Square Enix Dissidia: Final Fantasy Play Arts Kai: Cloud Action Figure

I'll start off by saying that I've owned every Play Arts Cloud Strife action figure to date, save the Crisis Core version, and even though it's based off of his Dissidia appearance and not FFVII (the main differences being he has black boots instead of brown, the SOLDIER emblem on the front of his belt is brown instead of silver, the left shoulder pauldron is a tad different in design, and his hair isn't nearly as vibrant of a yellow), it's close enough to make this the hands down the best figure to date. I say this based on the overall sculpt, detail, paint and articulation being superior to any other version to date.Pros:Sculpt - The head sculpt captures his likeness perfectly from the Dissidia PSP game series, which is an excellent representation of the Mako infused hero of FFVII, and better than any other face sculpt that can only be challenged by the Crisis Core version. The hair shows strands in the detail and looks great from every angle. The texture of the turtleneck shirt is realistic and something none of the other versions based on his game design share. He actually has some definition to his arms this time around too! Previous versions had no detail and gave him the appearance of having noodle arms. Also, the bare shoulders have a much more natural look to them with some definition, and actually function better as a result of the better design.Articulation - The articulation is excellent on this figure, and far superior to any other previous version. The biggest differences being that this version actually has a mid-torso joint, ball-jointed elbows, wrists and feet that can go side-to-side on top of being able to twist them 360°, and double-jointed knees. These joints allow for greater range of motion, which allows for more dynamic posing (i.e. classic stance with sword over his right shoulder, in-game battle stance, etc...). The shoulders are plugged into a piece that has a hinge inside the body cavity where they rest that allows them to swing forward some so that you keep his arms straight while holding the sword out in front of him.Paint Apps - The paint apps are great with rich colors and shading, and accurate to his appearance in the Final Fantasy Dissidia series. His hair is a semi-translucent yellow that is subtle and not the vibrant yellow that some of the other figures have.Accessories - He also comes with his signature Buster Sword which looks great, and is heavy... (which we'll touch on in the cons section), as well as a few different hands that can be swapped out.Cons:Sculpt - Honestly, I'm nit-picking here, but the back of the double-jointed knees is flat and doesn't have the folding nor the shape that the rest of the pants share. The ball-jointed elbows, while better for articulation purposes, don't looks as natural as a swivel hinge joint. Again, those are just nit-picking and don't take away from this being a great figure at all.Articulation - The most common complaint you're going to see is related to the stiffness, or rather lack of stiffness, in the shoulder and wrist joints, as the sword is heavy, which makes it hard for him to hold his pose when holding the sword with one hand. His wrist joints will swivel around due to the weight of the sword (they do hold the position you put them as far as the side-to-side motion goes). It can be tricky, or impossible to pose him in some positions when he's just holding the sword up with one-hand. I haven't had any problems with him holding it with 2 hands as the tension between the hands relieves the stress on the shoulder joints. The neck joint is difficult to swivel around, but if you take a blow dryer and heat the head up for about 20-30 seconds, it won't damage it, and pop it off, you can then heat the neck area up and soften the collar, which makes it difficult to swivel the neck, and move it to loosen it up, or at least get it in the desired position. Once you've done that, you might have to heat the head back up, but just pop it back on. Voila. (I customize action figures, see Cole Customs on facebook, and have used this method several times without incident)Paint Apps - This can be hit or miss from what I've read in other reviews. My biggest complaint is that the elbow joints are a darker shade than the rest of his skin. Actually, they're just the color of the plastic and not painted at all, but figured I'd make note of it in this section. It is noticeable up close, at least it is with both of mine, but from a distance or depending on how you have him posed, you might not even notice it. Also, I bought 2 of this figure and the right shoulder on one of them was a slightly different skin tone. Almost like it didn't get a coat that it was suppose to get. I didn't have this issue with the other figure though. You might have paint issues that do occur with action figures though, where some might be missing or drop is where it isn't suppose to be, which is a gamble with any action figure, unfortunately.Accessories - The extra hands are great, and the Buster Sword sculpt is spot-on, but unfortunately, the sword is heavy and can make it hard to pose him, and there's no stand which used to be commonplace with Play Arts figures, which would make it easier to pose him and relieve the fear of the figure falling over. Some different faces with different expressions on them, similar to Ban-Dai's Figuarts or Max Factory's Figma lines, would be cool.Conclusion:In my opinion it's a solid figure that any FFVII and/or Cloud Strife fan should add to their collection. The only thing that might keep you from buying this figure is the inconsistency in the final product. I might be considered lucky by some, but I got one really great figure and one that was slightly flawed.And one last thing, as far as the scale goes of the Dissidia line, you might consider it somewhere between the old Play Arts lines, and the new Kai lines. For instance, put the Dissidia Cloud next to any Kai figure and he'll be dwarfed, big time. Put him up next to the original Play Arts' FFVII and Advent Children lines and he'll be slightly taller. To give you a better idea, if you have the Crisis Core Play Arts Zack figure, he's close to the same height. Zack should be noticeably taller than Cloud.

