As Street Fighter's most recognizable character (it's arguable) Ryu was a pretty important figure for NECA to get right on this first go round in their new Street Fight IV Player Select series. Although he's guilty of a questionable style, Ryu is still a great figure that's a load of fun.
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Ryu's sculpt is probably the only area people will have major complaints. From a technical standpoint, this thing is really good. He has very crisp angles and all the important details. There are veins visible across most of his body, textures in parts of his clothes, wrinkles in his skin, and natural folds in fabric. His style is what's going to be so hit or miss. Everything is really quite exaggerated from huge pant legs, large angular muscles, giant feet, and a ...well, scary facial expression. I personally like the style of this design and think he looks fascinating in a lot of different poses. What bothers me most is that he and Ken don't seem to fit in with C. Viper all that well, who has a much more muted physical style. His facial expression is a bit over the top, and I'm generally okay with angry faces; this one just takes it a step too far. He should've been called Roid Rage Ryu, with pill bottle accessory. His eyes look as if they're about to pop right out of his head. Other than that his hair looks great and the 'headband in the wind' effect is nice. It's a bonus that he comes with both fists and open hands, so you can have him punching or flameballing away.
Sculpt Score: 8 / 10 - May love or hate the style, this score is for lovers, great details in skin and clothes, face is a bit hulked out, swappable hands look good for different functions.
I feel like Ryu's paint is just missing a little something. They got the colors great, with a nice simple white, basic skin tone, deep red, and a dark wash over his clothes. He looks good in photos and in person with this color scheme. The applications are pretty good across the board too. He has a little bit of slop around his belt where someone got lazy, but the wash on his outfit looks great to me; it might come across a little strong for some though. His skin has some great stuble color variation that gets too dark underneath his neck, though it's not too distracting. His face is great with clean eye and eyebrow lines as well as a great headband and hairline distinction. There are a few letters and symbols written on his gloves and belt which came across great, very readable (if you know the language) and proof of attention to detail.
Paint Score: 9 / 10 - Sloppy belt but clean face and letters, nice color scheme, like the color variations in the outfit and skin.
This articulation model is really strong. Ryu has a load of points, the only thing missing is some sort of finger articulation, which I'd pass on anyway. In total, the packaging claims he has 35 points of articulation. You can find so many great poses for this guy you'll be at it all day getting him just perfect. On that note, posing him will be easy too, because the articulation is all tight enough to hold any position, though some of it is a little hard to move, especially the top half of the double hinges at his knees and elbows. I still can't get one of his elbows to bend at the top hinge, because when pressure is applied, the peg holding his bicep in the shoulder is bent, and I don't want to break it off. Other than that, everything works very smoothly and you'll be quite pleased if you're a DCUC collector. For the most part, this articulation also blends into the sculpt pretty well, except again I'll pick on the double hinges which look bad at his knees from the front when bent, but especially from the back when neutral. If you look at the photo above with the back of his knees pictured, you'll see what I mean, with those huge hinge plates running from his thigh to his calf. Despite these complaints, this figure still has great articulation that's fun to play with or pose.
Articulation Score: 9 / 10 - Mostly smooth joints, some are a bit hard to turn, looks good with sculpt except in a few spots, just tons of articulation to play around with.
With a game that's been as popular as Street Fighter for the last decade or two, one of its lead characters is definitely a recognizable face that fans love to play as. Seeing him in plastic form should elicit similar feelings as choosing him on screen and if you're like me, you'll really enjoy just having this figure. He's a great simple design that's appealing for a number of reasons whether you're 10 or 40. The massive amounts of articulation only make the fun last longer because you could find a great new pose every week or reenact moves from the actual game. He also includes an extra set of hands so you can pretend he's throwing out his signature move (by signature I mean the only one I can do) Hadouken, the horizontally destined fireball. So where is his Hadouken ball; I think they dropped the ball a bit by not including some sort of energy accessories, because that's a pretty vital aspect of Street Fighter and Ryu would be that littlest bit more fun with a snap on.
Fun Score: 9 / 10 -
Tons of articulation makes posing and play fun, swappable hands are a
great idea, he's a famous character people love, you can simulate the
game, where's the energy accessory?
Ryu is really a fantastic value at $15. With standard mass market release figures at this scale going for around $12-15 anyway, it's such a welcome surprise to get a well made figure with very high quality standard for just a couple dollars more. He's a little bigger than your standard 6" figure, but I wouldn't say he's a 7" figure either, just a hair or two taller than the DCUC male I have him standing next to. He's made of very hard plastic and I think he'd last through a number of rounds in a real fight because he's durable and very solid. The paint and sculpt are top notch work and he's a classic video game character. The extra hands are really just a bonus for me, because I think he's a standout value anyway.
Value Score: 10 / 10 - Nice sized figure at a very reasonable price, famous character, great production values, solid and heavy in your hands.
Summary
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Overall Score: 90 / 100 - This is a Wonderful Toy
As the classic Street Fighter character, NECA managed to do Ryu justice with a fantastic figure that's standout in every area and especially worth the cost.
P.S. This could be the figure I'm giving away this month, just leave a comment for a chance to win (if it's the one).
-The Articulated One
