.

The packaging is very similar to the old Marvel-style carded packaging before they switched to boxes. The Minimates are very visible inside the card and there is a nice Minimate’d drawing of Ryu on the bottom left.

The back of the card shows the first wave of Street Fighter 2 Minimates, without showing any of the exclusives. Overall it’s very nice packaging, quite stylish.

The figures are packed in a bubble tray, and have several twist-ties holding them in, along with rubber bands. Like the Lord of the Rings Minimates, the twist ties are wrapped around the arms, making them difficult to remove.

The first figure in this set is Ryu, possibly the most recognisable of all the Street Fighter combatants. After the exclusive had him in his Player 2 colours, here he is in his more familiar white gi with red headband.

The wave 1 Street Fighter Minimate faces seem a lot calmer than their exclusive counterparts. Ryu here has almost a frown on his face, more expression than I am used to seeing on him, as he is usually impassive or fighting. The detailing seems quite low on the head blow, with the dimple of his chin almost right at the bottom of the block, this is to incorporate the hair and headband which obviously takes up a bit of space at the top of the head block. The hairpiece is well implemented with the headband as a sculpted piece that goes all the way around the head and comes out at the back with two overhanging ends. A nice detail that is impressive at this scale. The hairpiece stays on well as it is pegged onto the head block. The colour of the hairpiece is slightly lighter brown than the Player 2 Ryu.

The costume is quite simple in detail but has been pulled off well. The torso block has some very nice muscular detail whilst also showing the folds of the robe. The skin tone on this part is the same as those on the arms, whereas the Player 2 Ryu there was a definite difference in tone between the skin on the chest and the skin on the arms. The other strange thing about the paint on the skin is that Ryu is noticably darker in skin tone than his Player 2 counterpart, to the point that it looks very weird if you swap the heads to give white gi Ryu a different expression. The robe is completed by a small “skirt” piece than does hinder the leg articulation a bit and might mean you can’t put him in all the killer SF2 poses you want. He has bright red bracers, rather than the dark blue bracers the exclusive had.

Ryu comes with a translucent blue energy fireball piece which clips on over his hand. This is the same colour as the Player 2 version of the accessory. However I did notice another thing about these accessories that I hadn’t picked up on before. The tip of the exploding energy blast comes off from the main part of the blast. No idea why, to be honest, but it does mean you can mix and match the accessories for slightly different colour combinations, which can only be a cool idea. As it’s a long and heavy accessory, it’s best to use some supports if posing him with it. I’ve used the small block stand pieces from the Lord of the Rings sets. Ryu therefore has C3 feet but sadly (or not, I do like the newer body though) the body is still the older Minimate body without the inverted leg connections and larger torso peg.

I said in my Player 2 review of Ryu that I expected to like the white Ryu better as those were his normal “player 1” colours, but I really feel the Player 2 version is the better version because of the angry face. Something about the Ryu face here bugs me, as well as the skin tone which means I can’t easily swap the heads. He scores the same as the exclusive but only because the colours are more familiar to me on this one.

MMC Score – 7 out of 10

The second figure in the set is Akuma, who fights in a similar but more violent style than Ryu, whose teacher Akuma killed. His exclusive appearance had him in his bright red robe as his “Player 2” outfit, but now we see him in his “Player 1” blue/purple robes.

Akuma has a very detailed face, with very thick detail lines, giving him a really sinister look, and adding to the red eyes and the pouting lips. Yes, in this version, Akuma looks like he’s pouting. The hair is actually a slightly different colour to the bright orange hair of the exclusive. This Akuma has redder hair. I’m not sure why, maybe they didn’t want the red costumed version to have red hair as well. As with Ryu, the hairpiece is pegged onto the head block.

The costume is very similar to Ryu’s, in fact the arms are identical, bar the colours, with even the gi shoulder tatters being the same. The bottom of the robe is slightly different, although it utilises the same short “skirt” piece like Ryu’s, the belt is different, sculpted into 4 tassles which is a nice touch. The back of the robe has a very nice symbol on it, this time picked out in red. He also has a removable necklace. The colour on the outfit is am absolutely gorgeous purpley blue. Akuma has been drawn with both shades for his outfit in the past. The skin tones match the “Player 2” version perfectly so you can swap the heads around for different expressions.

Akuma comes with the same giant energy ball translucent purple accessory as his “Player 2” counterpart. There seems to be a slight difference in the tint of the shading. One of them is definitely slightly darker than the other, but I don’t know which one! Again, Akuma has C3 feet but not the newest Minimate body design.

Overall, this “Player 1” version of Akuma has better, more striking colours on the costume than the “Player 2” version and so scores higher this time around. 

Review and pictures by Danny Mills

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