KING

As a Tekken enthusiast since 1998 i always wondered why theres not much of the series on the toys department, specialy considering Street Fighter rivals with DC or Marvel in the amount of action figures, toys and collectibles they have but for Tekken the scenario has been always dry. Epoch did an amazing job releasing a very complete Tekken 3 action figures set back in 1998 and we had to wait more than 12 years for the very short Play Arts Kai line for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Five years later Storm Collectibles made our dreams come true with theyr high quality Tekken 7 action figures (tough still, they leave an awfull lot of characters out of it).

To my surprise, Bandai took the licence last year for the Tekken 8 series but for some reason i wasnt very excited when they release theyr Kazuya and Jin (maybe because of my apathy for the characters??) but that changed this year when they release Nina Williams and King. I do LOVE King, he has been my favorite character since Tekken 3 and i had no choice but to get him despite my limited experience with this S.H. Figuarts line. I only got Shampoo, Rashid and Zood on my collection.

In 1/12 scale, this King is shorter than his Storm Collectibles version tough he still one whole head shorter than Zodd (i wonder if in fact Zood is that big considering King is 200cm) but sadly i have no other Tekken charactet to measure King´s height but yhea, this figure is small.

He can stand on his own perfectly....unless he have his stupid and awfull cape on, in thsi scenario he wont stand at all since the idiotic cape is soo heavy it completelly broke King´s balance and the only way to make him stand in hunching him over the front or with a base, but given the cape size and shape i am sure a base wont work either. Anyway, just remove the cape soo King can stand perfectly.

He is articulated on the head, the neck (where the mask ends), the abs, waist, whoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knees, ankles, half feet, tail, the two yellow thingys hanging from his arms, base of the cape and theres two articulations in the midle of the sape. Thats a whole lot considering how simple is his design rigth?

Both the head and neck have ball joints soo they can move pretty good up and down and to the sides, tough the pink feathers get in the way of the sides movement a little bit, the amount of movement is really good, same for the ball joint on his abs and waist. The shoulders have ball joints and a butterfly articulation soo he can join his arms in the front but given all the pieces are made of hard plastic and how big his muscles are, this section is more restricted than i was expecting. The biceps rotate and the elbows have a double articulation and they move witha  good range of movement. The wrists tough are very restricted by the yellow bands around them soo while they rotate, they dont move to much to the sides.

The two yellow ornaments hanging from his biceps are ball jointed, just like his tail, soo they have a very good range of movement and his legs can be "disjointed" down soo they hae more freedom of movement and they can be back up in any moment. This system is pretty weird....i dont think i ever have a figure with this kind of mobile ball joint system, certainlly Zood dont have it. Still, the ass prevent the legs to go back at all. The thigh rotate and his knees have a double articulation soo they bend really good and since the knee pads are part of it is pretty confortable move them. The ankles ball joints are kind of limited tough and i have no idea why tough the half feet articulation works really good.

Now the cape...it have a hole on the top of the back side that conects with an ugly, black rod with a ball on the back of King (hidden under his ornamented collar), i think it may works as a ball joint but problem is it dosnt, the cape is just hanging there like a portrait on the nail in a wall soo the cape not only cant be possed, but each time King is touched the damn thing fall to the ground. This ugly thing also have two ball joints in the middle but the material is hard plastic, soo this ball joints cant move at all.

Sculpt is really good, the jaguar mask looks perfect, specially on the fangs parts, tough it have no texture at all. The muscle build is fantastic and the butterfly structure around his arms have the musulature sculpted in the front and the back soo the articulation is hidden most of the time. The pecs have nipples sculpted as well as veins, just like on his shoulders and biceps. pretty realistuc.

The collar is extremelly ornamented in front while the feathers have a fantastic sculpt on theyr own and can be removed, but the collar section canot be, since theres pretty obnoxious pegs on King´s shoulders that penetrates the collar piece and conect with the feathers, soo remove them whill leave King with two weird hornis coming our from his shoulders. I am not sure i like this but i guess the figure wasnt designed to be displayed without this ornaments.

One of the gloves and legs have a porous texture while the bots with the leaces sculpted independently look really nice, my favorite part is the sole that have cat paws printed on them, something i always loved from this man. The paint is perfect tough theres a lot here: a dark blue boot and a yellow boot with black leaces and some grey details while the blue pants have yellow, black and gret designs and the title KING on them. This is a very intrincate design and the paint is perfectly applied, same foe the silver ornament on his biceps with red and blue jewekks and the blue gove on his other arm with the yellow wlbow pad that reads "Anger of the beast King" in very tiny text. 

The necklace on the front is painted in silver with shiny blue, red and yellow and the golden and blue patther on the black section is perfect. The feathers have a shade of pink and white that makes them looks shine and the mask have a soft wash of white in the bottom half and black dots and yellow eyes perfectly painted, as well as the black noce, lips, pink inside of the mouth and white fangs. I deffinetly have no complaings over the pain job.

Also, the msucles have a really good soft wash of darker tones that makes the muscles stand out pretty nicelly specially under direct light, they looks very defined and even wet like a true wrestler and the skin tines is darker and sexyer than Zodd´s. The ugly cape is just black, wich is dissapointing since in the game it shines like oil, with a rainbow of blues and reds but here is just plain black, tough the silver design on the back side with the King logo looks good i guess.

He comes with two extra pair of hands as well as a single left hand: aside of the closed fist he have relaxed open hands, claw shaped hands for holds and a single left hand with his finger pointing. The sculpt and paint is perfect, with the blue and black gloves that helps make them looks different tough they are made with hard plastic.

At first i tough changue the hands would be difficult, since, aside of the yellow band around the wrists, it also have black strips hornaments that fits in between the hands and the yellow bands but for my surprise, this dosnt move too much and make the hands wap pretty easy. As a side note i gate this black strips are not articulated like the ones on the biceps, they are always pointing at the dies and they are pretty obnoxious even if they cna rotate along the hands.

Sadly, thats it, no more accesoryes than the hands. I know King dont use weapons but its rpetty dissapointing they didnt add attack effects or something...i dunno, maybe Storm Collectibles really spoiled me but i cant stop feeling there missing potential here.

There is also a background made of cardboard and have the image of the King of Iron Fist arena on it. The printing is very high quality and the color palette with electric blues and vibrant reds is really spectacular and makes King stand out pretty good and at the same time, matches the character perfectly. Its a shame tough the background comes divided in two, soo you will always have an anoying division just ain the middle. Oh well, it was the same with Rashid background.

I got the feeling this figure would be my favorite thing in the world a few years ago, before Storm release theyr own King. I hate compare them, specially because this guy is half the price of the Storm one but not only this guy is shorter, but the materials dosnt feel as good and the lakc of accesorys is really odd.

Plus that cape...i really suffered taking this picture thanks to the cape. Make it with fabric would have fixed it or soft plastic, but the cape really ruins the overall experience of this figure and thats odd given how small it is.

But aside of that, articulations are brillant, sculpt and paint are magnifisscent and this is the most festive and spectacular King we seen soo far soo its imposible for me not liking him. I guess the more Kings we get, the better and it dosnt mather the sacle or price, its imposible to go wrong with King. Problem is, now i dont know if i should get Nina, Jin and Kazuya as well....