Storm Collectibles continues to release some pretty awesome figures across several source media, from more recent games to classic arcades, manga, and cartoons. For me, I love their Ultra Street Fighter 2 series of figures, as that's the game that I grew up playing in the 90s through high school and university.
Storm are pretty slow at releasing figures in any particular series since they seem to now be invested in so many licences. Each time an USF2 character is announced and released, it's always a great day for me. They have done another fantastic job with this new Balrog.
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The set comes with a decent array of accessories, similar to what was included in previous USF2 figures. This time, they did include not just the swap out head sculpts, but also a complete swap out torso without the shirt.
This was actually a great way for me to become more familiar with their body design, as taking out the arms and torso revealed aspects of the internal body that I would not typically see or worry about. The joints are very tight, so I won't be swapping them much at all, and will likely just stick with his iconic torn white shirt and blue singlet style.
The topless torso has great muscle detail, and has the same functions with the butterfly joints, soft upper torso for rotation and flex, and the lower abdomen area that rotates atop a tight ball joint. Either style looks fantastic, and coupled with the awesome head sculpts, the figure simply excudes charisma and shelf presence.
The paint application is a stand out for me, with a beautiful matte finish that reallys matches the classic arcade aesthetic. There's very little shiny plastic that makes the figure look too toyish, and this looks and feels like a high end toy.
Articulation has all the great points similar to other Storm figures, and the use of softer plastic where needed makes getting into action poses quite easy. The beefy arms can come forward enough to mimic the boxer stances, and you can replicate his moves from the game very well.
The gloves have a software plastic towards the wrist area, so be careful when rotating them there where they meet the forearm in case you get any splitting or cracking. The thighs have a bit of rotation where they meet the shorts, but it's tight and minimal so it's probably best to just use the hip rotation.
I love the use of the foot toe flex to help get into more boxing action, and using the dust accessory gives some nice photo opportunities to replicate the gaming special moves. He balances well too, and does not feel like he needs a stand to remain safe on the display shelf.
I love the unique aspect of the USF2 series of characters with their loser portraits. Storm have done a great job in replicating those portrait screens from the arcade. They make for a fun photo opportunity altogether, or with other figures from Storm.
I love the figures that have been released so far, and they give an awesome burst of collection into my otherwise pretty bland collection. I smile each time I look at them, and remember the endless hours I spent playing the Street Fighter games at arcades.
The new Balrog scales well with the others, fitting in nicely between the biggest with Sagat and Zangief, and the smallest with Ken and Ryu. That pretty much matches nicely with the game from my memory.
Here's to hoping Storm announce more characters in the series soon. I think we've seen teasers for Blanka and Fei Long which would be very interesting. But I'm also still holding out hope for Chun-Li and Cammy that they've made in the Street Fighter 5 series. Having these characters in the SF2 series would be fantastic.
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