2016 was a great year for figures and I had no shortage of plastic goodness to buy. Some personal favorites include Mattel’s Thundercats Lion-O, Four Horsemen’s Mythic Legions Gorgo Aetherblade and Hasbro’s Black Series Kanan and Ahsoka. None of those great figures, however, had the sheer playability and cool factor of the S.H.Figuarts Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee movies were one of the things I obsessed over as a teenager. I watched and rewatched his films as often as I could and read all the books about him I could find. When playing fighting games at the arcade, I always chose the Bruce Lee clone character.
As an action figure collector, I always wanted a really great Bruce Lee figure, and the closest I ever got was SOTA’s Street Fighter Fei Long, which really isn’t Bruce. I realize there are tons of 12-inch scale super-realistic Bruce Lee figures, but I don’t like that scale. I wanted a 6-inch scale, realistic Bruce Lee figure with tons of poseability and options, and S.H.Figuarts came through with this classic figure.
Bruce comes with fighting sticks, nunchaku, and a staff. He’s got all the hand options you could want with fists, gripping hands, knife hands, splayed fingers, the weird hand pose he makes just before he strikes, and even a thumb so he can be posed thumbing his nose at his opponents.
He has four face portraits that are expressive Bruce Lee perfection. I especially like the side-eye look.
The figure moves great with lots of useful articulation. That advantage is also a slight weakness because the articulation does break the flow of the sculpt a bit more than I like. He’s also a tad short for 6-inch scale, so he doesn’t pair with my collection as well as I would like.
Those minor flaws don’t detract from the amazing likeness and serious fun-factor this figure possesses. It’s easily the figure that I kept handy for playing the longest before placing on the shelf this year and is pure hand candy. I’m really looking forward to the Game of Death version coming next year.
