#//i would have drawn accessories to go with it but i'm too lazy to do that right now lol

[mechahero]

//Didn't rb SWSC Lambda but I finally cracked down and made a Dead Tired outfit instead lol

alternate slipper color/pattern additions under the cut

[viofitz]

Storm Collectibles The King Of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match: Blue Mary (Review)

Introduction: Storm Collectibles is a Hong Kong based designer and manufacturer of action figures. They are known for making officially licensed, high quality collectible action figures, primary from fighting game series and iconic figures. They have the license to make 1/12th scale action figures based on The King Of Fighters (KOF). These figures feature numerous points of articulation, interchangeable head sculpts and pairs of hands, and special fighting effect parts. Her boxart comes out to be given with large window plastic so, we can almost see the whole contents. And the front part was printed with KOF98 Ultimate Match logo and her artwork drawn by Shinkiro, and there is 17+ print that this figure was meant for those 17 years old or above. To be honest, compared to shf/figma storm is much user friendly since despite their sharp/choking hazard looking materials, perhaps it's because Mary doesn't have accessory that was made from a hard materials. While the back part is mostly shown the figure's promotional photos showing how the figure works and there's a SNK Funiverse sticker attached on them.

Contents: Mary herself comes with her main figure, she's included with 4 interchangeable head sculpts which the hairs are removable and swappable, 6 pair of hands in total, a single stomp effect for her iconic moves and a background paper diorama depicting USA stage in their old class 2D sprite style from in the game.

Blue Mary was originally came from Fatal Fury series game but, she later made her debut in KOF97 as the Outlaw Team (Special Team) teaming up with Ryuji Yamazaki and Billy Kane. Mary herself is a Private Detective, her official nickname is "S Class Woman" and "The Joint Crusher", she specializes in Commando Sambo. Mary's getup are red top, dark blue purple-ish gloves with yellow trim, dark blue purple-ish jeans with 2 belts; 1 black belt attached in her pants while another 1 is a loose dark brown colored belt and light brown shoes. Mary is not my first Storm figure collection so, I can tell she is a big improvement from Storm's past female figures, they finally updated her elbow into double jointed so, she can move her arms much better and posing her is surprisingly easy, although her ankles is a bit limited to move. Unlike in my previous blog reviews I'm not going to show photo comparison anymore nor even the detailed articulation works in here but, I made tons of photos showing how she was depicted in the game so I think that'll be more than enough to demonstrate how she plays. Her articulation points consisted movable head, torso, arms with bicep cut, double jointed elbow, wrists, legs with thigh, double jointed knee, ankles and tiptoe part. I love how they cleverly hides her torso cut by using her red top. I can make tons of her iconic move lists from her game with no sweat, she's pretty easy to play.

Mary was included with 4 head sculpts (HS) in total, first would be her standard smile with normal hair down. This expression is mainly used to show Mary's friendly nature even during her fight but, out from all this one has her neck socket a bit lower compared to her other HS. This made her head stands a bit taller. I tried to press it hard but it won't budge, perhaps I'm going to need a hair dryer or hot water to fix that but, too lazy to do that. Second HS is her winking smile expression to show her sassy style with alternate normal hair down. I don't really understand why she was given with identical hair part... Third HS is her serious expression with slight grit to show how serious she is during her fight with her left side bangs hanging on her ears. Mary used to flip her hair in her battle. Fourth HS is her yelling expression which mainly used for her fight scenes to be more intense with her bangs flowing to the right side. All of these head sculpts are swappable, you can make her expressions with all kinds of her hair parts. Her hairs were made from semi flexible rubber materials while her head from a hard PVC materials. While some people may think she's not good enough but, atleast imo they seemingly captured Shinkiro style's art on her face. But, I don't really disagree on their thoughts since most of her expressions felt kinda bland and empty on her. However, I'm still happy with how she turned out to be better than I expected.

Mary comes with 6 pair of hands in total, that would be: fistful hands which was already attached to her main figure, pointy hands to recreate her bang scene or any other of her various pointy finger poses, open splayed tiger style hands for recreating her iconic battle stance pose, open splayed and open palm hands for her necessary Sambo posing. Well, these hands are very convenient to make tons of her ingame poses. Her hands were also made from semi flexible rubber material so, her hands are safe enough but, it doesn't mean they're unbreakable.

It's too bad she's doesn't come with taser weapon nor her late boyfriend's coat nor even Anton the dog... But, I still had alot of fun playing this figure.

Mary also comes with stomping effect which mainly used for her Snatcher move list that followed from her Vertical Arrow. The effect got the same material as her hair and hands. To be honest, I like this way better compared to a fragile hard plastic like how Bandai did....

As for diorama paper, the stage was simply printed from the original sprite of KOF98 USA Background which, I understand they're meant to recreate the classic look for Mary's appearance in KOF98 but, the pixelated looks doesn't go well enough with the figure.

Damn... I could make her Splash Rose Desperation Moves perfect enough!

Dynamite Swing also turned out perfect!

Wow, I'm surprised Mary can stand on Tyris and Tyris can even withstand Mary's weight!

Thank youu for reading!😁🙏🏻