Hello guys! Sorry for the long wait. Kinda little busy on everyday life so I wasn't really able to put up some good posts here in my blog. But I am here now for some Street Fighter goodness. We got a Tsume HQF Street Fighter IV Ultra- 1/8th Scale Vega figure to review, courtesy of Figmation.
Notice that these shots weren't done on my usual mini-studio, but were done outdoor. I just got a chance to get some good sunlight so I decided to do a photoshoot outside. Well, it wasn't really an ideal sunlight cause the best sunlight for photo shooting actually, is around 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sundown.
It's almost noontime when I did these shots and the sun was directly above which produces a harsh light, and strong shadows on my shots. So to compensate that a little, I put a silver reflector, below this figure to reflect a lot of sunlight upwards. I could also use a diffuser but since I don't want everyone looking at me being curious of what I'm doing (not all passers by would understand this), I decided not to make my setup too complicated. So much for my photoshoot endeavor, let's get to the character and the figure itself.
Is there anyone out there who don't know the characters of Street Fighter? Or Vega in particular? Well if you are living in a dungeon for the last 20 years, Street Fighter is a fighting video game from Capcom, and Vega is one of the recurring characters on most versions. I'm not an avid Street Fighter gamer, but I do play this game from time to time and I knew Vega from way back during the Sega Genesis console era.
Vega is originally named as Balrog in Japan. In the Japanese versions of this game, this metallic Wolverine-claw-like wielding and masked Spanish guy is named Balrog. The german final boss with magnetic and levitation ability like Magneto is named as Vega, and the american boxer is M. Bison.
Due to some issues in the names where M. Bison the boxer is actually a pun to the name of M. (Mike) Tyson, it was changed in the international version of the game. The names of these three characters were rotated. M. Bison becomes the name of the german final boss, Balrog becomes the name of the american boxer, while the name Vega was given to the Spanish masked guy.
For me, the names are much better in the international versions because Vega actually suites a Spanish name, M. Bison sounds more sinister as a boss with a magnetism ability, and Balrog sounds better for a black boxer for some reason, probably because I grew up knowing Balrog the boxer.
Tsume HQF Street Fighter IV Ultra - Vega is one of the first two Street Fighter character releases by Tsume, the other one as I mentioned is Chun-li. These two were specifically based on the latest incarnation of this popular fighting game, Street Fighter IV Ultra, as the title name implies. I don't see any difference in the character designs between Street Fighter IV Ultra and the regular (non- Ultra) Street Fighter IV, though. They probably just used Street Fighter IV Ultra as a licensing reference so they can produce all the characters on the Ultra, as this version has more characters.
I'm not sure if there are any other Street Fighter characters that are being planned under the HQF product line of Tsume. For now, only these two were listed in their official website. It was released last September 2014, same month as Chun-li with a price of 119.90 € (inclusive of tax), about $ 150.00 USD. Of course it cost a little more expensive here in Asia. A steep price for a 1/8th scale figure. Let's see in this review if it's worth the price.
This figure stands 350 mm, that's the base height since he's just hanging on it and ready to launch his Flying Barcelona attack. His weight is about 2 Kg, heavy right? Again, that includes the base and the bulk of the weight is on it. See the height comparison between Vega and Chun-li below.
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| Tsume HQF Vega and Chun-li |
Box Art and Contents
(click any photo to launch the images in Lightbox)
The box art mirrors the design of Street Fighter IV, with pop-out colors and paint splashes here and there. The box dimensions are 340 mm x 260 mm x 380 mm and it weighs 3.8 Kg. It is quite huge and heavy for a 1/8th scale figure. But knowing Tsume figures, this is just an average box size and weight comparing to most of their releases. Wait 'till you see some boxes of their HQS (High Quality Statues) releases. It's almost the size of a small fridge.
The box art mirrors the design of Street Fighter IV, with pop-out colors and paint splashes here and there. The box dimensions are 340 mm x 260 mm x 380 mm and it weighs 3.8 Kg. It is quite huge and heavy for a 1/8th scale figure. But knowing Tsume figures, this is just an average box size and weight comparing to most of their releases. Wait 'till you see some boxes of their HQS (High Quality Statues) releases. It's almost the size of a small fridge.
The box design is windowed with the front and right in one continuous window so you can see most of the box contents while it's still inside the box.
Front has the character art of Vega based on the Street Fighter IV Ultra, the logo of the game and HQF reference number 06 as the sixth release under this product line.
At the back, the prototype promotional photos and some description. Unlike the earlier Tsume XTRAs that I reviewed, the descriptions are written in english.
Nothing much on the right part of the box as its a continuation of the main window. On the left, it has a small window on the upper portion and a promotional photo of the HQF Chun-li with the words "Here comes a new challenger".
On the top is simply the logo of Tsume.
And here are the contents of the box, the figure itself and the huge base. There's also an alternate unmasked face which I will show to you later.
Hang in there!
(click any photo to launch the images in Lightbox)
To put Vega hanging on his base, you need to have his right arm hanging the edge of the cage and attach the two feet on the corresponding pegs on the cage as shown on these photos below.
And here we got an awesome looking Street Fighter.
Personal Impressions
This figure is a absolutely well made and awesome figure. How awesome? Let's check the details one by one.
Starting with his pose. They really chose a fitting dynamic pose for him. As I mentioned earlier, he's posed as if he's starting to launch his Flying Barcelona attack. I believe it won't look nice if they chose just a simply winning standing pose for him. These Street Fighter characters has to be in the fighting stance. They are warriors after all.
