VON LYCAON

A couple of weeks ago it was Zenless Zone Zero second birthday. Time sure flys and i find hard to belive i been playing it for soo long and is kind of perplexing too it took them soo long to release this Von Lycaon figure. Von Lycaon was one of the reasons why i started playing ZZZ, i remember all the hype around him years before the game came out and how exciting it was to finally meet him in game and he is still one of my main characters to use since i am a sucker for werewolfs and his design really push the rigth buttons on me.

Now, a year ago i review another Lycaon figure but that one wasnt mine, it was a friend´s figure, but this one here is all mine and part of my collection and pretty much the second merch of ZZZ i have in my hands. Crafted by Apex Toys, a pretty classy and high end brand of figures i am not very familiar with, this company has been releasing high quallity statues of the ZZZ characters for the last two years, very expensive statues and eventually, pretty difficult to find too because how limited is theyr distribution.

Soo far they release The Cunning Hares - Anby, Nicole Demara, Billy Kid, Nekomata -, The Criminal Investigation Special Responde Team - Jane Doe -, The Stars of Lyra  - Astra Yaoi, Evelyn Chevalier - and Victoria Housekeeping - Alexandrina Sebastiane, Ellen Joe, Corin and finally, Von Lycaon. 

This lupin semi-human is 1/6 scale soo is quiet big and fits perfectly with Hot Toys, Sideshow, IconiQ, Tunshi and other brands of high scale figures soo the size really helps to bring all details to life in pretty good quality. Of course, he cant stand on his own since his legs have such an odd design and his tail is super heavy, but he comes with a circular transluscent and very shiny base with metal posts that fits pretty feep n his legs and keeps him standing perfectly. Also as a statue, theres absolutelly no articulation in here but theres no asembly either.

Aside of very tall and very heavy on the back side, this animal is very handsome as well and have a sculpt that perfectly capture Zenless animation style. The pose is very manly and stoic, with Lycaon standing strongly with his legs open while he.....stretch his muscle arms?? At first i didnt understand wath he is doing but it seems to be he is getting ready to figth while tightening the belts around his fist/arms. Its a little strange pose that represents better a boxer character than a fighter than use musclt his legs to fight - like Lycan - but i guess it shows his combatibe nature nicelly.

The scult is fanfastic. The snout have the rigth size (since in some figures sometimes is very short or sometimes too long) and his mouth is actually sculpted. The hair in the front have a very stylish and spectacular sculot with perfectly defined strands that curls in the end and the spiky hair in the back looks soo cool.

The shoulders are really wide while the waist is really thin and the detils like the buttons on his vest or the sticths on it are finelly sculpted, while the metalic plates on his back have a....we.., metalic texture while his best and shirt feels a little more rugged. His ass is very round and again, the metalic plates on his ass and around his hips have a shiny metalic texture while the pants are a little more rugged but not too much, soo the figure looks clean enough to looke like an anaimation.

I got the feeling the left hand that is being stretched is turning a little too much to the front....i mean, i cant turn my hand that moch in that pose but in the end, this is an anime wolfman, i guess he is much more flexible than an average human being. The tail sculpt is really spectacular, heavy like i said, but the way the tail curls around him makes the strands looks more like fire tongues.

Also, all the belts are completelly independant sculted elements puts over Lycan and this makes them stand out and generate theyr own shadow in a very natural way and not only that, they are made of soft plastic oo the belts on his hands feels like soft rubber as well as the belt net around his tail and the end sections can be moved around. If not afraid to damage the paint it could be posible to remove all the belts seen over him.

His prostetic legs have the most complex sculpt of the entire figure with with a very intrincate mechanical design on both the frint and the back side that looks designed by Yoji Shinkawa himself. Seriuslly, the high heels remidns me Raiden way too much and the mechanical inner workings seen behind the knee is really striking.

The paints is also very complex with this sections having nine different colors of black and grey that make each section stand out from the other quiet nicelly ad some sections have a gradient of black that make shadows to each piece as well as some details, like the orange lines in front and the little warning signs at the sides or the golden ring on the ball of the knee, the paint is just brillant.

