Ibuki (Street Fighter IV) Review

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Ibuki (Street Fighter IV) Review

Ibuki
Street Fighter IV (Play Arts Kai)I'll be honest, I haven't really played Street Fighter all that much. In fact, the only one I ever really played was Street Fighter II. However, that hasn't stopped me from getting the NECA Chun-Li earlier this year, and it didn't stop me from buying another SF figure earlier this month. This time, it's Ibuki from Square Enix's Play Arts Kai line, based off of her appearance in SFIV.

The box is pretty simple in design, with not too much special things about it, but the graphics they used are quite attractive. It's also collector-friendly as well, and it's not too hard to get everything out of it and back in at a later time.

Regarding the figure itself, the sculpt looks great and is plenty accurate to her appearance in-game. There's two head sculpts included with her, one with a closed mouth and one with an open one. The heads swap easily, though you'll also need to swap the hair parts as well, and the front ones tend to fall off. A nice use of both solid and soft plastic is present here, and the paint job, in addition to being clean, has a good amount of wash to have it resemble the game's style more. She stands about 8 1/4" tall, which is taller in person than you think, meaning she won't be in scale with your Storm or SOTA or NECA Street Fighters, but she will be with other Play Arts Kai figures, or the Street Fighter ones at least.

The articulation is quite plentiful here, with a ball-jointed head, neck, and waist, butterfly joints on the chest (allowing the arms to move forward more on the body), swivel-hinge shoulders and hips, swivel biceps and thighs, swivel-hinge-swivel elbows and wrists, hinged knees, and swivel-hinge-rocker ankles. All of the joints move well, with nothing feeling too tight or too loose, though the butterfly joints need a bit of work to get moving. The hips, knees, and ankles all have ratcheting hinges to help them maintain their pose, though I would've liked it if the hips worked a bit better, as in better up and down movement. Toe hinges would've been nice to include as well.

There's not too much in terms of accessories here, and aside from the alternate head, there's a pair of flat hands and a right holding three knives. Swapping the hands isn't as easy as swapping the heads, however, and you should heat up the holes in them to allow them to pop on more easily. Interchangeable parts aren't the only accessories here, as she also has a display stand included. You build the base yourself use parts you pop out of a plastic tray, screws and bolts, and a little plastic "screwdriver" to use with them. It's not too hard to put together, and there's two types of grips as well, though you need to make sure the screws are in there nice and tight.

Overall, Ibuki is a pretty great figure. The articulation, while not without its issues, is nice and interchangeable parts are always nice to have, though the inclusion of a display stand is definitely the icing on top. She's nice to have, even though she's out of scale with the NECA Chun-Li I already own. I obtained Ibuki at a local toy store when they were having a sale, but you can get one easily through Big Bad Toy Store.