Toy Review: PHICEN LIMITED 1:6 NINA KILLER ver 1.0

From Twitter: Wesker getting kicked because reasons.

At this point, detailing my obsession with the Tekken series in general and Nina Williams in particular for the umpteenth time is a waste of bandwidth...but I don't know how else to start this post, so pretend that I said something meaningful and revelatory here as well as the usual 'gaaah nina so amazing and hot and badass, would gladly try and marry her even though I know it would end horribly, fuck everything about that other blonde girl who doesn't deserve to be named' spiel.

Of course, the downside to being a Tekken fan is that Namco have historically done a terrible job of pushing the franchise in terms of merch.  Oh, sure, if all you need to be happy is a custom fight stick, you're golden, but clothes?  Few and far between, usually convention exclusives.  Manga or comic tie-ins?  There were some hilariously terrible ones around the time of Tekken 2 but nothing worth mentioning since then.  Toys?  Palisades did a line of 5" figs based on Tekken 3 but they were generally pre-posed and had very little articulation, not to mention the sculpt quality is, well, of its day, which means they look pretty dated and simplistic now.  After that, Tekken figs have only come in tiny bursts; a group of rarely-seen 1:6ers based on Tekken Tag Tournament came and went, a group of tiny plastic statues with swappable parts styled on Tekken 5, and the still-running TTT2 additions to the Kotobukiya line, which takes ludicrously proportioned girls in super-skimpy outfits and makes their clothes more revealing, because Japan, basically.  Even with the advent of the TTT2 Play Arts Kai figures, it feels like there's been a lot of missed opportunities over the years - the fact that I can honestly say the best Tekken figures money can buy are the sodding Minimates from the SFxTK series says it all.  It's not so bad if all you're after are polystone statues, but...where's the fun in a statue?

So, when this little beauty cropped up out of the blue, I was very excited.  Of course, it's not officially endorsed by Namco on any level and doesn't mention Tekken anywhere on the box and is only COINCIDENTALLY similar to a character from Tekken with the same first name *cough* so it's totally okay to buy it so long as you make sure to never ever mention it to Harada-san and/or his lawyers.  We clear?  Okay, let's get down to brass tacks.

Front of box.

Back of box.

Interior of box. I promise the rest of the pics will be interesting!

Nina comes in a much smaller box than I'm used to getting with 1:6 figures, although given that 90% of mine are from the significantly-bigger brands like Hot Toys and Sideshow Collectibles it's not much of a shock.  That said, I appreciate how little shelf space it swallows up, and the minimalist design of the outer box is quite lovely.  The tray even has a little ribbon on the side so you know where to pull it from.  Neat!

Frontshot of Nina, contemplating why the lightshade in

this room doesn't actually cover the lightbulb.

As for the figure itself, it's very nice indeed.  The body is a stock type rather than a custom-made one, using a pale skintone that's very true to the character.  Build-wise, it's a decent match for how Nina appears in Death by Degrees, i.e. fairly slim and modest of bust, as opposed to her more recent Tekken appearances where both her muscles and breasts increased substantially.  From what I've heard, the head is an off-licensed duplicate/minor recast of the Scarlett Johansson likeness used on Hot Toys' Iron Man 2 Black Widow figure, which I happen to own but have yet to put that and this side-by-side.  There's definitely a similarity though, especially with the slightly-open lips.  The paint job on the head lacks the terrifying "oh god it's a tiny real person LOOKING RIGHT AT ME AHHH" gloss on the eyes that HT models get, but it's very neatly applied nonetheless, and on the whole the likeness works for Nina.  Of course, said ScarJo head had a mess of bushy red curls for hair, so that's been thrown out in favour of long, straight blonde locks, styled into the typical Nina ponytail and bangs.  I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of rooted hair on figures like this - much like real hair, it's almost impossible to get it right, so there's always loose strands or hairs going in the wrong direction; even as I speak, Nina's bangs are assymetrical and I'm not sure how I can fix that.  Someone once recommended that I use actual hair gel on such figures, but that seems...insane.  Griping aside, it's the right colour, length and style - it's just a bit difficult to tame.

Backshot, with Nina possibly admiring that Star Wars poster

that's consistently almost in every photo I take.

