Figma Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword Link action figure review (Max Factory)

HEAT UP LINK'S HAND WITH A HAIR DRYER TO SOFTEN THE PLASTIC BEFORE PUTTING THE SWORD IN HIS HAND.

I just want to get that out of the way before anything else. Apparently a lot of people are breaking their swords and figures trying to force the handle in to Link's cold plastic digits. You must heat the hand up so the fingers become flexible to put the sword in. Don't listen to 4chan's /toy/ board about 'dipping the hand in acetone' or 'putting it into the microwave'. They're just a board full of trolls looking for a laugh as you destroy your figure. Now, on to the review!

The Legend of Zelda series is one of the longest running video game series by Nintendo and there's scarcely a figure to be found of the main character Link...until now. Max Factory has created the hero in fully articulated form under their Figma series. It's an import figure so you'll need to track it down. But is it worth the effort? Let's find out!

Right off the bat you'll notice the excellent sculpting here. Link's face is clean and smooth, his tunic wrinkles, boots, and belt sections all done with precision care. His hair (both sets) is sculpted perfectly as are his tiny earrings. Link has two sculpted pouches on his belt and a hoodie-tip that are also true to the game. Sculpted fingerless gloves look great on each of the extra hand sets as well.

Link's articulation is pretty nice. He doesn't quite have the range of a Marvel legends as only single inner joints are used but you can get him in to some pretty amazing poses. There's no bicep swivel but the elbow swivel combined with the ball jointed shoulder give you enough range. A great neck joint, toe joints, and hat-joint let you recreate most any pose you'd need.

Paint applications for Link are clean but lacking. Everything is done in a matte paint with the joints and skin tone molded in color. But without shading or line detail to separate the colors everything looks a little one dimensional. A skilled customizer could fix this with a very thin brush and some acrylic paint however. Paint work on the weapons is excellent with the Master Sword getting a dual-metallic tone and every bit of the shield painted including the handle and strap.

The accessories that come with Link include two faces and hairstyles, tho the other hair is barely different being ruffled a bit. I would have liked to see another accessory like a pot or rupee instead of the hair. There are four pairs of hands to choose from and a great looking sword-slash effect that slips over the sword. The Master Sword fits into a scabbard which plugs on to Link's back and a clear plastic stand is included for intricate poses. The shield's handle and strap unplug so you can fit them into his hands.

As I mentioned before you will need to heat his hands up to get the fingers flexible enough to slip the sword in. The pommel is glued on and while some may be removable you could easily loose the small nub if you try to remove it. Additonal accessories such as rupees, bombs, and heart pieces can be found with the Phantom Hourglass gashapon or the Windwalker pvc figures. These are pretty much to scale with Link and look neat.

What's the verdict? If you're a Legend of Zelda fan then this is the best Link available. It's the 'available' part that's a pain however. He was pre-orderable at Ami-Ami and Hobby Link Japan but is out of stock. You can get him on Ebay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) and on Amazon at a premium. He's pretty scaled to your normal 6" action figures and can help fill out your video game figure collection.

Figma #133 Samus Aran, Metroid action figure review

Nintendo is known to be very selective with its licenses and nobody thought the day would come when we would have quality, articulated figures of the classic characters we grew up with on the screen. Well the time has come, Max Factory brings us Samus Aran of Metroid Other M in the Figma series. From the very first glimpse Samus is instantly recognizable in her orange/red/yellow armor peering through the plastic window back at you.

Samus' suit design is 'Other M' rather than the more recognizable Super Metroid/Prime everyone was expecting. However the sculpting is top notch with lots of great curves, panel lines, excellent proportions and detailed undersuit ribbing. The head looks great with the green inset metallic visor and you get five hands to choose from. Her right gun-arm is also great looking with two tips. The joints do look quite thin aesthetically speaking and leave a bit of a gap in the knees when bent. They're removable so an avid customizers could drill out the knee and elbow sections to install a more realistic looking arm-thickness joint.

Articulation is excellent with nearly full range of motion in her shoulders despite their large size. This is thanks in part to a two-branch ball joint system allowing them to move independently of Samus' actual arms. Her head is on a double ball joint which works great for looking around but not so much looking up due to the design. Her elbows and knees while single joint have the range of a double joint and her feet have toe and side-ankle motion. Overall I'm extremely impressed and can get Samus into some amazing poses.

Paint application is near-perfection level with no slop, perfectly cut colors, and smooth, even application of the metallic paint used on her suit. She's only done is base colors however and there are lots of panel lines that a customizer could darken in to bring out the detail in this figure even further. I really like how the green details stand out against her orange but the whole suit really needs a darker color separating its sections to keep Samus looking too basic.

Samus' accessories are plentiful. You get four alternate hands in various poses including a thumbs-up and the open/closed gun tips. Two blast effects are included tho one is just an extended version of the first. It was a missed opportunity to add a grappling beam or missile effect here and I'll just be leaving the shorter burst in the extras pile. Also included is the morph-ball form of Samus that can attach to the included stand. That stand is quite nice and features tight metal screw joints. A Figma branded baggie is included to hold all your parts and if you own a Figma stage the back of the package can be punched out to cover it with the Metroid logo.

Back to the joints, they're half-joints again but feel MUCH more durable than normal Figma joints. And trust me I've been sent enough broken Figmas to see how easy these can snap. But you don't have any of the give associated with thin plastic sections here. They also lock fairly firmly in their sockets unlike Revoltech joints that end up slipping out over time. The only exception are the alternate hands that have smooth posts. The clenched fist seems to want to fall out at the slightest touch now and you may need to rough the post up or apply a tiny layer of glue to build up if this happens to you.

So what's the verdict? This is an excellent figure! Samus is nearly 6" tall and good enough to be in scale with your Marvel Legends but not Halo. Though I wish Figma would use more paint techniques like panel lining or airbrushing for the price, you can't complain about that zero paint slop. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store had Samus in stock and when she's restocked I suggest snagging her. Your only other choice for US sellers is Amazon or Ebay which has her selling at a slightly lower price (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) at this point. Link from the Legend of Zelda is up next and you'll want to get him if Samus' quality is any indication of what's in store!