Tag Archives: Street Fighter

#2785: Evil Ryu

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

EVIL RYU

STREET FIGHTER II MINIMATES

What better way to wrap up my Street Fighter II Minimates reviews than with a character who’s not even in Street Fighter II at all?*  Evil Ryu is a pretty straight forward concept, with all real questions about his nature answered by the name.  He’s a corrupted version of the generally heroic Ryu, who has succumbed to the power of the “Satsui no Hado” (“Surge of Muderous Intent”), which is the thing that powers Akuma.  He was first worked into the games in Street Fighter Alpha 2, and has been a recurring concept since.  He’s not really a separate character, but is more of a “What if?” surrounding Ryu giving into evil at some point in the future.  He’s also a pretty simple re-paint of a standard Ryu, making him a very easy repaint.  Hence, so many toys.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Evil Ryu was originally released in a two-pack with Shin Akuma, an Akuma variant.  The pair were exclusive to Hollywood Video of all places.  Yes, the number two video rental store opted for an exclusive item.  Kinda weird, huh?  He was also packed with Morrigan, Dimitri, and standard Akuma as one of a pair of four-packs, aimed at making these a little easier to get, I guess?  The two releases were effectively identical, so it doesn’t really matter, I suppose.  The figure is built on the standard post-c3 body, so he’s about 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Construction on this guy is identical to the standard Ryu, as you’d expect.  Those pieces are good pieces, so he’s still pretty darn cool.  The paint marks the main change-up.  For the most part, it’s a palette swap, with generally darker colors present.  He does get an all-new facial expression, which is more intense even than the already more intense P2-color version.  He’s real mad, and his eyes are now red and pupil-less.  Additionally, he has gained the kanji character that was present on Akuma, signifying his corruption by the Satsui no Hado.  Likewise, his energy effect piece is now the same purple as Akuma’s.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with most of the SF2 Minimates, I didn’t get Evil Ryu new, in his case largely because my local Hollywood Video was rather downtrodden, and never saw these sets.  He was probably the figure I wanted the most out of the whole set, truth be told, because it’s a look I’ve always kinda liked.  Thankfully, I was able to get him at the same time as the others, courtesy of All Time Toys.  He’s a pretty fun figure, as are all of the SF2 ‘mates.  It’s a shame this line didn’t take off, because it certainly had the effort put into it.  It’s also a shame that a third of its slots were devoted to Darkstalkers…

*Okay, that’s not entirely true; Evil Ryu was added to the roster for SFII in its Ultra incarnation…which was released 11 years after this figure…better late than never, right?  Beyond that, though, he was also featured in the SFII manga, and one of the animated films.  So, it’s not the craziest thing, I suppose.

#2778: M. Bison & Chun-Li

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

M. BISON & CHUN-LI

STREET FIGHTER II MINIMATES

When delving into a completely new line, it does make a certain amount of sense to go for the heavy hitters right out of the gate…or at least you would think so.  Curiously, there’s a little bit of a connection between Minimates lines that have failed, and a propensity to front load with heavy hitters.  I mean, after all, Marvel Minimates, the definitive flagship of the brand, started with an assortment that was B-Tier for the most part.  On the flipside, Street Fighter II Minimates had some of the game’s biggest names coming right at the beginning, and still failed.  Coincidence?  Probably.  Honestly, what probably killed Street Fighter Minimates quicker than anything was forcing Darkstalkers into it, not the heavy hitters.  I mean, does anyone really think that it’s M. Bison & Chun-Li’s fault the line died?  I don’t, and that’s certainly got nothing to do with me being in the room with them right now…Be cool guys…they’re right here!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

M. Bison and Chun-Li were released in the first (and only) series of Street Fighter II Minimates.  The main line release is the Player 1 colors for both characters, but like Ryu and Akuma, there were also offered up in their P2 colors as part of an AFX-exclusive two-pack.  Bison and Chun-Li are probably the line’s most sensible pairing, given their history together and the tendency of the other media to have them pair off for battles within the narrative.

