Hadouken!
I recently purchased this gem from America, as always cool stuff like this can't simply be bought from a normal shop in the UK. I always see posts on Reddit where Americans casually say they were at Walmart or Toys R Us (RIP) and they picked up one of these figures on sale. I get massively salty about it because we just have toy shops that sell wooden rocking horses and hoola hoops (slight over exaggeration). Any hooo this marks my first Storm Collectibles figure! This is Ryu from the beat-em-up video game Street Fighter 5.
The game itself (Street Fighter 5) upset fans massively it seems. There was a lot of content missing from the game on launch e.g. a single player arcade mode - essentially the foundation of any decent beat-em-up game lol. Also long established characters were absent from the game on launch, only to be released as purchasable content. Good old Capcom spitting in the face of it's fan base!
On a brighter note, this figure is great and I couldn't be happier with it :)
Ryu doing his angry 'it was this big, why won't you believe me' pose.
Sculpting and Paint: I love the fact that he's a bulky figure. They've captured the look of modern Ryu perfectly. Right down to his over the top muscles and eyebrows. There's little details like bulging veins across his arms and there's even sculpted stitching on his outfit. The paint work is clean where it needs to be but he has weathering where it's called for too, his gloves for example aren't just a solid red.
Articulation: Although Ryu has a pretty bulky frame, his articulation is surprisingly good. You can get him in pretty much any pose you want. You can nail all the poses from the promotional pictures that are out there and can easily do any of the trade mark poses from the game. He has hinged shoulder joints which allows his arms to swing out at the shoulder. I love figures that do this. The only place where he suffers a little is his neck. He has a ball jointed head but his neck is a little thick meaning he doesn't have much vertical range. His bandana isn't articulated in any way but it's made of soft rubber so it doesn't get in the way and can be moved around a little. Overall his articulation is miles ahead of something like NECA. All his joints are stiff and he stands steady as a rock.
He comes with a stand for some of the more dynamic poses.
Accessories: He comes with 4 pairs of changeable hands, 3 changeable faces. A stand and a fireball. You honestly can't complain here. The hands are made from a soft gummy like material so are really easy to swap out. There's almost no risk of wrist peg snappage here.
Although he comes with a stand he's pretty steady in most poses. This pose above is unassisted for example. He's helped out massively by his wide feet.
Overall I love this figure. I'm now well tempted by the other figures Storm Collectibles have done. As well as other SF 5 characters they've also done various Ninjas from Mortal Kombat, plus Shao Khan and Goro are on the way too.
The fireball is a little heavy, so it's a bit difficult to get him standing with it. His hands fit into the grooves of the ball in a particular way that helps him hold it better. I could not be bothered to figure it out though ha.
For scale, here he is pictured above with a Hasbro Stormtrooper and Figuarts Bruce Lee. Bless little Brucey. He's big for a 1/12 scale figure but that's why I love him.
Ryu riding a Demon Dog. Cuz he totally would!
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