This gigantic Russian beast of a statue arrived a while back but I’ve been so backlogged, it’s taken me a long time to get to this review. Popcultureshock previewed this enormous Zangief ages ago and I’ve had it on display for a bit, so check it.
There were two versions of this. The traditional Zangief that all Street Fighter fans are familiar with, and this one, Mecha Zangief, limited to 75. This fella made his appearance in the Marvel vs Street Fighter games and since my absolute favourite Street Fighter is Marvel vs Capcom 2, I definitely wanted to pick up the big guy.
As you can see, he’s pretty huge. He’s bent down at the knees, has his back forward, and he’s only a little shorter than the T-800 PF. Then you look at how wide he is, well you better have a lot of space free.
Both versions of Zangief come with 2 heads, a serious one, and an enraged one. I prefer the serious one, but the enraged one is awesome too. Considering how expensive he is, I like that they give you the option. His hands come separate and attach via magnets. It’s a plain black base and it looks alright.
I’m about to get real nitpicky since I know you guys don’t want to slap down $400+ without some details. Number one, a bunch of people reported problems with their bases and their statues arriving broken, mainly in the thigh area. Mine was fine, but you’ll want to check your statue as soon as you receive it. Two, the paint around some of the black hair has an odd discolouring. You can mainly see that around the chest and around the boots. Kind of annoying. I’m pretty sure Mecha Zangief has black fingernails too, but if that bothered me, I could fix it in about 10 seconds so I don’t care.
On to the good stuff. Absolutely love the sculpting. His muscles are just as over the top as they should be for this badass bear wrestler. Plenty of scars, all sculpted, and lots of veins. The pose is perfect, he looks like he’s about to grab you and put you through a flying powerbomb. They made sure to give the boots and belt a lot of weathering. They’re scarred up, as they should be. Gotta say I love the usage of mixed media here. The boot laces rule.
4.5/5. Small issues aside, I don’t think you’re ever going to get a better Zangief statue than this.
Buying Options : Given the extremely limited edition size, it sold out ages ago. Only place you’ll find it is Ebay.