And while the belts are all plain black with metalic grey buckle in the end, Lycaon suit have the same finish as his legs, with dakr grey on his pants with a darker airbrush on top to generate shadwos and a lighter grey on the vest. The gloves are plain black with the golden knukles and metalic grey bolts and theres actually a crimson red scarf in front but is completelly covered by his arms and thats a shame because this is the only colored section that accentuates his design.

Both the shirt and the fur are completelly white and looks incrediblly clean (i am guessing he is going to atract a lot of dust tough) tough the tail tips have a black airbrush while the cpiky hair on the back of his head have some black tips painted in cell shading style. The bangs on the front also have this black sections as well as the tips of his ears.

The nose is painted in shiny black and his mouth is also painted with a black line and the eye looks almost printed on the plastic with his shiny red pupil, the only element that broke the black and white color palette.

Tough theres no accesorys, his base is more complex that it looks since it comes with a secondary optional section that resembles a giant roll of film. The film windows can be seen on the sides and back while the front reads "WELCOME TO NEW ERIDU WHERE HUMANITY RISES A NEW! on top of a pale blue color while at the other side the film forms a flap with the logo of San-Z Studio. Who is San-Z Studio? Well, inside the game is a toys shop that lets you buy figures to display in your virtual room soo this figure seems to be one of theyr creations tough in real life, San-Z is actually the composer of the soundtrack of ZZZ.

The under side of the film roll have the same logo while the top side have the actuall film sculpted inside the metalic can and the circular transluscent base fits in here pefectly like a glove soo you have Lycan standing on a cristaline cover on top of the film. Looks really good and unique and fits the game perfectly since the films are the actual currency of the game to buy the characters, tough i got the feeling the flap is very delicate and also this seconday base make Lycaon even taller than he actually is.

And lastly, the figures comes with another off items that looks like some kind of acrilyc cookie that is actually.....i am not sure, an acrilyc standee? It pretty much is a pale blue acrilyc square with an second transluscent acrilic square with a corcilar identation in the middle where an acrilyc disc with Lycan artowkr fits perfectly and another pale blue acrilyc swuare with a window in front goes on top like some kind of plastic sandwich with blue bread. To keep all this in place they included transluscent bolts and washer that goes on four points. once secured this looks like....a floppy disk?

Theres arrows and little signales that make this looks like a floppy disk and the dark bottom section have the shadow of Lycan inholografic paint while the window in the center showcase Lycan artowkr with some more holographic details while his name on top shines. They also included a little chain that goes in place of one of the bolts soo it can be used as a keychain maybe but i find this thing way too heby and delicate to use it that way, tough the center disc turns around soo Lycna cab be seen in any angle and reveal some more of his artwork tough never reveals it entirelly.

This thing is elegant, clean and looks very retro futuristic and maybe more importantly; is very interesting to look at since its very difficult to describe or even know wath it is but in the end, is nothing but an acrilyc decoration, a very nice extra to find here.

As much as i like ZZZ i would only buy a handfull of characters in this collection; Banyue, Manato, Pan Yinhu, Ben Biggers, Anton, but i doubt Apex Toys release them and if they do its going to take them ages soo i am in peace at the moment with this collection, if those characters never come out i am happy owning only Lycaon, specially at this level of high quaity.

MAYOR

 I love The Nightmare Before Christmas. When i was a kid that movie was my main fixation and obsession and not only show me a new way of animation and a new face of Disney (that never saw again) but turned me into a follower of an specific director for the first time; Tim Burton. And while the toys Hasbro did in the 90s were pretty much my favorite ones and i took them with me averywhere, it wasnt until NECA release they action figures series that i found the ultimate version of the characters in plastic form.

But long before NECA and while Hasbro was doing his thing, in Japan there was this company called Jun Planing that released the first figures of the movie in that part of the world. For the longest time i hear theyr figures are the best ones yet based on the work of Tim Burton and i must admit, theyr Corpse Bride figures looks beyond perfection but i was never able to afford theyr products, specially since now they are deffinetly discontinued.

In the end i take a chance and got The Mayor from theyr 1/6 scale figures. Aside of the box being damn pretty, this is in scale with Hot Toys, Sideshow, ThreeZero, Asmus, Mondo and other premium high quality brands and just like them, this Mayor have real fabric clothes. And just for reference, The Mayor is a small guy that reaches the chest of a standar human being or the belly of a Predator but his hat is HUGE and goes beyond the 8´ mark. 

