Blanka Sota Street Fighter

Street Fighter
Blanka Sota Street Fighter
By Hervé St-Louis
June 26, 2005 - 22:00

First appearing in Street Fighter II, as a child, Blanka crash landed in the Amazon forest, where the animals raised him. He has the agility of a great ape and the ferocity of a lion. From the eels, he has learned to channel energy through his body and release electricity. His best fighting move is to curl as a ball and launch himself upon his opponents. He joined the World Warrior’s Tournament by tagging along fellow Street Fighter Dan.

Likeness

Blanka’s trademarks are his orange hair and green skin. In some illustrations he is lighter skinned and almost human. Blanka is almost an animal. He has canines and claw-like hands. His feet have large cuffs. The edges of his shorts are white as if they were ripped denim. The action figure has all of these.

Sculpt

Blanka’s head with the opened mouth makes him look like a roaring lion. The other one watches you as if he were gonna jump at you and rip your head off. His has thick stands of hairs on his chest, his forearms and legs. He’s got thick calves that look like cylinders. While one of his set of hand is extended, they are not symmetrical. The left hand is like a claw. Speaking of claws, Blanka has the coolest nails ever. They are long with ridges. Blanka’s feet have tears and scratches, from walking in a rain forest.

Paint

The paint job is great. The base plastic is peach-coloured, yet we don’t see it anywhere. There is shading all over Blanka’s skin, making his muscles seem tougher. His wild orange hairs almost look like wood. His leather pants look like they were worn by the time Blanka put them on. The cuffs on Blanka’s ankles a copper-like feel. There are a few spills, however, Blanka really looks lively with his paint scheme.

Scale

Blanka is shorter than T. Hawk and Sagat, yet, taller than M. Bison and Sodom. Of course, he towers over Ken, Ryu, Chun Li and Cammy. He is just shorter than Vega, but because his hairs are so wide, he ends up being taller. All of Sota’s Street Fighter action figures match each other in terms of scale.

Stability

Blanka is stable, but not much. The trick with him is finding the position that will allow him to hold still. I’ve noticed that when the head is not firmly secured on the ball-joint, it makes his balance more difficult. Although one can pose Blanka in a fighting pose, he won’t last very long like that. Sota does not drill peg holes in their figures’ feet, so stability is always problematic. Blanka’s feet are flat, but his toes too loose for adequate support.

Articulation

Blanka has 27 articulations at the neck, the shoulders, the biceps, the elbows, the wrists, the palms, the abdominal, the waist, the hips, the thighs, the ankles, the soles and the toes. He has double articulations at the knees. While Blanka has a ball-joint neck, in warm weather, his heads loosen and they are not well anchored. The knees’ double articulation is difficult to play with. His articulations allow him to take almost any poses.

Plastic

Blanka is in PVC. Parts, like his heads are softer and rubbery. Sota reused the same hair piece on both heads and glued them. They also glue the fur elements on the chest, the forearms and the legs on. The chain handles on the feet’s cuffs are also glued on. Small plastic rods hold the rest of the figure together. Blanka’s torso is top heavy.

Props

Blanka has many props. Besides his two heads and two sets of hands, he comes with a skull, a pineapple and piece of watermelon with a bite taken out of it. These are fun props to create a diorama for the character. Each is detailed and made of softer PVC or rubber. The watermelon fits in the claw-like left hand. The pineapple’s base is flat, so it will stay up on any surface.

Packaging

Like all Sota Street Fighter action figures, Blanka comes in a sealed bubble package that can only be opened with scissors. There’s a comic book illustration of Blanka’s head designed by Udon Studio, the comic book publisher with that publishes the Street Fighter comic book. They helped design the packaging too. There’s a leaflet in the pack, the same for each figures that fakes a character selection screen.

Cost

Although there are no suggested prices for these figures, many online retailers sell them for $12 American or $16 Canadian. Sota itself, sells variants on its site for $12. Other retailers may sell for more. At this price point, these figures are a great bargain, as they come with more fun factor than the average DC Direct product and have better sculpts and paint jobs than Marvel Legends, with as much articulations.

Availability

Blanka is not one of the popular Street Fighter characters. Usually these figures are sold as cases to retailers. Several online stores sell these figures. Offline comic book stores can also sell them if they order them from distributor Diamond Comics. These figures are not well distributed outside the United States. There are few stores in Canada, and fewer selling them in Europe. It is uncertain if the Philippines have sufficient stock.