HAOHMARU

 

In all 2020 i didnt had that much troubles to gte figure until christmas, when Storm Collectibles released this Hohmaru. Holly shit he was soo extremelly difficult to get, i literally bougth him four times and yet i wasnt able to get him until a couple of days after christmas. I never tough Storm Collectibles figures were soo difficult to get tough it was worthy. It was worthy to buy the second figure of Haohmaru in 25 years.

Storm Collectibles has been doing an amazing job at brining the best icons of the fight games genre into figures, it takes them years to release a single figure, but it never dissapoints and this is no exception. Haohmaru is in the same scale as the rest: in asian size since he is smaller than Terry Bogard and the same heigh as Ryu from Street Fighter. I am not very sure wath to think about this...

He can stand perfectly on his own and since he is not one of the golden boys from Street Fighter, he dosnt have a base. He is articulated on the head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, legs, knes, ankles and feet. All articulations work fine and since but his neck and upper part of his outfit are made with soft plastic, nothing restrict his range of movement. Tough, given the think shape of his legs, it dosnt matter how much you move them they dosnt looks that synamic, also the articulation of his neck gets really lose pretty fast thanks to the weigth of his hair.

And i almost forget!!! Is imposible to pose him with his basic in game stance since his arms cannot joint that much holding the sword in a perpendicular angle and his front hair gets in the way. I guess theres a litmit even for the best of articulations.

The upper part of his outfit is made with soft plastic as i already said, as well as the red band on his waist. The band can be removed soo he can be shirtless wich is something i really really apreciate tough his neck part is a little thin, is obvious he wasnt designed to be shirtless.

The sculpt is magnificent: the veins on his shoulders, the soft and skin like texture on his chest, his sandals, every single element is perfectly sculpted and the soft material helps a lot giving it texture. His face is also pretty handsome with a hard and serious expression and even have a small scar on his chin, something from the original Samurai Shodown 64 design.

The sculpt on his hair was the thing that worryed me the most tough but each strand of hair on the front of his head is perfectly sculpted and dosnt cover his face tough it deffinetly cast a shadow on him. Its not obvious with the flash of my camera, but he looks really dramatic with only part of his face uncovered and with his fierce expression.

His great piggy tail have the same deffined and sharpt sculpt and follows the shape of his back pretty nice soo it rest on the back and dosnt obstrict his head movement. I have to say tough that i was expecting a ball joint articulation on his hair but it only have a basic cut articulation that rotates.

The color is also amazing, extremelly clean and efficient since the entire figure is cast in plastic of the base color of each section soo theres not a whole lot of color in here except on the black parts of his outfit and the brown and red on his sandals as well as his face: a very soft paint to define his mouth and scar and utterly perfect paint on his eyes. I love his despite the small size his iris and every single part of his eyes are perfectly deffined, with no paint invading any other area.

I have to say tough, he dosnt looks at all like he does on his game. He dosnt looks cell shaded or have any cartoony shapes, he looks more like the Soul Calibur Haohmaru, with very realistic body shapes and his hair, while big, is really not as bestialy huge as he sports it on his games. Again this is a more realistic take in order to make him fit with the rest of the figures of Storm: Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Street Fighter.

I actually like a lot this aproach to the point i actually wish the last game goes for this look better.

His accesoryes consist on a group of extra hands, for sword holding, open hands and claw hands, all made with softich plastic and can be exchanged pretty easy. He also comes with an extra back mane of hair that is sculpted like is floatinf on the air, perfect for battle action posses tough this piece make his neck articulations to be lose.

He also comes with two extra heads: one with an smirk and other with a fierce expression. The smilining one is specially sexy and mischevious while keeping the hard and steel expression ons his eyes. The snarling expression is also perfect and both heads cahn be exchanged pretty easy and they have a rod on the back to use the big hair piece of choice.

His other accesory is a sake bottle, wich is big, round and very colorfull, pretty manly and perfect for Haohmaru. The bottle can hang from his red belt or being hold by his open hands and gives him a lot of personality, just like with the Epoch figure.

His other accesory and most important is of course, his katana. The katana is quiet thick, solid and have ana amazing sculpt on the tilt and great gold and silver painting, with kanjist engrabed on the blade, it dosnt feels cheap at all (like Lion-O Sword of Omen). The sheat comes in a vibrant blue tone with a red cord around made with soft plastic and just like the sake bottle, it can be hold bi Haohmaru´s hands or hang from his red belt. It gets on the way of the articulations sometimes but it belong to his waist deffinetly.

