Storm Collectibles Ultra Street Fighter 2 Blanka

I've been loving the Ultra Street Fighter 2 series of figures from Storm Collectibles, and this latest Blanka figure is no exception. In fact, I think overall this has to be their best release yet! There's just so much to like about this figure.

Click through below to watch my full video review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel.

As always with the USF2 releases, this Blanka set comes packed to the brim with accessories. Of course it comes with his electric thunder, done very nicely in transluscent yellow plastic that captures the electricity very nicely. It also comes with 4 head sculpts in total, each of which are beautifully sculpted and painted. The expressions are very accurate to the game, and I absolutely love the loser expression that they always include with the USF2 figures.

The array of hands give you all the possible options to replicate his poses from the game. They also come nicely painted, with the reds at the base of the finger nails being a stand out detail. To round things off, the usual backdrop from the classic character stage is also included. 

The figure itself brings the best of everything that Storm has done before. The sculpting in the musculature is perfect, and the paint application brings it all to life. The shade of green is fantastic, and incredibly consistent across all parts of the figure.

The use of softer plastic or vinyl around the hips and groin area allow for the deep crouching poses. But I do worry that the area may tear if left stressed for long periods, so I would go for more static poses for long term display.

All head sculpts come with the same orange hair piece, that is made of a softer plastic. This way when posing with the head looking up, the hair is not so hard as to scratch the paint on the back or hinder the articulation. In fact, it's more the neck joint that hinders the figure looking even more upwards. That point of articulation is probably the only negative point that I would fault with the figure.

All other articulation points are the same as those from the previous best in Storm's range, such as Sagat, Balrog, and Fei Long. With the ankle rocking and stability in the joints, there's really no problem in getting him into a variety of poses that don't need stands to support.

The hardest pose is really the crouching, bent over pose to complement the electric thunder accessory. I had to do it at least once to capture a photo of his classic special move! The use of the additional ab crunch hinge helps getting him bent over more. But the ability to look more upwards would've sold the pose even more.

All in all, it's a fairly minor complaint against all the other positives of the figure. The sculpting, paint application, articulation, and general body proportions just perfectly fit into the series. His gorgeous orange and green bring some bright colour to the cast, and they just look sensational all displaye together. It's just pure 90s arcade nostalgia for me when I look at them on my shelf! Here's hoping Storm announce more USF2 figures for preorder very soon.

Pix Brix Street Fighter 2 puzzle sets

I stumbled across these Pix Brix sets over on the Big Bad Toy Store website. I'm a big Street Fighter fan since growing up playing the original Street Fighter 2 back in the days of actual arcade centres. These sets really spoke to my nostalgia of many things 80s and 90s. Being a brick building fan of Lego, these were pretty much a must-have for me!

Now the Pix Brix design of each individual piece is quite different to Lego, despite the very similar aesthetic on the packaging art! The build styles and technique are quite different too. You may get a better feel for this in some of the close up shots in my video reviews below over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Hope you can check them out, and scroll down further for more pics of the completed set.

It's great that each set comes with a character sheet with some decent artwork and character biography. The colour map to build each set is on the reverse side of each character sheet. I didn't recognise some of the artwork, but by all accounts they are orginal character art from the game.

Each set is 768 pieces, being 24 x 32 bricks in dimensions, taking the complete set to over 6000 pieces. At about USD$21 each, the price to piece count to pretty decent. Once completed and put together, the full size of the set really becomes apparent, and it simply looks fantastic.

Since they are brick built, the character portraits do look better when viewed from a small distance. But that's perfect for placing them on a book shelf, gaming desk, or in your display cabinet. I'm very much out of space these days, but will definitely need to find a spot to display this set.

For a bit more of a size comparison, here is the completed set with me on the couch! This set is perfect for Street Fighter fans, particularly those with fond memories of the original arcade game and core cast of characters. Highly recommended!

Bandai S.H.Figuarts Street Fighter Blanka

Here's my full video review of the S.H.Figuarts Blanka figure. Another decent addition to the series!

Bandai S.H.Figuarts Street Fighter Ken and Sakura

I love Street Fighter, and these Bandai S.H.Figuarts figures have scratched the itch to have some smaller figures to pose up. The overall quality has been great, and the recent releases of Ken and Sakura are no different.

Click through below to watch my full review of both warriors over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel. Make sure to give the video a like and also subscribe to the channel :)

As you'd expect, Ken is a very similar figure to Ryu and Akuma. The range of articulation is essentially identical, and the sculpted details are nice. I'm not that big a fan of the head sculpts, but this smirking one I used in the photo below is my favourite.

The skin tone on the face is a lighter shade than the body, which is really my only other complaint about the figure. The accessories are decemt, and he looks great posed with the others.

