If anyone is interested, there's some psychoanalytical fun to be had by guessing someone's personality based on nothing more than his or her favorite line of fighting games. Certain subjects might prefer the conventional and iconic Street Fighter series. Others may lean towards the elegance of Samurai Shodown. Some could go for the intensely deep and superficially boring mechanics of Virtua Fighter. I'm almost afraid to consider what my favorite fighter says about me, since I'm most fond of the Guilty Gear games, where bag-headed doctors do battle with yo-yo wielding transvestite nuns, a Russian blonde uses her ankle-length hair as a living weapon, ‘80s hair metal references are hurled as often as special attacks, and gauche, marvelous anime-infused overkill reigns supreme.
As a possibly disturbed Guilty Gear fan, I've always felt that the series deserved some toys. I didn't expect much; a few model kits, perhaps, or a line of vending machine figurines. I never thought that someone would actually make full-size Guilty Gear action figures. That shows how much I know.
On the right is Millia Rage, the above-mentioned lass who fights with her hair. (Spot the heavy metal allusion for ten bucks!) On the left is the un-ironically named Sol Badguy (heh), the closest thing the series has to the arrogant, crass archetype of Street Fighter's Ken. Epoch's choice of figures ignores Ky Kiske, the Ryu to Sol's Ken, but Millia and Sol are nonetheless excellent selections.
Millia's one of my favorite fighting game characters, an icily beautiful ex-thief who's able to form her massive hairstyle into everything from a circular blade to a gesturing hand. While her figure doesn't have those outlandish features, it's an otherwise magnificent representation of Millia.
Making a toy of a character only seen in two-dimensional art is difficult enough, but it's even more of a challenge when said character has massive tresses of prehensile hair. However, Epoch and C Works have done an excellent job. Not only has the sculptor captured Millia's likeness, expression, and costume well, but the paint job and articulation are also superb. While her knees make her look as though she has prosthetic legs, she's uncommonly poseable, as action figures go. With lots of joints and easy movement, Millia never looks boring.
Epoch even managed to do her hair justice. Instead of giving the figure her complete mane, the designers went with two bendable lengths of blond weaponry. The longer one is quite pliable and can be twisted around her, shaped into a point, or used to prop her up. Most of the time, though, it just adds to the figure's fine appearance. My only complaint might be that her outfit doesn't come down quite far enough; like Giant Robo's Ginrei, Millia is somehow able to maintain her dignity in a barely extant skirt. Her action figure isn't as lucky.
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Let's move on to Sol Badguy. In his game incarnation, Sol's an amusing mix of anime stylings and vaguer butt-rock sensibilities, topped of with an intentionally ridiculous name torn from Freddie Mercury's discography. Despite being goofier than Millia in design (see his belt buckle), he turned out to be just as nice of an action figure. The painting and sculpting are worthy of a model kit, and Sol's articulation is even more impressive than Millia's, even if his shoulder joints are a little too large. With two elbow hinges per arm and even a waist joint, the figure resembles a MacFarlane creation, only without the bothersome fragility. Like Millia, Sol comes with a piece of attachable hair, but his ponytail is hard to affix or bend into a position that doesn't make him look off-balance. Otherwise, the figure proves a quality piece. In fact, Epoch faithfully rendered Sol's Fireseal sword right down to its lighter-like flint striker. Yes, it sounds silly, but it looks awesome. Such is the power of Guilty Gear.
You've probably noticed the slightly rocklike things in the above photos. They're included with the figures for reasons that I can't quite fathom. Both of the toys stand well on their own, so the big chunk of sculpted faux-pumice plastic must just be there to give the packages some added weight. It's also fair to point out that Sol and Millia both come with extra hands, even though it's hard to swap out Millia's.
A geek like me would have be pleased with the mere existence of Guilty Gear X toys, but Epoch has done more than gratify some simple-minded fan. They've created the best action figures ever spawned by a fighting game. (Yes, better than the Primal Rage figures, if you can believe it.) And as such, they're recommended to any fan of fighters, action figures, and combinations of the two.
The Guilty Gear X figures are also perfectly in scale with Resaurus' sadly discontinued line of Street Fighter toys. Observe as Millia and Charlie discuss their favorite brands of styling mousse.
Meanwhile, Sol charms Cammy by reciting clever quatrains about the key battles of the Crimean War. As you may know, women can't resist a man who has "FREE" on his belt buckle.
I hope that this won't be the limit of the Guilty Gear X toy line, as a 2002 issue of Toyfare mentioned figures of not only Sol and Millia, but also the suave pirate Johnny and the one-armed, one-eyed female samurai Baiken. Neither Johnny nor Baiken was shown, but Epoch and C Works may yet produce them if the first two toys are successful. And with such excellent examples already set by the Guilty Gear X figures, there's ample reason to hope for more.
(The Guilty Gear X figures have yet to be formally released in America, though astute buyers can find them on eBay for about ten dollars each. Online retailers like Toys N Joys also carry them, but at higher prices.)