His other accesory is an effect made with transluscent plastic, in yellow and orange, that fits in the blade of his katana soo it looks like a wind cut. While the effect is easy to fit on the sword, its actually kinda heavy and a little difficult to handle, almost like a thick flag. The effect is great but i wish they added more...like a whirlwind to put in front of his cut but of course, this is no Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, soo Storm wont spent more resources on Haohmaru beyond the bare basic.

And lastly, he comes with a background print of the Gairyu island, with mouth Fuji and the ocean. The opacity of the print is a little low tough and i wish it was stronger, but this kind of details are wath makes Storm Collectibles soo good.

Overall, it was a long wait, a lot of hard work to be able to get him and he wasnt cheap, but everything was worth it. This figure is really brillant, fun and memorable. I wish it had more battle effects but neyond that, i cant really wish anything more for him. This is a HUGE improvement over the Epoch figure in every way and i am really excited to have a Genjuro paired with this guy. Sadly, it seems Storm is making Nakoruru first soo i am not sure if i will gert her but by now, just with Haohmaru, i am pretty happy.

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES

Yes i ended getting the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PS3 despite the bad reviews it had. In the end it wasnt such a bad game, it was just mediocre and had a couple of nice horror moments here and there. Tough the best thing of the game was deffinetly its special edition that includes some patches, blueprints, photos and the main dish: a figure.

More than a figure it was an statue that came in a pretty cool transluscent display box with Xenomrph printed all around, just like with Batman Arkham City, this figure is best display on its case. I have no idea wath company produced this statue, but its not really big, kind of an average action figure but considering the size of the Power Loader and the Xeno, the scale is kind of tiny.

The scene shows a colonial marine (i dont think he is a particular character) inside the Power Loader battling against a Xenomorph in a plataform. The scene is really good looking and nicelly designed since like any good statue, it can be displayed from many views of points and looks good, focus on the action or one of the tw characters.

The base have the title of the game on the bottom and the overall sculpt of the statue is really detailed, mostly of course in the Power Loader since its full of details, bolts, anthennas, pivots, lots of tubes (the view on the back is really spectacular) and even the small red siren on the top.

The Xenomorph is really nice too, with legs steping ont he legs of the big machine while one of her claws is about to strike the marine in any moment, the sculpt is detailed anough for the size (specially on her head and spectacular looking long tail) and then it comes the marine, with an OK sculpt but i guess it makes sense since he is the character under the robot mechanism and under the Xenomorph attack, soo he is actually pretty difficult to see.

The paint is really really good on the Power Loader, with brigth yellows combined with rusty tones, signals of extreme use, black stripes, logos and red markings, the paint job is really exquisite and vibrant. The Xenomorph is a little ligth on the paint department, just black with some blue tones in the rigth lace to give it volume, he have a weird drawing effect on him but i guess he is perfect as it is.

Then it comes the marine, who is again, the weakest since his face is all sloppy painted and not very detailed. His body is OK, with a camo patern and metalic tones but since hs is inside the Power Loader, i guess it was a reall challengue to give him a much soficticated paint.

Despite the weakest parts on the piece, this little statue looks fantastic and is deffinetly the best thing that came from the boring Colonial Marines. I miss those times when even weak games had fantastic special editions to a cheap price like this one.

BATMAN

 

Now this is the Batman i fall in love with!! Speaking of those good times when videogames not only were better than now, but they also offered much more for a much lower price, its imposible not to talk about Batman Arkham City. The game wasnt only brillant, but that beauty was on its outsde package as well: a square perfcet transluscent box with a Gotham landscape inside and Batman and Joker images on the outside, with a little shelf in the bottom with the game and an artbook, and at the center of all, this figure of Batman.

This is one of thsoe rare scenarios where the figure looks really good both outside and inside of its package. The figure - a statue actually - is not that big actually, its shorter than your average action figure but since Batman is crouching his overall scale is bigger soo the details really shine, and wath details he have!!

He is at the corner of a roof, getting ready to jump and punch someone but still looking very depredatory and manly, you can feel the motion of his movement and yet he looks solid as a mountain. Like i said at the begining, i am totally in love of this Batman design, this is the exact image that appeare on my mind when i hear "Batman" soo i am not impartial to really like this.

Every detail is present, like the puches on his belt, the bolts on his outfit, the texture with little holes on the suit, his generouse muculature and how the cape huge his body soo perfectly thanks to the sift plastic material.

Paint is as perfect as the sculpt tough for some reason he is black and white but is difficult to notice since his only color part would be his face and his belt. I do love the grey shadows and white tones that give a lot of volume to his muscles, its actually quiet easy to take pictures of him.

He is posed on top of a big corcular base with the Arkham City logo in red. Really stricking for a black and white figure and  under the base is signed by Kotobukiya. No wonder the high quality of this statue, just like theyr Bishoujo line and the rest of his products. I can say with confidence this is one of my favorite Batman figures i ever seen.

