Name: E. Honda
Line: Street Fighter: Revolution Series 1
Manufacturer: SOTA (State of the Art Toys)
Released: 2008
Price: Online: $10.00+
Scale: (Once again, let's say 6.5 in.)
Accessories: Extra Head and set of Hands, CCG Trading Card

 

Years of being exposed to sweaty muscular men throughout my childhood have allowed me to appreciate the male body, instead of recoil from it in utter disgust. I'm talkin' 'bout wraaslin', fools! And not that pansy American stuff with cardboard tables and plastic chairs, I mean real Mexican wrestling, where flying-off a 20-foot structure head-first into the pavement is not only encouraged, but expected! Fine, maybe my memories are a little hazy, I may have taken one too many dives onto the cement.

Yarrr! E.Honda is a fine specimen of man, he'd be the perfect addition to your collection if he weren't so ridiculously tall. He's a little over 7.5 inches tall, even taller if you count the hair. There are grumblings that this line of Street Fighters was made in a larger scale, if so, I'd guess it was 6.5-inch scale because all the figures in the line are slightly too tall when compared to their older SF bretheren (the Zangief figure, which is supposed to be shorter than T.Hawk, is actually an inch taller, had he been about and inch smaller, he'd be in-scale). "Slightly" doesn't apply to E.Honda in any way, he's 2 inches too tall! However, once crouched, he's a much more reasonable 6.5 inches tall. Based on this, the gigantism is forgiveable.

Honestly, I don't give a crap about the heights for this line, all the figures look good on display, that's the most important thing. There is little to complain about regarding what the figure actually looks like, it represents E.Honda clearly, so good job SOTA. The figure does suffer a little from USS (Unfinished Sculpt Sysdrome), especially the hands, they needed a final pass of smoothing...and you'll probably notice all those pins sticking-out near the joints. The torso is acceptable, the random faint crustiness is most likely due to the semi-raw sculpt again, but it is presentable. The legs are perfectly smooth, which only furthers our suspicions that SOTA simply ran out of time and had to rush the Revolution figures' production. Take a look at the prototype picture on the back of the package, that figure is perfectly smooth, why didn't we get that one? The end-product is still super-badass. Yeah, SUPER-badass! I like the little wrinkles denoting the elbows, those are funny and not seen often enough.

Sculpt Score: 7 / 10

It's hard to tell whether the paint or sculpt are to blame for some of the crustiness present, I'm leaning towards blaming the sculpt based on how smooth the paint is overall. And aside from smoothness, there really isn't much else that's remarkable about the paint, aside from it maybe being a little bland. The skin is shaded well enough, with the darker sections staying consistently in the muscle-grooves and nipples, the hair and towel however aren't shaded, and so look very 2-dimentional. The solidly-colored hair needs some dry-brushing; it's not black, it's more of an ashy dark gray, giving E.Honda an older appearance, which is neat, I guess, hah.

Surprisingly, the smaller glossy green detail on the face is much neater than the broad stripes on the, uh, towel? Sorry, I'm not one for fancy proper names, if it looks like a towel and acts like a towel, it's a towel, har har. It looks like it's entirely painted, not just yellow plastic with red stripes, I appreciate that because it gives the figure a more finished look. Hell, the whole figure is painted, that's just plain awesome. The matte flesh and dirty areas between the toes adds realism!

The eyes on both heads have issues. The paint-apps on the calm head are clean but way off-center, though luckily nowhere near as bad as Dhalsim who had an eye painted on his frikkin' eyebrow! The screaming-head's eyes are in-sync but point slightly off to the left. The teeth on that same head could use a dark wash to make them pop. Finger and toenails are the same color as the skin, so they look creepy.

Mercifully, the thong-washi underneath the skirt is neatly, and ENTIRELY, painted. I'd say it needs a dark wash to bring-out the wrinkles in the fabric, but I'm afraid of what shape those wrinkles might reveal.

Paint Score: 8 / 10

 

Even most wrestling figures, which are supposed to be super-athletic characters, don't have as much poseability as this bulkier figure, that's impressive. Fine, the new WWE figs by Mattel are cool, but Sumo Wrestling > Regular Wrestling, so there! The major complaint I have with the articulation is that the joints creak when you move them. What the hell?! WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?! xD

Yessss, it's alarming, but I think they screech and creak so much because the joint-areas are fully-painted and tend to want to stick in place. The best way I can describe the feeling is like if you're rubbing two balloons together, that horrible squeaky noise is what comes out of all of E.Honda's joints. If you buy DC Direct figures regularly, you'll notice they have some oil in the joints, that's there to avoid the horrid screeching, SOTA's Street Fighter: Revolution line does not have this lubricant. But hey, at least none of the joints are loose!

