PAUL PHOENIX

 Storm Collectibles release a non-Street Fgther/Mortal Kombat once every year soo the wait for The King of Figthers or Darkstalkers figures is pretty deadly and looong, really looong...in 2017 they show a catalog with lots of figures and most of them arent out yet fuve years later, tough all of a sudden King, Devil Jin and Paul Phoenix all come out in two months!!!

This is deffinetly the year of Tekken for Stor Collectibles, we never had soo many figures in one single year...or maybe Storm just want to move forward. Wathever the reason, Pual Phoenix is out and he is one of the manlyest figures to date,a kinf of fusion between Cuck Norris and Guile, Paul is one of the most clasics and iconc characters from Tekken, one of the verey few that has been on the games since the very first one and the only no-Mishima to ever win The King of Iron Fist Tournament!!!

He is an extremelly notable character from Tekken despite all the mocking from the no Tekken playersand is not surprise he cames out before Nina Willaims, Hwoarang, Xiaoyu or other more modern Tekken characters. 

He is taller than the other characters!!! And thanks to his hair he manages to be taller even than King. He can stand on his own perfectly, tough a base wouldnt be a bad idea tough i am really tired of expect bases fromStorm. He is articulated on the head, chest, waist, shulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes, ankles and half feet. Eevery articulations works wonderfully, with  abig range of movement and they move pretty smothly too, specially the arms since they dont make those weird sounds of plastic scratching plastic the other figures does.

His chest piece is made with soft plastic as well as his red gi, soo theres literally nothing that can stop his movement and make him a lot of fun to pose him and play thanks to his good balance.

The sculpt is good, despite the simplicity of his design, the texture of his pants matches the texture of his gi and muscular proportions are perfect as well as feet and hands. His face is incrediblly realistic....really, he looks much better than the Jin´s and Kazuya. This is a perfect translation to the game model, his jaw, his nose, his eye size and the shape of his mouth, he is REALLY good looking.

His hair looks great too, with the division on the back of his head and each strand of hair perfectly deffined. His beard also have a pretty good texture and thats impresive since this is the part they usually mess when making figures (rigth, SquareEnix??).

Paint matches the sculpt nicelly and is keep at minimum. Of course every skin section is cast in flesh color soo it looks natural except his chest piece. The chest piece made with soft plastic is actually painted to match the rest of the skin color and have some very soft brushes to high ligth the great pecs of Paul tough, soft plastic and paint dosnt match....the paint is chipping away at the sides of his torso and while this is hidden by the gi, i hope his chest dosnt chip away.

I love the vibrant red color of his uniform...stands out soo much with the Mishimas and it also have some grey tones to show how dusty and dirty is. Just like Ryu, Paul seems to be very smelly (pretty comon on figthers it seems). On his black belt there is a P. PHOENIX in red, its difficut to see but i love this detail!!

And i love the yellow kanji on the chest and his back and the strandy texture they have!The bandages on his arms tough are missing some realism, they are just plain withe and strangelly clean compared to the rest of the outfit and the scoprion tatto on his arms looks perfect.

The blue eyes are beautifull as well as the tiny hairs on his eyebrows and beard, both blonde but ina  darker shade than the kanji on his gi. His hair have a darker yellow tone but still is ligth enough to look natural. The darker yellow flows with the strands of hair and makes it looks incredible realistic.

Accesorys wise he is much much better loeaded than Devil Jin. Aside of the closed fist, he comes with 3 extra pairs of hands: totaslly open hands, half open palms and hands to hold an item. Each can be exchanged pretty easy, the bandages on his arms are tigth and dosnt get in the way and are super cute with that puffy pillow on the nuckles tough the holding item hands puzzle me....i dont have any use for that pair...actually i think i didnt even take pictures of it.

There is two extra heads that cna be exchanged easy as well: one with tigth teetsh and one smiling. The sculpt and paint is exactly as the base head, the only difference is the mouth soo the quality on both is top notch.

The sculpt of the teeth and paint on them is really spectacular on both and while one is perfect for battle poses, the smiling one looks very dorkish. Paul looks soo stupid with that smile, is soo cute and sexy, just like in the game.

