This may sound like rambling, but I hope I do a good job on this post.
Right now, a lot of people are deciding whether or not to go with SH Figuarts Street Fighter figures, or Storm Collectibles Street Fighter figures.
Storm has stated that they aim to marry western styled sculpting with eastern styled articulation and accessories.
I think we can clearly see what they mean by this by examining how Ryu's arm is sculpted. There is a lot of exaggerated realism going on there, with a lot of character.
The SH Ryu's arm is clearly a muscular arm, but it's abstracted. In order for me to get a better idea of the character in that arm, it helps to look at his arm compared to other SH figures with similar arm structures.
You can see that against these Kinnikuman figures, his arms are characterized by his shoulders the most. Kinnikuman has a chunkiness, with the greatest quantity of developed muscles. Ramenman has slender, straight arms, that convey a sense of great power within a small frame. Nemesis has sculpted, refined arms. One of the most fun things for me in the SH line is to compare how Bandai sculpted in all these unique characteristics to each character's musculature, while being very subtle about the differences.
Back to Storm Collectibles, their statement of leaning toward a Western style of sculpting reminds me of my belief that a NECA Bruce Lee would have a far better body sculpt compared to the SH Bruce Lee, although would likely not have as much range of motion.
NECA just has as great sense of capturing a person's anatomy, and the way clothing fits on the body, as well as the textures of different fabrics. This is what leads me to prefer the NECA Dark Knight Joker over either the Mafex or the SH Joker figures.
Well, low and behold, Storm has sculpted Bruce Lee statues in scale with their MK and SF figures.
Imagine how great that figure would be if it were articulated. So far, the Storm Collectibles action figures pose very well, while still retaining the sculpt. It would destroy the SH Bruce Lee.
Storm has also made some really amazing 1:6 and 1:4 Hulk Hogan sculpting.
With this 2-second Photoshop, I now believe Storm Collectibes is the company who could give us the best Kinnikuman action figures done in the realistic style of the CCP statues.
I don't mean to say I want Storm Kinnikuman figures instead of SH Kinnikuman figures; I want them in addition to.
Both companies make great figures, and Storm doing just one or two Kinnikuman characters would likely add a bunch of new fans to the series.
I don't even need a whole cast of Storm Kinnikuman figures. They can just start small and see how it goes from there, let SH be comprehensive about it. Although I should mention that in just a short time, Storm has already given/promised 4 totally unique characters.
However, I will say, I do wish Storm had the WWE license instead of SH. I don't really know too much about real life pro-wrestling, but Storm WWE would no doubt be objectively better than the SH figures, and make for some amazing figures.
Edited by toyhandle, 17 February 2017 - 10:52 PM.
