Give Me The Power Of...Kingdom Hearts!

Last week through the offices of my good friend at Z's Toys I got the three new Kingdom Hearts action figures by Square Enix. They cost $26.95 each. I was particularly relieved to get them as they had been out for some weeks and our local Hastings (which I fear gets the sweepings from more central stores) had no sign of ever getting them. Perhaps it had something to do with their difficulty shifting three Aeriths from Square Enix about a year ago. Anyway, before I get on to descriptions of the individual figures, perhaps I should give a short account of the game to place them in context.

Kingdom Hearts begins in the Destiny Islands, where the young boy Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi dream about leaving their home and seeing far lands. This dream is fulfilled in a dark way when their world is destroyed and they are separated, and flung into different worlds. Sora gains the mysterious weapon called the Keyblade, and joined by a wizard and warrior (Donald and Goofy--yes, that Donald and Goofy-- who are seeking King Mickey--yes, that Mickey-- who has gone to discover why the worlds are being destroyed) he seeks his friends through many worlds, most of them themed from Disney movies. A group of Disney villains, led by the evil fairy Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, are creating hordes of Heartless, monsters created from the darkness in peoples hearts. In Kingdom Hearts II, our heroes are opposed by Organization XIII, a group of black-clad Nobodies (Nobodies are created when a particularly strong person becomes a Heartless) who wish to gain the power of Kingdom Hearts themselves to regain their reality. Now we have enough to go along on.

The Sora figure is of Sora as he appears in the first Kingdom Hearts (he grows older as the games progress). It is six inches high, and comes with Keyblade and a spare pair of hands. This is actually the third Sora figure I've got; the first was by Mirage Toys, and was posed in a perpetual crouch. The second was by Square Enix and was of Sora as he appeared in Kingdom Hearts II. This one is by far the best.

The Riku figure is as he appears in Kingdom Hearts. It is seven inches tall. He comes with the bat-wing blade supplied by Maleficent while he was under her influence, and a spare pair of hands.

The King Mickey figure is as he appears in Kingdom Hearts II, disguised in black Organization XIII robes. It is four inches tall. He comes with his own version of a Keyblade, which is silver where Sora's is gold, and gold where Sora's is silver. He comes with a spare pair of hands.

You know all of these Square Enix figures come with spare hands, that you can pop on and off; these are usually weapon holding hands and posing hands. I have yet to have the nerve to try to remove any. I just know that even if I succeed they'll always be loose, or I'll be afraid all the time that they'll fall off.

The Kid's Got Heart

Coming soon in January! More of SquareEnix's action figures from Kingdom Hearts. In this series are Sora and Riku as they appeared in the original Kingdom Hearts game, and Mickey Mouse as King Mickey in his Oranization XIII costume as he was in Kingdom Hearts II.

Axel

I got Axel some weeks ago, for $23, from Z's Toys and More. He's the last guy in Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series; at least, he's the last I've gotten.

In the Kingdom Hearts mythos, Axel is a member of the sinister Organiztion 13, a group of "Nobodies" who want to gain ultimate power and real personhood. He became a friend of Roxas, Sora's alternative persona, and his purpose in the game is to re-awaken and separate Roxas from Sora. In the process he works against his fellow members of Organization 13, befriends Sora, and dies defending him.

Other good characters also wear the Organization 13 robes to infiltrate the order (including Riku and King Mickey, a.k.a. Mickey Mouse), and this is what has undoubtedly inspired this item in the Museum Replicas Limited catalog:

Copy reads: "Gatekeeper Coat: From a video game kingdom comes this awesome long coat made of a shimmering nylon with an extra full hood and bell sleeves. The double-action front zipper allows for a variety of different looks. Complete with a chain of accent crosses and keys. $130."

Sephiroth

Man, I have really fallen behind. I had been hoping to post at least once a day, but one thing and another kept getting in my way, not least of all a general lassitude that made it hard for me to deal creatively with "non-essentials". Anyway, without any further ado-do, i present Sephiroth, from the Final Fantasy VII game and Kingdom Hearts. As anyone who has read this blog knows, I can resist little that has to do with Kingdom Hearts.

Sephiroth is a whopping 8 and 1/2 inches tall and his katana is 9 and 1/2 inches long. There are two pairs of spare hands in different poses and a base, which is missing the articulation frame that holds the figure up. The box, which was ordered all the way from Japan, shows signs that it might have been opened before shipped, but whether this explains the missing piece is unknown. I don't mind the boxes being open as I do it myself, but some collectors might. The figure has 15 articulation points.

Sephiroth, in the games, is the arch-nemisis of Cloud Strife, and is in some ways his evil counterpart. His name comes from a term in Cabala (I'll use the old spelling, not the trendy, thank you) for the branches on the Tree of Life describing the powers of God. He is the only character in Kingdom Hearts that I have never defeated, and is tougher than the primary antagonist, Ansem.

Sora

Here is Sora, the main protagonist of Kingdom Hearts. Of the figures on the left, I have Kairi and Roxas. Apparently figure No. 4, Axel, is the one that really took off from this set, and is now hard to find for anything less than exorbitant sums. I never really bothered with him because in the game I found him to be something of an axe-hole.

If Square-Enix is listening, the next series of this line should include Riku, Namine, and Diz. I would say Donald, Goofy, and Mickey, but I think they are concentrating on the more human game figures, and ones that won't involve complicated copyright deals.