Series: Street Fighter, 4

Craftsmanship: 8.0 / 10

- GREAT likeness

- Clothing was done nicely

- Loose joints

- A couple of paint issues

Playability: 8.0 / 10

- Lots of articulation, but the loose joints hurt

- Great accessories including an extra head,hands and energy attachment.

Support AE!  Buy Action Figures Here:

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

SOTA Toys has been on a roll with the Street Fighter figures. A lot of people thought the line would not be successful, but SOTA has managed to break the Resaurus curse. SOTA now releases the fourth wave of their Street Fighter lineup at specialty and online retailers.

For you articulation addicts, you’ll be happy to know that Akuma sports numerous points of articulation as seen with other characters in previous rounds. The possibilities are endless; however, like Ryu and Ken, Akuma can’t pull off a hadoken pose. SOTA’s factory in China has been problematic and they have been screwed around quite a bit. SOTA decided that after Round 4, they will contract with a new factory. This is great news and all (being able to meet release dates on time, etc), but unfortunately, with the old factory knowing they will be scrapped, they seem to have done a poor job with quality control issues for Round 4. I have seen some complaints about loose joints and some paint issues. The joints on my Akuma

legs are really loose. Thankfully, I used a customizer’s method of fixing loose joints, which worked. Everything else seems to be fine however. The shoulders, the head, and everything else is working fine. I was a bit concerned with exchanging parts, worrying that the pegs might snap on me, but using a hair dryer first softens the plastic enough to just give the head or a hand a gentle pull to remove and replace.

Akuma’s sculpt is near flawless. It has an incredible likeness and a common misconception is that some people think he uses the same body as Ryu and Ken. I am glad to say that they are wrong 

Advertisement

and Akuma does indeed  have a bigger and more muscular body than Ryu or Ken. In my book, Akuma’s headsculpt looks perfect. I don’t think there is any way SOTA could have made it look any better. Muscle detail is amazing, the folds on the gi top and pants are realistic giving them a baggy type look, the prayer beads around his neck look great and there are not many things that could make this figure much better than what it already is.

Akuma comes with a pair of open and closed hands. He also comes with two heads; one having a mean, but calm face and the other looking really pissed off which of course, suits the character well. He also comes with an energy attachment for his hand and I wish it was more of a purple color (the dark hado to be more specific). Other than that, I’m grateful SOTA included it in.

SOTA has always been amazing when it comes to paint application. They have a good record so far and even though there isn’t much to complain about, there are little light purple dots on the back of my Akuma’s gi top making it less than just perfect. Like the overall quality of the figure, this is probably due to the factory knowing they were going to be canned after Round 4’s production so they did a half assed job.

Fans of Street Fighter will love this figure whether it’s the normal version of Akuma, or one of his many variants. This particular figure was the purple gi Shin Akuma exclusive, which is a SOTA Toy’s website exclusive. You still have time to order one at SOTAToys.com.

- J'Tonello

(June 11, 2006)

Related Action Figure Reviews:

- Adon (Street Fighter)

- Sagat (Street Fighter)

- Ryu (Street Fighter)