Vega regularly wears his mask so let's check out his masked face first. Well what can I say, it's got that authentic Vega look. You may say that they can't go wrong with just a simple mask, but look at that, the 3D translation of the mask is simply perfect. The slightly extruded nose shape in the middle, the size and shape of the holes on both eyes and the sharply painted tribal-like design are phenomenal.
Check out the mask in side-view, really amazing.
My only problem is that there is a slight gap between the hair an the upper part of the mask. I'm not sure if I didn't try to push hard enough to close the gap though. Another small nitpick that I have is that I wanted to see his eyes showing on those eyeholes. But other than that, the mask looks amazing in every angle. It really looks... well, Vega.
Vega has a really long braided hair it got some nice detailing as well.
From the sculpt of the hair strands, to the two tone paint application, to the gold ring on the ponytail, all look gorgeous. It's also swaying in the air that makes is look dynamic.
The sculpt of the body and arms has that muscular look. Adding the subtle paint shading to to the contours of the muscles and we have a nicely detailed shirtless warrior.
Those finely and sharply painted blue snake tattoos on his biceps, chest and waist looks superb. I believe it's supposed to be purple though, but it's clearly more inclined to blue. Doesn't matter anyway. The colors varies in the game actually, it's sometimes red depending on 1P or 2P colors. They even added some grey details on top of it.
A close-up shot of the shoulder and biceps muscles. You can also get a good look at at the tattoos and the tail of his hair. Really jaw-dropping.
Here's a good shot at the back. You can see the snake taboo wrapped around him.
A good shot showing the left arm.
The Wolverine-like claws are nicely painted with gold and silver, giving that shiny realistic metallic look.
His fingernails are long on both left and right fingers. I wonder if it's the same on the game as I didn't really notice. Anyway, Vega is known to be an effeminate self-lover. He must have been doing what some ladies do on their fingernails to make it look attractive.
You can also see the leather-like strap for the claws wrapped around his palms.
A shot of the claws from another angle.
His trousers are painted in rich blue and yellow colors. He's also a white leggings underneath, and a red sash. This is actually the similar as what a matador wears, indicating his involvement with bullfighting.
The colors really pops out. You can see creases on his trousers on the right parts. The red sash gives a contrasting highlight against the blue and yellow colored trousers and it's flowing in air at the same direction as the hair. They really thought about it carefully.
The loafers (shoes) are the same as what a matador wears as well, looking really like the real thing. It's amazing to think that just by using a proper amount of paint glossiness, they can make a PVC plastic look like different material. In this case, the shoes looks like it's made of soft leather and rubber sole. Adding that realistic shoe bent, again it's amazing.
He's wearing some gold-colored armlets on his right arm, one on his biceps and one on his wrist. He has the same wrist armlet on his left wrist but it almost looked like a part of his claws. The gold tone are the same as the gold part of the claws as well.
The armlets aren't the usual gold armlets. They are fully detailed with some embossed designs. Very impressive.
Not yet amazed in the figure itself? Then let's get on to one of the most attractive base I've seen for a 1/8 scale figure. It's actually a mock-up part of a stone-paved floor with a piece of wall with a cage, just like in Vega's stage. It really got some amazing detail. Words cannot express how fantastic it is so check out the following photos and you be judge by yourself.
You won't really see much 1/8th scale figures of this highly artistic base detail.
Let's move on to the alternate unmasked face.
The head is removable, but we only have to replace the face with the mask. Just pull out the head out of its peg and reveal a hanging headless warrior.
The head itself is divided in to two parts, the hair and the masked face which can be replaced by the unmasked face.
And here is the unmasked Vega. The face looks really nice as well, but I can't really find a good reference photo of unmasked Vega that resembles this. Probably because there are a lot of unmasked Vega artworks and he is usually seen masked.
Tsume must have decided to make their own version of unmasked Vega. The only requirement for unmasked Vega is to make him look handsome. It turned out absolutely great and sharply detailed. The green eyes are actually accurate though, as his eyes are mostly seen in these colors even with his mask on.
Here's a look at the unmasked face from some other angles
I think I already praised this figure too much already. Vega may not be a very likable Street Fighter character (I actually don't chose him that much), but the character design is really great. It's just right that Tsume gave a priority for an HQF treatment for this character.
There's not much Vega figures to compare to this one, but I already saw some photos on the internet and nothing compares to this level of quality. Some actually looks horrible, really, specially unmasked.
This figure might be a little too expensive for a 1/8th scale figure but believe me, it's worth every dime, specially if you are a Street Fighter avid gamer or simply a fan. All the sculpt details, paint application, character and base design are all top-notch. It really lives up to the name of it's product line - High Quality Figures.
Tsume is continuously making figures under their HQF product line. Two of those are Street Fighter IV Characters and the rest are Fairy Tail. I myself wants to see more Fairy Tail characters under this product line but I do wanted to see more Street Fighter characters as well since they already started this collection and the level of quality is an absolute eye treat.
That's it for my review. I hope you enjoy it.
Next up will be Tsume HQF Street Fighter IV Ultra - Chun-li. Again, thanks to Figmation for this wonderful opportunity of having me review some high quality Tsume products.
Check out the photo gallery below.
Photo Gallery
(click any photo to launch the images in Lightbox)
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