Final Fantasy Creature: Kai volume 4 trading figures review

When one thinks of the Final Fantasy series it's more than just the characters that stand out in your mind, it's the amazing creature designs as well. Here Square Enix brings us a boxed set of five creatures in 3" format. The set includes the Omega Weapon, Bahamut Fury, Exdeath, King Behemoth, and the vile Malboro. They can also be purchased individually but are blind-boxed and only available overseas.

Right off the bat sculpting for these little guys is absolutely incredible. The detail put into these is akin to a statue that has been miniaturized through some magical means and turned into a perfect representation of the character. Every armor plating, tendril, weapon, and claw is rendered. There's sharp points on every figure and you can easily put a hole through your foot if you were to step on one.

There's no articulation because these were meant to be mini-statues so let's focus on the characters. Omega Weapon looks menacing with his half beast lower body and a skilled customizer could easily give him some purple tones and make an Ultima Weapon, the more popular of the two. Exdeath's clear billowy cape and amazingly detailed scrimshawed armor are done expertly and he has a swirly magical base with a crystal on it.

Bahamut Fury is the tallest of the bunch and has great mechanical-style wings with two clear green gems that light-pipe really nicely with back lighting. The clear crystal base is also cool looking with a cloud-swirl inside the middle orb. King Behemoth is brutal looking with a long tail that wraps around his base and a sword-crest on his head. A skilled customizer could remove the sword-crest and make the creature hold it like it does in the game during battle.

Now let's cover the nastiest creature in the bunch, the Malboro. In the game these things usually spelled the end of your party as it coughed up all sorts of toxic status ailments and poisons. The toothy maw is sculpted beautifully as are the tendrils. You can even see he's sitting on a pile of skulls and weapons, a testament to this nasty little fellow. As gross as he looks the Malboro is still the more popular creature in this series.

Paint work on these Final Fantasy creatures is nothing short of perfection. Each one is airbrushed and given intricate washes of color to bring out the details. Some feature opalescent metallics and fade-to-clear metals like Bahamut's wings. Sitting on your desk these figures look great and I really wish they made current larger scale versions of them.

So what's the verdict? While you may not like the Final Fantasy Play Arts Kai figures these smaller creatures look great. Remember they're only about three inches tall but that's a perfect size to put on your computer or car's dashboard. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has various sets and you can snag individual ones from larger selections on Ebay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) and Amazon. Series 5 has the Bomb and Alexander, two more fan favorite characters so you may want to preorder them!