Friday, October 21, 2011

Play Arts Kai Sneaking Suit Snake: Metal gear Solid figure review

If you're a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series then you may have heard about the new Play Arts Kai series of MGS figures. These are 10" super-articulated figures. This review is for Snake in his 'sneaking suit'. Right off the bat you'll feel the weight of this figure. All the parts are solid PVC not hollow ABS plastic. The design chosen from this figure is from the Peacewalker game but I hear we'll be getting the original game designs as well.

Sculpting is out of this world immaculate. Every fold, texture, web-belt notch, and buckle is rendered sharply in plastic. Snake's face is amazingly realistic and reminds me of a scaled down Hot Toys head. Of course these figures are only 2" off from being that tall. I really like how they sculpted the web gear on but made it look like a separate piece to the body. There's lots of little gold rivets that stand out as well.

The paint work on Snake is equally amazing with every level of shading, highlights, texture wash, and effect you could think of. His eyes and mouth have a realistic gloss to them that adds to his lifelike appearance. He comes with an extra set of hands, riot shield, twin pistols, and silencer that are really nicely sculpted and painted. The shield has different detachable straps so he can hold it different ways. The insignia on his shoulder and shield are crisp and readable.

Now for articulation. If you're familiar with the old 7" Play Arts figures then this is fairly close. You get ball jointed everything with basically a great range of movement allowing you to pose Snake however you'd like. However the elbows only bend 90 deg. And then there's the knees. For all the great sculpting when you bend the knees fully the inner knee joint is completely revealed looking totally bizarre.

This kind of design allows for the knee to fold all the way back but at a terrible price. Kai figures have inner plug-in joints like Revoltech for their knees and elbows but they double-jointed the joint itself and not the actual limbs. The Play Arts Kai figures are a whole different scale than anything else out there so they may look odd with your normal collection. Snake will run you about $40 plus shipping depending on what version you want. Ebay is a good place to find him as well as BBTS for about $50. So the choice is yours, will an amazingly sculpted/painted Solid Snake fit into your collection with weird knees and at a 10" scale?

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