Bandai Figure Rise Model Kit - Naruto Uzumaki

So I saw this model kit advertisement last year and thought "What...a Naruto action figure from Bandai that I don't own?!" and rectified it immediately.  Now these Figure-rise model kits from Bandai cover a huge range of characters from Dragonball, a few Batman figures, and of course one hojillion Gundam figures. As far as I know, this is the only Naruto figure they have made.

I have to say the figure looks good in a stance, and I'm pleased with some aspects of the look, as well as the accessories. The most fun part of it was actually building it though! Cutting out the pieces and going along with instructions felt like lego assembly all over again...except with stickers...and adding some lining with a permanent marker.

It's definitely my least favourite Naruto Uzumaki figure but that at the price he was at(25 CAD before shipping), it was totally worth it!



Sculp/Paint:t 5/5 I'm not going to be able to say paint here because...well there is no paint. Every piece is put together from moulded, coloured plastic. That said, it is probably one of the most accurate likenesses of Naruto from his 16-year-old self in the Shippuden series. The shape of the face is accurate in this scale, despite my slightly lopsided sticker for the eyes application. The hair is fairly god too as well as the body proportions. I can't really fault anything here!

Articulation: 5/5 (31 points) The figure actually has a lot of points of articulation. Many aren't super well-engineered, but that's what you get with a lower-priced figure made of light plastic parts that you snap together (no glue required).  The head and neck have a decent range, the arms have amazing range since they have a great butterfly joint as well as a bicep swivel (What?! even regular SH figuarts don't usually have that). The waist joint has a weird extending base that gives a lot of gapping, and there is only the slightest of waist swivel action.

The hip joints are good, but because they made the thigh pieces flush at angles to the hips, it's hard to make it look natural without weird edges sticking out. The knees are single jointed but work ok, and the ankles have a pretty great range (no toe hinge, yay).

Accessories: 4/5
He comes with his stand, base, plug for himself for the base, alternate head, jutsu hands, fist hands, open Rasengan plug hands, the Rasengan effect, and the Rasenshuriken effect, as well as two magnetic foot chakra pieces that hook onto his feet. Pretty good! I find it slightly odd he didn't come with a kunai and gripping hands for them...seems like that's fairly standard with nearly every Naruto figure from Bandai to date.

Fun Factor: 3/5 Like I said, super fun to actually build the plastic bits. The stickers I find irritating. They come off too easily. The posing is sometimes kinda wonky or offputting even though the figure in a standing pose looks really good. He's also a lot harder to balance than SH Figuarts because he is incredibly light due to his model kit nature. Another fun thing though is the chakra foot accessories. With the magnets, you can get him to stick to metal surfaces, which is a fun touch.
Not my favourite figure, but still fun enough!

Verdict: 17/20 Great: Though it's not my favourite Naruto figure, it definitely looks cool on the shelf or suspended from a metal surface! He can do a few poses and has some cool accessories. For the price I got him, it was an easy purchase. I'd definitely recommend this kit to a Naruto fan, but to anyone else, it may be a pass for you.

Him with the box! Fun to put together and there are still
some included spare pieces in case

From the back. Not a big fan of how the
stickers go on the figure. It was also weird how
the pouch was flesh tone before I painted it!

I do like the way they nailed the face shape and how his
neck seems to be the right height

The other face is fine, but I messed up more on applying
lining for the features.

The accessories are cool. I like the
translucent blue they used!

The magnets are really strong and can even suspend him
upside down!

See? looks ok but kinda wonky outside of a
standing pose

The rasengan isn't
quite as flashy as others

My favourite is still the SH Figuarts Sage Mode one

The rasenshuriken is cool! Not quite as big
as the SH Sage mode one though

Pretty weak kick though! 

Really like his proportions, despite the lack of range and balance!