LARA CROFT

 Its hard to belive but its been five years already since the last game of Tomb Raider and theres no trailer or info about a new game yet and made me wonder if Lara Croft finally stoped being as relevant as she was in the 90s. Maybe modern gamers ask more now? Or maybe Lara´s new design made her lost wath made her speciall? Tough i hope the classic archeological adventure never stops being popular since its one of my favorites but its been quiet some time since Uncharted ended as well....

But in the peak of its popularity, Lara Croft gives us some really amazing figures and toys to play with, like the Playmates original statues or the NECA action figures. But the last trilogy of Lara´s adventure bring with them Special Editions that included great figures. The first game came with Lara´s Play Arts Kai while the second; Rise of the Tomb Raider, came with this statue.

Part of the Special Edition of said game, this statue is deffinetly not small. With base included she is twice a modern action figure and as tall as the GECCO statues and thanks to the big base that cant be removed, she stands saffely. Tough i have to say that huge circular base really take out an awfull lot of space.

Displaying Lara Croft at the middle of her adventure in the snowy montain, this image could be perfect for the (way to ugly )cover of the game. We got Lara stansing on the rocky terrain, very well equiped with her bow, arrows, a rope, a knife, a revolver, two ice axe and a flare, while the chill wind moves her hair.

The pose fits her perfectly and have enough movement and dynamism to not be boring. The jacket and pants have a pretty sublte fabric texture but not too much, and i find it odd that she have her neck soo exposed in such a cold enviroment. But the best detailed parts are deffinetly the smallest, like the boots, they looks pretty amazing,  as well as the gun and arrows on her back.

The flare is made with transluscent orange plastic and the bow´s string is a real string. This small bits make this figure looks and feel much more natural.

Lara´s hair have a pretty good flowing sculpt, with every string perfectly defined. But i am not very sure about her face....is not like she is ugly, but i cant see Lara face fatures here. I am not sure of its the lack of expression or texture on her skin, but she dosnt looks too much like Lara Croft for me. Maybe is the shape of her face tough, a little two round of the sculpt of the eyes.

Ot maybe is the paint. The soft pink lips are good looking but her eyes are a little too simple...and perhaps a little too high as well? They are painted above the sculpt of the eyes soo it looks like she have big bags under the eyes. The dirt and blood on her face is nicelly painted tough as well as her hair, with different tones of brown.

Her greet jacket and pants have almost no paint at all and looks really plain. Theres some broken bits on her pants but they forggot to paint them as well but the golden mottif on the bow and the colors on the feathers in the arrows are perfectly painted. They even add some orange paint on the pal of her hand soo it looks like the flare is reflecting light. Pretty impresive attention to detail here!!! But again, only on the smallest sections.

There is a soft cover of snow on her jacket and pants and this are pretty much the only elemenst that makes them looks detailed but there is also blood, dirty and more snow on her hands and other sections.

Maybe this is all thanks to the character design but Lara Croft was soo easy to identify in the 90s and 2000s, but in here, someone who never played Rise of the Tomb Raider would have problems recognizing who this is. Theres no color palette or any other clue that tie her to her old design and i am glad she is not as cartoony sexual as she used to look, but sometimes realism can make some really dull characters.

Its weird....i think this is a very cool looking figure that looks great on any shelf of a female explorer but at the same time i find it kind of dull or boring...this is not the most memorable design of Lara and her lack of expression or any kind of face feature makes her even more plain looking.

But as part of a pack is not bad at all and she have enough to be really good looking on any adventure collection under the rigth ligth and distance.

LARA CROFT

After Playmates did an awesome job doing figures of the original 90s Tomb Raider trilogy, NECA took the torch and made some figures of Lara based on her reboot on the PS2. Really good figures actually but i sadly, didnt get them. Later, when Tomb Raider was rebooted once more by Square, it was this same company that started building Lara figures on its Play Arts Kai line.

The very first one is actually very special because, despite this Play Arts Kai being soo expensive (over priced actually) this specific figure was totally free!! She came with the Tomb Raider special edition pack alon side litographies, posters, DLC, and OST and a comic book. Rigth now i find it hard to belive that a figure like this was given for free for those who get the game, its a shame such good times are gone for good...

Lara is in the smallest scale of the Play Arts Kai spectrum, she is shorter than the Resident Evil or Final Fantasy characters but since she is all alone, i guess theres no problem with the scale. Also she is in perfect scale with Nathan Drake soo i am perfectly happy with that. She can stand on her own perfectly and dosnt comes with any base.

