Boy oh boy, if you want to know the definition of “bittersweet,” it is definitely the words “Figuarts Mickey Mouse” and not have it be the regular, classic Disney version but instead be a Kingdom Hearts version. Not that I have anything against Kingdom Hearts as a property, but I’ve never played the game, and Figuarts Disney characters sounds like a dream come true.
Despite all that, this is a “Figuarts Mickey” figure, so there was no way I could let that pass without getting one. So after a slight delay caused by some Tokyo snow, I finally have Renaissance Fair Mickey in hand. How is he? Let’s take a look.
While I had obviously heard of Kingdom Hearts, I had no idea why Mickey was dressed like this, and what that giant key he was carting around was, nor why he was called “King Mickey.” I’m talking literal zero knowledge. So with a little research, I learned that in the Kingdom Hearts world, he’s the King of Disney Castle — yes, that does seem about right — and is a Keyblade Master. Thus, the giant key he’s holding is a Keyblade.
Apparently in the Kingdom Hearts world, Mickey is a bit of a badass, which fits with a lot of his earlier portrayals when he was an adventuring mouse who regularly ran afoul of villains like the Phantom Blot and such. All of this has made me want to play the Kingdom Hearts games, so I consider that a bonus.
Early pictures of Mickey made me wonder just how articulated he would be. When I think of Figuarts I usually think of a high level of articulation, but Mickey is encased in a full-length robe so I knew there would be some compromises. As it turns out, there are compromises, but it doesn’t stop Mickey from being a neat little figure.
Mickey’s lower robe section is a separate, rubbery piece that has some give, but since it is constricting he doesn’t get a ton of room for movement in his legs. He has some ball-jointed hips under there, along with ball-jointed ankles and an actual toe joint, so you can get a handful of movement, but they’re not going to make your jaw drop or anything. At best you can get some slight alteration of stance, but he’s not going to be doing kicks or splits.
On the positive side, the ball-jointed waist and the fact that the robe effect is pulled off with a separate lower section means that from the waist up he performs as much as you’d expect someone of his diminutive stature to perform. He has all the requisite articulation in his wrists, elbows and shoulders so he moves quite well. His arms are short — one could say stubby, even — so the actual amount of motion he gets is dictated by arm length, but he can still pull off quite a lot of expressive poses that kind of makes up for the relative constrictions placed on his lower regions.
He comes with three different sets of hands, all of which pop on and off easily and stay on firmly: fists, open hands, and weapons hands.
The real magic here is with his head. Figuarts is especially good at giving you multiple expressions for their various figures, and Mickey does very well in this department. He comes with a head post to which all the various parts and components can be connected. He comes with one unhooded set of ears and three face plates. One is happy, one is determined, and one is … I think it’s kind of bemused. Each of these faceplates attach to the rear ear section snugly. Or, if you want him to be hooded, the hood itself comes in two pieces split down the middle that attach over any of the face plates. In addition to all of this you get a “hood down” section that can slide over his neck. So basically you can mix and match and have any expression hooded or unhooded.
Each of the expressions looks like Mickey should look, and I love having the option to have Mickey emoting in a variety of ways.
Mickey somehow manages to look like a little badass.
Mickey only comes with one accessory, which is the Keyblade. It features a real chain, and it fits in his weapon hand snugly. I don’t know exactly what the Keyblade does — I will definitely have to check this game out at some point so I don’t continue to wallow in repugnant ignorance — but he definitely looks cool holding it.
Mickey is a small figure, but seems to scale fairly well with Uncle Scrooge from the recent Funko Disney Afternoon figures, if you’re into that type of thing.
Overall, while Mickey is a little restricted in his articulation, there was no way I could let him pass, especially as both Donald Duck and Goofy are coming up in the Figuarts line.
