Hokuto No Ken
Kaiyodo Mini-Busts
2005
When REDS went out of business and left many companies like KAIYODO
high and dry we saw a drop in releases from them. But now that that is no
longer an issue (thanks to them finding another distributor in Happinet)
KAIYODO is coming back with a vengeance with a five star set of high quality
busts from the legendary Hokuto No Ken series.

This four bust set is based off the four Brothers from Hokuto No Ken AKA
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR. Those four brothers of course are RAOH, TOKI,
JAGI and KENSHIRO. These four polystone busts come with accessories to
which I’ll get to in a moment. Anyway let’s get crackin’ on this review and for
geeks sake I’ll go according to age so first up is the KEN-OH himself RAOH.

RAOH
You got to give the credit to KEN MATSUURA for sculpting Raoh and
“getting” what the character is about. Above all else if a sculpt captures the
spirit of the character then you’ve got the most important aspect and lucky for
us he has. You have Raoh dynamically removing cape removing his cape as
intensely looks at his next (dead) opponent. Raoh technically is in his first
appearance armor, which in my opinion was the most detailed one so again
we lucked out. His armor is very detailed as you can tell by looking at the
intricate work around the chest area and nicely marked detailing on his
shoulder armor. His waist area has that somewhat centurion look to it. It’s
detailed but has a much worn look to it. His cape has many, many folds and
has a dynamic full extension feel it. I love how you can see the folds form out of
his fist from the way he’s holding the cape. Now the head is exactly the way I’d
envision Raoh to look like. He has those trademark indentations on his
forehead (scars?) which any Raoh figure, doll, statue, whatever need to have.
He’s just so detailed that even his earlobes are clearly defined, as is his hair.
For something so small you get a lot of work. His base is a simple gravestone,
which we see of quite a bit in the comic (which is also the same type of base
for all the brothers). It’s a very simple cracked and weatherworn base.

The paint job on him is what really brings all that detailing to life. Firstly the
flesh tone on Raoh himself is first and foremost accurate. He kind of has that
golden/orange skin color to him. As you look at his right arm and face (the only
two parts that actually show flesh) you see gradual color shading which add a
lot of depth to the overall look. His head is consistent to the arm so there is no
odd color variation… and yes thank the FORCE they gave him blonde hair.
His armor has a dark metallic gold/brown look to it and the shoulder armor has
a rich gold look to it. I’m glad they didn’t give him the basic gold color (that
metallic hi-yellow look) and went with the richer gold color (I used to sell jewelry
so little things like that pop-out at me) that gives Raoh that majestic kingly
look.  

TOKI
The second eldest brother is Toki who typifies mercy, compassion, dignity
and grace. And luckily for us the design on him shows just that. For a guy who’
s been exposed to nuclear radiation he looks good. Seriously he looks very
buff and totally healthy which is the right approach to take when you want to
make a montage of all the brothers in their glory. They gave him a great sculpt
which to be honest is not one I’m used to seeing in a 3D form (I’m used to him
not looking so buff and dare I say… massive mainly due to all the other
KAIYODO/SEGA figures I have of him which don’t display him as big). Like I
said I’m not used to it but I like it! This is what Toki should look like; the man
whom fate decided would NOT carry on the mantle as Hokuto Shinken
successor.

Now THIS Toki looks like he can kick some serious (yet merciful) ass. He’s
wearing his standard off-white garb shoulder strap and pad. As elaborate as
Raoh is Toki is quite the opposite. It’s quite the subdued look.  

In regards to the paint job it’s a very clean and smooth finish. I think it’s safe to
say that he has a more simple color scheme. When it comes to Toki there
really isn’t THAT much to go into as he’s mainly varying degrees on a couple
of colors.  But as for how they are applied you get nice shading and no
bleeding on the folds of his shirt. It’s all about making the most out of what you
have and while he’s not endowed with a fancy outfit, he’s given exactly the look
he should have.

JAGI
Oh Jagi. Over the years he’s become the brunt of many in-jokes between
myfriends and I. He’s somewhere between Cobra Commander and Skeletor
for just being evil but in a funny lying, cheating, cowardly and stealing kind of
way. Outside of having the worst brainwashing techniques ever he IS one of
the best designs in the series.

