Bandai S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Review

Bandai S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Review

Some would say that Rainbow Mika started the Women’s Revolution in professional wrestling. Makes you think!

R. Mika’s first appearance dates all the way back to 1998 in Capcom’s ‘Street Fighter Alpha 3.‘ The third Alpha game will always have a soft spot in my heart. Not only for introducing R. Mika to the franchise, but also inserting Final Fight’s Cody into the Street Fighter game series. The same Cody that just happens to be part of Street Fighter V’s recently announced third season pass. Storm Collectibles? Figuarts? I don’t care who does it, but somebody needs to release a Cody action figure.

Also, he should be in his prisoner suit or don’t even bother!

While my Street Fighter action figure collecting focus has been primarily on Storm Collectibles line, I couldn’t pass up the chance to own a character I’ve used the most in any game she’s been in. Will I buy a Storm version of R. Mika? Probably. Okay, definitely. This release has slightly reinvigorated my interest in Bandai’s line, however. I do own Ryu and Chun-Li, which are both great. However, the second wave of Cammy and Rashid didn’t really do anything for me, so I’ve mostly stayed away up until now.

Bandai S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Review

One of the really nice things about R. Mika is that she can arguably work with both of my Street Fighter action figure collections! She’s really not perfectly scaled to either line. Mika is large in comparison to previous Figuarts releases, but not overwhelmingly so. On the other hand, she scales smaller than the Storm Collectibles Street Fighters, but not enough so that it’s glaringly obvious. For instance, I think she looks great next to Zangief, her wrestling buddy!

Mika comes packed with a solid collection of accessories including a microphone, a hand to hold the microphone, three extra sets of hands, two extra face plates, and a set of impact/energy effects.

I hate having to continue to make comparisons to the Storm line, but I collect both so I suppose it’s only fair. I find that parts pop off of the Storm Collectibles figures pretty easy. Storm also uses softer plastic and overlays, so some sections of their figures feel more fragile. The S.H. Figuarts are a lot more sturdy and built with much more stiff plastic. This also means that sometimes it can be a little tougher to pop those hands off of the wrist. A little pro-tip I’ve discovered is to make sure to pull out the hands as straight as possible. Pulling them out at an angle can sometimes disconnect the hinge and you’ll end up removing half of it. If that happens, don’t panic, just try to ease it back into its slot.

Bandai S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Review

Besides the wrists, the only other thing I would watch out for are the barbell joints in her shoulders. They are fairly thin and I could picture a good amount of force could snap them. Make sure to work them in when you first get it.

Would I recommend S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika?

If I still owned the SOTA version of Rainbow Mika, it would already be in the trash. Bandai just about made the perfect figure of this character. I don’t really have any complaints about her besides her wrist joint that likes to come undone from time to time. However, I wouldn’t have been upset if they included a couple more face plates. I’d also kill (kill is a strong word, more reasonably I’d maybe pay the full retail price) for a Nadeshiko to go with her, but I doubt Bandai or any company, really, would dump tooling costs into a non-player character like her.

Bandai S.H. Figuarts Street Fighter V Rainbow Mika Review

Rainbow Mika is currently available to preorder on Amazon and is expected to ship at the end of April 2018.

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