Of course, what really identifies this toy as the character in question is the clothes, in this case a generally faithful recreation of Nina's 'wrestling' outfit from Death by Degrees.  Like many videogame character ensembles, the outfit doesn't make even a lick of sense from any practical standpoint but it does look pretty fantastic, consisting mainly of a dark blue pleather one-piece swimsuit (?) with a silver bikini top underneath it, accompanied by long maroon gloves reaching up to mid-bicep and thigh-high boots also in dark blue.  The  material used for the main suit has the look and feel of pretend leather, which is great, and matches the colour, texture and detail of the game perfectly.  Additionally, its buckles and whatnot are functional, so you could in theory take it off...but history has shown I'm terrible at getting these things back on again, so I'm not willing to take that chance.  The boots are laced up on the front, which means they'll only come off if you pull the laces allllllll the way loose...fun.  They look great though, especially with the ribbed patterning down the side.  The gloves have the right colour, buckles and flexible elbow points to match the game, although they've been made fingerless for the toy.  Simple reason for that: it's basically impossible to sew together individual glove fingers that'll slip over plastic fingers at this scale, so if they wanted to do fully-gloved hands the PHICEN peeps would've had to sculpt up entirely new hands, which I imagine would be cost-prohibitive.  The concession bugged me at first, but now I've got the figure in hand I find myself not too bothered by it.  As a bonus, Nina has a brown belt hanging around her waist with a slip-on fabric holster designed to accommodate one of the included pistols.  It's a nice addition, but I have to ask - given that the holster is a separate piece from the belt, why not add a second one on the other side so she can carry both pistols while keeping her hands free?  Anyway, if you don't like the belt, don't worry - it's got a very simple clasp around the front and unclips with ease.

Nina pulls her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition pose on

a box of Doctor Who stuff.  Because me.

Articulation-wise, Nina has plenty of joints, but be warned - they're ratcheted joints.  What does that mean? Well, it means that rather than going through a smooth motion, each joint is designed to be set to one of multiple even-spaced points and 'locks' into place firmly.  These are the same sort of joints featured on Play Arts Kai figs, and they always scare the hell out of me because the amount of force you need to apply to get them to move is worrying and I've forever freaked out about the possibility of pushing too far or in the wrong direction.  With Nina, I've been freaking out even more, since PHICEN's seamless body design means you can't see the joints you're trying to move and can only guess if you're trying to force them in the right direction, not to mention the CRACK! they make when they jump to the next position is bloody loud.  Thanks to a thread on the One-Sixth World forums, I managed to find this reference pic of the PHICEN body skeleton, which helps immeasurably with discerning what part bends where, and over the past few days I've become a lot more confident with tweaking Nina. (not like that, she'd hurt me if I did)

AHHHH DISEMBODIED HANDS

Nina's accessories are limited to 2 different pairs of hands and 2 pistols.  One pair of hands (the ones attached in the box as standard) are relaxed open palms, which are a close-enough match for how Nina's hands go in her typical Tekken fight stance, so that's good.  Also, remember that Nina never uses closed-fist strikes in the games, so the lack of fists here isn't really an issue.  The second pair are 'gripping' hands, with extended trigger fingers and space in the centre for holding a weapon grip.  The gap in these hands is kinda oddly-shaped and looks like part of her palm has been cut out, but once they're threaded through the gloves it's hard to notice.  The grip is good for most 1:6 firearms I've tried, but is generally too loose for knives without the aid of some blu-tack (or something less amateurish).  Incidentally, you do have to slip off Nina's gloves completely to switch hands, but it's actually a lot easier than I would've thought to put 'em back on again, so props for that.  The pistols...I don't recognise the style, so they might not be based on anything real, but they're convincingly detailed and feature moving slides and removable magazines, which is nice.  They're also at least passingly similar to the Glocks that are Nina's only unique custom item in Tekken Tag 2 aside from the very outfit she's wearing here...and I choose to believe this was a deliberate reference and not just fun coincidence.

"Kill this fool!  For COOOOBRAAAAAAAA~!"

On the whole, I'm very pleased with PHICEN's Nina.  Granted, it's basically a fan custom released for profit, but it's a really good fan custom made from solid parts and assembled with commendable care, enough so that I can personally overlook my issues with its construction and will likely make it the figurehead of my 1:6 collection.  It's a slim package compared to most other boxed releases on this scale, but for roughly £90 it's also on the cheaper end of the spectrum (for now - depending on how demand works out, eBay scalpers might lead to a severe price hike in future) and is absolutely worth it.  The rational part of my brain gives it an 8.5 out of 10, but of course, my heart says perfect 10.

Figure was sourced from an eBay stockist located in Hong Kong.  Alternatively, try smcgcustoms.com or your preferred 1:6 retailer.

"Not the crotch!"

COMMANDO ARM LOCK~!  Alberto Del Rio would approve.

Like I was gonna have this end any other way...