M. BISON

Bison is the primary antagonist of Street Fighter II and most of its spin-offs, as well as being one of the franchise’s most distinctive characters.  He’s certainly got a definitive look.  The figure was built on the basic post-C3 minimate body, so he stands about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Bison is constructed using three different add-on parts, which includes his hat, his cape, and his skirt/belt.  All three pieces are new to the figure, and they do a solid job of capturing his in-game look through the lens of Minimates.  Of particular note is the cape piece, which has a really fun dynamic flow to it, which I believe was a first for capes for the brand; they tended to just be hanging there.  Like the other SFII Minimates, Bison is all-painted, rather than using molded colors.  It looks pretty nice, and makes the colors pop a bit more.  His facial expression is definitely one of the coolest elements, which a huge, mad-man-esque smile.  It’s so perfect for the character.  Bison featured his own unique effect piece, which is a little hard to balance, but is still pretty cool.

CHUN-LI

Chun-Li may not be the central figure, but she’s probably the closest SFII and it’s various media narratives have to a proper protagonist.  She’s also become one of the franchise’s most enduring characters, despite not technically being in on the action until the second game.  She’s second only to Ryu in terms of Minimate coverage, which seems about right.  Like Bison, she uses the standard post-C3 body.  She’s got four add-on pieces, for her hair, skirt, and her spiked wrist bands.  All of the were new pieces, and would be shared only with her P2 variant.  The skirt doesn’t feel as dynamic as some of the other pieces from the line, but it’s not terrible.  The hair and wrist bands get just enough detailing to sell the design, without going over board.  Chun-Li is, like Bison, an entirely painted ‘mate, and it’s generally pretty good.  The detailing on her outfit is quite nicely handled, and apart from some fuzziness on the edge on the blue/white change over on her torso, it’s all pretty clean.  Chun-Li was packed with her own effects piece, replicating her tendency for kicking.  Sadly, it’s the only piece I’m missing from my set.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Chun-Li and Bison was a set I really wanted, but never got when they were new.  I didn’t even get their P2 colors, as I had with Ryu and Akuma.  I was definitely always bummed about that.  Fortunately, when I got my standard Ryu and Akuma, I was also able to grab this pair.  They’re quite nice, just like the other two, and show that DST and Art Asylum were really trying to make these guys work.  It’s a shame they didn’t take off.

#2771: Ryu & Akuma

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

RYU & AKUMA

STREET FIGHTER II MINIMATES

2005 into 2006 marked a rather turbulent time for the Minimates brand.  DST and Art Asylum were definitely trying to expand it, but there was some trouble with that.  Attempts to add DC and Lord of the Rings kind of fell through, so a desire for other licenses to replace them was building.  Marvel, still the flagship line, went on hiatus for over a year, while they tried to regroup on other licenses.  In early 2006, they attempted to get into the video game character market with Minimates based on the classic fighting game Street Fighter II, hoping that might be the thing that took off and saved the line.  Spoilers: it wasn’t.  In the line’s one and only assortment, we got some of the game’s heavy hitters, which included today’s figures, Ryu and Akuma!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ryu and Akuma were released in the standard retail assortment of Street Fighter II Minimates.  The two of them were based on their standard Player 1 colors, but there was also an AFX-exclusive variant pack that put them in their P2 colors, as well as changing up their expressions.  The standard versions also surfaced overseas as part of a blind-box assortment, which also featured the P2 colors, but this time without the changed expressions.

RYU

Ryu, one of two character’s carried over from the first game, is arguably the star of the Street Fighter series, so he’s certainly a sensible choice for the line-up.  He’s seen here in his standard white gi with red accents set-up.  The figure was built on the standard base body, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He has four add-on pieces, for his hair, the bottom of his robe, and his hand bracers.  It’s honestly a pretty nice selection of parts, and matches up pretty well with his in-game sprite, while still helping him remain consistent with the overall ‘mate aesthetic.  There’s still some flow and expression to the parts, but they aren’t overly detailed like some later parts would be.  His details are handled largely through paint work, of course, and it’s pretty nicely done.  The face has just enough detail to really capture the character, and his body is well defined.  I appreciate that they’ve gone to the trouble of actually outline the edges of his sleeves and pants, so that they’re a little more defined.  Interestingly, like Spider-Woman from last week, Ryu is totally painted.  It looks nice, so I can’t really complain.  Ryu is packed with a blue effects piece, presumably meant to replicate his Haduken attack, which makes for some fun posing options.

