Square Enix Play Arts Kai: Metal Gear Solid Meryl

Wow that title was a mouthful.
Here's one of my favorite female action figures in my collection.

My knowledge of Metal Gear Solid goes only as far as the very first game I played back on the first Playstation console. Man those were the days. I only know of a few characters but after seeing the Metal Gear solid figures at New York Comic Con at the Square Enix booth a few years back, I was pretty intrigued about the Metal Gear license all over again. Not the game per say but the action figures that they were producing now were exquisite (wow, I went there with the vocabulary).

I saw the Meryl Play Arts Kai figure in the glass display case and almost bought it. She looked awesome. But the price tag (I think she was around $65 at the time) and the list of other things I wanted to get was just too big. But on the trip home I was kicking myself for not getting her, especially after seeing Ebay prices later on. Luckily I was able to score her for under retail later (patience paid off I guess). With that, this figure was finally mine. Did she stack up to my expectations?

 

 Sculpt: Now, I know nothing of the character, but I do know cool figures and she looks tremendously cool. And she’s really pretty. There are a lot of female action figures out and even though sculpting has gotten better, there are still a lot of figures of female characters that don't look feminine at all. This is not the case. She's a beaut. The sculpt is really nice. She stands about 10” so she’s not really in scale with anything other than the other characters in the same line.

 The detail on the outfit is great and looks like she’s wearing the real deal. The face looks a little more on the ‘anime’ side but not too much where it’s cartoony. Overall, she’s really made of quality material and the sculpt is very strong work.

5 out of 5 

Paint: The paint work is top notch, with little to no bleeding on the areas of paint lines. There’s great shading on various spots. The face work, which can make or break a figure, is done really well.

 She looks pretty but in a tough chick way. Even the paint on the hair gives her a realistic look. Overall everything is great and at the price point, it better be

5 out of 5

Articulation: She’s very articulated and is on par with other figures that boast hyper-articulation. All the joints are strong and she’s got a tremendous amount of poses you can get her in. The plastic on the pelvic region is softer and helps with movement but strong enough to the point that the poses hold with no problem.

She’s got movement at the head, ball jointed shoulders, biceps, double elbows, hinge and ball wrists, chest, waist, ball hips, high cuts, double knees, ball and hinge ankles, and even toe cuts. Again, she’s stacked

5 out of 5

 Accessories: Meryl comes with 3 alternate hands (strange why we couldn’t get two fists), and pistol, and a knife.

 

The weapons are made from strong plastic and the hands are easy to swap. They are in proper scale to the figure and the weapons can actually store on her utility belt. I love when weapons can be stored! If she had come with just one extra set of hands (fists! She needs to punch people too, not just judo chop suckers in the neck!) she would have gotten full points in this category

4.5 out of 5

Overall: The Metal Gear Solid series lost me for a while, but this figure has definitely brought me back. Meryl’s amazing and I definitely want to at least look into the possibility of getting more, even though the Play Arts Kai figures are rising in price (gone are the $50 days and here we are in the almost $100 range). Either way, Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai line hits a home run for me with Meryl.

And despite my want of a pair of fists for accessories, that doesn't account for the fact that she's a near flawless figure. For now she’ll remain a great standalone piece and a top notch figure in my collection. Maybe she’ll have some other characters to join the fight soon.

Overall: 5 out 5