S.H. Figuarts Naruto Uzumaki - [Kurama Link Mode] Courageous Strength That Binds

The Naruto show goes through a ton of instances of power scaling, a term in anime (especially Shonen anime) that refers to determining a character's power by comparing them to other characters. Specifically, this is often a power race between Naruto and his rival, Sasuke. 

Near the end of the series, Naruto and Sasuke get a massive power boost. In this case, for Naruto is finally can win over the heart and the chakra Nine-Tailed beast imprisoned inside him by his father, and bond completely in a symbiotic synchronicity. The nine-tailed demon fox, Kurama, has learned over time the value, loyalty and determination of the human being he is locked inside and decides moving forward that Kurama is now on Naruto's side, creating a new power blend resulting in the Kurama Link Mode. Naruto is now surrounded by a yellow-orange chakra and black outlines surround him to show how completely enveloped by Kurama's chakra. In this mode, Naruto has incredible, previously unheard-of power. He can also create clones with insane power and throw on chakra cloaks to an entire army. It's a lot! 

This special figure release is amazing and a bit of a holy grail for me. It was NOT cheap to acquire and yet it's a pretty awesome version of Naruto while not being a repeat of previously produced Naruto versions in the line (I'm looking at you Sage mode!)

S.H. Figuarts Obito Uchiha - Hollow Dreams of Despair

 Obito Uchiha's story is riddled with traumatic moments and tough times that ultimately led him to become completely numb and turn into a villain with a grudge. He is key in implementing the Tsuki No Me (Infinite Tsukoyomi) plan, which aims to put the entirety of the ninja world under an illusion to end all wars. He goes through several iterations and changes in the story.

SPOILERS BELOW!

He begins as a child of the Uchiha during the third great ninja war. He is part of the three-person team of Minato (Naruto's dad) that includes himself, a young Kakashi and his crush, Rin Nohara. During a fierce battle, half his body becomes crushed under a rock, and he gives one of his Sharingan eyes as a gift to Kakshi, who lost his eye in the battle. From there, we find out he in fact didn't die, and has been rescued and revived by a super old Madara Uchiha, who is just barely alive, but teaches Obito what he knows and bonds him to a White Zetsu (a copy of the 1st Hokages cells, allowing a half body transplant that returns him to be fully able to fight once more. Madara convinces him to follow his plan, which involves forming a group to take all the tailed beasts and summon the Ten Tails. This would allow Madara to become the host of the Ten-Tails and project his power onto the surface of the moon. 

In between all those plans, Obito goes out to find Rin, sensing she's in danger. He comes at the exact moment Kakashi is manipulated into killing her by Rin herself to avoid releasing the three tails upon Konoha village. Kakashi faints after awakening his Mangekyo Sharingan and Obito goes crazy, killing every ninja there. 

After that, Obito continues as the Masked Man, controlling the Nine tails to attack Konoha village, killing Minato, his old teacher and his wife. At this point they seal away the Nine tails half in Naruto, half in Minato as he is dying. Years later, Obito becomes Tobi, and manipulates Nagato, Pain and Konan into using their newly formed Akatsuki organization to execute Obito's plan of piece. 

He successfully gets most of the tailed beasts but only summons a partial Ten Tails due to Naruto still having Kurama and Killer B still having 8 tails Gyuuki. He becomes the ten-tailed jinchurikii, then gets backstabbed by a newly resurrected Madara, who has brought himself back to life in the prime of his power. Eventually, he gets Naruto'ed, convinced of the error of his worldview and grudge-filled past. 

In this form of Obito, he is still claiming to be Madara and has outfitted himself for the Fourth Shinobi war. He uses Madara's fan weapon and a white mask with three tomoe around in a circle to indicate his power of having acquired one Rinnegan. This figure is a nice battle-marked representation of Obito, and I have to say it's done very well like the others. His accessories are plentiful, his articulation is great (minus the waist), and the paint is clean. 

S.H. Figuarts Orochimaru - Seeker of Immortality

 Orochimaru is one of my favourite villains in the Naruto series. He has the mad scientist-type vibe and has no qualms about experimenting on people and killing those who stand in his way. He is based on a Japanese myth with a character of the same name, a robber who was blessed with snake magic that allowed him to spit venom at his victims. He is in love with Tsunade, the slug princess, who is Jiraiya's bride. A lot of names were taken in by the show! 