Although he is a punching bag for abuse, this sculpt brings to mind that Jagi IS
dangerous. He’s a pretty ripped dude as his bulging biceps and six-pack
show us. Mainly his most defining feature is his mask. It’s literally Jagi the way
he should be, nothing seems more appropriate than having him cowardly take
the short cut and reach for his trusty shotgun. He also brings into light that out
of all the brothers he’s the one that resembles the popular 1980’s post
apocalyptic view. It’s almost a checklist as we have here everything from
spiked shoulder pads to customized looking helmet of doom.

And speaking of the helmet the one drawback on this bust is that you can’t
take Jagi’s helmet off. That would have been a great feature, as KAIYODO
would have sculpted one fugly looking dude underneath that helmet (yeah I
said FUGLY –if you’ve seen the show then you know why he won’t win sexiest
male character any time soon). It would have been great to either have a
removable helmet of a separate head altogether. Still as it stands now he’s
damn impressive.

The paint job on Jagi is very well executed. He’s in a rather drab looking color
scheme that fits him fine (and incidentally enough it mimics the color scheme
from KAIYODO’S first action figure of Jagi from the classic 199X line). It’s a
very solid and clean paint job with varying degrees of shading all around the
midsection. Everything from his scars to his spiked shoulder pads are painted
with great care. I do have to add that while the helmet cannot come off you can
peek inside the helmet and see his eyes and the direction their looking at and
a glimpse of the metal plate that goes across that helps keep his head from
exploding (long story short he fought Ken and well… lost). Incredible how much
painted detail they have put on a face that’s 96% covered by a mask.  

KENSHIRO
The youngest one and one who holds the mantle of Hokuto Shinken successor
is my favorite design of the set. I’ve seen many Kenshiro’s in my years of
being in the nurturing money-sucking womb of the hobby but I can say that
without a shadow of a doubt that this is the best Kenshiro sculpt I have ever
seen! His face, hair, scars and even the style of shoulder pad impress me.
There have been many attempts over the years to try and give anime/manga
figures a certain look of realism. While different a lot of the times they end up
loosing the identity of the character. KAIYODO manages to perfectly blend
both worlds and end up with an incredible final product.

Speaking of said sculpt we get the traditional look of Kenshiro literally bursting
out of his shirt. Since this is a mini bust you get to see Kenshiro’s upper body
and his veiny and muscular left arm, which is really all you need to see. It also
fits the theme of each brother displaying only one arm (See, there be
subtleties in this here design!). He’s pretty much ripped from head to toe… er
torso. The scars on his chest are dead on as usual BUT I also dig the artistic
license KEN MATSUURA took to give Kenshiro some more scars. I’m
guessing that the scars present are the ones from the Souther fight. The extra
scar adds a touch of realism and gives Kenshiro that battle worn look. Out of
this set to me this is KEN MATSUURA’S masterpiece.
ACCESSORIES  

Yeah, I did say I’d talk about those didn’t I? Well here we go. Each one comes
with a separate base that fits together to make one big base. The busts
(depending on which one) come with risers that can stack on each other. It’s
meant to be assembled in a certain way that lets you maximize your display of
the busts (don’t worry a little simple diagram comes with it to guarantee you
can’t mess up). In the end you get a group shot like the one below.
SO WHAT’S THE BAD NEWS?

Well not much honestly.

There is one thing that could have been better. I’m talking about the
Styrofoam. It’s very fragile and tends to break apart very easily and since it
can break apart it undoubtedly leaves a lot of little bits of broken Styrofoam. It’
s not much of a complaint but considering how great everything else is I wish a
better quality Styrofoam was used on these very high quality busts.

The LOWDOWN

Well here we are at the end of the review and all I can say is wow. Tetsuo Hara
and Buronson must be beaming with pride on what KAIYODO has been able
to do with their creation. I really had no doubt in their ability as I’ve been buying
from them for years. Now I would like to mention the price. I’ve been buying
imports stuff for years so it’ll take something unusual to raise an eyebrow. I
was expecting these busts to go for a decent amount (IE not cheap). However
shock of all shocks they retail for about 4179Y, which equals to about 40.00
bucks US.

Over here the SRP is 45.00 for each one but I’ve seen entire sets sell for
160.00. In the end you have another high-quality product by KAIYODO and at a
good price. Whether you have to buy them one at a time or can complete set
in one fell swoop, trust me, as a fan that speaks from the heart it’s a purchase
you’ll never regret.
(c) Lester Romero 2005