AKUMA

Facing off against Ryu is the game’s hidden final boss, Akuma, a pretty solid opponent for Ryu.  He’s built rather similarly to Ryu, which is honestly appropriate.   The only part that’s actually shared between the two is the arm bracer piece, which works well for both of them.  His hair is obviously a new piece, as is the skirt piece, which they could have probably gotten away with re-using, but they didn’t, so good for them.  He also gets a new piece for the necklace as well, which is something that could have been painted on, but wasn’t, and is honestly the better for it.  The hair’s a little bit devoid of detail, which makes it look a little wonky, but for the most part it looks okay.  The detail work on this guy is a good match for Ryu, and he is likewise totally painted.  I appreciate that they actually changed up the tampo for the torso detailing, as that’s another area where they didn’t *have* to change it.  Akuma is packed with the same effects piece as Ryu, but in purple instead of blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The SFII Minimates line was one I really wanted to support, but it was one that I unfortunately didn’t really see in person.  The only ones I ever found were the P2 colors for these two, which got clearance out at KB toys of all places.  Interestingly, my Ryu from that set was erroneously the single pack version, so I never had the changed up expression for him.  I eventually got the chance to get the proper P1 versions when All Time got in that big Minimates collection back in 2019, which I was pretty happy about.  These two are well made to be sure, and it’s a shame the line didn’t take off the way DST hoped they would.

#2611: Cammy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CAMMY

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

I don’t talk video games incredibly often on this site, but there’s enough cross-over between them and action figures that I do at least dabble in discussing them from time to time.  As a kid, I wasn’t much into the whole video game thing, but I did get to play the occasional game at an arcade here or there, which gave me a taste of some of the more popular arcade fighting games.  My favorite franchise out of these was definitely Street Fighter, whose colorful cast of diverse characters also happens to lend itself quite nicely to the action figure treatment.  Today, I’m taking a look at my favorite character from the games in figure form.  Let’s take a look at Cammy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cammy was released in 2017 as part of Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line.  She followed up the releases of Ryu and Chun-Li earlier that same year, and like them served as a tie-in with the release of Street Fighter V.  She’s officially based on her character model from that game, of course, but that also makes her a more than serviceable stand-in for Cammy from Street Fighter II, which works well for me.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 39 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is a bit more conventional than the usual Figuarts release, with less floating pieces and just a generally tighter set of joints.  It means she’s also just a touch more restricted than the average Figuarts offering, but that’s not the end of the world.  She can still get a lot of really solid poses.  And they even articulated her hair.  How about that?  I really have only two notable complaints regarding the articulation.  The first is the movement on the neck, which I wish had some more up and down.  The second is to do with how the sculpt and the articulation interact in a very key area of the figure.  Cammy’s posterior is a rather notable part of the character, at least from a pop culture stand point.  It’s also rather prominently shown off in her win animation.  So, the fact that this figure opts to put the break for the hip joints in a rather obvious spot in such a way that it never really sits flush ends up hurting the figure’s appearance a bit.  That being said, in the grand scheme of the whole figure, it’s a more minor point, and the rest of the sculpt and articulation work quite well together.  I was actually quite impressed by the way the joints in the torso work, and the sculpt does a strong job of capturing Cammy’s design from the games.  The construction on the figure also just has a nice solid feel to hit, which gives her a little more weight than the usual Figuart, and I think that really helps her when it comes to posing and playability.  Cammy’s paintwork is clean, bright, and colorful, which are really all the things I would want out of paintwork on a Cammy figure.  There’s not a ton of work going on there, but what is there works well.  Cammy’s accessory selection is pretty decent, no surprise, given that she’s a Figuart.  She gets three different faceplates, three pairs of hands, and a three-piece effect part.  There’s a lot of threes going on here, is what I’m getting at, I guess.  The faces provide standard expression, screaming, and side-eye options, which are fun.  The sideways glance is definitely my favorite of the three, even if it’s just a minor difference.  The hands come in fists, flat, and open gesture, and are great for all sorts of poses.  The effects piece is a little bit difficult to get in place at first, but it makes for an impressive kicking effect.  It’s too bad the stands don’t come standard.  She also included two small cardboard backdrops, allowing you to build a small stage for your fighters.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to the Street Fighter characters was not through the games themselves, but rather through Toy Biz’s X-Men Vs Street Fighter toy line.  I was obviously just in it for the X-Men component, but it did give me a taste of a few of the characters.  Cammy was the second of them I got, and I always rather liked that figure.  When I finally got around to playing one of the games, she was the character I latched onto, and I’ve been hoping to get a figure of her for a while.  I always kicked myself for missing the SOTA one back in the day, and I couldn’t pull the trigger on this one when she was new.  However, she ended up getting traded into All Time, and it was hard to pass at that point.  She’s a really fun figure, and almost makes me want to track down some more of the Figuarts Street Fighter stuff.  For now, though, she’s an awesome stand alone piece.

