Tamashii Nations Terry Bogard “King Of Fighters” D Arts Action Figure

Terry Bogard is my favorite fighting game character ever. In my Favorite Fighting Game Characters post, I listed him as second to Virtua Fighter’s Akira Yuki, mostly because of the great amount skill and patience it takes to master the latter’s skills in the game. But if I’m going for favorites in general, Terry tops all for me. His laid back, cheerful attitude, that trucker hat with various logos that appear on it (whether it’s SNK, Neo-Geo, or Fatal Fury), and his memorable game quotes spoken in broken English, the Hungry Wolf is Legendary and even inspired me to create (i.e. blatantly rip off) a character who looked like him, only he wore board shorts. My wife got this for me as a Christmas/Anniversary/Valentine’s Day gift, and I consider it to be the crown jewel of my small, but spirited toy collection.

CHARACTER LIKENESS

 

Well, where else do I start with a character’s likeness other than the very best accessory in a fighting game!? I would’ve killed for interchangeable logos!! The hat is fitted on with a peg joint, so it make the hat look like a very perfect fit, so I assume he chopped off the remainder of his hair, skull, and brain to accommodate.

Tamashii Nations once again does a stellar job of bringing the character’s image into three dimensions. All of his faces are well done and expressive.

 I don’t mind blatantly obvious joint lines and exposed parts of articulation for an action figure. as you might’ve seen with CB27ded’s MMPR Figuarts reviews, attempts at covering them up are valiant efforts, but wind up becoming more of a mess. The slightly rubberized denim vest, its own separate piece has some nice flexibility to go along with some stunning detail.

 The T shirt with its cutoff sleeves looks pretty great. Through the folds you can see light indentation of his abs, which I approve, as whenever characters are wearing freaking T-shirts, it is either three sizes too small or they’re wearing UnderArmour.

 His arms look finely toned and various parts are painted slightly darker, helping catch light and producing a look that isn’t glossy. Something else I preferred with the SNK roster of characters over Street Fighter is that their proportions aren’t super jacked up and over exaggerated.

 YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!!!!!!!! 

Terry comes with two ponytails, each shaped a little differently depending on what you might want to do with them in terms of posing and indicating movement. They look really well done, I’ll talk a little more about them when I get to articulation. The trademark star logo on the back of the vest gives me goosebumps, it looks so amazing!!! The fabric looks purposely faded to convey the hardships his wardrobe takes when you spend all of your time fighting. With a lot of creases and folds throughout, it looks like a legit piece of clothing.

Work it, Girlfriend!!!!

While his pants aren’t as tight-looking as Benimaru’s painted on attire (seriously, they make skinny jeans look like cargo pants with reinforced double seems), I still always wondered why Terry would fight in probably the worst choice of bottoms to wear when in a tournament that involves martial arts! Nonetheless, they are pretty well detailed like everything else thus far. The points at the waist and knees are even less disguised than the ball joints at the neck and arms. The creases and lines in the jeans are reasonably placed in areas that one would expect. They even fade a bit at the knee joints and his flexing calves, something I didn’t pick up on when I first started observing him!! That really makes this toy come off as very organic.

“Rising Tackle!!!!!!”

  There is some more fading around the pant leg and the cuffs. The shoes, which I’m a little sad that they aren’t the official Converses but pretty much look like them anyway, are a tad bit askew with the paint job. It isn’t super splotchy, but something about them looks like they were painted with frosting.

  Overall, this is an excellent job, and while it’s a slightly older toy than some of the recent Street Fighter IV line of beefed up action figures by Square Enix, much like the video games, I prefer the more reserved and slim character models of the King of Fighters. and Terry here is done perfectly.  CHARACTER LIKENESS SCORE 10/10

ARTICULATION

While D Arts look much better than S.H. FiguArts, they aren’t as flexible, and their joints seem to be a little more stubborn. That makes me attempt to apply more force than I would like to when moving them and I am always uneasy while posing.

That being said, it really isn’t all that much of a problem to nail most of his signature attacks to near perfection. He doesn’t have a base to hold him up, and I really don’t know why, but I can’t get him to stand up or even balance correctly. He doesn’t feel top-heavy, or maybe I just haven’t cracked it yet after all this time.

He is, however, tailor-made for his kneeling attacks, the Power Wave and…

“Powa GEYSAAHHH!!!!!”

It isn’t too hard at all to make Terry thrust his fist into the ground to unleash a furious assault on any toy in my library!! And this doesn’t get old! The detail in the biceps and triceps really accentuate the look, giving off the appearance that he is hitting with great intensity. The joints are, again, a little tight and he still squeaks a bit while moving him around.

Not super flexible, but he is able to move around in all the key points he needs to, so well done there. The arms can only really move in several directions and he doesn’t have twisting forearms. Getting him to stand up straight is a pain, he topples over at the slightest brush. OVERALL ARTICULATION SCORE 7/10

STABILITY

His center of balance is just weird. His feet move ever so slightly and that doesn’t really offer much help.

I’ve tried everything I could think of, but I can’t crack this. I widened his stance, put his arms straight down. I tried his signature fighting pose, and nothing seems to keep Terry on his feet here.  So if anyone else owns this guy, maybe I’m doing something wrong here. He just seems designated to lean slightly backwards. His upper body is sturdy, but not really all that top-heavy. Even the S.H. FiguArts Power Rangers can stand, and I put them in a wacky variety of poses. This is probably my biggest turnoff about him, which is a shame. OVERALL STABILITY SCORE 3.5/10

PARTS & ACCESSORIES

 

Terry comes with at least 4 sets of interchangeable hands, most notable is a specially made hand designed to hold his tote bag. Now THAT’s impressive. It’s light in weight and drapes over his shoulder just fine. A really cool attention to detail as the bag has some intentional wear and tear all over it. I can only assume he keeps that thing filled with cheeseburger wrappers and warm cans of TAB.

Various hands that fit easy enough. The two wrist bands on each of his gloves act as washers, or something to that effect. I have to make sure I don’t loose track of those, they could pop off when interchanging hands.

Terry comes with three total heads. I’m a little disappointed that there wasn’t a hatless version with hair, because I can’t do his victory pose. But the action face and the ambivalent face look very good.

There’s this thing…………I have no idea what it’s for……

Terry’s energy explosions look very good. That is one thing that has come a long way in recent years is the detail in energy blasts. I always made fun of them for looking like still-shot fruit juice bars and rubber candy. Now they all look pretty cool.

Terry has a solid handful of interchangeable accessories. I wished the pegs that connected his face to his hat wasn’t so snug, however. OVERALL PARTS & ACCESSORIES SCORE 8/10

“Are you okay!!!?!?! BUSTA WOLF!!!!”

Overall, I’m super happy to have my icon as an action figure to put on my shelf. He looks great, moves around well enough, and his extra pieces are indeed a great deal of fun to play with. Once I get my hands on some more key items, I will have a great basket of entertainment with him. The biggest drawback is his lack of any kind of posterity. He just won’t stand up straight to save his life. A few hand pieces don’t offer a lot of flexibility and his ponytail has a tendency to fall out often. Terry leaves with an overall toy score of

8/10