NATHAN DRAKE

 

It was almost 10 years ago when SquareEnix launched theyr premium toy line Play Arts Kai, working with anime characters and videogame characters beyond Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. They experimented a lot....a lot...and made some really strange attemots to reach the leverl of quality theyr price represented and it was on its beginings that they pick the Uncharted lisence from Sony to release Nathan Drake from Uncharted 3.

The box of the figure show some amazing artowork but the figure itself was such a mixed bag. To begin with, Drake was a really short Play Arts Kai....i think he was the smallest with Lightning and Sheva towering over him two heads. This was an issue PAKs always had: theyr figures shrink over time while other got bigger and bigger, i never understood this.

Gladlly, Drake can stand on his own perfectly since he had no base at all. He is articulated on the head, chest, waist, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles. All articulations work perfect and gives him a huge range of movement since his outfit is really simplistc and dosnt restrict anything except the ankles. The long pants dosnt allow his ankles to move to much actually but aside of that is very fun to pose this guy.

A side note here, his shoulder articulations are extremelly ugly. This is an issue Play Arts Kai always drag around, the shoulders have a butterfly articulation soo they can move fron and back but that means they leave a huge gap between the arm and the torso and this big discconection is really troublesome for the display of the figure, even when he have his shoudlers straight.

The sculpt is...troublesome. Most of the sculpt is really nice, his muscly chest looks good as well as the texture on his shirt, details on his pants and shoes, i love the shoelace, but i find his face kind of blurry...specially on the eyes and beard texture. The beard texture just....dosnt work at all, and his eyes are a little lost tough i cant really defined if this is thanks to the sculpt of the paint.

The paint....uggggg, this is the big failure of this figure. The shoes have no painted detail at all wich is pretty cheap from Square!! The pants have some dark tones here and there but there no sence where this shadows are placed at all since they dont highlitght any detail. His shirt is the best part since it have this dirty tone all around. Looks actually VERY dirty and almost smelly.

The problem is the face... for some reason they decided to paint dark brown his entire jaw. I dont know if this is meant to be the beard of a dramatic shadow but the result is just jarring....looks almost like a kabuki actor. His eyes have the same dark brown around wich darknes them and its a shame since it hink they are nicelly defiined...under all this brown brush.

The hair is OK, soft plastic and while the sculpt is a little too soft, i am glad they didnt mess it by painting it since it alsready dosnt have the same color Drake´s eyebrows have. 

His accesoryes are a standar small gun. The sculpt of the gund looks kinda...toyish and has no paint soo it looks even more cheap, tough it can be placed on Drake´s hand or the holster under his arm. He also includes the riffle he uses on the cover of the game, black with brown details. This weapons is much better looking than the pistol since the sculpt is sharper, the materials looks more metalic and the paint is stronger.

The other accesory is the sniper riffle wich levitates between the other two in therms of quality since it looks and feels cheaper than the black riffle but much better than the pistol. Alls weapons can be placed on his hands perfectly fine and i cannot forget to also mention the different pair of hands Drake have, from fist to open hands and hands to hold his weapons, the hands exchange is pretty easy and works good.

This figure was pretty odd even 10 years ago, it had amazin articulations and some good sculpt and paint applications but it also had some poor lazy paint ops and the scale pretty much messed things up since he could not be paired with other Play Arts Kai figure. Gladlly, Lara Croft was released on this same tiny scale soo they can be put together for a dream crossover but she is much much much pretyer than Drake is.

OERBA YUN FANG

Final Fantasy XIII was such a weird game, like a shiny and impresive jewell with imperfections and a premium action figure serires as companion. While Lightning wasnt as despicable as i was expecting her to be, the character that made a big impression on my was Oerba Yun Fang, the very last character to joint the party and just like Quistis Treepe and Lulu in VIII and X, i fall in love of Fangs pretty quickly.

Not only she was pretty strong (she saves the entire Ccoon in the end) but she was absurlly pretty in the game and ultre femenin, with her raven wing black hair with blue and purple tones, her tribal tattos and crimson red lance, It was always a pleasure have her on screen, soo it was easy to buy her figure.

Part of the new Play Arts Kai line, she was a big figure tough in scale with Snow, she is shorter than him, thiner and much more lighter too. And just like Snow, she have extremelly weak ankles soo its even much more harder to make her stand, and like Snow, she cames with an ugly and useless base that dosnt help her stand (gladlly, Square get rid of those bases).

She is articulated on the head, chest, waist, elbows, shoulders, biceps, wrists, legs, knes, ankles and half feet and aside of the weak ankle movement, everything else moves fantastic and keeps the poses perfectly. Her shoulder articulations are not as ugly as Snow´s and while her wrists articulations are pretty basic and stiff, its pretty fune to pose her around.

