Overview
The King of Fighters is classic video game developer SNK’s most well-known fighting series, crossing over most of SNK’s library (Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, Psycho Soldier, Ikari Warriors and more) as well as featuring their own original cast. With 15 games and counting, King of Fighters is probably one of the single longest running fighting series. Of course, a good portion of you probably only know this series because of Athena and Mai Shiranui (despite the fact they’re not even FROM the series originally, Athena being Psycho Soldier’s protagonist and Mai being from Fatal Fury). Especially Mai.
If you’re a Rugal fan, on the other hand, you know ball.
Degenerator Industry (occasionally seen translated as Another Dimension Heavy Industry) is a Chinese company more well-known in recent years for their action figures from Armor Hero, China’s very own homegrown tokusatsu franchise, and B’t X (pronounced Beat X), a sci-fi manga from 1994 penned by Masami Kurumada, most well-known to audiences for the legendary Saint Seiya.
However, around 2022, Degenerator Industry decided to take its stab at the girlpla market, releasing mecha musume versions of Mai, Nakoruru (originally of Samurai Shodown) and Athena, released to commemorate KoF XIV….and just in time for KoF XV.
Construction and Engineering
The plastic quality isn’t incredible; the gloss finish makes the figures look fairly cheap in spite of their price and the tolerances aren’t fantastic, which ups the difficulty for newer modelers who will need to tread carefully. You will probably need to make use of the included decals and a fair bit of paint to color correct the models. However, the kits possess an incredible amount of articulation in general, fittingly for a set of model kits based on fighting game characters.
The construction is surprisingly good for a company which went on to focus more on completed action figures. While dragged down by the quality of the figures, the engineering is surprisingly solid.
As a side note, Mai does not come with enough parts for two bodies (but almost gets there) and Nakoruru only comes with enough parts for herself and her Guardian Eagle, but Athena DOES come with enough parts for two bodies, so keep that in mind.
Aesthetics:
Anyone expecting these kits to look high quality and close to their in-game renditions is in for a rude awakening. The cheap quality of the plastic and the glossy finish takes away from what otherwise could be nice licensed kits. Mai in particular suffers from the mecha musume aesthetic being completely nonsensical for a character who has otherwise nothing to do with it, as does Nakoruru, even if the premise is otherwise interesting.
However, these kits aren’t the worst looking, and die-hard fans of the girls featured here won’t really mind.
Ease of Acquisition:
Originally retailing at roughly ¥3600-4000 (£17-19/$23-25), the King of Fighters kits have shot up in price and dramatically reduced in availability. Your only recourse is secondhand or hunting the kits down on AliExpress and Taobao. Mai will, for obvious reasons, be the most expensive of the three.
Personal Verdict?
If you really like Athena, Mai or Nakoruru, there are probably better options that are more available, but these aren’t bad options. Assuming you can get them.
Personal Recommendations:
While we would really have liked them to have gotten around to Kula, Athena coming with two entirely different bodies was so good we have to give that to them.
Official Site: https://weibo.com/u/7507345096
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