Sakura turned out to be a great figure! I especially love the way they designed the shoes so that the range of ankle articulation is not affected. The front and rear tops split as they normally would, giving a great range of motion.

The knees are nice like Chun-Li's, and not the terrible ones used on Cammy. I think the face sculpts are nice too, and I prefer the broad smiling one I used below. The paint app on the costume is sharp too, and the skirt design didn't hinder any movement.

Together, the gang looks pretty damn good so far. I just saw the other day that Blanka has now been shown at toy conventions, so a preorder for that should be soon. Hopefully we see other classic characters like Guile, E.Honda, and Zangief in this series too. If they're able to make the original cast from Street Fighter 2, I'd be very happy!

I've been playing around with some manual camera settings recently to get my photography skills up. These figures certainly made for great test subjects!

BigboystoysHK Street Fighter TNC-09 Vega

BigboystoysHK have done some great work with their Street Fighter series. I've got all the main characters from the series, and am glad that they're committed to completing the core characters from Street Fighter 2.

Their latest is now the first of the original boss characters with Vega. Again, they've designed the pose and light/sound features beautifully to capture that classic fighting move from the game. Click through below to watch my full video review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel!

Packaging is the usual fantastic style, with great artwork on the front. They've had consistently awesome artwork with this super-deformed style, and the covers do indeed look fantastic displayed together.

There is a bit of assembly to put the statue together, and it does get fiddly this time. The wrists have little posts that fit into holes in the lightup base. Out of the box, the base is a little too wide, so you do need to stretch out the arms slightly and push the base ends together to get the wrist pegs to fit into the holes nicely.

Just go slow and you shouldn't snap or break anything. I'd suggest putting one arm in first slightly, and then squeeze to place the other arm in. Then push down to firmly place both arms in. Once all set up, the set looks fantastic!

The background is Vega's classic game stage, and the pose captures his flying attach move perfectly. The sculpting and paint app are the usual high standard. The face mask is also removable, and attaches via a magnet near the top of the forehead.

It fits pretty well, and his unmasked face looks suitably "pretty" for the character. I prefer the mask on look which befits his attack move. The sound effect is the clip when he perfects the move, and the lightup effect is nicely time-sequenced with the sound.

Overall, if you're a fan of the original Street Fighter 2 game, you will love these statue sets as much as I do. I still need to figure out how to display all the characters together, and they do look amazing all displayed with each other. I can't wait to see how they do Sagat, Balrog, and M.Bison to finish off the original bosses!

BigBoysToysHK Street Fighter TNC-06 Dhalsim

These Street Fighter sets from BigBoysToysHK just seem to get better and better! I've collected all the previous releases with Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, and Blanka (click the links to see the review of each!).

This new Dhalsim is another gorgeous addition to this series that is awesome for any old school Street Fighter fan! Click through below to check out my full review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel :)

The packaging has the same beautiful, super-deformed artwork of the previous releases. Love the velcro front panel to reveal the statue through the window. The back of the box showcases the lighting and sounds effects which looks nice too.

If you've got any of the previous sets, you'll know what you're in for. It comes with the base that has the sound effects and electronics for the lighting too. The backdrop is straight from the character stage from the original Street Fighter 2 arcade game. The statue has some foot pegs that connect the electronics together and keep it stable on the base.

The sculpting is again beautifully designed. The musculature is great, and the paint app accentuates it all very nicely. The translucent plastic for the yoga flame works well with the electronics, giving a nice spinning effect to the flame. The sound effect is the classic "yoga flame" sound byte from the game.

The statue looks pretty damn good from all angles, that showcase the sculpt and paint app. Displayed with the others in the series, this makes for a nostalgic centrepiece in any Street Fighter collection! I can't wait to get the upcoming sets with Zangief, Akuma, and E.Honda now teased. Will definitely be getting all of these awesome world warriors! :)

BigBoysToys Street Fighter T.N.C-05 Blanka

I've loved the previous four Street Fighter sets in this awesome series by BigBoysToys. The super-deformed style of the sculpting and homages back to the original Street Fighter 2 arcade game make this a must-have for fans who stood for hours back in the day in the arcades!

Click the link below to watch my full review over on the Kool Kollectibles YouTube channel.

The artwork is the same awesome style and quality of the previous 4 releases in Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Guile. Love the design!

The extra pieces to attach to the electric storm are a little fiddly to get in place, but once all set up it's bloody awesome! Love the original sound effects from the game, and the lightup effect is very effective. The base, extra plastic pieces, Blanka's hair and eyes all light up nicely (see my video above that show's it).

The sculpting and paint app of the statue itself is every bit as nice as the previous releases. There's no bleeding in the paint app, and it really accentuates the molded detail in the pants and musculature.

Overall, this is one of their best releases in the line so far.  Really looking forward to Dhalsim and Akuma coming up next!