AKIRA YUKI - figma Virtua Fighter action figure review

My P1 Akira Yuki Virtua Fighter figure finally arrived yesterday (after a clean month in transit - SAL's $5 savings are so not worth it!), and I'm happy to say that he complements Sarah Bryant quite nicely! In fact, he's a superior figure in nearly every aspect.

Yuki comes packaged in a matte black figma box that matches Sarah's P1 version, complete with a tree of 8 spare hands, a figma stand, alternate screaming head, replacement wrist joint, baggie and instructions. The P1 version of Akira comes in a black gi with a light grey undershirt, red and black wristbands, a belt with yellow stripes and a white headband. The paint is clean and sharp everywhere, which is pretty standard for figma as far as I can tell. The "pixelated" look works really well for Akira, and mimics the in-game look terrifically. My kids remarked about how convex his chest looks, going so far as to ask if it was attached backwards by accident. Like Sarah, Akira looks better in fighting poses. And he's an absolute joy to mess around with. The joints work very well together, and the ankle rockers that he has (which Sarah did not) go a long way to aiding his deep stances. You'll be able to get a wonderful variety of poses out of him, with just a couple of restrictions. The biggest is his inability to put his hands together with his arms extended out in front of him. His chest width and the gi make it impossible. I was trying to get something similar to a Ryu "Hadoken" pose, and couldn't do it. The second restriction is at the hips. There's a nice range of motion there, but not quite enough for me to get a high kick pose, with one foot planted. Nevertheless, using the stand allowed it to turn into a flying kick, which sufficed.

I don't like the alternate, shouting face at all. The mouth is just too overdone for my tastes. And the hands are quite ridiculously large. To call them "oven mitts" would be seriously downplaying the size of oven mitts. Nevertheless, the regular closed-mouth and fisted hands are good enough to keep me satisfied.

Overall, figma's Akira Yuki Virtua Fighter figure is an absolute blast. Everything that an adult action figure should be: durable, fun to look at, sensible to pose, and enjoyable to photograph. He goes perfectly with Sarah Bryant, and I really would love to see the line continue with other characters. I was waiting to see how much I liked this version before ordering the P2 (white gi) look, and now that I have him in-hand, I'm eager to get the other!