INJUSTICE

 

Oh i still remember the times when videogames had always a physical release and a Special Edition of some sort, a Collectors Edition that didnt cost as much as a whole console. It wasnt too long, but jus one generation ago (two generations with the PS5 out now!!), when i was able to get a lot of figures to a really nice price included each one of theyr games. 

One said game was Injustice, i game that ended with a lot of ups and downs, it wasnt fun to play but it was fun to watch, with all its funky looking animations. Despite the quality of the game, it came in a huge box with some goodies, but most importantly, a pretty spectacular statue figure of Batman facing Wonder Woman.

I am not too much of a fan of the idea since i dont like Wonder Woman and see her beating the crap out of Batman is not pleasant, but in here it makes sense given she is one of the villians of the game and i really dislike this version of Batman. It would make more sence to have something related to Superman tough or if someone would asked me i would prefer a Lobo statue.

But anyway, the truth is that this figure is actually quiet fantastic. First of all is really HUGE and despite its towering size it have no balance issues. It have two characters battling with some background elements but thanks to its big size, the characters dont look tiny or distant, they have a very good scale of a standar action figure size.

I have no idea wath brand developed this statue but the quality of the material is really good, soft to the touch and specially good looking on Wonder Woman´s skin. The sculpt, overall, is really dynamic and full of details. The body of Wonder Woman is really amazing and athletic and you can feel the energy on her jump while she holds the drone. Batman´s sculpt is also really good, with his cape giving him all the movement neded and his horrible looking armour abundant in detailing.

The paint is as perfect as the sculpt, specially on Bamtna´s mouth and Wonder Woman´s face, with her beautifull blue eyes and red lips looking really fierce. There is a lot foinf on here, like how there is a batarang stuck on the drone on Wonder Woman´s hands, is evident Batman defended himself here but with not much succes, and i really like how he is strugling with the Lasso of truth, tough the Lasso´s end dosnt conect with anything at all....maybe it is supposed to conect to Diana´s hip?

But my favorite part are deffinetly the ice sections on the base, mixed with the jade looking rock and the grey smoke coming from the drone, all done with transluscent plastic. The material add a lot to the display since it catches lieght pretty nicelly.

But i guess the best part of this figure is the fact you can display it from any direction, any point of view, and its gonna looks really good and exciting. There is not "bland" spot in here, from every direction all the action can be seen and new details appeare, this is a fantastically designed scene all around.

POISON IVY

 

Twenty years ago the japanese brand Yamato released a bunch of Batman merchadise. This was quiet weird since it was the very first time a japanese brand was releasing american comic book characters and it was really unique to see the the japanese version of the characters, mostly designed by Kia Asamiya. The collection consisted in Batman, Robin and many of the rougue gallery from Gotham tough my favorite is deffinetly Poison Ivy.

This figure is not too big actually, she is smaller than your average action figure scale, smaller than NECA or McFarlane and thats the biggest issue i have with her. If she was bigger this girl would be really spectacular. Not like the is not spectacular in this scale tough since her sculpt is really REALLY amazing for her tiny size.

The details like the leaf on her costume and hair are really cut deep and extremelly defined. Her face is also really elegant and mature, unlike expected from a japanese brand, she dosnt have giant anime eyes or anything like that, her face feature are really reminescent to the american comic book style and her pose is really dynamic but realistic: she is stretching in a sensual way and her hair moves along her back in a pretty beaitufull way.

The paint is also really exquisite, her skin tone is pale but dosnt looks like doll paint, and the red on her lips, hair and greens on her outfit are really vibrant and livelly, i also like all the different tones in the rigth zones that give dimension to the sculpt. 

She cant stand on her own soo she comes with a stand diorama base of a dirt ground, with a cuuple of man eater plants and a jungle in the background. The quality of this base is actually abismal, since its made with soft plastic and dosnt have any of the dimension and detail Poison Ivy have. The ground is boring and the jungle in the back, while it have different greens for different leafs, have pretty pale colors and the sculpt dosnt help it.

The man eater lants, gladlly, are much better looking thanks to a cool looking purple and theyr small fangs and they cna be removed. Is wierd the base is soo basic and boring compared to the figure, but this makes Ivy stand more somehow. Oh, also, she comes with a green vine that cna be wrapped around her body and counts as an accesory i guess?

After twenty years, this figure still looks amazing despite her size, in both sculpt and paint and design, i find this to be the closest representation of the comic book version of Poison Ivy. While i dont care for the rest of the characters, i wish i got Batman to pair her with.