Hadouken! And if you were good enough, you could string a couple Hadouken’s together and finish with a Shoryuken or Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. I’ve only ever been able to successfully throw Hadouken’s and always seemed to get killed by little kids that could string insane combos together to kick my ass at the arcade.
Ryu is a staple of the Street Fighter games since their launch in 1987. Ugh, wait, hold on, senior moment. 1987 — 30 years ago. Really? And the franchise is still strong? Amazing. When I started this review, I was hot-on-the-heels disappointed as the scale was larger than expected. I was gonna slam S.H. Figuarts for not making these in scale with other S.H. Figuarts, I was gonna download all the sprites and art and what not showing that even the build was wrong.
But after some research, and some scale comparisons, I realized that Bandai was not trying to make these figures in scale with the rest of their S.H. Figuarts action figures. These are larger and more massive. Going back to the sprites I realized that, bulk-wise, these figures are spot-on compared to the early sprites and even later depictions of Ryu in Street Fighter. The only deviation is the games or media that is more anime in nature. Street Fighter only shares the name of S.H. Figuarts, but not the overall scale that is “pretty” consistent across the line.
As an S.H. Figuarts collector, you’ll eventually get over these not being scale. And when you do, you will see how amazing this line is. Ryu is a beautifully sculpted action figure, with tons of detail all over and a ton of fun. As mentioned, the bulk and size is similar to the original sprites that we love and know from Street Fighter II. The figure even looks a lot like Street Fighter V.
And the articulation is balls crazy. Wow. This figure is jam-packed with a ton of articulation and almost has no limits. There are lower shin swivels and the hips use the new system or a similar system as Chun-Li’s. There is a ball joint at the waist and a ball joint in the ab working to create an incredible amount of movement. The shoulder are double-ball jointed and there is even a rocker in the shoulder that allows for extra movement.
There is new joint that I have not seen on an S.H. Figuarts before. The elbow joint is a double-hinged joint, but there is a swivel right in the middle. It’s an odd placement for a swivel; it looks like it should be on a Gundam and not a S.H. Figuarts. While this is a new and different joint, it does provide for some extra motion. All in all, I am incredibly pleased with articulation design on this figure.
Ryu comes with some extras: a couple of faces, extra set of hands, and a Hadouken blue fireball. The fireball has a stand that you can use to keep it in the air.
Verdict? With the larger scale I was tempted to write these figures off as they don’t fit in my general S.H. Figuarts collection, but with the upcoming Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, these will be must-have figures to go with Marvel Legends. As you can see the figures scale well together. For those of you who are looking for figures that are in scale with your Marvel Legends collections, S.H. Figuarts is a good buy. You can pick Ryu up here:
