It's here! The major award has arrived: the 'Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing' Ryo Hazuki forklift statue. The short version of how I came about the figure: I entered a Sega contest a few months back and last week I won the figure. The figure was limited run of 1,000 was was only available via the online contest with a handful making it over to Europe and distributed via Sega Europe's Free Stuff Friday giveaway. Now enough chatter, let's take a look at the figure!
Ryo arrived in a simple cardboard box. Inside was the black box wrapped in bright green paper. Perhaps to reference the jade mine seen in the conclusion of 'Shenmue II'... or not.
The back of the box sports a huge Sega logo as well as the statue number out of 1,000. Oddly, the box did not give the individual statue a number. Instead, they left a black space for where the number should have been written and the same is true for other forklift statues I've seen. While I have no clue what number I had, I'm going to assume number 5 of 1,000 because it's the forklift's number and would probably boost the resale value.
It's important for me to note that the Ryo Hazuki forklift statue is just that: it's a statue. It is NOT an action figure so don't expect spinning wheels and a lift that rises up and down. While I was a little annoyed at first, I quickly found that a statue is much much better than a plastic action figure.
The statue is made of heavy duty vinyl, with the frame being made of metal. The lights are strung up with a tiny fake electrical cable and is fastened on with little bits of wire. The cage on top is the one piece made of plastic.
The paint job is not amazingly done, but it is much better than, say, a Jazwares 'SASASR' figure. The forklift itself has lots of wear and tear to is while Ryo looks like Ryo, for the most part.
You can see in the photo above that they gave Ryo a little swipe of white for his cheek bandage. Impressive! They even painted his zipper, belt, lips and eyes. It might look a little messy up close, but for the size you really don't notice it.
The ONE sin that the statue commits is the back. The tiger is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there is this odd eagle shape. I'd rather they just left it blank or had given the figure a pack-in sticker of the back of the jacket to stick on. Despite this goof, it is small in the grand scheme of things. With the statue up on the shelf facing outwards, one doesn't even see the back. And if an owner of one of these is reading this and still regrets the loss of the tiger, feel free to print out and tape the image below to Ryo's back:
Now that the messy part of the article is out of the way, let's have some fun with ol' Hazuki! I'll bet you're wondering if the forklift can carry Shenmue. Well guess what:
"Toss 'Shenmue II' on while you're at it!"I also bet you'd like to know if the forklift is ideal for picking up chicks. Well of course it can:
"Hey baby, ever play 'Virtua Forklift'?"Ah! The figure also came with this plastic circle which was meant for use as a base. one side is shiny black, while the other features the logos as well as another blank space for me to write in the number "zero" and scam a guy out of thousands claiming this to be a super special "zero edition" figure.
Please submit all "Ryo carrying _____ with the forklift" requests to the comments section.
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