Just got Budo and this figure makes me angry at OTHER TOY MANUFACTURERS.
First of all his kit is stacked and you can't just make three different looks for him, you can modular-ize the hell out of him and come up with dozens of looks. He's ridiculously versatile. The armor does not inhibit his ROM much at all (the samurai kilt/skirt does just a bit, but not much. And all of his gear can be swapped without boil and pop (side-eyeing a very specific high-end indie studio about this). No fuss, no muss, just swapping his gear around willy nilly (aside from this gauntlets but Classified hands are designed to swap anyway so it's no big deal) and the scarf needs a head pop but again, designed to swap.
He has too much gear. It is Christmas morning. I was cursiing myself out for ordering two because I wanted to use John Budo Wick and clean-cut man-bun Budo at the same time but seriously, if he goes on sale I could see getting a third to keep him permanently in his family armor. The only thing I wish he came with was a stand to put the family armor on, and that's not even a knock, it's just an improvement.
Slice & Dice were stupidly good for non-marquee Joes characters, and Budo absolutely says "hold my sake" and goes even harder. The crazy thing is the stripped down, no armor figure underneath is awesome all on his own - he doesn't need all the bells and whistles, but they make him even better.
Actually, a bit of an EFF YOU to Hasbro for mastering the removable vest thing now after I had to mutilate a Flint to get his vest off and have been considering mutilating a Beachhead to do the same. This should be the gold standard for armor going forward. (And to think two weeks ago I was saying Monster Force mastered the removeable vest thing, but even their buttons/tabs to hold them in place fight you if you remove them and try to put them back on - Budo's snap back into place like butter. The skirt/kilt too - it's pops back in so cleanly it's infuriating that other figures don't do this.)
Anyway, I didn't give a damn about Budo until like a year ago and this might be my figure of the year. Or at least a very strong contender.
(EDIT: And he's CHEAPER THAN A F*CKING MAGIC THE GATHERING MARVEL LEGENDS CROSSOVER FIGURE WT ever-loving F)