There is an effect piece for his Burning Fist attack, that one that is capable of instant kill his oponent (i think Paul is the only character in Takken capable of this??) and consist on an energy ball with swirling power on both ends, like small tornados. The effect is cast on transluscent plastic with dark and ligth orange shade and looks really fantastic. It fits perfectly on Paul´s fist tough is a little heavy and needs extra balancing.

And lastly a background....a cloned background from Jin Kazama. This is the first time one of this figure comes with a background i already have, its soo weird....at first i tough it was a factory mistake but looking online, it seems all Paul´s have this same Jin background and thats really dissapointing. Its not like Tekken 7 dosnt have a lot of scenarios...

Aside of the background print, this figure is oustanding, more soo than Devil Jin. The quality on the sculpt, paint and movement as well as accesorys is amazing and he is actually way too handsome for a figure, i mean, his gi can be removed soo i could not help but make Paul play a little bit with King. This is a very sexy figure.

And now i wonder waths goint to happend with Tekken and Storm? I really want Miguel, Nina and Anna, Hwoarang, Lei Wuolong but since 2017 Storm hasnt show any other prototype beyond Paul. Its going to take centurys to see other Tekken figure or maybe Storm is closing the serires with Paul?? I wish they didnt but soo far this has been the second longest runing figures serires of Tekken, soo i am pretty satisfied as it is now and asking for the entire cast is a little too unrealistic.

Maybe we will see the Soul Calibut figures from now on?? I dont know, i just really wish a couple of more Tekken figures if thats ask too much.

HUDSON

Exactly a year ago NECA launched theyr Gargoyles line with a pretty difficult to find Goliath. A year later we are getting the fifth figure of the collection:Hudson. Wether this is a fast shipping method or slow i am not sure, i mean in the same amount of time they only released 3 Universal Monsters but this figures are really...really big and not cheap soo i am glad they are coming slow.

Hudson was one of the most important characters in the serires being the guide of Goliath and to a certain moment, Demona too and he always keep his status of warrior and confident of the Gargoyles clan tough at the same time taking a very pasive rool in front of the TV. This is why i am surprised NECA has released him before the young characters tough i am surprised they released Bronx soo fast as well.

Hudson is a little bit smaller than Goliath/Thailog but not much and despite his looks, he is also ligther as well and unlike Demona he can stand on his own perfectly!! His feet are huge as well as his tail is incrediblly thick and strong making him perfectly capable of stand with those huge open wings.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, wrists, legs, knes, ankles, half feet, tail and both wings. Despite all this double joint and ball joints, he is not as articulated as the rest tough....his long hair and beard keep his head movement at minimum as well as his shoulder armour stop s a lot of his arms movement. His big stomach also limits a lot the waist movement tough he is not the most agile of the characters.

All other joints and articulations works perfectly fine as well as the super effective vendy tail and those noisy and hard as rock ratched joints on his wings. I am finally getting used to them and the wing span is, of course, pretty huge and take an awfull lot of space on the shelf.

The sculpt is soo nice..it recreates the character design perfectly, the shape of his nose, the fangs, the deep stare, his beard length and shape....but of couse they add realistic details to it like the sculpted nails and scar under his eye or the veins on his feet. He is the most dressed character tough, with a .....shirt? Or half shirt thats totally open in the back side but the wrinkles in the sides give the effect that the material is strecthing around his torso pretty naturally and everything with a soft leather texture.

His pants have a totally different texture tough, much more rough as well as the lointcloth on his waist, this in particular looks pretty old and almost ready to thorn apart. The shoulder armor as well as wrisst armor have also a very crudemetalic texture full of battle scars.

The wings are also full of holes and cuts that makes it evident this are totally different sculpt than Goliath´s wings.

The paint also complenet very nicelly the old look of Hudson since the brown color palette is pretty pale, the opposite to Goliath or Demona vibrant colors. The brown skin color is really smoth and the nails on the claws have a darker and weet tone that makes them stand out. The back of his wings have this orange pearly look while the front of the wings have a washed away brown tone.

