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Alt colours and secondary costumes are nothing new to the world of fighting games, though definitely more common to 3D ones, as a 2D alt costume would effectively be an entirely new character. SFV has introduced an entire line of alt costumes titled "Battle Costumes" for the characters, which have been immensely popular, especially with certain characters. Well, merchandisers definitely took note, and as a result, we now have figures like Cammy her from Storm Collectibles.

 

Cammy is one of those characters that got her start back in the OG days, specifically Super Street Fighter II. I remember falling in love with how quick and annoying she was to play as, something that is a bit toned town these days but comparatively speaking she's still very competent at that tactic. Her outfit has always been a top with gauntlets that honestly, ought to disqualify her from any fighting tournament based on how much padding they give her (I also wouldn't be surprised if they had metal plates embedded in them), boos, and zero pants. That fine tradition hasn't changed over the year, so bless you, Capcom, for keeping this English lass in top form.

 

For reasons unknown, Storm never released a default costume Cammy (or at least not yet), despite Cammy being one of the original SFV roster. Mind you, they haven't done quite a few original characters, but considering that we got an original Chun Li before her much touted Battle Costume version, it's kind of odd to me. Maybe we'll see one in the future. My synopsis for Battle Chun Li is quite simple - Storm focused on making the body look pretty at the expense of the face and completely skipped giving her a complexion.

 

The battle costume for Cammy is default blue, with a con exclusive green version available as well, which I was able to get a glimpse of while I was at Fan Expo 2019. I probably would have ended up with that one, but as I had this one on preorder from Northmen Collectibles, I did the sensible thing and waited rather than spend an extra $110 CAD. Two months after seeing her at the show, and now Cammy is here in the collection. I'm so excited! Let's get started.

 

Cammy comes with your typical load out for a Storm SF character these days, albeit in a much larger box. You get the Cammy figure, two additional faces, totalling three (neutral expression eyes front, neutral expression eyes left, attacking), six additional hands for your various fighting pose needs, two additional hair styles, again totalling three (neutral, to the side, attacking), three Ahoge (the yellow hair that sticks out of her forehead), and technically, two really big effect pieces (Thrust Kick/Dive Kick, Cannon Arrow/Drill). Technically two because there are multiple pieces that make up the latter. It sounds like a lot, and it's not bad, but it wasn't that long ago when I got Chun Li, and was blown away by the package, which included the figure stuff, effects for both her Kikoken and Hyakuretsukyaku, V-Trigger effects, and a freakin' stand. Prices have gone up, understandably, but one of the consistencies across the board thus far is the removal of non essential effects, and more importantly, the removal of the stand, which of course is available for purchase separately... unless you're me and live in Canada where Blue Fin does not ship to. So all in all, I have zero idea how or where to go to get an official Storm stand, so it's a good thing I have a few from the OG days.

 

If you've never seen the original stands from Storm, I'll admit they're a bit crude from a materials perspective, but robust in terms of what it is meant to do, namely hold up your figure in a variety of poses.

 

Overall speaking, Cammy looks great. One of the strong points about Storm is that they do strive to replicate the costumes of the characters to the best of their ability, and that shows here. The overall look of the Battle Costume is in place, with various belts, pockets, flaps, rivets, straps, and so on replicated through the use of paint applications and sculpting - I especially enjoy the work Storm put into her backpack. Naturally, it's not going to pass as a 1:1 life replica of the costume, but the spirit of it is very much alive and well. The effects parts look very nice, translucent yellow plastic which fades to a clear plastic towards to the back. Mounting them on Cammy, on the other hand, is a bit of a trial, at least it is for the larger of the two. In fact, I still haven't quite figured it out, as the instructions for this aren't the greatest and there's no obvious place for me to place her foot.