The sculpt is OK, her face is pretty simplistic and most of the details goes to her costume, or lack of costume i say, she is barelly dressed since most of the cover comes from the blue robe wrapped aroind her body. This rove is made with sift plastic soo it dosnt get in the way of the articulations too much except on the left leg, since it almost cover it entirelly.

She got a necklas made with seashells and a hole on her chest to put the neckaless in place with a peg, but this neckaless keeps moving around soo the chest hole gets to be very intrusive visually.

The paint on her robe is really good, made with metalic and shiny blue and the simbols on the white part are perfecto. Sadlly the rest of the figure paint is not very outstanding aside of her tribal and Cie´th tatto on both her shoulders, her skin tone and face looks very lifeless.

Her hair is just a mass of blacknes and her eyes are perfectly painted and very femenine, but dosnt looks at all like Fang did on the game. Maybe is because her character model of the game is soo amazing, but she looks even more plastic than Snow do in this figure...

She dosnt have too many accesoryes either, just an extra hand to hold her spear and of course, her draconian spear. The sculpt is really good as well as the crimson colors, this spear can help her greatlly to get balance and stand and is also an incrediblly cool loocking weapon to fight.

Swnow was a little bit of a letdown but this Fang was much more a dissapointing for me. Its a shame that this is the only figure exist of such an amazing good looking character. The rest of the figure were not better tough since they all looked pretty anime and had theyr scale messed up (Hope was the same heigth than Snow) soo i just stoped getting them with Fang.

SNOW VILLIERS

 

Last entry was about the last figure that closed my Play Arts Kai collection: Gladio from Final Fnatasy XV. Now lets go backward to the past, to the very first figure that started the Play Arts Kai collection: Snow Villiers. I cant stop to feel nostalgic with this figure...the times when Final Fantasy XIII was released. I know that game gather a lot of hate but i actually loved it back then and now, 10 years later, is much more impresive than Final Fantasy XV itself in many departments.

The game wasnt perfect, sure it had its issues like a messed up narrative, linear progress and weak villians, but it still boast a lot of personality close to the core of FF. And it started the Play Arts Kai line, the premium quality action figures directly from SquareEnix.

The starting set consisted on Lightning, Snow and Vainille and of course, my main point of interest was the beedcake of Husbando Snow. He was really really tall for back there standars, a trully huge figure, tough with the time, the Play Arts got bigger soo compoared to Gladio and Nyx, Snow is no longer as bigger as it was back then. And he can stand on his own.....kinda....the thing is, his ankles articulations are very lose soo he tends to fall pretty easy and find his point of balance is not as weasy as it seems.

The figure came with this....ugly and horrible looking base with a strange "H" shape and an articulated arm with a claw in the center. The base not only was pretty ugly but didnt help him stand at all soo i got rid of it.

He is articulated on the head, chest, stomach, shoulders, niceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes, ankles and half bot as well as two extra articulations on the back of his long jacket. All this articulations works really good except the ones on the ankles, that are really lose, the rest are fine and is very fun to pose him around given the nature of the character. The best part are the articulations on the back side of his old jacket since it could be easyer to give him a one piece jacket, but instead Square divided it on secttions with movement.

Also, i hate the look of the shoulder articulations. There is a big gap between the torso and the arms, it looks very...."toyish" and this articulation was in fact an eternal issue on this line. Also the wrists only have a cut articulation soo the hands are really stiff.

Sculpt is good tough really simplistic. His half beard is sculpted tough his hair looks kinda like gum. His costume is nicelly done, the jacket have its buttons and every piece of cloth is a different scuped piece: his jacket, his vest, the chain on his waist, the blue cloth hanging from his belt, his baggy pants and the super detailed boots. Both the end sides of the jacket and the cloth from the belt are made with sift plastic soo they are nice to touch.

The only things that mess with the sculpt are the shoulder articulations and the end sides of the jacket and the sleeves, they are supposed to look old and tear apart but they looks like made of cake...

The pain is nice too, with different yellows and blue shades on the jacket and some soft shadows on his chest and face to give them volume. The blue eyes are very nice tough they are extremelly anime looking. The Lu´Cie tatto on his arm is sharp and clean. The rest of the body is cast on the color of each piece soo theres not too much paint work in here.

In the accesory department he is lacking tough since he only have a pair of extra open hands. Its easy to exchange the hands tough they are still not very expressive thans to the simple articulations on the wrist and given the nature of the character, is difficult to expect some more xtra items for him.

In the end tough, both the sculpt and the brigth colors make it looks too....anime...too cartoony. I like this figure a lot tough it dosnt looks as beautyfull and perfect as he looked in the game... the game looked soo realistic yet this figure looks almost 2D.  A fun and nice figure but with some flaws, just like the game.