The armour have a dark blue and silver metalic paint mixed with blacks to make the texture stand out (i think McFarlane is the only one who cant use metalic paint at this point...)and the dark tones on his shirt, loint clothe and pants follow his muscle structure soo the wrinkles follow a natural patthern. I specially like the pants paint tough , specially in the sides with all the stitching, the material looks.....well, ancient, really medieval.

The head is perfect, with his little painted fangs, deep eye bags, the scar and the yellow eye and orange pupil. His hair have some brush stroke or silver that makes it shines with the ligth tough not soo much. 

His accesoryes are two extra pair of hands and one more hand (???) aside of the closed fist: a pair claws shaped hands for attack poses, a close hand to hold his sword and another palm to hold the blade of the sword and an extra hand to hold his sword...again....i am puzzled why they added two hands for the sword since they look 90% the same. All hands can be changed pretty easy.

He also have an exra head with a roaring expression and looks magnifiscent, the open mouth full of fangs and the tongue and palate are independent sculpts and carefully painted as well as the white eyes that shine pretty good above the dark eyebags. While the head exchange is not as difficult as i was expecting, the wings make everything soo tricky and sometimes they pop out his head constantlly.

His other accesory is his sword, a thick sword with a very rough look tough with added details from NECA: Some celtic carvings on the blade as well as a lot of cuts. I am pretty sure this blade cant cut too well since it looks - like everyhting here- pretty ancient, like a relic. Also it can fit perfectly on his belt, something totally new since n the animation the sword just dissapeare at will but here he can hing it on his waist and it dosnt get on the way of his arms.

And thats it....nothing more, Hudson is really lacking on accesorys compared to the other characters soo far (specially Demona and Thailog), i know he mostly use only his sword for battle but i wich they added a remote control or a small TV since ask for a couch would be too much.

Since he has almost no accesorys would have beena good chance to...well....add his folded wings, rigth? RIGTH NECA????

But oh well, the quality of this guy is really sky high in sculpt and paint (and on his box too...that box art is soo magnifiscent) i just wish they added more items in here since he is basically as armed as the Kenner Hudson. Tough despite of that, he is much more fun than Demona, he can stand on his own for starters....and is soo sturdy and is soo easy to give him a cool pose for the shelf (finding enough space is a totally different devacle tough). And i am just glad i have another Christmas with Gargoyles, just like when i was a kid.

DEVIL JIN

 I remember at the late 90s and the begining of the century how strong was my obssesion with Jin Kazama. Is not like i dont like him anymore but i juts learn to like the rest of the cast of Tekken, because back then, for me, Jin was the only thing i saw on Tekken. He was the coolest guy in the entire universe, no one could reach him and then, he transformed into a Devil and set the bar even higher.

The Epoch action figures of Tekken 3 were pretty awesome in the 90s, but the jewel of the crown was both True Ogre and Devil Jin. I remember how much i seek for Devil Jin but he was soo rare i never find him until probablly 15 years later. He was this "deluxe" figure with huge wings that stand out from the rest of the characters (even tough he wasnt a playable in Tekken 3) and now Storm Collectibles did his magic on him, something that got me excited for the ongest time since the first time they show him was like...4 years ago.

Yes Storm take a lot of time to release theyr stuff but now, a few months ago we got King, soo that mean we got two Tekken characters in a year for the first time!!!

Devil Jin is at the same scale a the normal Jin Kazama of course tough, unlike Jin, this guy CANT STAND on his own. Thanks to the heavy wings, Devil Jin only can stand in a straigth museum like pose since anything else makes him lose his balance. I usually accept the fact Storm gives base only to the Street Figthers characters just because theyr figures stand pretty well by theyr own but this time around, a base is or extraordinary importance and the fact Storm is turning bases into DLC (they sold separatelly), this really hurts the figure experience (specially with the high price).

The articulations are as goos as always: head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knes, ankles, half foot, wings and half point of the wings tough he lost once articulation: the abs cut. Instead his torso is entire made with soft plastic with the mechanism inside soo he can bent a little bit but not much. Its deffinetly really good looking but this prevent him to be posed in a crounching position or turning around. This was, of course, thanks to the heavy wings on his back, an abs articulation would be lose pretty fast.

