Review and editorial pictures of the Street Fighter x Tekken Minimates Series 1 Nina Williams figure

Minimate Nina finally showed up at my frontdoor, and she's a cool little fella. Here's my review...

A closer look at SFxTK Mobile for iOS touch devices

Kudos, Capcom. Before I get into the details, the point that stands out to me the most with their recent release of Street Fighter x Tekken Mobile is that this game really doesn't feel like a port, this version has been reworked from the ground up to suit touch screen devices. Read my review after the jump...

Craig on SFxTK Minimates Nina, Cammy and Lili

I'm still on vacation, but having just checked the shipping status of my USPS parcel I can tell you there'll be some interesting things for me to write about as soon as I return. Part of this will be my review of the Nina Williams Minimate, which has been released a couple of days ago as part of Diamond Select Toys' newest assortment of fighting Minimates: Street Fighter X Tekken. For now I will have to make do just enviously looking at other people's pictures...

Street Fighter X Tekken Minimates Are Almost Here - Nina Williams VS Cammy battle shots

To preview wave 1 of the Street Fighter X Tekken Minimates that will be released next week, the folks at Art Asylum took the Series 1 figures and staged their battles 'on location'. More after the jump...

Street Fighter X Tekken Artbook - Nina-centric artwork and commentary

UDON Entertainment just recently released the English version of the Japanese artbook Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks. I've been waiting for this ever since I flipped through the Japanese one, realizing that there is commentary by the creators on almost every single picture. I'd feel really bad asking a Japanese friend to translate a whole book for me, so I was extremely relieved to hear that the wonderful people at UDON were working on an official translation. It took some time for it to come out, but what we got in the end was absolutely worth the long wait. It's 191 pages packed with character and production artwork, rough sketches, costume designs and creator commentary. There are interviews with Polygon Pictures, Akiman, Dimps and Namco Bandai's own Yoshinari Mizushima (Tekken's Visual Design Supervisor) and  Kenji Kimura (Art Director of Tekken X Street Fighter!!!). The artworks are gorgeous, as is the book; top-quality paper, detail-rich print, subtly embossed high-grade cover, effective easy-on-the-eyes layouts; it's everything an artbook should be.

Lots of pictures after the jump...

SFxTK Minimates Pack Shot - Nina VS Cammy 2Pack

Here's a packaging shot of wave #1 of the Street Fighter x Tekken Minimates. As previously announced, Nina comes bundled with Street Fighter's Cammy. I'm happy Diamond Select Toys will use blister packs, which I prefer to windowed boxes. Pack design's looking good, too. If you look closely you can see that Nina will come with what looks to be a knife, presumably to fit into her right leg knife holster. I like! The SFxTK Minimates are currently expected to be released September 5th. I'll post my review of the Cammy VS Nina 2-pack as soon as it arrives here.

SFxTK CG Episode 3 got Nina Williams down to a T

Nina makes a surprise appearance in Capcom's latest (last?) animated short promoting the PlayStationVita release of Street Fighter x Tekken. In addition to Nina's very much in-character entrance you'll get girls prancing around barefoot in the Antarctica, man VS mammoth action and all kinds of flashy mindless fun. + Nina is looking absolutely beautiful here! Capcom really got her down perfectly in this; looks and behaviour all spot on! Bravo! Just don't try looking for any story, it came from a fighting game ;-)

Minimates & Nanomen - Nina Williams, Street Fighter x Tekken

 

  

Nina's got a Mini-Me, too.

Tekken's First Lady will be joining the ranks of other famous comic-, movie- and video game characters who've gotten the Minimate treatment.

Minimates are a block-styled miniature action figure primarily released to specialty retailers and aimed at adult collectors.

Designed and sculpted by Art Asylum Series 1 will include a Nina VS Cammy pairing exclusively available at specialty stores (/online). The other Series 1 box sets are Ken VS Steve, Sagat VS King and Poison VS Lili (the latter exclusive to specialty stores, the former two also available at Toys'R'Us). Each Minimate stands 2 inches tall with 14 (!) points of articulation and a variety of removable and interchangeable parts and accessories.

I usually prefer my (action-) figures to be rich in detail, accurately bearing the likeness of the original character. But the extremely simplified form is a central design theme with these figures and I do really like what I see. Also, with 14 (!!!) points of articulation these mates are pretty much double jointed all over.

(Warning: super nerdy collector's talk in 3..2..1..)

As usual I'll be buying several copies of the Nina box set to have one that I can unpack, one to put in a CGA graded UF-5 acrylic custom case (♥) and some more to lock away somewhere dark and safe and dust-free. lol

Now here's something that's killing my collectors heart a little.

I've actually been waiting for a block figure rendition of Nina for quite some time now. Back around the time Tekken 5 was released for PS2 there was a line of Tekken Nanomen in the works at visual entertainment and licensing studio Kinetic Underground Inc.

Unfortunately this line didn't make it past the prototype stage and was never officially released, which is such a bummer, because I really liked the look of this type of block figure. Also, (AFAIK) Nanomen Nina would have been slightly taller than Minimates Nina ... and a bit prettier.

See for yourself:

Originally scheduled for a June 2012 release Diamond Select's Street Fighter x Tekken Minimates are now expected to ship October 2012 but can already be pre-ordered online. No official statement on why it was pushed back, but the new release date might actually coincide with the release of Streeft Fighter x Tekken for the PlayStation Vita, which is currently scheduled for Fall 2012. Convenient, no?

Photographs (pictures 3-6) were taken at the Diamond Select booth / Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo 2012 by youbastards @ minimatemultiverse.com
You can find his C2E2 gallery here http://photobucket.com/youbastards-at-C2E2