#0635: Cyclops & M. Bison

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

CYCLOPS & M. BISON

X-MEN VS STREET FIGHTER (TOYBIZ)

CyclopsBison1
The 90s were an interesting time to say the least. The X-Men were at the height of their popularity, which, of course, meant plenty of tie-in stuff. Capcom, makers of hit games series such as Mega Man and Street Fighter, licensed the team for a fighting game, called Children of the Atom. This ended up being a success, leading to Capcom pitting the X-Men against the cast of Street Fighter. ToyBiz already held the license for Marvel, so they picked up the Capcom license as well, allowing them to do their own tie-in two packs. One of these sets was X-Men leader Cyclops versus Street Fighter’s big bad M. Bison, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Bison were a two pack in ToyBiz’s X-Men vs Street Fighter line, released in the late 90s. I believe these two were part of the first assortment of packs.

CYCLOPS

CyclopsBison2Cyclops is presented here in his fan-favorite 90s costume, designed by Jim Lee. It’s one of those looks that doesn’t make a whole lot of practical sense and could be considered a bit silly. That said, nostalgia is a powerful thing, so I can’t help but love it. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and sports 8 points of articulation. That’s a little lower than the typical Marvel figure of the time, due to his lack of both elbow and knee joints. I can’t say why ToyBiz decided to leave those out, but he does at least have some extra shoulder articulation, which certainly eases the pain. Structurally, Cyclops makes use of the body of the Monster Armor Cyclops from the main X-Men line, along with a new head. The body is from towards the end of the X-Men line, when ToyBiz was trying to emulate the higher-detailed, more pre-posed figures being offered by McFarlane at the time. However, Cyclops had one of the tamer sculpts, so he doesn’t end up being too bad. The one real drawback of the original figure, the head, has been replaced CyclopsBison3with a much nicer piece. This new head does a great job of capturing the animated style Cyclops from the cartoon; it’s simplistic, but all the necessary details are there. The paintwork isn’t the best ever, but it’s not terrible. There’s a bit of slop, especially around the yellow spots. Also, the hair and headband don’t quite meet up right, giving poor Cyke a bit of a bald spot. On the plus side, the blue is a darker shade than the Monster Armor figure, which is more true to the character design, and the plastic/paint is much more matte, which has an overall better look. Cyclops came packed with an optic blast piece (Which I don’t have) and a pleather jacket like the one he was known to wear from time to time in the 90s cartoon (mostly when Jean was crazy or presumed dead. It’s his brooding jacket.)
M. BISON

CyclopsBison4Ah, good ol’ M. What’s it stand for? Well, apparently it’s a shortening of Mister, which seems kinda dumb. In reality, Bison, Vega, and Balrog all swapped names when the game was imported to the US, mostly because Capcom wanted avoid the potential legal issues of having a boxer character whose name was Mike Bison. So the villain became M. Bison, with little explanation of what the M was exactly. Oh well. The figure is about 5 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation. He also has a punching action feature, which sort of gives him two more points of articulation. Bison is built on the Spider-Man line’s Tombstone body, with some additional armored pieces added on, as well as a new head. The body isn’t a perfect match for Bison, but it’s pretty good. The proportions are quite exaggerated, but it was the 90s, so that’s sort of to be expected. There are a few oddities, such as the hand clearly molded to hold something that he doesn’t include. The head is a little on the small side and a little light in the details. The hat is really nice, though. Paint is pretty rough here. Some areas make out okay; the red sections have a nice wash to bring out the details of the sculpt, and the armored parts are clean. The biggest issues are on the head. The hair apps are almost totally missing from one side, and the eyes are at best an approximation of what they should be. M. Bison originally included a cloth cape, but mine no longer has it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I first got this set many years ago, purchased from KB Toys while on a trip with my grandmother. I got it purely for the Cyclops, who was the most accurate version of the character available. I had no idea who this M. Bison guy was. I eventually found out, and became quite a fan of Street Fighter II, but Cyclops was still why I got these.  Somewhere in the last 15 years, Cyclops went missing (stupid house gremlins!) and Bison crumbled into pieces. I thought about replacing them, but this line picked up quite an aftermarket price, with this set being one of the highest. A few weeks ago, I came across this pair for a reasonable price and snagged them as fast as I could. Years later, Cyclops is still very much the star, but I’m happy to have them both again.