The rest of the articulations are excelent as always tough i am really dissapointed with the wings....the section conected to his back have a very basic joint that makes them move up and down but thats it and the middle section have also a basic cut joint that lest them open up and close. With the quality of the ball joints of Storm Collectibles i was deffinetly waiting for more....i was expecting to move the wings on all angles or have multiple layers of them but they are extremelly static. Even the Gargoykes from NECA have a much bigger thange of movement in the conectin section.

The sculpt is awesome and dosnt recycle anything from the normal Jin Kazama. His torso is different of course for the remobal of the articulation (and i have the feeling his pecs should be bigger...)m his arms have this veiny sculpts near the elbows and his pants have a totally different leather texture on them while the original Jin have a fabric texture.

The feet are different too wince he is using some very cool boots as well as his hands, now claws. I love the hands, the gauntlets seems to be absorbed by him soo they looks organic and fleshy and the metal claws are rad. The palm is full of this spiral sculpts that makes them look like fingerprints, very Tim Burton like.

To my surprise, the chains arent real chains but they are sculpted on his legs, waist and arm. This is good because it means you can mess them up by moving him and the hanging parts on his waist and arm are made wisth soft plastic, but they different materials mix soo good is difficult to tell the difference.

The face sculpt is the same as the normal Jin Kazama and - in my opinion - it dosnt looks that much to Jin sicne i find his jaw and nose too thin, but thanks to the marks on his face and hair is difficult to see the little lack fo resemblance since the starnds of hair are longer than normal Jin´s and cover most of his face. The horns, i love those hrons!! They are made of soft plastic and looks terrific!!

Now the wings....the damn wings...the wings are kind of a central point of the figure, wath makes him stand out of the rest of characters and i am not very happy with them. The feather texture is magnifiscent tough, the tiny feathers on top and how they get longer until they are pretty long in the end and the hairy-feathery sculpt is sharp and well done but the shape...

I dont know any animal with this wings shape...when closed, wings take this round shape around the body, they are very flexible, but here....they looks like giant doritos. They are somehow curled opposite to Jin´s body and thanks to the shape of Jin´s back they are in a pretty...odd angle. And of coruse thanks to the lack of dynamic articulation, you can change the angle soo they are perpetually on a 120° angle.

While closed they dont looks very closed or relaxed at all, they looks like they are in this spicky motion at the sides. While open they looks better tough in the top section they joint looks very awkard, like they have small horns on top....i dunno, i dont know how to describe it, specially on english, but they dont look anatomically correct nor closed or open.

Also.....they are soo smal...soo tiny wings. I think they Epoch Devil Jin from 1999 have much bigger wings and they looks pretty short compared wo the Gargoyles wings from NECA and thats sad since they are in the same scale. Also the top section (where the wings fold) is taller than Jin´s head on the same,the wings are maybe 6 inches taller than Jin himself, but here the wings are actually shorter than Jin soo yhea....pretty short wings.

The paint is good as always. The entire body is cast on skin tone and the legs in black soo they looks pretty clean and natural. The red on the legs and the boots and gaountlets is pretty vibrant and contrast nicelly with all the blacks and metalic colors. The chains and claws have shiny metalic paints but the application is soo amazing they looks really really metalic! I know how difficult is to paint a chain but made this good job in a 3d chain is really amazing. Why McFarlane cant reach this level of perfection???

The gauntlets have this weird spider legs holding on Jin´s arm (is amazing how many details have this figure that are unseen on the game) and a spike at the center in a pretty Devilmanish style, all this as well as the horns on his head are painted in gold metalic mixed with blacks soo they looks extremelly natural, like made with bronze.

The tattoos on his torso, shoulder, veins on his arms and face are pretty clean and nicelly done as well as the red eye on his forehead. The eyes are amazing looking, with yellow pupils and the eye lashes and eye brows soo perfectly painted at such smal scale. Also, for some reason his nipples are painted....why is this important? Because the rest of the characters dosnt have them painted, not even the normal Jin.

The awfull wings have a great painting as well, with a greysih black on it very different to Jin´s hair and pants and with pale blue strokes here and there for the feathers to stand out. A very basic paint that actually gives them a pretty livelly and artistic look and keeps them away of the black chunks of plastic looking wings from the Epoch Devil Jin.

