Blanka
I love video games. I don’t get to play much nowadays, but one of my early favorites was Street Fighter II for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo consoles.
I know there has been a number of licensors over the years that made action figures based on the SF intellectual property, but generally speaking, their availability was rather limited outside the US or were made in scales that really didn’t appeal to me.
That is, until Jazwares got the license to make 4 inch scale action figures, from which the first figure I got was Brazilian mutant Blanka.
Blanka is a rather bulky character, although most of his volume comes from his outrageous orange mane. The body proportions are suitably big, with bulging veins and muscles. Even though the sculpting style is unabashedly cartoony and his his fairly bestial appearance, Blanka would not look too out of place among other 4-inch scale figures, if not for his bright coloring.
Blanka is well articulated, although there are a few interesting design choices in his joint spread:
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Swivel wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Pegged hinge hips.
• Pegged hinge knees.
• Pegged hinge ankles.
Pretty standard joint count, although the joints on elbows and knees are not exactly the same as in shoulders and ankles.
The pegged hinges on shoulders and ankles are injection molded, while the pegged hinges on elbows and knees are not, hence the rather obvious pins at the sides of the joints. Both types of hinge have pretty much the same functionality, but the injection molded ones feel much tighter.
The overall articulation range is decent, although not extensive enough to achieve some of the iconic Blanka poses I remember from the games. The sheer bulk of the limbs prevents Blanka from adopting low crouching stances and the neck joint barely allows for side to side movement because the bulky mane gets in the way, despite the rather rubbery feel of the material.
Consistently with the video game aesthetic, the paintjob on Blanka is pretty straightforward and consists of simple block colors for the hair and the pants, done in bright orange and muted brown respectively. Surprisingly enough, the inside of Blanka’s mouth is fully painted and there is almost no paint issues on my figure, other than the odd paint rub here and there.
Blanka ships with two pairs of hands. The default pair of hands is sculpted open, while the alternate pair is sculpted as closed fists. Both pairs display a set of nasty looking claws and are very easily exchanged, which provides a nice amount of display options.
Blanka was never among my favorite characters from Street Fighter, but this action figure turned out to be pretty good and consequently, I may break out of storega the old console and have a go at the game once again.
Errex Score: 80/100
Category: Featured, Other Games, Toy Reviews, Video Games
I’ve never been a huge Street Fighter guy (more MK) but dang that’s a nice looking figure!