Kool Kollectibles content

11 Mar 2016

Pop Culture Shock Collectibles Ryu Ansatsuken Exclusive 1/4 scale statue

I still remember the preorder time like it was yesterday! I love Street Fighter and Ryu, so once I saw the teaser pics of this Ryu 1/4 scale statue, I knew I had to have it! Being my first PCS statue, I was warned that the preorder frenzy could be very stressful, with website drop outs and cancelled orders etc. Being in Australia, the preorder open was in the middle of the night, so I stayed up until the time it started.

It was a heart-stopping 4-5 minutes trying to enter all the information and push through the payment via PayPal. Luckily for me the timestamp on the order was within 10 mins, as that was essentially the cutoff to get an approved order for the Ansatsuken exclusive version that had a smaller edition size.

I was so happy to secure the preorder, and pretty much sat back for about 21 months for this to finally be released! I had no idea that it would take this long to release, but since the AUD dropped significantly in that period, I was actually lucky to have paid upfront with the upfront discount and much higher AUD!

So was it worth the wait? Click through below to watch my full video review on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel and find out! :) Or scroll down further below for more pics and thoughts :)



The packaging itself was simple, yet protected the statue well inside with sturdy foam.



Immediate out of the box still in the foam, it was immediately obvious that the costume (the gi) was a very weathered yellow colour that had been the source of much complaint. Still in the plastic wrapping, I got a sense of what the other collectors were debating, but I hoped for the best when taking it all out for full display.



Before I go further on the yellowing, I must say that I love the underlying sculpt and paint application of the statue. My photos tend to make the statue seem a bit too shiny, but it's definitely not like that in hand. I think it's more to do with my bright cold white LED lighting that gives that effect.



The three head sculpts included with the Ansatsuken exclusive are all pretty fantastic, with my favourite definitely being the angry snarling face. The skin texture perhaps doesn't have that ultra realistic freckling like Hot Toys figures, but it certainly has some texture that looks great up close.



The paint app on the arms in particular is outstanding, with the faint blue of the veins and all the shadowing that accentuates the musculature of the sculpt. Overall I'm really happy with the pose and proportions of the statue.



For the mixed media, I love the fabric head band, and the costume itself is made of a great canvas type material that isn't overly delicate. The intentional fraying around the shoulders and ankles looks quite realistic and is nicely done.

The belt is also a nice material with clear gold kanji on the front. The gloves, although not fabric or leather like, still have a nice paint app that accentuates the detail in the fist and knuckles.



Of course not everything is perfect. I have to agree with many collectors who are complaining about the degree of yellowing in the costume. The prototype pictures certainly show that there is some weathering, but it is much more subtle that was is on the final production costume.

As I show in my video review, the biggest problem I think is that the weathering is not consistently applied throughout. This makes for some jarring transitions between yellow and bright white areas of the costume that give it an incomplete or messy job.

I think that if the weathering was more subtly applied, or at least more consistently applied, then it wouldn't look off in those areas. For what it is, it does come across a bit like Ryu has spilled some coffee on himself. Luckily in most natural lighting, the yellowing effect isn't too distracting.



The costume also have wiring across the front stitching and neck area, so you can futz around with it to give it a looser appearance and show off the great musculature of the torso area a bit more.



In the end, as my first PCS statue, I'm pretty happy with it. The pose is iconic Ryu for sure, and the quality of the paint app is great. The mixed media is also really nice material that is not overly delicate to adjust. With the three head sculpts to give some variety in the display cabinet, I think it's certainly worth the preorder price that I paid. Aside from the yellowing, the only other complaint I have is that now I want the Gouken statue as well lol!! :)

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