For the accesorys he have 3 extra sets of hands: one pointing with two fingers, one open hands and one in claw shape. The sculpt and paint are top notch and they are easy to change tough the two fingers hand gesture is really menacing looking, i dont see too many display options to use them.

He also have two extra heads: one a snarling fierce expression and another shouting. Again the sculpt and paint are perfect, specially on the mouth, with each individually sculpted teet painted as well as his tongue and i find this head sculpts much closer to his Jin actually look in game. Change the heads is kind of tricky tough thanks to the wings is relaly imposible to get a strong hold of Jin´s body.

And thats it....nothing more. Just extra hands and extra head, no other display options and absolutelly no effects. This characer can shot rays from his head as well as use other suppernatural attacks and yet, Storm gives him nothing. Not even red electricity to his fist or anything making this the Storm Collectibles figure with less accesorys soo far.

There is a background piece tough, a cardboard background that dosnt fit too much thanks to Devil Jin´s wings. I try to use it on the photos but those wings keep the background away but also i tough this was a copy of Kazuya´s background. Kazuya´s background is the volcano where he figths against Heihachi and this one is like...a different kind of volcano? There is rocks and lava but this one is brigther. I dunno, i never realised Tekken 7 had two scenarios that looked like each other this much.

Overall, this figure is impresive looking. Even if its Jin all over again the little changes are masterfully made and everything works great just like all Storm Collectible figures. 

But then theres those wings...those damn wings....those damn heavy and tiny wings....odlly shaped wings that looks made by an  art AI and then there is the complete lack of accesorys....after soo many years, i finally have a complaing over a Storm Collectibles figure. This could have been the central piece of the Tekken collection but he falls short compared to the rest and yet he is really cool looking still.

ENDEAVOR

I remember during the pandemic how difficult it was to ask about Endeavor products and how everyone looked at me in doubt until i say "Todorki´s father" and they reply "Oh! The guy of the flames! No theres nothing" and then, all of a sudden, theres plushies and legos and lots of stuff about him and....i am actually gratefull for once, the husbando of the serires is getting all this mich love and pretty fast my collection of Endeavors is getting bigger and bigger.

I didnt even notice this figures was coming; from Bandao Namco, Ichibankuji The Top 5 My Hero Academia No.1 Hero Endeavor (i am not sure of the name of this serires anymore....is such a weird mouthfull), a serires of statues pretty similar to Banpresto figures (i think Bandai Spirits and Banpresto fused), seven figures in total inluding Hawks and Mirko tough, of course, i only care for Endeavor.

This guy is a little bit taller than the NECA action figures soo he is not small but not huge either, pretty standar scale to fit him with most action figures serires tough as a statue, he is static and can stand on his own perfectly with no problem. Even soo they added a little transluscent piece to fit on one of his feet and help him stand tough this little thing is unnecesary but i apreciate it.

The sculpt on this guy is fantastic, the way the tigth uniform wraps around his body and hangs in places it must hang (like the groin area) and they way the wrinkles react to the muscles is really nice and all the details like the red lines on the outfit are sharply sculpted.I specially like the logo on his stomach and being a separate piece it projects out soo much tough my most favorite part must be that clevage...

That clevage....those pecs gloryouslly compresed to each other and behind his arms and that ass...is very exciting to notice how much they are finally noticing all the male body important points to get all the needed atention beyond the female characters.

The pose also is very sexy, extremelly manly and - while static - looks pretty dynamic and intimidating, with lots of personality for Enhi Todoroki. With arms folded up front, just like the first Banpresto figure from 2021 tough this time Endeavor is looking at his side and the way his eyes peek from the flame mask is really really sexy as well.

I still dont like too much the shoulderpads but they fit pretty nicelly to the shape of his shoulders this time. The flames curling around looks really good, while theres not a lot of them in the boots, the beard is specially good looking since its moving to his left side and gives the impression Endeavor is just turning his head.

 The flames are made with transluscent plastic but they have soft shades of yellow and reds here and there to make them look less plastic tough thanks to this they looks kinda dark and dosnt catch the light as good as the McFarlane figure, with a light on the back they looks really good.

