Most people are aware of my dislike of Final Fantasy VII. Or at least, its fanbase. It’s not a bad game, really, but in no respect is it the revolutionary game that the fantards claim it to be. It’s a completely standard Final Fantasy game with “meh”-inducing 3D graphics and a cockamamie plot. The Materia system renders all characters essentially the same, save their limit breaks, and lacks the tactical joys of the Junction or gambit systems from later Final Fantasy games. In any case, my general disposition towards the game might make me seem a bit flip-floppy for owning the following figurine.
Yeah, it’s Cloud. But for the record, I likely wouldn’t have bought it if it had been a Final Fantasy collectible. Nope, it’s actually the only Kingdom Hearts figurine we’ve ever stocked at the Toys ‘R’ Us I work at, and frankly, I thought it was pretty cool. Plus, I really liked the Kingdom Hearts games.
The Cloud figurine if from the second set of the Kingdom Hearts Formation Arts line, along with Goofy and Kairi. I’d actually seen the other two in a store in Grand Forks, but the Kairi figurine is kinda lame, and Goofy… well, I have no excuse for not buying that one. I’ve never seen any from the first set, but Amazon is telling me that the characters included in that set were Sora, Donald and Jack Skellington. After researching the line for a while, it would also seem that they’re pulled from the first game (the Sora and Kairi designs kinda gave it away), so they must be pretty old. I can’t find a date anywhere, but it doesn’t surprise me that we only received them earlier this year. Hell, we only got the Advent Children action figures about two weeks ago. Oh well. I guess Square-Enix toys just aren’t as cool as whatever the fuck Bakugans are.
Don’t have much else to say. The figure is made of a decent-quality plastic, and not PVC like most Japanese-made figurines (maybe it was produced by S-E USA?), which keeps it from being exorbitantly expensive, but it’s still got a great amount of detail. Cloud’s glove, sword, and cape are all exquisitely detailed, and the rest of the figure looks nice too. Oddly enough, it actually looks a lot bigger than it is. Don’t know why, but when you look at a picture, it seems like it’s maybe two or three inches taller than it is in reality. Meh. It’s cool, and Cloud spends his time sitting on my dresser beside my other decorative “toys”, namely, my Jesus action figure, and my sweet Led Zeppelin 3D album cover.