugi as the start of the series and the second figure is no stranger for him: a character that has been from the very start and have a pretty strong rivalry with Mitsurugi, Taki.

Taki has been one of the most important names in Soul Calibur since the very first game in the Paystation, not only for her cool and oversexualized character design, but for her gameplay as well since she is one of the quikiest and more stylish warriors on any figth game. She is a joy to be watched and played since she is is like a scarlet windwhirl.

Also, this is pretty much my very first female action figure from Storm Collectibles, i mostly try to keep that collection as male only but i could not be able to ignore Taki, i knew i would regret later not having her in my collection and i actually doubt we seen another action figure of her ever again.

She is a little bit smaller than Mitsu and can stand on her own despite her small feet. Actually i think she can stand much better than Mitsurugi given how ligth she is and how her ankles have an extremelly flexible ball joint to adjust them. She is articuated on the neck, chest, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees, ankles and half feet as well as a simple cut joint on her pony tail to move it in one direction.

Ball joints all around, just like all other Storm Collectibles figures, with double articulation on the elbows and knees and a butterfly joint on the shoulders, but its weird to see this on a female figure, with less muscly build. Every single joint here have 100% of freedom, nothing gets in theyr way!!

Evidently, the chest makes poses with her hands together impossible, but thats pretty much the only limit she have since the simplicity of her design alows each articualtion to be used at max making this one of the most flexible Storm figures ever (Or maybe Chun Li and Cammy have the same level of freedom? I dont know, i missed them).

This is Taki´s Soul Calibur VI design, based on her Dreamcast version soo this is extremelly basic. She is really pretty looking, with a face that resemble of a doll, with her big eyes and delicate nose, tough i find her eyes not being specially expresive. The bangs of her hair as well as the pin that holds her pony tail are made with pretty soft plastic.

The...i dont know how to call it...vest....with the breast out, is also made wisth soft plastic as well as the big and cool looking demonic faces on her shoulders. Her skin dont have too much texture but the vest thingy looks like made of leather and while the metalic protection in one of her arms cannot be removed, the wrists band made with beads can be removed. Its pretty much the same Mitsurugi is using and i find that pretty weird.

The details on her back are spectacular, with a pretty intrincate design of straps and belts, she got one scabbard firmly on her back while another hanging from his back. The hanging one have such a cool design with a spyke design that looks like wings and a seal wrapped around it with with kanjis and symbols sculpted on it, its almost a shame to have such a good sculpt on her back, completelly hidden.

The front is....well, its hard not to see it. Taki is one of the most sexualized designs of Soul Calibur, along Ivy, soo she have a pair of pretty generous breasts with the nipples sculpted. I always find that detail pretty awkard, but she has been looking like this for more than 25 years soo somehow at this point it looks kinda natral, but i am sure for someone who dosnt know Soul Calibur this is a pretty hentai looking figure, maybe more in tune with Dead or Alive.

The rest of her body is on a tigth skin red suit soo theres not much detail in here aside of her abs and bellybutton. The musculature is pretty soft sculpted and maybe a stronger build would make her stand out but maybe they tough that would make her less pretty. I mean she deffinetly is not Chun Li and is natural to have a ligther build for a ninja (tough i am pretty sure is really difficult move fast with such huge boobs).

The shin guards are nicelly sculpted as well as her sandals tough the cord that ties them to her feet is much more simple than Mitsurugi´s, Taki´s attire is overall much more simple than Mitsu but i guess thats why she is much easyer to handle. Sadly this also means the articulations are much vident, specially on the waist since i seen many people complainging it looks like she is using a diapper, but theres no way to hidde this since the articulations means theres going to be openings here and there in such "nude" design.

The paint is really really good, she is pale, with a pretty clean look and also a really soft pink on her cheeks and lips. Here eyes are perfectly painted, she even have pretty tiny little eyelashes tough is pretty difficult to see them!!

