S.H. Figuarts Minato Namikaze - Narutop99 Edition

 

If you don't know anything about Minato Namikaze, I previously reviewed him here: Minato Namikaze. Being the father of Naruto, a legendary teacher, ninja and inventor of the Rasengan, he's got a lot of status in the series despite being dead at the start. He's a cool character, and one who worked hard to create his power set and relationships in the show. Since the writing of the last figure (7 YEARS AGO....I can't believe it!), Minato won Narutop99, a poll contest that determined the most popular Naruto characters worldwide (I voted Shikamaru!). 

This is a great revamp of Minato, featuring significantly brighter colours compared to the previous model. The figure also stands better with the current line and has larger proportions than the original as well. The accessories here are pretty standard for SH Figuarts, hands, many face plates, kunai and a Rasengan with a special 99 on it! 

Sculpt & Paint: 3/3 The paint is well applied here, though it follows a pretty simple design outside of the face plate work. There isn't much shading, but lots of well-applied sculpt to create a dynamic coat that opens up to action poses. The green of his flack jacket is far lighter than other greens used on characters, and his blue undershirt is a lot brighter than what is typically depicted (dark grey). What I appreciate most about the paint here, compared to the last figure, is that the cloak is a full bright white as opposed to a lighter grey of the previous figure. 

Articulation: 3/3 (30+) This has pretty good dynamic options despite the large robe. The butterfly joints have a lot more reach than other versions, but they definitely feel more restricted than other figures due to their design. Head, neck and ab joints move well within the confines of the flack jacket areas. 

Accessories: 1/1: The figure comes with a pretty standard set of hands (open, rasengan and kunai holding, jutsu, relaxed), face plates (neutral, slightly open mouthed, angry, closed-eyed laughter, kunai mouth holding), his rasengan (with the maybe goofy 99 on it), special kunai, and a large scroll for summoning. All in all, well done! 

Fun Factor: 2/3 I like Minato as a character, and this figure does a lot of poses well. That said, I'm a little disappointed they didn't do cloth fabric with bendy wire here like they did for Naruto. Either that or they could have also at least made the coat removable with alternate arms to give him his typical Jonin look. This would've helped with more interesting, balanced dynamism in posing and play. Still, it's a Naruto figure and I obviously like it!

Verdict: 9/10 It's not the exact way I would've updated Minato, but it's a great figure! It looks good on the shelf, poses really well, and is superior in nearly every way to the older Minato figure SH Figuarts released. 

Interesting choice of doing the instructions
inside the box instead of a separate small sheet of paper

Pretty good set here. The scroll I think,
was only featured in the one-shot manga? 
I could be wrong on that

Boy, it is easy for that super white coat to
fade into the background!

Always impressed at how they can print
such small characters on a tiny accessory

Catch, son!