Orochimaru plays a fairly big part in part 1 of the show, being the main antagonist for a good chunk. He has acquired a ton of ninja techniques but is often seen using summons and powers involving snakes and poisons. Early on, he takes on Sasuke and Naruto in the Forest of Death and sinks his fangs into Sasuke, giving him the Curse Mark. This painful seal allows him to draw on power from outside his body but causes transformations of his physical body into something a bit more sinister. The sub title of the figure is Seeker of Immortality, but I'm not sure he isn't already. As long as he has access to a new body to inhabit, he continues living. Maybe it's a pseudo/viral type of immortality. 

Given that I didn't know this figure was coming (I was expecting maybe some of the other Konoha 12 from part 1), it's pretty cool that there's another villain! The figure is pretty great, and if you're waiting for me to put one of these figures on blast for something it's probably not going to happen. I love the accessories and completely forget it ALSO included another faceplate for Sasuke! A part of Sasuke's curse mark 1! The figure is very well articulated, and even the back of the hair flips up on a hinge to allow some movement. The only odd thing I could say here is there is some messy shading on the front and back of the bottom robe, but nowhere else. It's a little visually off. 

S.H. Figuarts Kid Sasuke Uchiha - Ninja Prodigy of the Uchiha Clan Bloodline

 The way Sasuke is written in Shippudden leaves a lot to be desired. I understood his character a lot more in Part 1. He wants vengeance on his brother, he's an emo kid who doesn't want anyone to truly understand him or be his friend. I get it! Despite that, Naruto perseveres in trying to make him part of the ninja family that Naruto has built up over the series. 

This figure is once again very well executed. The sculpt and engineering are great, allowing a wide range of flexibility. The accessories are almost everything you would want from his combat in Part 1minus his transformation into Curse Marks 1 and 2.  To get that done though it feels like you'd need a fully different sculpt for the wing hands, and a distinct head and face plate. Even if you wanted to execute Curse Mark 1, the arms legs and face would also need a switch. This figure definitely covers his moves including and past the Chunin exams. 

S.H. Figuarts Kid Naruto Uzumaki - Unexpected No. 1 Slapstick Ninja

 

Ever since they restarted the Naruto line for S.H. Figuarts, I have been more or less all in! I missed out on some web exclusives like Jiraiya, but they are doing so well at releasing new figures for this line, I am preordering things left, right, and center. I got this version of Naruto a while back, and am finally ready to review it. 

This version of Naruto is featured in Part 1 of the anime, preceding Shippudden and running for roughly 220 episodes. It had some missable filler, but I did enjoy it when it featured other members of the 12 main Konoha kid ninjas. This Naruto is 12-13 years old here, and is still coming into his own, learning from his teachers and trying to reckon with the demon fox creature sealed inside of him by his parents before their death. 

He is a lot more comedic in this part, pulling pranks, being loud and boisterous, and really letting out his feelings! This is well represented in this action figure. He comes with tons of hands, his rasengan energy effect, a kunai knife, and the best face plates featuring expressions and includes his fox cloak face form and hands. As per the other figures in this renewed line, Naruto has amazing articulation aided by hollow caps and waist areas to allow a lot more posing and flexibility. Also, they've managed to hide the jarring hip swivels a bit better here. 

Mafex Medicom Poison Ivy - Batman Hush

Poison Ivy has always been one of the most understood villains to me. Extreme? Yes. A little more murdery at times than necessary? Maaaaybe! But ultimately her motivation is fighting for the ecosystem that humans have ruined. I get it! This version is from the Hush comics, where she has managed to use her powers to control Superman. That is pretty wild! In this case, he is commanded to kill Batman, but luckily he has a plan with Catwoman to drop Lois Lane from a building, forcing Superman to break his compulsion and save her. 

This figure from Mafex is stellar as usual! Excellent details on the face, simple design and many extras to attach to create vine effects throughout the figure. I don't love how all the vine effects are fairly loose, I feel like they could have been better off with other attachment pegs that might be held at the back of the limbs and torso. The alternate hands, money case and heads are also a great addition. 

