Cosplaying their way into the Allspark studios this week are the Street Fighter II X Transformers! Do Optimus, Megatron, Hot Rod and Arcee pull off effective fancy costumes, or does it look like they got them at the December Halloween bargain bin at after market store? Tune in after the break to find out?



So, I realize getting these sets is a bit an eccentric splurge. I did not need them. They do not really fit with anything else in my collection. I’m not even that big of a Street Fighter fan. I just could not resist a weird repaint with a crappy backstory, and these guys fill it in spades. Weak as an actual crossover, I can’t find anything on the wiki that leads me to believe they are anything more than a one-time thing. That’s OK. I think I love them anyway. Let’s take a look at them one by one:



Megatron as Vega/M.Bison

Megatron as Vega/M.Bison not only works because main bad guy = main bad guy. The Titans Return mold allows for the M.Bison color scheme to be applied perfectly. He looks like the video game villain on every level. An added plus is that due to the slots on the back of the mold, it is possible to get him into many of his aerial poses and attacks, as you will see in the gallery. This is one of the best of the set, especially if you really like Street Fighter. I also love the great quality of the Takara Legends releases, and this set continues that trend. The joints are tight in every mode, meaning that the vehicle modes hold together really well, and the robot mold holds poses excellently. It is a great, if not weird, figure.



Prime as Ryu

Prime as Ryu is nice, if a little less perfect. The flesh parts start in weird parts of the mold, and it makes it look…off. The Prime faceplate is also not perfect for a human face. Still, he’s not a total loss. For the most part, he does pull off the look, and having Prime be one of the main good guys in the series definitely works. Bonus is the Titanmaster. He pulls off Ryu way better than the larger bot, and the paint opps are nice and crisp, even with such fine detail for the tiny figure he is.



Hot Rodimus as Ken

This is probably the weakest of the repaints, but even then, he is tons of fun. Sure, the colors and “flesh” basically line up, but they are not very convincing. I also feel this one really loses it at the look of the head. It just does not really look like Ken’s head. More so than Prime’s I cannot un-see Hot Rodimus here, and it kinda destroys the illusion. That being said, this figure is based off of the Legends remold, has great articulation and joint quality and is really fun to pose. Also, like M.Bison, the slots on the back of the figure allow him to get into some of his attack poses, like the upper cut, really well.

One minor word of caution on Ken: Do not combine the two weapon halves he comes with, unless you do not mind paint chipping. The lovely metallic paint sadly appears to be the one thing in both sets that has some QC issues, and mine chipped without ever getting fulling combined.



Arcee as Chun-Li

Arcee as Chun-Li may be my favorite of the four. The legs alone make the mold a perfect match. The Chun-Li deco lines up perfectly on every spot of this figure. She really looks like a robotic Chun-Li. While she may not have any slots that my figure stands work with, she still gets into many of the game poses and attacks nicely, especially the Hyakuretsukyaku kick pose. The only thing that might have made this figure better would have been a Titanmaster head, but even without it, she’s pretty close to perfect. Robo Ming-Na Wen…er, Chun-Li, you have a permanent place of glory on my shelf.



Recommendations

All in all, the molds on these characters line up anywhere from perfectly to nicely with their SF counterparts. The quality of the figures is also very high. Do you really need them? Well, that depends on how much you like either Street Fighter or weird Transformers repaints. I think they are neat (and fun with special effects), but completely extraneous. I give them a mild recommendation if you slightly share my love of the weird, but otherwise, you can save your money for “real” Transformers, or “real” Street Fighter figures.





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