Baraka

May 25, 2012 | By More


I must confess that the only Mortal Kombat game I have a passing familiarity with is the first one. I know that there have been more than one sequel in the series, but I wasn’t even sure when did the character whose action figure I’m reviewing today came out, although as you can see, that didn’t stop me from getting this action figure made by Jazwares.

Baraka made his debut in Mortal Kombat 2 and just from looking at him, it is rather obvious that he is not one of the good guys. Baraka is a nasty looking little troll, a member of a mutant demon race from another dimension who call themselves Tarkatans.

I guess that Baraka is fairly representative of his species, with long, sharp spikes growing from his forearms and a creepy sardonic face. His costume follows the same general design strictures seen in both Scorpion and Sub-Zero, as apparently tabards and loose pants seem to be all the rage in the Mortal Kombat Universe.

The outfit is well sculpted with a pretty decent amount of details and no pieces seem to be reused from any other character in this collection. Besides the long killing spikes, the forearms have various bumps sculpted on to represent minor protrusions, but these are kind of soft and rounded. Baraka’s face, on the other hand, is downright demonic, with a grimace that shows too many teeth and a decidedly violent disposition.

Baraka is articulated the same as the other figures in this line, with:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel wrists.

• Floating torso.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

Although the neck has a ball on top, the joint actually works as a simple swivel because the peg goes too deep into the skull. Additionally, even though the hip joints are of the injection-molded type (along with shoulders and ankles), the hinges on both sides turned out very loose on my figure, which makes difficult for Baraka to stand when the feet are wider apart than his shoulders, unless the thighs are positioned sideways.

Baraka’s paintjob is just decent. The lower half is molded in black plastic so only a few small details on his greaves are painted on with tarnished silver and maroon paint. The upper half is molded from a ruddy, flesh-colored plastic, with the clothes painted in ivory, with a few patches on the tabard painted solid black and maroon for the trim. Baraka also has a pair of skulls stenciled on his chest in the same maroon color.

The spikes on his forearms are also painted black, but only the minor spikes received a drybrush with silver paint. The guy is so ugly and his facial features so pronounced, that all he needed on the face were a pair of yellow eyes and a mouth full of teeth painted in rather filthy ivory color and a shading wash.

As far as accessories go, Baraka is the one character in this line that got none whatsoever, despite his hands being sculpted in grabbing poses. Granted, he may not really need any killing tool with those forearm spikes, but in that case they could have just given him closed fists.

Although the similarities with Hasbro’s Movie Deadpool, from the X-Men Origins: Wolverine line, are evident, Baraka is probably one of the more interesting looking figures in the 4-inch Mortal Kombat line. I actually like this little monster better than that other figure.

Errex Score: 80/100

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Category: Featured, Other Games, Toy Reviews, Video Games

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (4)

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  1. Tom says:

    B A Baraka, love the character, not so hip on the figure, have’t looked at this one up close but the head sculpt seems a bit off. I know he is supposed to have sharp pointy teeth and an exaggerated mouth but it just looks like his smiling really big and needs some dental work. Nice review!

  2. Engineernerd says:

    He minds of something out of Hellboy, like from the Heads story.

  3. Knight Lestat says:

    Hi my friend. Be on your page casually looking for other characters, it’s great, I congratulate you; I wanted to ask, what is the name of the character of green behind Baraka (photo Baraka-012)? For your kindness, thank you very much. Regards.

  4. Engineernerd says:

    That is Captain Sao Fang from Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. (It was a deluxe version with Cannon, I think)

  5. Knight Lestat says:

    You are right friend, thank you very much for the information.