It took almost a year from when I first saw it, but the Figma version of Samus Aran is finally here. Slightly delayed and after a turn through customs, I got two of them from HLJ.com, one of them mostly as an investment. I mean, even the crappy old Gamepro figure of Samus was ridiculously expensive to get in the secondary market (I was tempted several times), so this one should be money in the bank eventually.

So, was it worth it? Oh yes.

Figma is a line of super-posable high quality action figures, rivalling the similar Revoltech and Play Arts figures in terms of detailing and posability. This is my first Figma so I can’t say how well it compares to the rest, but it’s a very good sculpt based on the-game-that-mustn’t-be-mentioned. Well, if that game did any good, it’s that it made Samus important enough to finally get two excellent figure representations (this and the Zero Suit statue, which I declined to get).

A fairly good size, she is of course very posable, even with the bulky armour somewhat limiting her shoulder movements. It’s basically how she would actually be able to move in that thing, except that the elbows don’t double up and she can’t really grab her knees as in her Screw Attack jumps. But she can take all of her classic poses and comes with four extra hands (one of which makes her a childish bitch, although I’ll conveniently lose that one somewhere) as well as optional beam attachments, her ball mode as a separate figure, an optional Missile Mode cannon tip and a relatively sturdy Figma stand for airborne poses.

Being this posable (and expensive!), it’s obvious Samus isn’t a toy. The joints are sturdy, softer plastic which will probably hold up well, but it’s easy to tear pieces off if you try too hard. Aside from that, there are no quality issues I can spot and aside from the hole in her back (for the stand) she looks completely awesome from every angle. I almost couldn’t stop taking pictures as she looks especially great in low-light conditions.

It can also be noted that I finally broke down and opened my old Zero Mission Samus Aran by Yujin. I bought one of those long ago for around $40, sold it when I found that people on Ebay were paying $200+ for it, and then found another. I had almost wanted to sell this one too, but ultimately I thought that the new one was a bit too shiny and, well, Team Ninja-y. So to hell with the resale value, these two look great together.

The only thing I could ask for is a sculpt based on Super Metroid rather than ”that game”, but it’s classic enough and slightly sleeker, which probably made it more posable. All in all, this is a figure that any remotely dedicated fan of Samus Aran must own and probably already does. If not… well, look for my auction in a few years or so…