 

As far as I can tell, there are no recycled parts on Cammy as compared to Chun Li, the only other 1/12 scale female that Storm has made (as far as I'm aware). Mind you, considering Chun Li rings in a 5' 8" and Cammy is a dainty 5' 5", there would be some problems if there was replication, even if it were reuse of thighs or arms. I feel that Storm definitely captured the curves of Cammy, though they could have given her a bit more muscle definition in her thighs (Chun Li as well) but it isn't bad at all. Undestandably, the gap in the pelvic region is going to be a turn off for some, but for the purposes of articulation, something had to give. Her face is.. well it isn't bad. It definitely looks more accurate than Battle Chun Li, suffering from what call the typical inability of Storm to grasp the concept of what non-east Asian eyes look like (except for Sagat, because he's dreamy and perfect). The shape of the face isn't too bad either. The problem is that the tiny eyes, combined with the undersized goggles she's got, gives Cammy a larger than normal appearing forehead.

 

Paint work is pretty consistent Storm quality, in that it's not top tier, but overall it is generally good. The glossy black paint on her boots and gauntlets are a bit on the heavy side, resulting in a bit of a muddy texture as opposed to a smooth shiny black. Paint masking is very much hit and miss, with some weaker exhibits being her zipper on her top, and pretty much any time the light grey paint is used.. the white dots on her knee armour and the buckles of her pouches are so inconsistent, I'd swear it was one free hand by some guy on his way out the door on a Friday night. The use of a metallic red paint for the lens of her goggles was a nice touch. From a QC and build quality, hit and miss, as per the Storm MO. Storm is very much a middle of the road company when it comes to 1/12 stuff, and it shows. Not to say it's terrible or bad, but your either the guy with a perfect figure, or the guy with issues. Well, today, I'm the latter. My Cammy has a slightly larger arm socket for her left arm, resulting in it being easily detached. Putting it back in isn't difficult, but it is somewhat annoying to do when you're posing her in a multitude of ways for say, oh, a photo shoot. Finishes on the parts are good, with the exception of truly rough work on some of the hair pieces, rough patches that are, of course, highlighted by the literal use of a bright colours.

 

This brings us to articulation... again, saved for last. Let this be a spoiler alert.

 

Cammy possess a vast array of articulation point - ball jointed ankles, slight calf swivel, double jointed knees, full motion hips, waist, mid torso, shoulder articulation with chest collapse action, double jointed elbows, full wrist articulation, and ball jointed head joint. With this at your disposal, you're going to be able to replicate a good array of standard Cammy poses, and of course, posing in general. So, good news, right? Why did I save this for last? Well.. because I'm a cynic, and anal retentive. As such, I found something that most people probably wouldn't give a crap about, but naturally, I do.

 

Storm figures are kind of like Terminators - squishy bits placed over a rigid skeleton. It's how they get the relatively accurate torso proportions.. or at least ones that resemble something on an actual person rather than a Minecraft character, without sacrificing articulation. What you see on one of the last photos is the upper body of Cammy stripped down to the skeleton. See that long blue thing? That's her neck... which normally wouldn't be a problem except for the following fact - it doesn't move. I don't know about Guile, but I'm pretty confident that every other character released up to this point has a functional neck - my two Chun Li's, Zangief, and Sagat definitely do. Why did they leave it out? Well it certainly wasn't a room thing, or a design complication. Nope, my belief is that it goes back to cost cutting again. I'm trying to decide between Storm being penny pinching pansies because of the larger than normal effects parts, or Storm being penny pinching pansies because they can and figured nobody would notice or care.

 

Well, guess I noticed.

 

I know it doesn't seem like much, but the removal of this one joint really does make the difference between natural looking poses (particularly for any of her more extreme body contorting attacks) and ones that look kind of awkward, and it's also a shame because Storm has this wonderful system of a rubber skin that they can't take advantage of because now the neck is a solid piece connected to the shoulders directly. I suspect that going forward, this will be a running change and that this point of articulation is gone.

 

So there you have it - Cammy from Storm Collectibles, masters of subtle costing... subtle like a baseball bat to the nuts. It's still a very good figure, but this trend of cutting isn't exactly making my inner child cackle with glee. Between that and the increase of Storm QC issues overall, if you're a stickler for these things you'll probably want to at least pause for consideration before you dive in and pick this one up.

 

#LINDARELUCTANTLYAPPROVES

Done