She is turbo articulated: her head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles, boot and her ponny tail. Each one of this articulation works fantastic and have a big range of movement, thanks to Lara´s simple outfit, pretty much she can achive any pose without broking her silhouette. Also, thanks to her light frame, she is really good at keeping her balance and not falling down.

The sculpt is really good, based on her last reboot, she is just using her cargo pants and a plain shirt with lots of bandages and a green necklace. Her face is pretty, REALLY pretty. This may be one of the prettyest figures Square released if not the cutest, with those thick lips, its easy to recognize her.

The paint has been always the weak spot on Square but this time around is really good. Her soft pink lips and big almost anime eyes are smoth and perfect and makes her look like a model. Tough the rest of her body is really dirty, with mud all over it and some blood, her face is a little bit too clean if you ask me but is nothing to be worryed to. Also her shirt, thanks to the different grey tones and soft browns, looks like is weet and tigth over her torso.

I am really impressed with both the sculpt and paint in this figure, is trully perfect.

She is equiped with an army of little hands to hold all her accesoryes and they can be exchanged pretty easy. She is heavylly armed tough and comes with a standar pistol, that can fit on the holster on her leg, a shotgun that fits on the holster on her back, a piolet used to climb, tough Lara uses it as weapon, and finally a bow and an arrow.

The pistol and shotgun are nicelly sculpted and fit on her hands perfectly, but my favorite weapons must be the piolet and the bow. I love the piolet design and its strong red color, it stands out over Lara pretty nicelly. The bow is really spectacular tough since its all made with hard plastic, is really tricky for Lara to hold it. The arrow is also rpetty tricky since the plume needs to fit in between her fingers, but with patience it can be done.

Overall, the quality of this figure is really impresive and if we consider it had the best price on the world (it was FREE), this makes her probablly the best Lara Croft action figure. Mmmmm...OK i am not sure if its the best tough considering she is heavylly redesigned, but she is deffinetly one of the best Play Arts Kai for sure.

Years later Square released another Lara, in a bigger scale and in her winter outfit and with a crazy high price, soo this one keeps being the winner for me. Besides she looks terrific along side Nathan Drake and thats good enough for me.

LARA CROFT

With Tomb Raider being soo crazy popular at the end of the century, Playmates not only was able to make a big collection of figures based on each game, but they also did a trilogy of deluxe figures based on the original trilogy of games, sometthing that really beneffits the display.

The third figure of the collection, based on Tomb Raider 3 of course, is all about alines and the Area 51, the most popular level of the game and have a pretty different color palette and is deffinetly the most "actiony" scene of the series.

This time Lara is smaller, but this is thanks to the pose since she is not standing still but runing. She is articulated on the neck, shoulders and elbows wich hels to give her a couple of different poses but nothing more. She cant stand on her own tough again, she is tigthly standing on her base thanks to screws on her boots.

The sculpt is really good, pretty faithfull to the model of the game, she almost looks squareish in some parts. Its almost easy to see the triangle boobs on her. The paint is also fantastic, pretty clean and strong giving her a vibrant looks and the details are all perfect, even the piercing on her belly button.

Instead of the green tank top and short, she is using a grey tank and camouflage pants, blue pants. She looks more fitting for a stealth missing but not too much since she is still pretty light on the equipment department. The different materials are gone tough, the holsters are now fully plastic as well as her hair and gone are her soft transparent glases.

She comes with her standar silver guns tat fits on the holsters but she also comes with a pair of uzis. She can hold all her weapons on her hands this time tough wich adds a little of customization to the display.

The base is really good looking, with with a clossing door - and Lara´s feet coming from it - lots of signs, red lights, the Area 51 logo and gunshots and explosion marks. Theres even empty shells on the floor and everything is perfectly sculpted and painted. Again, this is the most action oriented statue of the collection.

While i miss the soft hair and holsters and i am not of a fan of the grey urban color palette, is hard not to like all the details on the background and the dynamic pose. Out of the 3 figures i am not sure wich one is my favorite...probablly the one from the first game since its the basic image of Lara (green top and shorts on the jungle) but Playmates did a great job giving each game its own diorama, all very different but sharing the same high quality.

