Gouken By Hervé St.Louis Sep 27, 2006 - 12:26:00 AM

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Gouken is Akuma’s brother and has never appeared in a Street Fighter game. He is a pacificist and expert Ansatsuken practitioner,  trained by Master Goutetsu along with Akuma. A faster learner than Akuma and secluded, Gouken has trained many Street Fighter characters but is more important to the mythology and continuity of Street Fighter as a secondary character than a game contestant. It is surprising that Sota created an action figure of him.
 
Likeness
 
Although Gouken’s beard is accurate to the character’s design, it limits the mobility of his head, which sits on top a large necklace made of beads. Traditionally, Gouken has a long beard and dresses in rags, similar to brother Akuma. The figure renders him the same way.




Sculpt

The sculpt’s body is almost a complete reused from Akuma. The torso, arms thighs and feet are the same as Akuma’s. Props such as the beads’ necklace he sports and his tunic are also the same as his brother’s. Differences are found in his head’s sculpt, of course, his fists and calves. The fists are naked, but are the same one as Akuma’s without the hand wraps. Tissues wrap Gouken’s forearms and calves. The detail in those parts is impressive.

There are two heads sculpt for this figure. One was sold trough Sota Toys and featured a screaming Gouken. The other one was available from an online retailer exclusively. Sota has since released other coloured variants of this figure.

Paint

The paint job is not as extensive as other Street Fighter action figures. Gouken’s parts plastic were moulded in the same colour as his body parts. Therefore, Sota did not use paints to colour the figure very much. It gives a plain look to the figure when put next to the other Street Fighter figures which were completely painted. There is no extra shading on his chest and hands, unlike his brother. Only details such as his beard and the wraps around his hands have complex shading.

Scale

Gouken is a little taller than brother Akuma, taller than Ken and all female figures, such as Sakura and Chun Li. He’s almost as tall as Guile or M Bison and about the same height as Adon. He is shorter than larger figures such as Blanka and Sagat.

Stability

Thanks to the cheaper plastic used by Sota Toys’ new factory, Gouken is not top heavy. His soles are flat and support his body weight perfectly. There might be some adjustments necessary to find the right way to pose him in a plain stance, but it will not be difficult. Posing Gouken in an action move is easier because his limbs are not as heavy.

Articulation

Gouken has 30 articulations. Some are looser than others but they are not difficult to use the first time because there is no paint on the joints.

Plastic

When Sota changed manufacturing plant, because the former one was selling pirated figures from the moulds, the cheaper plastic offered by the new plant became a good thing for Sota. As well as cutting prices down for them, it increased the play value of the figure. By not being top-heavy, the figures are easier to pose. In a moment several complaints about older Street Fighter action figures came to an end. The joints no longer are at risk of being severed because of dried paint covering them. Figures are lighter. The only drawback is the cheaper aspect of the figure, because of lack of shading.

Props

Gouken comes with either one of two variant fire bolts that can’t properly fit his fists. The Sota variant comes with a Shoryuken. The other figure comes with a Hadouken. It has nothing to hold onto. It thus becomes a useless prop. Gouken doesn’t feature extra fist or heads like other Street Fighter action figures. While I understand that he was an exclusive action figure for the 2006 San Diego Comic Book Convention, it’s cost more than other Street Fighter figures too. Sota should have packaged at least the two heads, there fore eliminating the need for a variant. Of course, that goes against the marketing objective of this figure!





Packaging

The packaging is similar to other Street Fighter action figures. The plastic is slightly thinner than that of other packages, but must still be opened with scissors. It’s strange that on the package there are game instructions for Gouken’s special moves, while he has never appeared in a video game.

Cost

Gouken cost $19.99 at either Sota or Toy Rocket the exclusive American online retailer.

Availability

Less than 2000 Gouken action figures of each of the initial variants were produced by Sota Toys. The new variant with the yellow tunic is limited to 300 pieces. Initial news reports from Sota announced that 2000 pieces of each initial figures would be produced, but it seems that the actual quantity is less. While the Battle Cry version, is available for purchase directly from Sota Toys and the other at Toy Rocket’s site, Gouken variants were first offered at the 2006 San Diego Comic Book Convention. Each continues to sell left over stock on their Web sites.

According to Jerry Macaluso, President of Sota Toys “The way the Gouken figure was sold is a precursor to the way future Street Fighters will all be sold.  We did offer the Gouken to distributors in other countries ( including Canada ) so the collectors there had it easily available to them.  Unfortunately most didn’t take it.  We did not offer it to Diamond as it was a Toy Rocket Exclusive in the USA.  Reason for that is we needed a partner to absorb some of the financial risk and they stepped up to the plate with a good offer.”

Sota has come up with the yellow Gouken that resembles his comic book appearances in order to offer figures to fans who might have missed the first releases. Macaluso says, “If we feel there is a demand for more Goukens to be made we will come up with a way to go back into production without diluting the value of the limited Goukens that are currently out there ... perhaps a new head or different packaging.  But truthfully I think we made just enough . . . there may be a couple hundred people out there who didn’t get one but that’s not enough to go back into production for.”

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