King of Fighters Joytoy 1/18 Ryo Sakazaki

 

Joytoy’s King of Fighters lineup continues to steadily expand its roster. Following releases such as Terry Bogard and Kyo Kusanagi, another major character joins the series—this time from the Art of Fighting lineage, with Ryo Sakazaki leading the charge, accompanied by Robert Garcia and Yuri Sakazaki. Scheduled for October 2026 release, Joytoy 1/18 Ryo Sakazaki will be sold for 46 USD Price tag.

The Joytoy KOF lineup has consistently been impressive. Compared to their Warhammer 40K series, the KOF figures tend to come with more generous accessory sets—likely due to differences in scale and licensing considerations. At 1/18 scale, Ryo Sakazaki appears to feature strong articulation, allowing him to recreate his signature karate-based moves, including his iconic finisher, the Haoh Shokou Ken.

Within the KOF series, Ryo Sakazaki also carries an interesting legacy. His design is often viewed as a counterpart to Street Fighter’s Ryu, a comparison that famously contributed to Capcom creating Dan Hibiki as a playful response. Regardless of that rivalry, Ryo was a go-to character during my teenage years in KOF, thanks to his straightforward playstyle and classic main-character appeal.

Looking forward, it will be interesting to see which KOF team Joytoy tackles next.

Soul Calibur Play Toy 1/6 Fighting Goddess Alchemist Ivy Valentine

 

A rare and intriguing third-party release from the Soulcalibur series, which has historically been underserved in the merchandise market. This is a 1/6 scale action figure of one of the franchise’s most iconic characters, Ivy Valentine, scheduled for release in Q1 2027 with a price tag of around USD $200.

As a non-licensed product, expectations are naturally tempered, but the sculpt for Play Toy’s Ivy Valentine in her Soulcalibur IV design rendition already looks promising. Alongside Sophitia, Ivy stands as one of the most recognizable heroines in the series, often regarded as one of its most visually striking characters.

Within the Soulcalibur narrative, Ivy Valentine is a morally ambiguous figure driven by her obsession with destroying Soul Edge due to her bloodline’s connection to Cervantes. She frequently aligns with both heroic and villainous characters when it serves her goal, making her a classic anti-hero archetype. This complexity, combined with her commanding and elegant design, creates an interesting contrast to more traditionally heroic figures like Sophitia.

For Soulcalibur fans, this figure represents one of the more appealing interpretations of Ivy Valentine despite its third-party status. Hopefully, this signals a broader revival of Soulcalibur merchandise in the future, ideally including characters like Raphael Sorel as well, perhaps coinciding with the eventual release of Soulcalibur VII.

Spectral vs Generation

 
 Fantasy themed fighting game especially 2D might be a rarity outside Aksys games considering the sorts like SNK and Streetfighter still overall dominate the genre. But in mid 2000s, Ideafactory a Japanese gamedev company mainly known for Neptunia series these days made one called Spectral vs Generation.

Most gamers these days are probably unfamiliar with Ideafactory but during PSX until PSP era, they were quite active in JRPG scene creating an overarching series called Neverland Saga with Spectral and Generation of Chaos being the main series. The Neverland JRPG series had really interesting worldbuilding but plagued by subpar gameplay which rendered the series failed to become mainstream success and buried in obscurity these days. But as someone who got a glimpse of Neverland saga through the PSP titles, I certainly grow a fascination toward the series especially they got some low-key good waifu designs.

Then in Mid 2000s out of the blue, likely Ideafactory attempt to diversify their Neverland Saga, create a fighting game called Spectral vs Generation with assistance of IGS, a Taiwan Game studio. This crossover fighting game title follow the spirit of SNK vs Capcom featuring iconic characters from Spectral and Generation of Chaos series duking it out to get their wish fulfilled.

Given the rich design of Neverland Saga series, Spectral vs Generation features colorful cast of fantasy themed roster. From the iconic scythe wielding daughter of former Demon King, Hiro to Demon Queen Waifu, Roze or Katar dual wielding shota hero with a Stand. Spectral vs Generation was truly a unique entry in fighting game that doesn't really get the recognition it deserved. My favorite was Ryuken, a Chinese pugilist archetype who can hand down very nasty beatings if he can get to close range. I played Spectral vs Generation quite a lot when I had my PSP even to the point of breaking my PSP D-Pad and even had a digital copy on my PS Vita.

Considering Ideafactory Neverland saga has laid dormant for more than 15 years, I think the time is ripe for IF to re-release their remaster, preferably with Qol improvements since the JRPG titles were known to be plagued with gameplay issues. Spectral vs Generation works just fine though. The opening theme of this game is also very nice too. 

Soul Calibur Storm Collection Heishiro Mitsurugi

 

 Storm Collection is a small Hongkong action figure making company who are renowned for making quality muscular action figure for memorable characters from Fighting games like Street Fighter, Tekken or Mortal Kombat. Now they are finally ready to start making some action figure for Soul Calibur beginning with Heishiro Mitsurugi in his Soul Calibur 2 version! Storm Mitsurugi will be sold for around 90 USD with Q3 2023 release schedule.

I never collected Storm collection before since i am not really into the characters they make, but If you want some muscular warrior type action figure, Storm did it better than Figma considering You will be really able to feel the weight of these characters. Mitsurugi is one of the most iconic character from Soul Calibur series apart from Siegfried from Soul Calibur male characters. In Soul Calibur series, Mitsurugi is a Peasant turned Samurai and fought through countless battles in Feudal Japan era until he decide to travel around the world in search for the strongest weapon, Soul Edge. In his quest for power, he fought alot with Taki who tried to prevent the Samurai corrupted by the cursed sword. While Mitsurugi is not my most favorite character, he is quite fun to play in SC 3 & 4. I will be waiting for Raphael's turn someday.