[Toy Review] Raiden Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Play Arts Kai

I got a cool Play Arts Kai figure to review! He is known as "White Devil", "Jack the Ripper" and "Pretty Boy". It's Raiden of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (I played and reviewed the game). This is one of the known badass versions of Raiden, the other one is the MGS4 Raiden (no PAK yet). I got this toy with the help from the awesome guys from Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group (PAKPTG). This is a 2nd hand PAK Raiden and will be treated as brand new for this review because it's in great condition and its accessories are complete minus the display stand.

"I think it's time for Jack, to LET 'ER RIP!"

~ Raiden ~

PACKAGING

The front and back of the standard windowed packaging.

We got a standard window box so that we can view the figure and its accessories without opening the box. There are four windows (Front, Left, Right, Top) with very slim side windows. PAK logo, MGR:R logo and Zandatsu Kanji is present in-front. At the back, we see product shots of the figure and some infos and other texts. 

Out and ready to slash some cyborgs

Packaging includes: Raiden figure, High Frequency Blade, Survival knife, Sword sheath, Three throwing knives, Knife holster, Augmented Reality Visor, Gripping pair of hands, Extra pair of feet, Display stand, Manual (which I haven't seen for a long time)

THE FIGURE

This is the default Raiden from MGR, there are four other different color variations of this action figure. One Cyborg Raiden is enough for me. Oh, this Raiden toy is highly modifiable. I saw lots of Raiden mods with LED lights on the sword sheath and Raiden's red eye.

Viewing Raiden's Carbon Nanotube Muscle Fiber cyborg body

The attention to detail is superb. The sculpt and paint job are great, but this figure, even though it got solid build quality, still looks fragile. This toy features small moving parts. I fear that some parts will break apart if this toy fall on the ground.

Raiden's face. It's almost covered.
The bangs are removable

Raiden's face is accurate, a small portion of it is visible because the face is almost covered by metal, carbon nanotube muscle fibers and a bandana is covering his left eye. The translucent blondish-white hair looks odd when viewed on front-left. The small cable parts on its neck can move a little, for that realistic effect. The small rivet on Raiden's forehead isn't painted.

Front and back of Raiden's torso

Those grey cables are not connected to the crotch piece

This is Raiden's new cyborg body after Samuel "Jetstream Sam" Rodrigues kicked his ass during the prologue. It looks amazing, metal parts looks real metal thanks to its gun metal paint color added with some gradients to make it glossy. Artificial muscle parts really look like muscle fibers.

Some instructional/warning/caution texts are present on some parts of this cyborg body and it's readable.

Fibery!

The arms looks really metal and sharp. Some parts are made of soft plastic so that they wont break easily.

I don't want to get punched or scratched by that hand

The hands with long nails have nice little details on its front and back side.

Raiden's legs. Again, fibery!

Legs are detailed and shows most of the organic-looking parts. I didn't find any slacks even in the smallest parts.

The feet looks like an animal feet.

This is what I don't like in Raiden, he wears high heels. Thankfully these heels are functional, not just for looks or fashion statement. Really detailed too, with claws on the toes.

The peg holes.

I noticed some extra plastic on the legs, but it's okay.

Peg holes are present in this toy: One on the left leg and another on the right leg.

The articulation joints are well hidden. Raiden's design is sharp and edgy that you'll think that these articulation joints are part of the character's design.

ACCESSORIES

This Raiden PAK is cheap during its first day of release and he came with lots of accessories. If you ask me, this one's a steal!

So many! Raiden can equip them all... except for the extra hands and feet

Closer look on the extra hands and feet
They didn't include a pair of fists

These are Raiden's extra hands and feet, It looks great but some of them doesn't fit right on the pegs. They tend to fall off. The extra pair of heels are used to hold the HF Blade so that he can stab-kick enemies. Told you it's functional. No left or right foot indicators embedded on each foot so it's confusing to attach them in the right place.

High Frequency Blade
Used for watermelon and cyborg cutting

The HF Blade looks awesome and sharp. Groove details are present on its handle. It fits nicely on the gripping hands.

Sword sheath

Sword sheath (other side)
It features articulated robotic arm

The sheath for the HF Blade have a glowing light paint effect applied to its energy meter. It is connected to Raiden's left leg hole with the help of the articulated robotic arm. This sheath is heavy and always falls off.

