AKIRA YUKI

In the begining of the 90s Capcom and SNK battled each other to refine the fighting game genre but at the same time Sega was there, tough instead of fighting with them, it took things to a totally different alternate reality with Virtua Fighter, the very first 3D fighting game and one of the very first 3D games at all. Watch those huge polygonal characters in the arcade screen was an spectacle worth to be seen and for a long time, Virtua Fighter took the spothlight each time it had a new game, taking a lot of attention to Soul Calibur, Tekken or Dead of Alive....at least until 2008, when Virtua Fighter 5 came out on the PS3 and then, suddenly, it just dissapeared...

Last year Sega released a remake of that very last game of the series, but in the last 15 years Virtua Fighter has been mostly a pretty distant shadow surrounded by Bloody Roar or Rival Schools, soo was actually shocked to see Storm Collectibles actually get the licence to create action figures based on the remake. Unexpected but pretty good news and i didnt doubt a second to pre-order the very first figure: Akira Yuki.

Akira is shorter than Paul and King but taller than Ryu and Haohmaru from Storm, but not that much soo he is a middle sized man (180cm says the box actually) and he cna stand perfectly on his own. Actually, he have an amazing balance and is even able to stand in one single foot!!! This may seem like something random but no other Storm Collectibles figure can do that with no base...actually not many figures of any scale can do it either.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, legs, knes, ankles and middle feet. All ball joints and doule joints on the elbows and knes soo each articulation have a big range of movement. Like always, the chest piece as well as the hips are made with soft plastic as well as the top of his dogi soo thers literally nothing to stop his movement. 

Special note here are the feet, since his bagy pants cover a lot of the side of his feet, just like Kazuya Mishima´s pants, but while Kazuya´s pants are made with hard plastic (soo blocking all his ankle movement), Akira´s pants have a small section at the end of his pants made with soft plastic, soo the ankles can move by the sides with all freedom. The weird thing is that this extra section is actually present as well on the character model of the game, soo it game accurate!!

The sculpt is really good, just like evetyhing Storm Collectibles make. Akira´s build is muscular but much more lean than characters like Ryu or Demitri (more realistic i guess??) his torso is particulary good looking and can be seen by removing his dogi in a pretty easy way.

The texture on his dogi is really nice too, and looks and feel like thick fabric despite being two different materials (hard plastic on the legs ans soft plastic on the top) and the pants are extra baggy and all wrinkles give it a heavy look. His face is really good looking with his characteristic "Guile" hair stylem with the flap of hairs at the sides, strong jaw and pointy eye brows tough i am afraid dust can be very nasty with that pointy hair of him.

His bandana is really long but it can be removed in the back side and its made with soft plastic soo technically is also articulated. My favorite part is his belt, with kanjis in front and 3 white lines  and the paint helps a lot with the dark paint and the bringht orange of the kanjis. I simpresive how such delicate and tiny symbols are soo perfectly painted at this scale.

His dogi is white...and thats it, with some soft grey brushes to give it volume and shadows but nothing too instrusive. His torso is cast on flesh color soo theres no paint on it except on his nipples and like always, thats gives him a pretty natural and whole look.

The hair is just plain black tough the application is perfect, just like his eyes. The eyes are beautifull and brown, with a steel look full of determination and strenght and i love the small scar on his cheek. Tough i really dont like the mouth....the painted his lips purple for some reason and this attract all attention to them but also makes them look smaller than they actually are and change his face structure a little bit. I dont understand why they did such a thing since Storm has always did a great job painting really natural looking lips in this scale.

Tough he comes with two extra heads. One with an open mouth and another shouting with a fierce expression. Both looks very similar but you can see the differences with a close inpection and they can be exchanged pretty easy. Also each head comes with theyr own bandana, soo you dont need to keep using the same one. Is extraordinary how the paint application is the same in all 3 heads, the eyes looks the same as well as the small scar on his cheek, but the mouth is completelly fixed here since theres no putple lips no more!! The teeth and tongue inside the mouths are sculpted and perfectly painted with a soft pink and overall, this two extra heads looks much more like the Akira of the game deffinetly.

He also comes with four extra pair of hands that can be exchanged pretty easy. Aside of the closed fist he have another pair with flexed fingers to hit with the side of his hand, he also have completelly open palms and two relaxed pairs. Yes two....this two relaxed hands are 90% the same and i fail to see the difference here, the pinky fingers are a little bit flexed but really, i fail to justofy the inclusion of a pair of hands that looks almots the same.

There is an effect and that really surprise me since Virtua Fighter is the only fight game that use totally realistic movements, theres no electrich rays, or fireballs or sparks of any kind of the game but still, Storm Collectibles managed to add an effect to Akira, a circular crown-shaped hit effect cast in yellow transluscent plastic with orange in the middle. Give how soft are Akira´s hands, this needs to be pushed down into his fist and there it is, a hit effect for a strung punch.

Is small and easy to use but it works good and is really appreciated Storm added it at this point. The last accesory is the printed background that show Akira´s scenario: and old temple with a golden buda in the center. The scenario is pretty dark tough but i guess that contrast a lot with Akira´s white body to make him stand out.

At first i was unsure if ot was wise to buy such an expensive figure from such a simple looking character. Akira is not the most flashy character of Virtua Fighter, quiet the opposite, he is as spartan as Ryu and while visually he dosnt stand out, his character shines with his movements: Unlike Ryu or any other main character of a fight game, Akira is extremelly difficult to use. His attacks have quirurgic precission and he is imposible to move, like a mountain. And while other characters needs a lot of punches and kicks to win, he just need two punches to defeat anyone soo he is extremelly overpowered.

