Street Fighter Round 3: AdonHe's in search of the ultimate fight and he has a Rising Jaguar Kick that says he can beat them all. His name is Adon and this is his action figure.
Capcom/SOTA Toys
Price: $12.99
   
35 images
REVIEW by Brian Borst
Think you know kickboxing just because you’ve seen all of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movies? Do you go around kicking trees with your shins or start rubbing your bandaged knuckles in broken glass? Come on! Prove how tough you are! Prove your kickboxing skills against a master of the arts! He’s only 6-inches tall too! How can you loose?
Really, you can’t loose especially if you’re a fan of SOTA’s Street Fighter action figure series. Adon, the reigning champion of Muay-Thai Kickboxing makes his debut in this long-awaited series and he’s kicking ass all over the board.
Adon’s first appearance comes just as far back as that of fellow Street Fighter’s Ryu and Ken Masters, from Capcom’s Street Fighter – not SFAlpha where this version of him is based. A native of Thailand, Adon is the current ruling king of Muay-Thai Kickboxing, as he barely took the win from his master and trainer, Sagat. His fighting style is a mixture of basic Muay Thai and a dance style called Wai-Khru. After the event of the second Street Fighter tournament, Adon challenged Sagat to a fight. He felt Sagat was an embarrassment to the martial arts, and was brutally beaten for his insult. However, Adon realized the only reason he was able to beat his master was because of a major distraction called Ryu.
After Adon’s exit from the hospital, he had heard a tale about a mysterious fighter who single-handedly killed one of Adon’s challengers – the fighter known as Akuma. Whether Adon has ever fought Akuma or not is a mystery but the outcome was not likely in his favor.
From common thug to the king of Muay Thai, Adon’s addition to the Alpha series had helped reinvigorate some excitement into the new Alpha series, and expanded on an already interesting storyline. With such an interesting background, it’s easy to see why Adon became one of the most voted characters to be introduced into the third round of SOTA’s incredible Street Fighter action figure series.
Packaging: SOTA’s curvy and particularly odd-shaped packaging doesn’t seem to be all that attractive but if you’re not a MOC collector than it shouldn’t matter. Green seems to be the color of choice for this new line (more of a lime green), but the solid color and clear clamshell lets you see almost everything inside. The front art card lists some of Guile’s best special moves including his Jaguar Kick, Rising Jaguar Kick the Jaguar Tooth. The close-up portrait of Adon comes from SFA3. The back of the card shows off all five of the new Street Fighters being added to the roster and all your basic license and legal text.
Adon is strung in tight by a few wire ties around the wrists and ankles, and strips of tape that holds all the extra parts in check. SOTA has also included their foldout catalog in case you’re interested in any of their other product lines including Charmed, Chronicles of Riddick and Now Playing.
Sculpt: As one of Thialand’s newest Muay-Thai Kickboxing champions, it’s only reasonable that he dress the part. Adon stands just over 6-inches tall and comes into the ring wearing the standard kick boxer’s uniform: trunks – blue and yellow striped trunks, that is. Bare-chested with fists, ankles and feet wrapped in tight strips of fabric, Adon accents his slender but highly chiseled musculature in colorful ties worn around his biceps and other around his forehead. His smile is as devilish as his fighting style and odd, pointed hair fashion begs for a new look.
Much like Sakura, the character design is pretty basic and simple but the additional ties on his arms and forehead help separate him from his mentor, Sagat. SOTA’s done a superb job on capturing Adon’s likeness and cocky demeanor and the figure’s physic is impressive for a guy of his size – he’s not as bulky as Guile but seems more in scale with Ken and Ryu.
Paint Application: Even though Adon’s small assortment colors seem limited, there’s more going on here than you think. Adon’s skin tone is a darker tan shade than that of Guile and the light wash applied over his form brings out every detail in his form. Adon’s hair color is a burnt orange shade, and the blue and yellow trunks are both bright in tone and cleanly applied. Even the bandages wrappings have a slight wash, which adds a nice sense of depth. Finally, the strips worn around his biceps are colored in shades of blue and red.
The application looks really good – there are no smudgings, the overlapping and seemingly no flaking either. It’s nice to see that the wash hasn’t been over-applied which can make too many figures seem and look really dirty and oily.
Articulation: Adon’s fighting style is very expressive and smooth so this figure reuires as many points of articulation so we collectors can recreate them. And Adom has plenty at his disposal. There’s 32 joints in all, including ball socket neck, pegged/hinged shoulders, rotating biceps, double-jointed elbows, swivel/pegged wrists, pegged torso, swivel waist, pegged/hinged hips, swivel thighs, dual jointed knees, hinged ankles, rotating mid-foot and pegged toes.
What’s really cool is that Adon is the second male Street Fighter figure to have dual-jointed elbows so that already puts him in a higher bracket. All of his vicious elbow attacks can be created as well, and hold a tighter and more accurate pose as well. It’s too bad Ryu and Ken got left out in the cold in this department. And because of his, Adon’s capable of reproducing more accurate stances and attacks. Punches and elbow attacks are easily recreated, and some kicks, high, low and crouching are possible but with some work. His sense of balance isn't as great as I thought it would be.
And what's up with the bizarre large bulge in the back of his shorts? Looks like Adon's wearing a pair of "Oops, I Crapped My Pants".
Accessories: Adon may be a little light in this department, but he makes up for it with a new addition that’s quite unique to the other figures in this line. Adon includes all the usual accessories like a set of spare open palmed hands and an extra right hand giving the thumbs up or down (however you may see it). The unique part of this figure is Adon the additional head but this is where it gets more interesting: the extra head comes from his appearance from the very first Street Fighter game! This alternate version of Adon looks much the same but his hairstyle has changed back to a basic flattop.
Variants: Like chasing variant and exclusive figures all over creation? Well, you won’t have to because these variants are pretty easy to locate. Adon comes available in four different color versions: Blue trunks (retail), Red trunks, Black trunks (both internet exclusives) and Purple trunks (a GameStop exclusive). The two internet exclusives are available at pretty much any on-line retailer that sells these figures – they’re no longer select to just one particular site.
The prices should stay the same across the board ($12.99 - $14.99), perhaps with some on-line retailers who are much more greedy than others.
Availability: General availability shouldn’t pose much of a problem either, that is if you’re looking on-line. If you’re looking for a retail purchase, only GameStop and Hot Topic seem to be carrying these figures. None of the figures are short-packed so don’t expect any wild chases. If you have the patience and luck, GameStop will eventually place any remnants on clearance to $4.99.
Final Thoughts: Wow. I’m honestly a little surprised at how well this figure turned out. I’ve never been a fan of this character, especially when Capcom wrote him into the story as actually being the one to defeat Sagat and take his title. I mean come on, Sagat’s got like 2 whole feet of height and probably 100 pounds of muscle over Adon! Meh. But as much distaste that I have for the character himself, the figure turned out superbly. I think if I had at least one sugestion to make, it would be that
Once again, much of the credit goes towards the sculpting and feel of the figure. The solid plastics add a nice sense of weight to him so he’s able to take on poses without a problem. The sculpture is just perfect. The colors are bright and sharp and he has tons of articulation with some extras that already make any Street Fighter figure a plus in my book. Although I’m likely to never use that alternate head sculpt, it’s still shows great loyalty and dedication to the license and the fans that they include such an option.
Adon’s now probably my fourth favorite figure so far of the whole run and I think that’s saying a lot. So far 3 out of 4 figures have scored really well, let’s hope that the final review, Gen will make it through unscathed. Best action figure line of 2005? Maybe.
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