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.