The original Street Fighter video game allowed you to choose one of two characters to play through the game with. Those two were Ryu and Ken. Ken was the Player Two palette swap of Ryu. They pretty much played the same and had the same move. Ken, along with Ryu and Sagat, would next appear in the game that jumpstarted the franchise: Street Fighter II. That hasn’t changed in the latest version of the game Ultra Street Fighter II -The Final Challengers and Ken is the latest to get a figure in the toy line.
Ken Masters is an American martial artist and Ryu’s best friend. They both trained under Master Gouken and mastered the Shouryken, Hadouken and other moves. Ken has appeared in all six Street Figert Games (including their various updates/refreshes), the Street Fighter Alpha series and various crossover games. Ken appeared in the live-action Street Fighter movie and played a major role in Street Fighter II, The Animated Movie and the Street Fighter II V anime series.
The figure faithfully recreates Ken’s look from the game. He is a blond Caucasian male with shoulder-length hair. He is very muscular and wears a red Gi and pants. He has brown wrist guards on and is not wearing shoes
For articulation, his head is on a barbell joint at the neck. it can tilt up, down and side to side, and rotate all the way around. His arms are on butterfly joints at the shoulders, with a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, rotation at the wrists and hinged hands. He has a mid-torso joint that allows for some crunch forwards and back, though the rubber Gi overlay does interfere. The figure does have a waist swivel. The legs are on a T-bar at the hips, with upper thigh swivel, double knees, rotation at the lover ankle and hinged rocker ankles.
His accessories include an alternate head. Ken’s default head is smiling, and the alternate head is angry. He has a set of open hands in addition to the included fists. Lastly, he has a fireball accessory with a stand for it.
The Ken figure might be mostly reused, but he is pretty much a copy of Ryu. Like that figure, the articulation is great and poses well. These Street Fighter figures are better than the G.I. Joe ones from the ’90s and match or surpass the import figures in sculpt and articulation. My only complaint is how slow Jada is in releasing new figures, but if that is the price to pay for this quality, so be it.
Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers Ken is on sale now. Check online for details.
This Review is for entertainment purposes only. I have not received anything from Entertainment Earth, Jada Toys or anyone else for this review. The items were purchased myself with my own money. All opinions are mine; any pictures were taken by me and are for review purposes only.
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