GOENITZ

This really seems to be the year of The King of Fighters for Storm Collectibles since it has been launching a lot of figures based on this title, and thats incredibly odd given it normally take them years to release two figures of the same series. But here we have not only K´ but also Kim Kaphwan, Ralf Jones, Nameless and the boss from The King of Fighters 96; Leopold Goenitz. Along side Orochi and Rugal, Goenitz  has been the most remembered boss from the entire series to the extent he even came back for The King of Fighters XV.

He has been always one of my favorite characters despite not appearing to much in the series, but his incrediblly cheap attacks and almost godly movements really made him stand out as one of the most perfect villians/bosses for any 2D fight game. And just like Rugal, Orochi and Geese, he comes in a HUGE box that feels very "premium" compared to the rest of the figures.

Goenitz is really tall, an entire head taller than the other characters and the same high as Geese, perfect to have enough presence for a boss and he can stand on his own perfectly thanks to his huge boots, his balance is really flawless.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knees, ankles and half feet. The shoulders have a butterfly articulation and the elbows and knees have a double articulation while the rest have ball joints but this guy dosnt move as much as expected. Despite the chest area being made in soft plastic, the head dosnt tilt too much to the front thanks to collar on his jacket. Also his elbows dosnt bend as much as expected because of how thick are his arms.

The extended sleeves that cover his hands are made with soft plastic and they can rotate in the section with belts on the wrists, but despite to that they are pretty anoying to deal with when moving the hands and they deffinetly block the ball joint a little bit. While the rest fo the articulations works really good, the legs are defifnetly limited by the long jacket. The long jacket is amde with soft plastic but of course, it limits the legs a lot in the end, tough the boots can rotate and the ankles and galf feet articulatio works good.

Is not like he is static, but he is deffinetly less flexible to the other figures in this series but that dosnt mean he is not as fun as the others, he deffinetly can achive a whole lot of action posses and all his limitations are due to design of his bulky build.

This is the original 1996 design (or 1998 design as the box says) soo he is not as intrincate looking as he is in The King of Fighters XV and deffinetly not as young looking. We could say this is based on his sprite but i think it would be more accurate to say this is based on Shinkiro art. He is really handsome, like he should, with his big square jaw and perfectly shaped nose, the wide mouth have pretty soft wrinkles around to make it looks this i not a youngster but a mature man.

The sculpt of the hair at his sides and beard is pretty sort and the hair on top have a very sharp sculpt and theres a single earring on his left ear. He is very bulky but his entire outfit dosnt have too much details since is pretty simple. The wrinkles around his body looks pretty natural and his boots have a pretty cool military design but they are difficult to see thanks to his long jacket.

The lower half of his jacket as well as his chest section and the sleeves are amde with soft plastic and the matle on top of his shoudlers is made with real fabric. This matle is completelly black and is wired all around and is keep in place for a couple of golden ornaments on his chest. This cant be removed soo the mantle cant be removed as well. The material used n the mantle is very thin and elastic soo i a afraid to end damaging it or make it all lose by keep moving it and while the matle dosnt block the shoulders articulation, is a little anoying to keep moving it and molding the wire soo it looks like the mantle is flowing in the same direction as Goenitz. Tough i admit this detail is really spectacular.

Each piece is cast in the primal color soo the whole boots are cast in black plastic while the legs, torso, arms and jacket are cast in blue and they have no paint at all, shade or shines, theres just a plain prevalent color here that makes this looks a little bit simple, but this has always worked well for Storm.

The only color here is the white line in the front of the jacket and the brown belt on his waist and wrists. The color aplication is simple but effective soo most of the color is on the face. His skin tone matches the tone on his hands and the lips have a very natural looking skin tone while the icy blue eyes looks calculating and serious and they are perfectly painted and shine a little bit. The thin eyebrows are also perfectly painted as wella s the beard and hair tough the division between beard and skin is more clean than it should. The blonde hair on top have pretty soft but different dark tones so give it deepth to each strand.

Goenitz comes with an awfull lot of hands, six pairs in total: closed fist, open palms, relaxed hands, claw shaped hands, hands to hold on his book and closed hands with two fingers pointing. The sculpt is really good and they are made with soft material tough swap them is kinda tricky thanks to the long sleeves but they really help to give a lot of personality to each pose.

He also comes with a lot of heads; four in total: one with a serios and stoic expresion, another one with a mischevious smile, another one with a fierce expression showing his teeth and anther one screaming. The paint on every single one of them is completelly flawless, from the blue eyes to the tiny teeth and pink tongue. The smile head makes him looks like an asshole while the fierce looking expression is perfect for battle poses, but the screaming one is the most impresive since not only the open mouth is HUGE but the hair is all spiky at the front thanks the the air guts of his specisl movement and thise gives hima  pretty different look al together.

His other accesory is a secondary lower piece for his jacket, made in the same soft plastic material as the normal one but this ne is flowing to the left and around his legs in a very dramatic way. This piece make his legs much more easy to move deffinetly and is pretty spectacular looking. At first i was afraid it would be too difficult to swap this parts but the waist ball joint is extremelly easy to remove but strong enough to keep the two pieces together.

He also comes with his book, the Orochi scriptures. This book fits perfectly on his hands designed to hold him and while the sculpt is really good with the open pages and the paint is also flawless, theres no title on the cover and the pages are completelly empty. This make it looks very "toyish" but i gues Storm didnt give it importance since it does the job just rigth.

And finally the reason why the box is soo huge, his effect: a giant tornado product of Yonokaze, Goenitz signature move on his boss figth. This thing is actually divided in four sections: a base with lots of rings of different size and and shape interconeted and hollow in the middle, a "pilar" of hair much more thin than the base and a secondary pilar with a stylish top section that conects with the first pilar. Once the two pilars are coneted they goes inside the rings base and the last fourth section can be put on top of them; another section of different size and shape rings.

The final result is a tall pilar of air with different layers and an external set of razor shaped rings. They are all cast in transluscent grey plastic but the effect is not prettye vident since they also comes painted wth an airbrush of white and grey, soo they are more smokey looking than air. This piece is really impresive looking and quiet different to all the other effects Storm has been producing.

Oh! I almost foget!! The background scenario included is big and nicelly printed but sadly, instead of give is the KoF 96 final match scenario where we face Goenitz, they give us the Strolheim Tunnel, the same scenario that comes with Geese Howard. This was the only dissapointment in this pack since the dark green with golden color palette of it dosnt helps Goenitz to stand out particulary well.

I really regret not getting Rugal and Orochi to have the entire KoF bosses line up, but the villians of this series are always soo sexy and when i leanr they were going to make Goenitz i was 100% sure i was going to get him and i dont regret it, despite the huge box, the wntire figure and his effect are both really stelar with a bunch of accesorys to play with and make it clear how much Storm really loves The King of Fighters. Now lets just wait the next opponent...