McFarlane Toys Robot Batman - DC Retro Batman '66

DC did a run of Batman '66 comics that continued the run of the class Caped Crusaders from 2013 to 2016. An interesting addition to the Batman cast is Professor Overbeck, a genius scientist/inventor who creates a giant, metal crime fighter: Robot Batman! 

The scale is pretty crazy. If the comic cover is to be taken at face value, the thing appears to be over 20 feet tall. He can fly with jetfire boosters and has claws to grapple criminals. I never read the retro comics released but it seems like a neat idea (though admittedly this is not even close to the first time a robot Batman has been created and used by either side of the fight in Gotham).

This figure is very limited in poseability but it is still amazing that it was made at all. I will give McFarlane one thing: They dive deeply into many of their comic-related and other media-related lines. At this point, they've surpassed the DC Classics line for both the number of figures and variants on the figure colours and sculpts. Looks-wise, it is an awesome addition to your shelf. 

McFarlane Toys Blight - Batman Beyond Future's End (Build-a-fig)

 

This is another figure that I would not have picked up if not for completing the Jokerbot, but at least it's an aesthetically pleasing one! Blight is the villain name picked up by Derek Powers, the corrupt CEO of Powers tech who later also acquires Wayne Enterprises to merge into Wayne Powers. He is exposed to one of his own extremely dangerous chemicals in an accident, and decided it would be a brilliant idea to then try to cure himself with unchecked levels of radiation. Scientists in DC are really off the wall! It's always "lets use this jackhammer to take out a chipped tooth or something with these guys!". They are highly overboard in their approach. 

Blight, with his entire body being a radioactive dump, has himself sealed in a suit to control his radiation bursts. He can blast out radioactive energy, and his body alone has enough radiation to melt most physical attacks on his person. 

The figure comes with the wing/claws for the joker bot, a glowing grasping hand, and a regular one to swap out as well as the card/stand. I will say (and I need to remind myself of this next time I buy a figure) that McFarlane nearly always releases a single version of a figure with different parts. In this case, the Meltdown version of Blight that isn't a build-a-fig comes with two energy effects to put on his fists, which is a much better deal if you don't care about the build-a-fig. 

Mcfarlane Toys Shriek - Batman Beyond Future's End Build a fig

The Future's End line, except for Batman Beyond and Batgirl Beyond, is something I would never have purchased otherwise. That said, I enjoyed the animated series and dig the character design. Mostly though, I bought just enough to buy parts for the Jokerbot I figure what does it hurt to buy two more?! Capitalism wins again. 

I never knew about Shriek, maybe I missed the episode? Anyway, Walter Shreeve, a sound engineer drove his company into the ground, lucky for him Derek Powers acquired his company. He built a sound suit capable of demolition using sound waves, but Powers had other ideas. He commands him to kill Bruce Wayne, who is luckily saved by Batman. 

The look of the figure is pretty sweet. Whether you know or like this character, he seems to sub in easily for robot minion cannon fodder. I like how they handled the energy effect and the lights. Other than that, doing just a few colours with textured suit pieces is definitely McFarlane's wheelhouse. 

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Midnighter - DC Classic Gold Label

I was completely unaware of this character until I read the Grayson volumes of comics back in 2017. I always loved Nightwing as a character, and this was a sort of new phase of Nightwing's career as an Agent 37. He works for Helena Bertinelli's (Huntress) spy group Spyral, and he encounters Midnighter keeping an eye on Spyral. They initially clash, and later Grayson convinces Midnighter to join him in his fight against a cult group, the Fist of Cain. 

But Midnighters story is more or less that of a normal human bioengineered and enhanced with neural implants to give him abilities. He was initially part of a covert group, then transitioned to The Authority, which watches over world governments. He hasn't directly dealt with Batman, but he has with many of the Batfamily. He is usually depicted as a pretty violent, brutal fighter with superhuman speed, resilience, pain control, and strength. He is equipped with a neural implant that allows him to process every possible combat outcome. Basically, if there's a possibility he can win, he will!

The figure is pretty good, and this simple design and colour palette is exactly McFarlane's wheelhouse. I love that he comes with punching hands, but where were those with EVERY Batman figure?!? I also like the batons, but I don't remember him fighting with these; he was just using a bo staff.