He is the classic representation of the karate warrior in a very realistic way and that makes him different to any other fight game character. Also, i had a lot of fun taking this photos since his articulations works fantastic and express perfectly all the simple beauty of his powerfull movements.

At this point i been wondering a lot if i am the only one who likes Virtua Fighter and i can see not a lot of people interest on this figure at all, but Storm did a great job with this part of Sega´s soul and i am really excited to see Jacky Bryant and Wolf Hawkfield next. Sadlly, and knowing Storm Collectibles, we will have to wait for many years to see those two on stores.

LAU CHAN

Virtua Fighter 4 was known as the best fighting game when it was released, but sadly after the 5th game the series was ended by Sega and now rest along side Darkstalkers, Bloody Rar and Rival Schools. But the 4th game was soo strong at the begining of the century, even a game magazine did action figures of it; Gamepro.

Almost 20 years later i was finally able to get two of the 3 figures, the very first one Akira Yuki and the second one, Lau Chan, representing the side of evil (or should i say, violence?). Bothfigures came on very sturdy blister and i forgot to mention it, the cardboard can be open as a back and inside it have a review of the game. This is such a cool and unique touch only this Gamepro figures had!

Lau Chan is bigger than the standar size of figures from back then and he can....stand on his own!!! Even with the weird shape of his legs he can stand perfectly!!! Now thats weird!! He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, wrists, legs and knees and thats ir, and just like Akira, he is mostly a statue that can achive only a couple of good looking poses.

Its a shame actiony characters like this canot move too much, but that was the way figures worked back then. The yellow parts of his outfit is made with soft plastic and overall the sculot is really really good. The devilish expresion on his eyes, the wrinkles on his forehead, even his mouth have teeth and a tongue and the designs on his outfit are also sculpted.

The paint is also good or should i say OK? Its clean and detailed, specially on his eyes and mouth, but just like with Akira, it dosnt have any shades or shadows soo it looks maybe too much clean and "plastic". Yet i find him better looking than Akira, maybe because he have a stronger face expresion and his outfirt have more intrincated details, he is a little more realistic looking.

I have to say this is a susprise since i love Akira but not Lau Chan, i would have prefered a figure of his daugther, Pai Chan, but he is really good looking for such an obscure character and looks great face to face against Akira.

He comes with the same ugly base Akira had and a card with artwork and tips and tricks. The base looks much more uglyer this time given how good looking he is.

Despite the retro look of this figures, i wish Joyride and Gamepro had released more of them, at least Pai, Sarah, Kagemaru or Durall, but at least they released my husbando: Jacky Bryant. Pretty much the only figure i am missing and i have doubts i find him by now but if i find this two i guess anything can happen.

AKIRA YUKI

One of my favorite fighting games is Virtua Fighter, while the game design is really retro and totally lacks any sign of narrative, the gameplay has been fantastic on all its entrys. It even saw its pincale at begining of the century with VF4 on the PS2, and back then it was called to be the best fighting game overall, and after that it was pretty much totally forggoten, even SEGA forgot it...

Sadly, theres not a whiole lot of merchadise of the serires, aside of some really weird looking Figma´s, the only figures related to Virtua Fighter came out back with the release of the 4th game, developed by Joyride and Gamepro. It is weird that a gaming magazine was doing action figures, but it seems they focused only on Sega games and for that time standars they were very good.

Not a long time ago i was able to get two of the 3 figures in mint condition, inside of theyr blister. The very first one is Akira Yuki, the main character and one of my favorite and poster boy of the series, "Sega´s Ryu" soo to speak...and he is big, bigger than the etandar action fgures now day soo i guess back in 2002 he would be stuning!

Akira can stand on his own perfectly (i like this detail) and is not very articulated at all, ony his head, waist, shoulders, wrists, knees and an articulation on one of his legs, he is mostly a statue in a prefixed pose. With the help of the articulations you can change his look a little bit but is imposible to change the way hes body leans.

This may seem very static or lame, but it was the way they did it back then; NECA, McFarlane, Epoc, Kotobukiya, pretty much most figures had this useless articulations or were a total statue. The sculpt is good, very close to the Akira model in game tough some details are a little too soft, like his hair. Both his belt and bandana are made with softish plastic.

The paint is good and brigth and even his eyes are nicelly detailed, but the overall paint is quiet....plain and simple. Theres no shading at all  and the plastic have no texture either soo the paint looks kinda boring, unnatural, more like painted plastic than anything.

This is not a surprise since most figures were like this as well back then since the production wasnt as complex as now day, except for McFarlane, who added a lot of washes and shades to his figures fiving it a very realistic look. I never own a Joyride figure before soo my guess is the production of this figures was very standar.

Akira has no accesorys aside of his base - a very ugly base - with a plain and cheap rock texture and a sticker with his name. The base is useless since he can stand on his own and is totally ugly, soo is pretty much the worst part of the package. He also comes with a special card with artwork of the game on one side and tis and tricks in the other.

Just by looking at the card art is pretty evident how good the sculpting is but is a shame the boring paint (and maybe the plastic) didnt do justice to the character. But still, is good to have a figure of Akira finally, a better looking one than the Figma and i love how good he fits with my older figures of Tekken and Street Fighter.