This is a really good figure overall; there are some negatives, but more on that later. This particular Cloud figure is designed after the Dissidia Final Fantasy game for the PSP, a game that brings together the main heroes from the first 10 FF games. Cloud is in his SOLDIER uniform, the same from the original game, and comes with his Buster sword. As far as appearance goes, this depiction of Cloud is exactly like the figure from the original game even though it is branded as part of the Dissidia game, as opposed to the figure from Advent Children where Cloud's clothing is different and with a different Buster sword.This figure turned out to be much larger than I anticipated; it is about 8 inches tall. This figure is extremely posable and comes with 2 pairs of interchangeable hands. The only issue I had with this product is the same issue most people seem to have. Cloud's buster sword is pretty big, therefore heavy. The limbs of the figure I have are pretty flimsy and it almost impossible to pose the figure with the sword in just one hand, and there isn't a mounting peg on his back so your only choice is to pose the figure holding the sword with both hands. The only other problem I had with this figure is that the hands were a pain in the butt to change out. The amount of force I had to put into switching the hands could have easily broke the figure, but thankfully that didn't happen. The flimsy limbs could have been just a quirk of my figure, however.Overall this is a great figure. Once you find a pose that works for the figure it will look great on the shelf. The price wasn't bad either. Similar figures of Cloud get pretty expensive going up to $80-90 for basically the same thing.

i gave cloud strife play arts kai a four star rating because of a few simple reasons.first the prospro: -this is the most poseable balanced figure, he can literally stand holding up another figure on his shoulders, and his sword, all without a stand. that is fantastic.-excellent detail on artwork, beautifully sculpted, very natural looking colors, the hair has an almost glow to it, sort of transparent. the detail on the belt, sword, shoulder pad, gloves, and arm bracers are fantastic. as well as the artwork on the pants, very organic, and the sculpt is spot on with tetsuya nomura,s art work for FF dissidia.-the articulation in the arms, is very good, the risk of it breaking is small if you are careful with how you swivel it. it has a 360 rotational axis along the ball joint and his shoulder actually pulls out slightly allowing him to move his arm forward only. arms are the best part.and now the conscons- unfortunately the joints in the legs are classic play arts model. the butt restricts how much the leg can move backward. it is possible to move it in a three sixty allowing him to sit cross legged (sort of) but sometimes the leg will pop out. in my case my figure had a sort of lose left leg to begin with so it pops frequently, but is easy to put back in. to allow his arm to hold the sword as pictured in nomuras work alot of swiveling and testing needs to be done, but dont be afraid. in most cases the figure can handle if you are gentle and slow. with mass produced work like this sometimes you get scratched paint or unfinished. mine was scratched but i repaired it with a sharpie. not the best repair tool i know but im cheap. also his shoulder pad is attached by a sort of ball joint, its weird, and restricts his left arm movement, especially the shoulder swivel (not ball joint) though that is also sort of restricted. also the sword is heavy, but with enough patients it is manageableoverall it is a really great figure, necessary to any final fantasy vii fan. he really is a awesome figure i just wish play arts would upgrade the leg to crotch joints more like the revoltech or figma figures. maybe one day revoltech will dip into ff7? that would be 7th heaven on earth.

Cette figurine est magnifique, mais lors de la réception je n'arrivais pas à changer au niveau de sa main droite ni à mettre l'épée et la main gauche était cassée (je l'ai réparée) à part de ce petit désagrément qui a été réparée la figurine reste jolie à observer et bien articulée

購入して早速開封してみました。見た目はとてもよくイケメンです。可動域も良好で足も開く、足首も左右には開きませんが問題ないです。しかし、手首のジョイントが弱く、バスターソードを持たせるとくるりと反転しうまくポーズやアクションができません。私の場合は、可動域やアクションをほんの１５分程度楽しんでいたら突然腕のジョイントがポロリと破損してしまいました。個体差かと思われますが手首と腕のジョイントボールには要注意かもしれません。

プレイアーツクラウドはデイトナ、CC、キングダム版を購入しましたので、こちらの商品で４個目ですが、キングダムハーツ版が一番顔が似ていると思います。顔がイケメンですがクラウドじゃないので残念です。個体差だと思いますが、ベルトのシルバーの塗装のはげ、左足がゆるくプラプラする等があり、微妙に残念な出来でした。

自分に届いたクラウドは関節の緩みもなくあたりの方でした。ただ残念なのがバスターソードを持たせると手首がフニャります。これは個体差はないらしいのですが自分的に残念だったので-１☆です。それ以外は完璧な出来でした！

個体差があるのかは不明だが、私が所持しているものはバスターソードを持たせると姿勢をキープできず肘があらぬ方向に曲がってしまう。少し改造する必要がある。