Figma Video Game Figures

I prefer soft goods to plastic in all cases, but I don't think soft goods skirts ever look good. In Zelda's case, I wish they had gone with pants instead.

TheSameIdiot said:

I prefer soft goods to plastic in all cases, but I don't think soft goods skirts ever look good. In Zelda's case, I wish they had gone with pants instead.

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I'm hoping they aren't done.

Heh, I got antsy and shipped my Hildr last night so of course BBTS charged me for Zelda today. I’m having bad luck this month with POL timing but gonna have some great figures arriving soon.

TheSameIdiot said:

I prefer soft goods to plastic in all cases,

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This intrigued me and I'd love to know why you feel this way.

I'm on the opposite side of the fence and generally only like soft goods if it better allows a figure to sit on a throne or in a vehicle or something like that. In general I tend to hate soft goods otherwise. My viewpoint might be heavily influenced by experiences with very old product at this point, however.

Respectfully, I'd like to understand why you and so many others like soft goods so much. I just don't understand it.

Reno said:

This intrigued me and I'd love to know why you feel this way.

I'm on the opposite side of the fence and generally only like soft goods if it better allows a figure to sit on a throne or in a vehicle or something like that. In general I tend to hate soft goods otherwise. My viewpoint might be heavily influenced by experiences with very old product at this point, however.

Respectfully, I'd like to understand why you and so many others like soft goods so much. I just don't understand it.

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It comes down to how much I hate the alternatives. In the Toy Biz ML days, the soft rubber material got out of the way, but it was stuck in one pose. In the Hasbro ML era, soft rubber was replaced with hard shells. The hard capes are pre-posed, hinder articulation, and look bad. At least with soft goods, my only issue might be that it looks bad.

It's worth noting that I replace almost all capes, be it hard shell or soft goods, with higher-end custom soft goods. Nothing is better than a good wired cape. I'd rather Hasbro give Darth Vader a cloth cape, but I'm replacing that shit all the same.

The only exception is imports. With MAFEX, InArt, etc., I stick with the stock cape.

I feel like Jada would be the one to go with for properties like Soul Blade/Calibur and Tekken.

Reno said:

Respectfully, I'd like to understand why you and so many others like soft goods so much. I just don't understand it.

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Looks and functionality. I'll preface that in many domestic figure cases, I find the soft goods chintzy and not sized out well (pick a McFarlane Batman, as example), and I make my own or buy them as I go.

I don't like hard shell capes, never have. Hampers articulation, makes a bad silhouette on the shelf, no drama when playing. Even as a kid the Kenner capes were top tier because Batman could brood, dive, hang, get some flow as he beat up villains.

The BTAS art book has a whole section on the cape and how important it is to posing. Any comic artist worth a damn knows capes are key for selling presence and motion. Even if you just like posing on a shelf, Magneto is going to look amazing with a flowy cape fluttering under his power than a limp plastic shell taco (that probably looks bad with a flight stand jammed between back and shell).

With soft goods, you can address the cheap look or bad sewing with a replacement. Plastic is always going to look terrible, for my purposes.

Capes, cloaks, coats, robes. Soft goods are my way.

Tabards, lower body robes (Ventress), dresses? Traffic cones were cool when I was paying six bucks for Power of the Force 2 figures. Not like those were even for dynamic posing.

But now we have dynamic posing. Now you can get some amazing stances and ready poses and actions. And now these figures cost 25 plus, so I want to utilize it. That requires soft goods, which lets me make these characters crouch, high kick, hover, leap. If I wanted a statue, I would buy a statue. If I wanted someone to just stand there, I would buy a statue. I want something I can move and pose and express myself at the moment.

That requires soft goods.

Once you get a quality soft good, not just the stitching or a wire, but the actual material with its own volume, and a good proportional pattern, it elevates a figure. I would argue it even makes or breaks a figure.

Do I need full soft goods like a Mezco? Only when it's done well. I'm happy just to have a cape. And honestly, once you're in the game, Mezco is kind of chintzy and ill-fitting too. You get a lot better for Less with some third party Asian efforts or the right person on Etsy or Insta. I just picked up a Chinese figure from some animated show just because it looked like my art, and the shirt and shorts are more tailored than any Batman outfit Mezco ever gave me.

I've heard the arguments that mixing and matching the materials feels and looks bad. For me, you can walk that slippery slope all the way down with the plastic hair, or plastic leather boots, or plastic swords. In fact, I know some people who will just keep a pushing that. I don't want rooted hair on a Thor, I don't need his outfit to be leather with real metal rivets, but I do want a flowing cape for hammering people in the face.

Thank you to TheSameIdiot and altcunningham for weighing in on the soft goods discussion. I appreciate the opportunity to read your perspectives on it.

It sounds like you're both replacing most of the stock soft goods on domestic figures, which is the only thing that I have any experience with. I don't buy any imports. Pretty much all of my experience with soft goods is with Hasbro, Mattel, McFarlane or old Toy Biz and I've never found it to be a positive experience. Not only that I have fully open displays so within a year or two those soft goods look like shit from dust and I've found that "dry" cleaning them isn't particularly effective and "wet" cleaning ruins them more often than not. Again, I realize that it is primarily a quality issue that we're talking about.

Thank you again, but I'm walking away still thinking that if my only option is the stock cloth goods that domestic figures are using, I'd just rather that they didn't for the most part.

I did not like soft goods in the past, but I've come around. I don't prefer it for something like a loin cloth or skirt, but when it's a cape I definitely prefer it.

Reno said:

Thank you again, but I'm walking away still thinking that if my only option is the stock cloth goods that domestic figures are using, I'd just rather that they didn't for the most part.

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I feel like we should be getting options in the Maximums and Deluxes. A plastic cloak can't be more than pennies.

One final thing about dynamic sculpted capes (and hair), is that often when you post figures off all of a sudden the breeze is going everywhere. It annoyed me to no end that Gambit and Rogue in the return to X- Men Legends push had their hair blowing opposite directions, when obviously I'm going to pose them next to each other.

Everyone else has said it better, but man I've come around on soft goods. For me it's all about range of motion and posing. I can work with a soft-goods piece that has movement to it, but if a plastic piece inhibits posing that's all you get. Theres's some worse examples out there but one I go back to is Marvel Legends Krakoa-era Jean Grey - a half inch of soft plastic made her legs pretty much useless. I haaaaaaate how McFarlane handled Supergirl's skirt but at least it allowed for more ROM for her legs. Meanwhile SWBS Ventress, that skirt is sloppy and boring but I could move her legs in any pose I wanted and that's what is most important to me.

There's a loooooot of bad things about Mythic Legions in terms of ROM but their soft goods just get the job done. I wouldn't say they are my gold standard for much, but their cloaks and kilts are top tier for me right now.

Genuinely surprising to see a defence of plastic/immovable capes et al, I cannot abide that stuff. I picked up a figure recently with one and they can't move their goddamn arms without removing it, it's just a completely useless method that should be consigned to either statues or the dustbin of history. They don't even have to be wired, just compare the beautifully draping Inart TDK cape to any plastic/vinyl one and it's simply no contest.

Anyway, in other news, I've got...huh. Just a box?
!

Once mine finally ships from Amiami, I'll have three boxes because I thought I'd lost my original box, so I bought a replica off eBay, but ended up finding my first box. So plenty of hiding spots for Snake.