DSC_0744
Well folks.. we've made it. As I'm writing this, it's 2 pm Eastern Standard Time and I'm pretty sure that most of the world has started to say "good riddance" to 2020.
My final entry this year isn't so much just a figure, but I'm hoping that I'm able to coin a new word in the Popular Lexicon... "Butterknees". Because Butterknees is the theme of this figure.
Play Arts Kai Super Street Fighter IV Chun Li.
Released way back in 2012, there had been no really good Street Fighter action figures. The SOTA ones were weak sculpts and the Revoltech ones only had like two characters. So, along came these Play Art Kai figures which honestly got me excited.. yeah, the prices weren't great, but at least these seemed to be much better than what we had before.
I ended up not buying any of them because, well, the knees were just awful. I mean.. look at the things. It's a real shame because I really do like the overall look of the figure but did they ever FUBAR those things. Muscular legs and general musculature on the arms, coupled with a decently curvy (albeit thin) upper body and a halfway decent head sculpt. There would eventually be a revision to the leg design, which was first showcased with Sakura, whom I purchased in Vancouver back in 2018.
So I eventually ended up wit this one as it's a Chun Li, and a local guy had been trying to move her to no avail. So I bought the figure, knowing about the knees but ultimately being reminded why I generally detest the product itself.
The figure never did come with much. I'm not sure if this one came with a stand or not, but otherwise the figure is all there - the figure, one additional mouth open sculpt, a pair of open palms, and a Kikoken effect with stand.
The articulation of Play Arts Kai have always been... above average at best. You get ankles, those glorious double jointed knees *shudders*, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso joint, shoulders with butterfly joints for crossing the arms, elbows with forearm rotation, wrists, and of course, the head. Generally speaking, its real.ly the skirt that gets in the way of the legs but otherwise you're alright. for a figure of this size. Your only real other option at this time was the Medicom 1/6 Chun Li , which came in SFIII and SFIV varieties.
The paint is... typical for a Play Arts Kai release. They've honestly never had a really good track record, only becoming more competent as it were when prices for PAK reached close to $200 CAD (these were around $80 CAD), so you get that expected mix of competent and horrible paint applications.. Overall the figure is presentable, but definitely best enjoyed from a viewing distance of 6 ft. away or further.
It's the Build Quality that is truly, truly outrageous.
Now I know this is a used figure, but at the same time I've heard stories through the grapevine about how poor the QC on these things could be. There are two major issues with this figure. First, you'll notice that the upper torso is misaligned at the shoulders. As a result, one of the Butterfly hinges is always exposed. Furthermore, this also causes a great deal of difficulty when you're trying to pose the arms the same way on both sides of the body.
The bigger of the two issues would be the legs, or more accurately, the hip joints. These things are TERRIBLE. They basically don't want want o hold the leg in place, with the right hip looking particularly bad. You could attribute this to play wear, but at the same time the left hip looks pristine, and the thing isn't really holding in place either. Couple this with the history I have with PAK and crappy joints even fresh out of the box, and I'm leaning towards QC issues right out of the factory.
I've read that using some 3M joint tightening adhesive might help, so I'll have to research that in the future.
So yeah... missed opportunity coupled with really bad QC. This entire line up would eventually be forgotten due to the passage of time and of course, the advent of the Storm Collectibles and Figuarts line ups, both of which are overall superior to the PAK releases, though of course there can still be some misses.
Have a great New Years, everyone.
DSC_0744
Well folks.. we've made it. As I'm writing this, it's 2 pm Eastern Standard Time and I'm pretty sure that most of the world has started to say "good riddance" to 2020.
My final entry this year isn't so much just a figure, but I'm hoping that I'm able to coin a new word in the Popular Lexicon... "Butterknees". Because Butterknees is the theme of this figure.
Play Arts Kai Super Street Fighter IV Chun Li.
Released way back in 2012, there had been no really good Street Fighter action figures. The SOTA ones were weak sculpts and the Revoltech ones only had like two characters. So, along came these Play Art Kai figures which honestly got me excited.. yeah, the prices weren't great, but at least these seemed to be much better than what we had before.
I ended up not buying any of them because, well, the knees were just awful. I mean.. look at the things. It's a real shame because I really do like the overall look of the figure but did they ever FUBAR those things. Muscular legs and general musculature on the arms, coupled with a decently curvy (albeit thin) upper body and a halfway decent head sculpt. There would eventually be a revision to the leg design, which was first showcased with Sakura, whom I purchased in Vancouver back in 2018.
So I eventually ended up wit this one as it's a Chun Li, and a local guy had been trying to move her to no avail. So I bought the figure, knowing about the knees but ultimately being reminded why I generally detest the product itself.
The figure never did come with much. I'm not sure if this one came with a stand or not, but otherwise the figure is all there - the figure, one additional mouth open sculpt, a pair of open palms, and a Kikoken effect with stand.
The articulation of Play Arts Kai have always been... above average at best. You get ankles, those glorious double jointed knees *shudders*, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso joint, shoulders with butterfly joints for crossing the arms, elbows with forearm rotation, wrists, and of course, the head. Generally speaking, its real.ly the skirt that gets in the way of the legs but otherwise you're alright. for a figure of this size. Your only real other option at this time was the Medicom 1/6 Chun Li , which came in SFIII and SFIV varieties.
The paint is... typical for a Play Arts Kai release. They've honestly never had a really good track record, only becoming more competent as it were when prices for PAK reached close to $200 CAD (these were around $80 CAD), so you get that expected mix of competent and horrible paint applications.. Overall the figure is presentable, but definitely best enjoyed from a viewing distance of 6 ft. away or further.
It's the Build Quality that is truly, truly outrageous.
Now I know this is a used figure, but at the same time I've heard stories through the grapevine about how poor the QC on these things could be. There are two major issues with this figure. First, you'll notice that the upper torso is misaligned at the shoulders. As a result, one of the Butterfly hinges is always exposed. Furthermore, this also causes a great deal of difficulty when you're trying to pose the arms the same way on both sides of the body.
The bigger of the two issues would be the legs, or more accurately, the hip joints. These things are TERRIBLE. They basically don't want want o hold the leg in place, with the right hip looking particularly bad. You could attribute this to play wear, but at the same time the left hip looks pristine, and the thing isn't really holding in place either. Couple this with the history I have with PAK and crappy joints even fresh out of the box, and I'm leaning towards QC issues right out of the factory.
I've read that using some 3M joint tightening adhesive might help, so I'll have to research that in the future.
So yeah... missed opportunity coupled with really bad QC. This entire line up would eventually be forgotten due to the passage of time and of course, the advent of the Storm Collectibles and Figuarts line ups, both of which are overall superior to the PAK releases, though of course there can still be some misses.
Have a great New Years, everyone.