Storm Collectibles Street Fighter V Champion Edition E. Honda review

One of the best parts about Street Fighter II was the wide variety of character sizes to choose from. E. Honda was one of my secondary favorites (after Ryu, Ken and Fei Long) because of his fun move set and the sense of actually being able to use his size against opponents.

It’s been a wait for a character that seemed to be a lock far earlier on, but that wasn’t taking into account Storm Collectibles’ lack of focus for any of its fighting game figure lines. But now he’s here fresh off his Street Fighter V Champion Edition appearance. This figure features E. Honda in his nostalgia outfit.

Let’s see if the largest World Warrior is ready for battle or to throw in the towel in the sauna.

Packaging:  Storm Collectibles puts together one of my favorite figure presentations with one tiny exception. The Street Fighter setup makes good use of the logo and provides a good-sized portrait of E. Honda. I’m a fan of the bright blue color scheme with the orange red accents.

Both sides have an animated style rendering of E. Honda in his SFV default attire. My minor gripe is I wish the bio were written in English as the Storm Collectibles figures tend to have very well thought out character breakdowns.

Here’s the bio from Storm’s website:

Here’s the star of the sumo world, a man who battles fighters from around the world in order to promote the greatness of sumo!
E.Honda is a popular sumo wrestler that is always the topic of discussion because of his amazing abilities. While he’s a mere ozeki class wrestler, he has the ability and strength of a Yokozuna champion.

He preaches about daily morning practices, but he also enjoys a dip in his favorite hot springs, Kabukonyu. Honda is currently traveling the world with his friend Hakan in search of new disciples, and of course, new food!

Likeness:  E. Honda is immediately impressive just from his massive size. He’s wide and looks ready to pummel his opponents with 100 hand slaps.

E. Honda is big, but he’s more a well-defined slab of granite instead of a big blob style character. The figure captures his physique properly. His default head sculpt is a neutral one that matches the packaging art very well.

He wears a larger style mawashi that ends right above his knees to show his thick shins and powerful (and thankfully wide) bare feet.

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Scale: Unlike Sagat and Zangief, E. Honda’s size is just from his girth and he’s not that much taller than the other figures like Guile. That’s in keeping with the game as well.

Paint:  E. Honda isn’t as intricate as some characters in terms of paint work. His kumadori style of makeup is used by kabuki actors to help audiences get a visual cue of the good and bad guys.

The mawashi is mostly clean. You’d need to look close up to see the paint doesn’t always stay within the lines and are at the same consistency. From a reasonable distance it looks fine.

Articulation:  E. Honda is a character that really helps you appreciate the Storm Collectibles articulation model as all of his big moves are possible.

With a little patience, I was able to pull off most of his moves with the major exception of the rising knee. I was very impressed with how SC articulates the figures before, but E. Honda took that appreciation to another level.

It was also very cool to see how solid E. Honda is in that his base is strong enough to support one leg poses.

E. Honda has:

• • neck
  • shoulders
  • elbows (double-jointed)
  • wrist
  • torso
  • waist
  • shoulders
  • knees (double-jointed)
  • ankles
  • feet

Accessories:  E. Honda has a good amount of accessories though he’d clearly benefit from a figure stand to assist with his mid-air moves.

The lone SC stand I have does support him without too much trouble thankfully.

The best are his alternate head sculpts. He’s got a smiling one that fits his jovial attitude and a focused, open mouth sculpt. These aren’t always the easiest to nail, but this angry yelling sculpt is tremendous.

He’s got a set of fists, gripping, chopping and open hands.

Finally, he’s got a 100-hand slap effect piece. The sharpness of the effect pieces makes jamming it in place a little tricky, but it stays locked in after it’s in secure.

Worth It?  Given his size, it’s not shocking E. Honda is more than some of the $80 figures. His range is more in the $95 to $120 range. I don’t think that’s too crazy considering his size although a few more accessories would have been nice.

Rating: 10 out of 10

E. Honda is a fantastic figure and a highlight of the Street Fighter and fighting game figures Storm Collectibles has done in general.

Where to Get It:  E. Honda is harder to track down now, but he’s still available at Amazon for a good price. Big Bad Toy Store also has him in a slightly different color scheme for $99.99.

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