Review: Street Fighter II G.I. Joes

I remember the image clearly. I don't know exactly where I saw the advert, but I do remember thinking 'wow, these look terrible'. But despite this, I wanted them, because the thought of having little Street Fighter figures to fiddle with was really exciting.

These figures were based (and essentially sold as) GI Joe figures. As such they have all the characteristics of the original 3 3/4 GI Joe line. The articulation and accessories are extensive (though whether the Street Fighter characters actually need any accessories is open to debate - my suspicion is they were simply bundled with a bunch of existing GI Joe bits and bobs). The figures are able to (more or less) get into (most of) their signature special move positions, though anything with a fireball is obviously out of the question.



...actually fireball-shaped accessories would probably have been worth including.

As I mentioned, the likenesses to the game characters isn't great. They're definitely recognisable, but these are in no where near the same league as, for example, the Sota figures released many years later. Even for their time they don't look great. But they have a definite charm and I figure small kids (who generally aren't as picky about likenesses as adult collectors) would have loved these figures back in the day.

In addition to the figures a few vehicles were inexplicably released, which included with repaints of some of the figures (those alternate colour costumes available in the game came in really handy for selling more toys!). Then when the film came out (yep, the one with Kylie) movie 'versions' of the toys were released.

The best thing is that there were Mortal Kombat figures in the same scale released, meaning that for the first (and only) time MK vs SFII battles could be wrought.

I've just read an article online saying these things are dirt cheap to buy on ebay due to their terribleness, however I've been looking for these things for cheap for aaaages. I can only figure that either I have a different definition of 'cheap' or these things have become really popular in recent times.