Oh, wait, yes they are, heh. Well, only the torso is loose, but it's loose in the sense that it comepletely falls off when you try to move it! There's a double-ball joint in there that adds a ton of movement, but the top socket doesn't completely or securely engulf a ball, so it pops-off when posing the figure. It gets obnoxious, but it stays put if you just leave it alone. Yay?

Okay, there's gotta be something definitely-positive to say about the joints...okay, they work well despite the short-comings. Double-hinged knees ensure a wide stance while the naturally-swiveling feet and ankles support the figure with ease (but Hera help you if those ankle-hinges ever become loose!). The super-articulated torso allows almost any attack-pose to look effective, but the more limited single-hinged elbows restrain our glee a bit. The legs are fully-articulated under the Man-Skirt so E.Honda can stomp around a ring with the best of them. He can also face in any direction thanks to the double-ball joint in the neck.

Articulation Score: 10 / 10

I stand by my assertion that large bulky figures are inherently-fun. There's just something about having a big meaty figure in your hand that makes you feel powerful. Go ahead, get your dad's old metal Mag-Lite out of the basement and hold it for a while, tell me you don't feel all majestic and crap. Included with Edmond Honda are two pairs of hands and a pair of heads, interchangeable of course. A little research goes along way when trying to fill space in a review (sorry, TAO! xD ); apparently our buddy Ed isn't quite the nice jovial guy he was in the Street Fighter 2 animated movie. The two sets of hands included are "open" and "fists", both hand-gestures that would have no place in a sumo-match. Slapping is considered rude and wrestlers aren't allowed to punch each other, so Honda is a cheater, a rebel, slapping and punching his way to victory! But then again, Street Fighter doesn't follow the respectful laws of Sumo, so why are you still reading this dribble?!

The hilarious side-effect the calm head has, thanks to the crooked eyes, is it gives Ed a crazy-hobo look. He's staring off into the distance, in two different directions at the same time, much like a muppet with googly eyes. I love it. It would have been even more hilarious to have the screaming head have the crooked eyes, because then you could place him in a running pose and he would look completely bonkers! That brings me to my next point, these Street Fighter figures need stands! I am ever so appreciative of all the goodies we get already, but a stand is essential to achieve any of the high-flying maneuvers we love. How else are we going to turn Ed into a 500-pound head-butting missile?

Also, I'm constantly wanting to mash these figures together in a brutal Royal Rumble-style match, but I never actually do it for two prudent reasons: First, these freaking figures are expensive, I don't want to marr the paint on all the figures then have them look like crap when on display. I can't afford two sets just because I want to throw Honda 30 feet across the room at Blanka. Secondly, they are freaking expensive! You will have to take-out a small bank-loan if you ever want to replace all your SOTA Street Fighter figures, especially if you want the regular "Player 1" colors. Notice I have the "Player 2" colors on Ed. I should note, there's a sticker on the back of the package claiming this is a Big Bad Toy Store exclusive variant...but I didn't get it from them! ;D

Fun Score: 8 / 10

If there were no quality-issues with this figure, the near-20-dollar retail-price wouldn't be a problem. This is a massive figure with useful accessories, who wouldn't love interchangeable heads and hands for their boring DCUC figures? The pretty package and bonus foil battle/trading card to sweeten the pot. Unfortunately, the figure has multiple issues that we can only speculate as to why they are there. Well, we can do that, or we can tactfully ask SOTA like I did, and see what they have to say about it! (I'm waiting for their reponse)

I don't think $18 for a figure that pops-apart on its own and has weird hands and eyes is fair, but for the $10 sale-price I found it for, I couldn't be happier. This is an important, and pretty cool character, for anyone wanting to complete their Street Fighter collection. There aren't very many other figs like this, if for nothing else, you should at least buy this figure for the novelty-value.

Value Score: 8 / 10

 

 80 / 100 - This is a Great Toy

If I had to give SOTA the benefit of the doubt, I'd say they made the torso easily removeable on purpose. It's an obnoxious trait, but it does allow the skirt to come off with little coaxing for more... interesting displays.

-DrNightmare

_______