For startetes, he cna stand on his own perfectly and thats a HUGE plsu given how small are his feet and his round shape, this gigure shows an impresive balance and i think this is the very first time i see a figure of The Mayor standing on his own. He is articulated on his neck of course, but also the shoulders, elbows and the left wrists and thats it. Honestly with this character design is pretty difficult to articulate him since any articulation on the legs would destroy his balance soo this is the maximum movement one can get in this guy.

I am not sure how the shoulders are articulated, i think they are ball jointed since they open very nicelly but the jacket make the arms be back at the starting point soo i got the feeling the shoulders articulations are kind of delicate. The elbows have a one direction joint and botht the head a wrists can rotate.

The sculpt is really magnifiscent, the texture on the hat is on point with the one on screen and the shape on the face and huge mouth size and eyes are also perfectly sculpted as well as each one of the big teeth. Really, this character is extra cartoony but not always they manage to sculpt the rigth proportions....just like Diamond Sleect did. The hands are funny looking and the spider bow tie and the ribbon on his chest looks terrific!!

His pants have a pretty good fabric texture as well while the shoes are simple, sculpted, but still just plain black. The pants are grey with light gray lines and both the red onf the ribbon with MAYOR written inside as the spider on his neck are perfectly painted and stand out a lot. The color of his arms is consistent with the color of his happy face and he have red fingernails.

Each teeth have a black line to divide them and the soft punk gums as well as the spiral aya are perfectly painted. The other face with the white skin and blue lips and fangs and bulging eyes is soo good looking i am not sure wich one display.

The jacket tailoring is really high quality, specially on the tiny and perfect buttons in front and the neck build. The fabric is thin and is made with velvet wich makes it feel really elegant but i am afraid it will be a dust magnet. The sleeves are kinda lose but that soo they dosnt limit the arms articulations and the end part of the sleves have a wire to open them or wrap them around his wrists. Its seems the jacket could be removed but the ribbon keept it in place.

He has no accesorys aside of his megaphone. The design and color of the item is very simple but effective and have an extra hand attached to it soo the left hand must be removed to swap it with the megaphone hand. Tough the shoulder articulation is not strong enough to keep the megaphone up and sometimes this item make The Mayor lose his balance.

While the figure is really huge, is completelly hollow soo it makes me anxious to consider how resistant that spheric body and hat coud be is he lose balance tough the fact is soo light deffinetly help the figure.

Overall, i always considered the NECA mayor as the ultimate figure of the character and while that one have a toon of accesorys, this one is much better on every possible level and thats quiet impresive considering this is a 1998 figure. This is the closest i can get to own an actual replica of a puppet from the movie.

This collection is not that big tough, aside of this guy theres Jack, Sally, Ooogie Boogie, Dr Flinckenstein and Lock, Shock and Barrel and while i like Jack and Sally, i seen them hundreds of times already but i am very excited to get Lock, Shock and Barrel.

DEVILMAN

 Its been a long time since the last adition to the Devilman collection because, despite how well known he is now thanks to Netflix, toy companys leave the license completelly a long time ago. But there was a time when Toy R´Us and other places where full of Devilman figures and products and i remember seen them in awe throght the PC screen, when i was a teen.

One of the figures i saw back then was Medicom Real Action Heroes Devilman, a 1/6 scale figure that was considered one of the most expensive merchadise of the characters and after 25 years of seen images of such figure, against all my expectations, i finally was able to get him!!

Its odd to see how simple looking is th box of this figure despite being a limited edition (number 989 from ???) and how this was (or still is??) Medicom more expensive and premium line but i guess this was in line of how this figures looked in last century - 1997 to be more precise.

Like i said, this is a 1/6 scale figure soo he is really big and the same size as modern figures of Hot Toys, Sideshow, Asmus, ThreeZero and he have no base and can stand on his own....sometimes, since his articulations are kinda loose soo its just a matter of find the rigth balance spot and he can stand with no problem tough i dont know for how long, soo its best to use a base with this figure.

He is articulated in the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, legs, knees and ankles and all of them use ball joints soo they have a big range of motion or at leats the head, waist and knees and ankles does, they turn around nicelly and tilt in different directions tough the legs articulations are restricted by the pants and the elbows...for some reason they dont move to the sides too much.