A knife, but I always call this a survival knife.

He also have a survival knife which he only used during the early gameplay trailers of MGS: Rising. That knife can expand Raiden's combo range in the Revengeance game, too bad they canned it and made it just an aesthetic feature.

Raiden's two weapons kept in the sheath

The survival knife can be kept along with the HF Blade on the sword sheath.

The throwing knives or kunai.

The throwing knives have no use in the game, I only saw Raiden use this during a cutscene where he saves George from the Tripods (Dwarf Gekkos) and Raptors in the sewers. Well now we can play with the knives.

The knives are now in the holster

If you're tired of playing with Raiden's knives, put them back in this knife holster. Which can be attached on the right leg's peg hole

Augmented Reality Visor
To equip it, remove the bangs then attach this one.

Raiden is provided with really cool AR Visor to help him locate enemies and find where his next objective is. It's semi-translucent featuring a red hue below the visor. This is a separate accessory because it's difficult to add small articulation points on Raiden's head for this visor.

Because the sheath is heavy, I chose to lower it, Samurai style.

Throwing knives attached to Raiden's right leg.
This limits the leg's movement

AR Visor equipped
The visor lacks the body manufacturer's name.

Raiden is heavy, he will fall down especially if he's posed with unbalanced weight, so you'll need a display stand ready.

Standard PAK stand.

This Raiden came without a display stand, he probably cut it to ribbons before he arrive here, so I'll use one from my other figures as reference of what the PAK stands looks like.

ARTICULATIONS, POSING AND SCALING

Raiden PAK can do lots of static and action moves, thanks to his design and articulation joints. And the majority of the joint cuts are well hidden. One thing that I don't like on this figure is that it's hard to pose because of its weight. So the number poses I pulled for this figure is limited.

Box pose #1

Box pose #2

Head articulation movement is fine. It can rotate 360 degrees, but its up and down tilting is limited. No neck joint on this toy.

Keeping/Drawing the sword

Keeping/Drawing the sword at the back

Torso movement are also good. Just don't stretch/bend the torso too much, because the hollow parts especially on the "crotch piece" or "briefs" will be noticeable.

Focusing to strike

Main menu pose

Arms move nicely. It got a unique 4-way hinge that can tilt the arms up/down/left/right. The chest armor, which have small movable parts, moves along with this hinge, so he can still hold the HF Blade with both hands, I think this type of hinge works on this action figure. The biceps can swivel.

Ready for some knife combat.

The kunai could be useful if it can be used in the game

Ball-hinged hands and elbows can move/swivel without any problem. The elbows have elbow pads that covers the joints.

Stab kick!

Leg joint movement are excellent. It can twist like how a real leg twists. Raiden can also do kicks, he's not Raiden if he can't do that. 

Raiden's very own CQC stance.

Prepare to get sliced and diced!

Knees are double-hinged and it looks good. Thanks to the knee pads, this joint looks natural. The feet are ball-hinged and does have toe articulation. The small ankle part can move so that the feet can rotate sideways.

Two Lightnings

Size comparison time! Raiden is the tallest large scale PAK that I have in my collection because of his high heels. Without the heels, Raiden is still taller than Lightning (LR:FFXIII) which is great for cross-over fight scenes. It makes me curious on what is Raiden's MGS2 human version scale.

Lightning versus Raiden!

Being my first Metal Gear action figure I can't compare Raiden with other MGS characters.

QUALITY ISSUES

Well I didn't encounter any broken parts and missing pieces, but some parts of this toy might break if you're not careful. Here are the parts that may break: chest plate, shoulder guards, torso cables, small ankle parts, whole arm.

CONCLUSION

This MGR: Revengeance Raiden PAK was well received by Metal Gear fans and PAK toy collectors because it looks awesome, it came with lots of accessories and it's cheap. That cheap factor is the reason why some owners just let the random terrible factory flaws pass. It's rare and expensive nowadays and I resorted in buying it 2nd hand just to have one. Raiden found his new home here in my PAK display area and I think he'll like it here.

Charging up for devastating damage!

Thanks to Jeri Reyes and Josiah Fagaragan and all the members of PAKPTG.

Cheers and Happy Collecting!