GLADIOLUS AMICITIA

In 2017, with the release of Nyx Ulric, i decided to give up on Play Arts Kai entirelly, the series of figures reached a price point beyond logic tough i was still missing a few figures i wanted: one of them Gladiolus Amicitia. But years later, on a small japanese toy store i was surprised to see him there, waiting on a shelve and at release price - much more cheaper than Nyx Ulric. It was destiny.

When Gladio was released i had aother stuff to pay soo i didnt preorder it and didnt expect to find him at all after than thanks to all the bootleg wave of Play Arts Kai that flood the market since then (dear god...they are really hiddeous bootleg) soo i get Gladio without second toughs and i dont regret it.

Gladiolus Amicitia is one of the biggest and heavyest play Arts Kai, matching in size Nyx Ulric and the MGSV characters (isnt Gladio supposed to be taler than Nyx??) and he have troubles standing on his own....despite his big feet and strong frame, he tends to fall, maybe because of the shape of his feet?? Nyx have military boots and can stand much better. Tough Gladio comes with the standar weird shaped PAKs trademark base, i didnt consider using it most of the time.

He is articulated on the head, neck, chest, wrists, shoulders, elbows, waist, legs, knes and ankles, all articulations works fantastic since his outfit is extremelly simple, nothing gets in the way of his movement, except on the ankles; the pants dont let his feet move too much but thats all, everything else works fantastic and his ball joints are actually....huge.

Sculpt is really good, his mohawk hair, beard, the shape of his face, is extremelly close to the in game model. His outfit while simplistic, it have different textures; like his pants and jacket have this rugged leatherish texture while they have some soft and silky lines here and there, or the "snake" skin like boots.

The paint, again, is really simple on his costume, the pieces are cast on gun metal black with some darker tones here and there and the skull bottons. His flesh have just one single skin tone (thanks good) and have the eagle tatto printed on his arms and chest tough i dont like how the ball joints cut the tatto, i guess it cant be helped.

The beard is painted on a very natural way as well as his thick and plump lips and his brown eyes are painted perfectly and very detailed (Play Arts Kai always did a perfect job with the eyes of all theyr figures). This is the kind of figure that makes you question reality and ask youself hows possible a piece of plastic can be this handsome?

My favorite part is his hair, since is made with different strands of soft plastic, not only they dont stop his neck movement, but they also flows on his back in a very cool and seamless way. This and the soft plastic jacket makes me wish they use this same aproach with Nyx Ulric.

Gladio dosnt have too much accesoryes actually wich is no surprise given he dosnt use anything on the game either. He have just a pair of hands for gripping a sweord and a open pair that can be exchanged pretty easy thanks to his huge ball joints.

And lastly, he have his HUGE sword. I wonder if the sword have some kind of history behind or a name? The game dosnt mention anything, but this sword if the same size as Gladio (why are japanese soo obessed with giant swords anyway???) and the scult is really amazing. Not only it had a weird square shape on the end, but it also have a pretty awesome skull at the center with wings on the sides., an extremelly cool and beautifull design that wont work at all on real life. 

The paint is also very effective, black at the center, silver at the sides and metalic gold on the skull and details, this is really an impresive weapon that is actually impossible to apreciate in game. The grip of the sword can be removed soo it can be inserted on the gripping hands and later the rest of the sword can be put on place for easyer posing.

I am actually in awe that such huge accesory is soo easy to handle and used, again, i wish Nyx Kukris had this same system and not only that.....but this HUGE sword actually helps Gladio to stand since it keeps his balance....he cant stand on his own but once he have the sword on his hands, nothing can make him fall. That is a first time for me after soo many figures.

In the end this is an extremelly solid and almost perfect Play Arts Kai figure, proof that close to end the serires, Square really found its way to perfection for action figures. My only issue is the lack of accesoryes, is weird theres no extra head in here or an extra shirtless torso just like Man on Fire from MGSV but that would be ask too much maybe?? 

I dont regret this guy open my PAK collection if just brieflly, he is one of the best figures of the serires as well as the best part of the entire game.

JUN KAZAMA

When the SquareEnix Play Arts Kai line was on its hightest point, before they started to release Marvel and DC stuff like crazy and theyr prices were kind of fair, they focused mostly on videogame characters and aside of Street Fighter they also made a Tekkn Tag Tournament 2 line (with a pretty nice looking box). And they started with a classic couple from Tekken 2: Kazuya and Jun.

Jun Kazama is much shorter than Kazuya and the same size of Ryu and she can stand on her own perfectly (this was a surprise) despite her feet being smaller than Kazuya but she still comes with the anoying Hexastand all PAKs had, a base that sometimes worked and some other times it didnt thanks to the awkard shape and arm.