The paint is good too, red and oranges in a pretty intense tone with lots of blacks and dark blue on the outfit to high light the muscles and make them bulgue even much more but still keeping the clean look of an animated character. The shoulderpads and arm guards are painted in metalic grey.

While on his face only the nose and mouth are sculpted, the mouth is painted soo it stand out on the clean skin tone and botht the eyes and scar are just painted. The scar have a dark line art as well as the eyes and that helps a lot to make it look like an animated character and the green pupils are perfectly painted. Tough the face details are a bit concealed by the thick flames mask but i guess that cant be avoided, specially on this scale.

Overall i am loving this figures A LOT. He is miles above of the McFarlane figure and more natural looking detailed than the Banpresto one and somehow better shaped than the big figure of the movie. The pose also helps to fit him in literally and free space of the shelve and he looks really really good at any angle.

Is amazing how Banpresto/Bandai can pull out this amazing looking figures at such a low low price, it makes me question all ther figures company since the only thing this guy is missing is articulations, because pretty much everything else is pure perfection. Now i am just missing one of this guys before a new one in punching action comes out.

LANCER

In the last few years i been constantly drooling over Good Smile company figures: the Figma Devilman, Nendroid Dante, Predator, Sally....soo many figures that are now way way ahead of my wallet. Years ago i pay an obscene amount of money for the Figma Void and while i dont regret, i promise myself not to do it again and now...that amount of money is the base price of all the figures of Good Smaile Company.

It seems i am not the only one who was left out of theyr league tough since they released a brand new serires called Popup Parade, a "new series of figures that are easy to collect and with affordable prices"... basically toys for poor people soo i think i am finally able to keep in the boat fo Good Smile at least for a short while toigh soo far i didnt see too many characters i like in this Popup Parade until a few weeks ago when i saw Lancer from Fate/Stay Nigth Heaven´s feel.

I love Lancer, i really do love him despite people questioning me constantly why since he is soo pretty. I really dont know wath to say, i just like everything on him and specially on the film Fate Go, tough he dosnt happend to be specially popular since i found his Popup Parade figure at half the price....woo this figure was soo soo soo CHEAP it almost feel like it was free. I wish i got this kind of deals more often by toy collecting.

This Popup Parde are basically statues, tough i always tough they were tiny statues but Lancer is not that tiny, he is basically in the same scale the NECA action figures, soo he is taller than his Figma and he is not articulated, he can stand on his own perfectly with his base. The base is made in a translucent bue pastic to match his colors and its shape and size makes me think it can kind of conect with other figures in this serires or at least fit the base in a small space shelf.

On all tis simplicity, the base is good looking, elegant and helpfull. I am pretty sure Good Smile used the same molds of the Figma, soo the sculpt is really good. while the pose is pasive, is dynamic, stylish and manly and matchs Lancer perfectly. I wish the musculature was bigger tough and his face have more deffinition, specially in the nise since his nose scupt is soo small it almost like looks like he has no nose at all.

While the lance have a nice "veiny"(??) sculpt, my favorite part is his spiky hair and tail as well as his earrings, the detial is pretty sharp and they even sculpted his fingernails, wich makes it oodd the lack of deffinition on his face.

The paint seems to be the same as the Figma, with muscly blue and a pretty clean look as well as a ittle bit of transparency on his skin, the figure catchs light pretty good and shines like a cartoon character in 3D. There is a soft shade of dark blue around his muscles to make them stand out and the grey line around his body have some messy sections but only can be seen on a closer look.

His red eyes are perfect and contrast really good with the dark blue and they painted his mouth in a pretty "anime" style tough his mouth and the lack of mouth make me thingk he looks....somwhow....like a kitten.

But the best part are the metalic finish on his shoulderpads, boots and the lance, they shine pretty good and makes me wish McFarlane used this kind of paint to his sucky toys chains.

The lance can be removed but beyonf that theres no accesoryes or anything more about this figure. Its really basic and simple but nicelly crafted and the perfect choice to own a character and now destroy your wallet in the process. I am really surpriced theres no Archer figures tough since i would love to have them together but ill be sure to buy more of this figures!!!

Now the brand new Lancer Nendroid...thats another sad story....