Her whole suit has no paint at all and is cast on red plastic as well as her arms, have no texture or detail but the detailing comes in the small bits on her outfit. The vest thingy have an aged look, with brown and some grey wash as well as the shin guard on her legs, that have a pretty natural paitning that makes them looks like hardened leather. The knees protection and demon faces on her shoulders have also a very impresive metalic finish with a lot of rust and dirt and some small red details.

The gauntlets and bandages, the demon looking hair pin on her pony tail, the details are soo minuscule and soo perfectly painted is crazy impresive. Also the scabards on her back have some golden finish but the demonic one with wings is deffinetly the best, with a mix of red, gold and black it looks really elegant, even with the seal.

Is in the accesorys were this figure fall apart toug. She comes with 5 different áirs of hands!!! I mean Taki is deffinetly very expresive with her hands soo Storm really took advantage of that. Aside fo closed fist she comes with hands to hold her weapons, totally open hands, claw shapped hands, hands on a gesture to attract attention and hands with two finger standing. 

The two fingers hands are part of a trademark pose of Taki but the rest are extremelly helpfull as well to have more flexibility on posing her tough exchange hands is actually pretty difficult. Not only the wristsband keep in the way, but the wrists peg is soo incrediblly tiny....i am really afraid to broke them if i push in the wrong direction and they keep moving around as well.

She also comes with an extra head with an screaming expression. Actually exchange heads is very very easy and the sculpt of the open mouth is really nice and have a pretty soft pink tone inside, really different to the other characters of the brand, but....i still find the look on her eyes really blank, i really think they had to give her much more expresive eyes wich is evident specially on this head.

She also comes with her mask, made in soft plastic with a rusty copper texture and paint all around and resembling the open mouth of an oni. The mask just fit into her jaw and snd surpsiginlly, stays there as long as her head is not manipulated. Its sad to hidde her pretty face but honestly, this maks makes her looks much more cooler.

Then we got her weapons, the dual kodachi Rekki-Maru and Mekki-Maru. Both have exactly the same design, with a very simple handle painted in red and a clean grey blade, tough Rekki-Maru have a golden tip while Mekki-Maru have a black tip. 

Rekki-Maru goes on Taki´s back scabbard and is her primary weapon, used by her since Soul Edge. Mekki-Maru goes on the scabbard hanging from her back and posses a fragment of Soul Edge, wich gives it pretty strong demonic powers and is only used by Taki in a handfull of her techniques, this is why it goes inside the stylish scabbard with the sacred seal on it.

And thats it....nothing more than a bunch of hands, and extra head, a mask and her Kodachis. Nothing more at all, no effect, nothing. And thats really dissapointing...it would have been soo easy to give her some purple transparent flames for Mekki-Maru or just some yellow ones to add to the tip of each Kodachi, or even those bombs Taki always use on her low attacks, i dunno...at lasy Devil Jin had his huge wings to blame for his lack of accesorys but here i cant find any excuse.

Theres one single extra thing tough, her background ptinted in high quality material. This times is the Shrine of Eurydice: Cloud Sanctuary. This is Sophitia´s stage soo i dont know why Taki have it and while the print is good, the colros are way too dark. In the game the stage have this pretty soft colors with low contrast, pretty dreamy looking, but here the contrast is soo high the sky is dark blue.

Despite the high contrast, the blacks and dark blue contrast pretty good with Taki´s reds and browns soo i think this scenario fits her much better than Astral Chairs to Mitsurugi.

This is one of the coolest female characters from Soul Calibut and the quality of the figure is pretty high, tough i got the feeling Storm Collectibles just do the minimum here by not giving her any more accesorys or effects. Actually in 5 years they didnt show any other protoype soo i am almost sure they are done with Soul Calibur for good.

The idea of not having Ivy, Amy or any other character aside of Taki and Mitsurugi makes me really sad soo this two figures are a pretty confusing experience since they makes me very happy as well. Soul Calibur is one of my all time favorite games soo i am glad, in the end, Storm select this two for the collection. I just hope i am pesimist and they actually release more characters eventually.