Also, i got other Medicom figures, Real Action Heroes actually, and the materials used on theyr bodys are really cheap and break pretty easy and given how old is this Devilman, i am really afraid the plastic used on the articulations just turn into dust if i aply too much force to it.

Actually this figure is soo strange i am not sure i can explain how it is build....is basically a base body with big transluscent plastic ball joints on each section and is completelly modular because each section can be removed and dismembered. Is pretty strange but then again, i am afraid soo much removal of sections can damage the plastic pegs.

Then, covering the each section, there is a plastic "skin" with the sculpture of Devilman, soo in reality this feels like....a dummy generic figure with a Devilman costume? I dont know and i really dont know if other Medicom figure worked like this but i got the feeling this was the first try to make a figure like the modern TB League figures: a metalic articulated eskeleton with a soft plastic skin to cover all articulations.

This seems to replicate the basic idea but its not made correctly since the articulations are very much visible and the only nebefit here is the skin texture with the soft plastic. The sculpt is nice tough, despite the material theres a lot of wrinkles and life like details here, like veins on the arms and chest and hair on his abs. The hands are totally made of soft plastic soo they are pretty soft and realistic to the touch tough they are useless to hold any kind of accesory.

The head is the best part deffinetly, the sculpt is on point with Go Nagai art style and character design with his wing structure looking completelly irregular and very organic looking, with the pointy horns, wide eyes and giant mouth full of fangs. The upper fangs are protunding and the way the fangs follow the mouth shape make it looks like a piranha and the tongue is sculpted behind them.

The paint is really good too, with the skin tone looking very solid and the fangs in yellow stand out agains the red of the inside of the mouth. The eyes are yellow too with red veins aroudn them and while the rest of the head is black it does have red airbrush around that makes the wings reflect the ligth very nicelly despite the "all black" image it have.

Sadly,, the skin tone of the rest of the body is ligther than the face color but i am not sure if thats how it was made or if the march of time affected the color of the body thanks to the soft material. The torso is pretty muscly tough it also have in-human features like the protunding ribcage and the opening section on the chest. The hairs sculpted on the back and on his abs is very nice as well as the open scars on his shoulders.

The body have different tones of skin colors, airbrush of softher and lighter tones with darker ones to give volume to the musculature and some artofocial shadow. It looks good in close inspection actually and the part that stands put more are the hairy bits.

The hairy legs tough.....instead of sculpting them, Medicom decided to give him pants, literally, black velvet pants. This limits the legs articulations but while i understand the effect they try to give it, they looks too much, well....like pants. Also they have a tail made with soft plastic in the back but its not articulated and just hand in the back, while the material helpt it flow a little bit to make it looks natural, i wish it was wired.

The only accesory this figure have are his wings but Medicom wanted to be really inventive as well in here and instead give us a set of plastic wings, they made a steel plate covered in back velvet. Put the wings on is really difficult since theres two cuts on Devilman back and the metal plate must be slide on them but the plates are really sharp like a blade!! Not only they cat cut fingers pretty easy, but i am afraid they also cut the soft plastic skin of the figure as well!!

Once instaled the wings plate cna be shaped in different ways and while the idea is pretty good, the wings are actually extremelly small. They looks very "toy-ish" and the black velvet material looks kinda cheap.

Its odd because this figure is full of pretty inovative ideas like plastic skin covering the figure articulations and vendable metalic wings but it seems they didnt had the technology back then to full fill all this ideas. And despite the funny looking pants and small furry wings, the body sculpt is really good and the head looks fantastic as well and in the end, this is pretty much the only Devilman in 1/6 scale to ever exist.

Compared to wath IconiQ Studio is doing rigth now with Street fighter or Tunshi with Samurai Shodown, or Hot Toys and other 1/6 scale brands are doing, this figure looks pretty cheap, rough and rugged, but somehow.....that fits Go Nagai art style and his characters and i got the feeling back in 1997 this figure was incrediblly impresive and advanced for its time.

In the end this figure looks like a pretty old and vintage japanese toy but it really thats wath it is, a product of its time and i am happy that, after seeing images of it for 25 years i finally can touch it and play with it (tough i am afraid to broke it and i am sure those pants and wings will get extremelly dusty pretty fast) and despite its faults, this is one of the cloest representations i ever seen of the core design of Devilman.

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.