Action Figure #827: STORM Arena Street Fighter Alpha Dan Hibiki

 You fought the best, now fight the rest!

 Well, there was no chance I was skipping Dan Hibiki was there? Dan the man, the myth, the legend! I'm glad that Storm Arena is finally covering characters Jada's Street Fighter II line won't cover!

 Despite the unflattering art they picked for Dan's boxart... man, they made him look badass! Just look how cool that serious head sculpt looks, coupled with his anime-styled musculature! This figure makes pink look GOOD. To be fair this is pretty much a Ken figure with a different head and a black shirt underneath, but that figure looked incredible already, so this one is no exception. Much like other Storm Arena figures, his chest is made out of soft plastic, which is a choice alright, and much like Ken you can take off the top of his gi. The only oddity is that, much like Ken, said top gi is a noticeably different shade from his pants, but I don't find it too annoying. What I did find a bit of an odd choice is that the ponytail and wisp of hair hanging from his head are both made of hard, somewhat fragile feeling plastic. Why not make it a bit softer like the head itself is beyond me. 

 He comes with two heads. Sadly, none of them re goofy, it's either him looking badass or getting hit, which is nice, but Dan is a joke character! He also comes with four pair of hands, fists, cupping hands, claw-like hands and Gadoken hands. He also includes an stand, as per usual... and extra pieces to hold his Gaoken piece. The Gaoken has a translucent copy of his hand inside, which is accurate to the games, but you can take it off in case you don't like it.

 His Gaoken hands are kinda chubby, so unless you are going to pose him with the Gaoken... they don't look very good for other poses.

 Articulation is great all around. Elbows and knees are double jointed, he has swivels on his biceps, thighs and on the cut where his legs and pants meet. He has very generous butterfly joints, a ball jointed ab crunch, and a hinged waist that connects to the legs via a ball joint. He has drop down hips, but the pegs look very thick, so I'm not scared of them breaking. He has toe articulation, and you van rotate the tie on his belt. His ponytail can be turned 360 degrees. He has been very fun to pose. Unlike Ken, Dan didn't have a single tight joint in him. So far I had no issues, no clicking, no nothing... so maybe Storm finally figured it out! If anything changes, I'll update the score. That said... If I go too hard bending his torso, sometimes the torso will popout of his pelvis. It's the only issue I've had, and a pretty minor one at that. He is as tall as Jada's Ken and almost as tall as Bucky Cap, making him still compatible with Jada's figures.

 Well, I've been playing with the guy for over a week now and have had no issues whatsoever... so what can I say, I love him. They made Dan look cool! I absolutely love that Jada has found some competition.

9.0