LARA CROFT

At the end of the century Tomb Raider was extremelly popular even tough the games were kinda....awkard, even for back then standars, but wath made them popular was the heroine Lara Croft, a character that is still remembered now even with a lot of new versions of her around. Back then too, Playmates made a lot of action figures based on her and they did a great job adding dioramas and playsets as well.

I never own any of the "standar" figures but instead i got the "deluxe" figures that were more like statues. The figure of the first game had Lara on her original outfit surrounded by ruins on a jungle but the figure based on the second game was very different.

This Lara from Tomb Raider 2 its on the same huge scale of the first one but unlike the first, this one cant stand on her own thanks to the pose of her legs, tough in the base she will never fall thanks to screws on her feet, but....she somehow is leaning to the left, i dont know if its because of the material or the time.

Despire this leaning issue she is pretty much perfect, with the imposible curvy shape, huge eyes and big lips, a design 100% from the 90s, the sculpt is solid, really perfect and the paint is sharp and clean, perfect for a cartoon character like this. She is articulated on the neck and shoulders only soo she is even more statuesque than the figure of the first game, and again, her hair is cast on sift plastic soo the her braid dosnt get in the way of the head movement.

The leather hostlers and metal bucklet are now gone and are made of plastic, and her guns can be removed tough she cant hold them on her hands. Instead she is holding a harpoon, a much bigger weapon with great detailing but that cannot be removed from her hand.

She is also using a grey and blue swimsuit with the logo of Sola on it and sporting a more relaxed and casual pose, perfect to show her rock abs.

The base is a dock scene from Venice, with barrels underneath and one and a half wall surrounding her. The sculpt and paint are really good on it, i like a lot the cracks on the paint and the barrels underneath show how much Playmates care for details and to make the display as spectacular as they could. The logo of the game is this time behind her instead of the front (and yes, theres dust around the rope on the floor, this figures has been with me for 23 years).

Overall, a pretty excelent figure for the character, with the same quality of the first game figure but with a very different athmosphere thanks to the color palette and pose. I wish i could change her guns for the harpoon and the leaning detail is anoying, but despite this she looks fantastic on display even 23 years later.

LARA CROFT

This is deffinetly the oldest subjetc on this blog (tough that could change)!! In 1996 Tomb Raider enjoyed a popularity that soo far never had again. Lara Croft was a star and as such she had a lot of action figures, tough the quality of this figures was really good thanks to Playmates, the people behind the Teenage Ninja Turtles.

Playmates released action figures that included not only accesoryes, but a diorama display like a playset, including enemies and even vehicles. It was pretty impresive back then tough i never had any of those. Instead i got the big scale deluxe figures that didnt uncluded enemies but had a much bigger scale.

Lara Croft is really big, as big as a modern Play Arts Kai, wich made her gigantic for back then scale. She can stand on her own tough theres no reason to remove her from the base since it helps a lot for the display. In fact she is united to her base with screws soo she is pretty sturdy.

She is articulated on the legs, neck, shoulders and elbows, pretty minimal articulations was the standar back then and only let her get a couple of good looking poses but she is almost like a statue. The sculpt is really good, pretty damn close to the game model, with the long legs, super thin waist and huge boobs, big eyes and lips, in a very cartoony design.

The color is minimal tough since each piece is cast in the main color, soo this give her a pretty vibrant and clean look, again very good for such a cartoon style and each colored section (like the eyes) is perfectly defined and clean. Her hair and glases are made with soft plastic soo her braid dosnt get in the way and her head moves with freedom, also the glases are transluscent.

The holster of her guns is also made with soft plastic soo it gives a look of leather and the buckle on her belt is real metal. For a "kids" toy for havins soo many different material in such a huge scale was really a luxury, this was trully a delixe figure back then.

Her only accesoryes are her silver guns that can be removed from her hands and fit on the hostler, but theres not too much point of doing it.

Her base is as awesome as expected, with part of a wall, a column with ivy and a giant stone with the title of the game in front of Lara, the base is both well sculpted and have a great painting, this time in a no-cartoony way but with different shades and shadows. This is supposed to be the jungle soo i wish it had a little bit more of nature on it but i dont know...it still looks really good.

Overall, maybe this figure looks a little simple compared to modern figures but for those who played Tomb Raider in 1996, this figure is like an exact copy of the image we had of Lara back then and thanks to her great base and huge scale, she stands out in a spectacular way in any videogame collection.