Street
Fighter Round 3
First, a brief reintroduction: This review
continues a kind of tradition for me. I know that there are
other reviewers who get their stuff before I do, and who have
much more developed review sites. I like to think that because
of my love of Capcom fighting games, I bring a unique
perspective to the reviews I write. The articles that follow
will look at how well these toys hold up in comparison to the
source material. Here, I put the figures to the ultimate test:
emulation. Sure, the high amount of articulation makes them
fantastic toys, and they look great in generic poses. But will
they be able to pose in their signature moves? Are the
aesthetics in character? These are the questions I'm hoping to
try and answer. So if you want to see grading on articulation
and packaging, you'll have to look elsewhere. If you're a
fighting fan like me, I hope this review helps you.
If you like this style of review, you can find
similar ones for Round 1 & 2, also written by me, at
www.action-figure.com.
SOTA Toys burst onto the scene barely a year ago,
announcing that they had gotten the coveted (and once, cursed!)
Street Fighter license. How times flies. Their 3rd assortment is
just starting to hit worldwide, and they just unveiled Round 4 and
a new Darkstalkers series at this year's SDCC. Talk about hitting
the ground running!
Round 3 features a mix of characters from 3
games, if you want to get technical. Everyone's favourite
fighting American from Street Fighter II, Guile, headlines this
wave. He is joined by fellow II-er Balrog, the sleazy Shadaloo
boxer. From the Alpha/Zero series, the enigmatic Gen,
Muay Thai upstart Adon and fighting schoolgirl Sakura all made
the cut from the fan polls to become immortalized in plastic.
It's interesting, because Balrog, Gen and Adon are also
characters from the original Street Fighter game. Pure
coincidence, I assure you.
Round 3 strikes a few more home runs for the
Street Fighter series. Once again, the production
quality of the toys is beyond complaint. All joints on my set
(randomly bought at the store; no funny stuff going on here!)
were working great out of the box. Round 2 had a film of
lubricant around most of the joints, but that is mostly gone
now, with no ill results. Everything still moves and nothing
breaks. I did get a very strong paint odor the second I sliced
into the bubble packaging. Not too sure if that's related.
The figures are once again gifted with a lot of articulation.
More so than before, as Round 3 introduces a new SHIN TWIST
joint. I'll talk more about how well that works in the
individual reviews.
I'd like to congratulate SOTA for being the
second American company (IIRC) to complete the Grand Master
subset! Like I said before, Street Fighter was once a cursed
license, which was usually plagued by strange interpretations,
or an incomplete roster. SOTA's well on its way to breaking that
pattern, as they've finished the first subset. In Street Fighter
II, M Bison, Sagat,
Vega and Balrog were all bosses, commonly known as Grand
Masters. I believe the only other American
company to have successfully released all 4 is Hasbro, in their
(ungh!) G I Joe line...Whatever the case, it's a joy to finally
see the Fab Four like this.
Also worthy of note is that Gen, who was *this close* to being
bumped out due to low expectations for sales, is not only back
in the assortment, but he makes a very strong toy. It would have
been a shame if he had only been an online exclusive. More on him
later.
Consistency and scale has also been wonderfully
maintained with this new batch of characters. They all stand at
pretty accurate heights in comparison with the previous
releases. You'd think that this should be a given, but with the
amount of trouble other companies have had with scale. you
really have to give SOTA credit. 15 Street Fighters and the only
real scale-related gripe is that Sodom's head is too small. That's quite
a clean record!
Speaking of clean, paints applications are of
the usual high quality. There are some problem areas, like
Sakura's eyes (which have intricate detail) that may need some
scrutiny before buying, but generally everything is excellent,
with little or no bleeds, even in really detailed parts like
Adon's arm bands, Sakura's uniform lining, or Guile's army camo patterns. I did get an
extra splotch on Sakura's neck, though. But it looks like the
exception rather than the norm.
There still is some issue with loose joints. I
had some problems with a few figures from earlier waves as well.
The good news is that the severity seems to have lessened. But
there are still a few joints that tend to bend to the will of
gravity. For heavy and poseable figures like these, that can
make the difference between a half-squat and a kneel.
I've also had a bit of problem with paint
flaking. I encountered this a little in Round 1 in regards to
the rivet jointed areas. In Round 2, the figures were fine. Now,
after toying around with my stuff for about a week, they are
starting to show slight signs of wear. A small scrape here, a
tiny flake there. It isn't severe, and I think I put my stuff
through a lot more than your regular collector because of these
reviews, but it's something you might want to note.
Overall, it's another great series to add to the
collection. I must advise that you do not let your bias towards
certain characters cloud your judgment when buying! The thing
about this series is that they are ALWAYS better out of the
packaging. Figures that I wasn't that enthusiastic about turned
out to be great once they were loose in my hands.
That's not to say that every figure is perfect.
Each has their good and bad, and I'll go into more depth in the
individual reviews, but on the whole, Round 3 makes for a very
satisfying toy and Capcom experience. Buy a set, and open them
up. They're well worth the money. I for one can't wait for Round
4 now!!
Coming up next: The individual reviews! Click on
the links to read em!
Adon
Gen
Guile
Sakura
Balrog
Addendum:
Some variant news: News has surfaced about a set of colour
variants available only to Japan.
They are limited to 350 pieces each, and should
be packaged on Japanese cards that differ from the US-releases.
They will be available at 3 "partner stores" in Japan:
- Blister Direct
-
Kotobukiya Shop
- Chara-net
Price: 2,500yen each.
The only one that seems really exclusive is black Gen. The
others, or at least similar versions, are available at various
online retailers.
Got a question or feedback? Think I suck at this? Do let me know... -Dare
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