Jun is fully articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, boobs, waist, legs, knws and ankles as well as the shawl. Yes, her shawl is articulated and made with different pieces instead of only one piece, soo she can have total freedom on her shoulders movement. And this is the strongest point of this figure, thanks to the ball joints and simple design and, like Kazuya, her figther nature, she have an unlimited posibilitys for poses and can adopt any of the action she shows on the game.

Like Kazuya, she is entirelly made with hard plastic except her hip piece and shawl but the hard plastic on the pants block the ankles movement a little bit. Desite the material she is much more light weigth than Kazuya thanks to her small frame.

She dosnt have any of the "skin texture" Kazuya have soo her skin is really smooth looking giving her a better look than her partner. Her face is just beautifull, with the glosy and vibrant pink lips and perfect looking eyes with a soft and peaceful expression and the strads of hair covering them, Square did an awesome job with her in both sculpting and paint.

Her outfit is really simple with a birds print and very soft grey tones to give it volume. The grey tones are much more softer than those on Kazuya´s pants and looks much better, its evident less is more in this kind of thing. Her shawl issculpted in soft plastic and also have the print of a flower on the side, i really wish Kotobukiya did this kind of design print on Anna Williams.

Its evident Square did not care for this serires at all since the ony accesorys Jun have are an extra pair of hands. They are helpfull for combat poses but thats all, no extra face expressions, no combat effects or anything else wich was really dissapointing considering her price.

Also, this was the last figure of the line. Only two figures from the amazing list of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 character, wich was really dissapointing. Despite of that i am really glad they did Jun and not Heihachi, she realy deserved an action figure and this is deffinetly the best figure of her to date.

KAZUYA MISHIMA

When Harada visited the SquareEnix many years ago it was evident they were not going to make a game together but something else, a merchadise colaboration, action fiures from the Play Arts Kai line and the posibilitys were really exciting. A year later they were released the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 line with two initial figures, Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama.

This figures were kind of rare back then since i didnt see them pretty often and now i seen many looking for them since they are seeling at very high price. Thats the magic of the Play Arts Kai line and theyr awesome looking big box full of HD graphics.

Kazuya was a really impresive piece, he is from the medium size PAKs and fits with the Street Fighter IV figures perfectly. He is tall and actually really heavy and can stand on his own perfectly despite having a PAK base....ugggg those base....consist on an hexagonal plataform with an arm and a clap that fits on the figure waist. The base take a lot of space thanks to its awkard shape and is not always usefull.

This guy is fully articulated on the neck, abs, waist, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles and thats it strongest point. All ball jointed articulations works really really good and thanks to his simplistic design, theres nthing to stop his movement. Really, is a lot of fun to pose him and it seems he have unlimited posibilitys thanks to his nature as a figther.

The only part with a little bit of problems are his ankles thanks to his pants but theres still a very good range of movement. His is made with soft plastic as well as his belt soo it dosnt block his leg movement. The rest of the figure is made with hard plastic.

His dace expression is really perfect, evil and stoic and the details are great like his lips and the scar and this level of sculpt continue to his entire body full of veins and scars. Tough i find his chin a little to thin actually, is easy to see Kaxuya in here but the face sculpt is not entirely realistic thanks to his face shape (and the hair dosnt help). The strongest point is deffinetly the eyes, they are pretty impresive.

The pants have a good sculpt as well with the classic embrodiment with flames on the sides and this details is sculpted inside the knes too soo you can bend his knes and dont cut the flames design.

The paint tough i am not very sure. The details like the flames, gloves, belt, are certainly perfect, but the pants have a lot of grey washes and tones to artificially create shadows and the end look is kinda weird. Same for his skin, they give it a lot od darker tones and brushes to highlight the shape of the muscles and scars but it dosnt looks very natural to me. The only place were this shadows work perfectly are his eyes since it gives them a pretty deep and menacing look.

I dont know why Square wanted soo much to articicially create shadows. This is not the worst example (that being Kratos or Nathan Drake) but it deffinetly makes the figure to look dated compared with the Storm Collectible figure. That why i was this figure "was" impresive, but now thanks to the hard platic material and weird painting it looks unnatural.

And the accesoryes, sadly this is the most lacking part compared with all other Play Arts Kai. Poor Kaxuya aside of his base only have an extra pair of open hands for fight stances. This was really dissapointing considering the price. He dont use weapons but Square could have give him attack effects and extra face expressions like the Street Fighter guys but they were not very interested on Tekken after all.

Despite not being perfect this is one of the best action figures of Tekken to date and both looks and play fantastic. Also is hard to resists when they give such a comic book super hero buid to the already hunky Kazuya.