Toy Review: Play Arts Kai Commander Shepard

Play Arts Kai Commander Shepard is about 8.5 inches tall and wears the familiar N7 suit. It is been said that this is a cannon look from the in-game character. The figure is well-balanced even without need inclusion of a stand. 

His armor has a high level of detailing from the N7 crest on the chest and in most parts hides some of the joints that hold him together. Speaking of joints, Shepard belongs to the latest generation of Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai. This means the joints on the elbows and knees are now ratchet types than ball and socket engineering.

In terms of paint applications, there is some missing elements around his collar if you compare with the footages on the game and the draft arts.  The red and white paint stripes applications are rough but I believe this is on Square Enix’s rendition when transitioned into a figure. Even with that, the rest of the paint applications are almost flawless.  

Armor of awesomeness, check! But how about the head sculpt? This is where Square Enix was off. In my opinion, he doesn’t look like Shepard at all. He has the goatee, hair, skin color like on the game, but overall it is not.

Accessories include the Omniblade, an orange side arm attachment made from a translucent orange PVC base with a yellow spray down the middle.  In order to use this, you need to take out the wrist first and slide the whole blade in.  Then you have the N7 Eagle Pistol, a small hand gun that is slightly difficult to use as the holding fingers doesn’t react the trigger quite well.  What is really amazing is the N7 Valkyrie rifle.  I couldn’t say more how splendid this is on the figure.

So how do I see the figure overall? I’m ok with the proportions and the articulation joints on the figure. What I am really disappoint on is on the face sculpt that would be mistaken as another character. The paint of the goatee feels unrefined and if I would to be harsh, lousy. Like I said, it is an ok figure but not up to the standards of other Play Arts Kai figures. More to this from the video review below.