[Toy Review] [Bootleg?] RIKU DX EDITION - Kingdom Hearts III Play Arts Kai

Riku my favorite character in Kingdom Hearts and he has the best character development in the series, from misguided friend turned villain to Keyblade Master. I'm happy to say that I got his Kingdom Hearts III Play Arts Kai action figure and it's a Deluxe (DX) version! But the catch is that this is a questionable figure. I'm really confused here, I don't know if this is authentic or bootleg because it's really amazing and almost perfect (hence the faded bootleg stamp on the title image). I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll tell you why this figure is really good in this review.

"If you do summon Kingdom Hearts, we will defeat you, and we will close it again."
~ Riku ~

PACKAGING

I bought this figure without its box, raising my suspicions that this might be a knockoff. Anyway if you're wondering what the legit box will look like, here it is. I got these images from eBay as reference.

Box: front

The front of the black box doesn't have any product shot, just the Kingdom Hearts III logo and another logo saying that the figure is the Deluxe (DX) version. The usual logos are here too.

Box: back

The back of the box shows one small product image of Riku and a larger photo of the Destiny Islands trio. The product shots are framed. I like the design but it lacks more product shots.

Front cover opened

Open the front cover and view the figure and its accessories. There's a large product shot of Riku doing a basic standing pose. You can also read some info on the side.

He's now ready to do his missions as a Keyblade Master.

Packaging includes:

- Riku figure

- Braveheart (Keyblade)

- Way to Dawn (Keyblade)

- Way to Dawn (Broken Keyblade)

- 2x interchangeable faceplates

- L/R gripping hands

- L/R styled open hands

Missing in the packaging:

- Instructions

- Display stand

THE FIGURE

Viewing Riku

This action figure looks really good and pretty heavy. I can't see any problems here. This is Riku's latest look for Kingdom Hearts III and Nomura have the hots for plaid design this time. Anyway, I like this design, but if you ask me what's his best design in my opinion, my answer is the Dream Drop Distance design. The KH3 design came second.

Riku's face

The face looks good. No deformities or derpiness. This figure really looks like Riku. The eyes are glossy. There are really faint shadings on the face, it's almost invisible but you'll notice it if you look closer.

He got spiky hair at the back.

Riku's metallic silver hair is spikier in KH3. The sculpt on the hair is really good.

Riku's new special clothes provided by Master Yen Sid.

Riku is wearing a nice-looking black hooded short-sleeved jacket. It got huge buttons on the collar and plaid patterns at the bottom. Riku's plaid colors are white, grey and black. I guess because he's a Guardian of Light that wield his dark powers for doing good and heroic things. He is wearing a simple V-necked shirt underneath the jacket that's tucked in his pants. The undershirt have some wrinkles and shadings.

Back view

The jacket is made too look leathery. It's kinda glossy and have those wrinkles and panels for detail.

Jacket's side pocket

Both sides of the jacket have a huge double-buttoned pocket.

Showing off his muscles

Riku is known to show the toned muscles on his arms so I find it weird at first that he's wearing a sleeved jacket. Good thing that his new design looks good that it grew on me. The arms looks good and have some faint shadings to show the details on Riku's muscles. The sleeves of the jacket have yellow trim. Yellow is Riku's dominant color when it comes to clothing in the series.

Long leather-looking gloves

The fingerless long gloves looks nice, They also have buttons that looks consistent to the jacket's. The gloves have some seamlines for detail and it looks leathery.

Riku's blue pants

Consistent in the series, Riku prefers to wear blue pants. In KH3 he's wearing a 3/4's blue pants with plaid patterns at the bottom. Riku is also wearing a black leather belt with silver buckles.

Side pocket

Riku's pants have a total of six black straps with silver buckles and eyelets, The left and right leg have three straps each. There's also a large side pocket on each leg. Each side pocket have single ball joint for articulation.

Back of the pants

The back of the pants shows more wrinkles than the front. The right leg also have the embossed copyright stuff and it's very clear and legible.

Nice boots

Riku got a nice pair of boots. They're dark gray and black with gray shoelaces and silver eyelets. The boots are strapped too. The upper part of the boots is free-floating, it's adjustable and doesn't hinder the ankle ball-hinges.

Bottom soles

The bottom of the boots have the basic bottom sole pattern seen on most shoes.

ACCESSORIES

Riku DX have nice amount of accessories so I separated them on two sub sections: "Equipment" and "Interchangeables"

If you have the Standard version. That version only comes with one Keyblade and a total of four extra interchangeable hands.

EQUIPMENT

Riku technically came with three weapons in the packaging but actually it's 2.5 number of weapons because one of them is the broken version of the same weapon.

Riku's equipment

He got two actual whole Keyblades: the Braveheart and Way to Dawn. He also got one broken version of the Way to Dawn Keyblade.

Braveheart

This is the Braveheart, Riku's new Keyblade to replace his broken Way to Dawn in KH3. It looks really good and minimalistic. This looks like the evolution of his supposed to be original Keyblade, the Kingdom Key. It reminds me of car keys. It got black guard and gunmetal grip. The blade is metalic silver with some light metallic purple shadings.

Keychain with Mickey emblem

I said that this is the evolution of the Kingdom Key because it also comes with the Mickey emblem. This is a real keychain and the hook that connects it to the Keyblade is also working. You can remove it and attach this on your bracelet or necklace. The bad thing that I found on this Keyblade is that the pommel part where you hook the keychain is kinda loose.

Way to Dawn

The Way to Dawn Keyblade is Riku's own Keyblade first seen on Kingdom Hearts II. This is also an evolution of his Soul Eater sword. This look more metallic and thinner than the one in Riku's KH2 PAK version. The design of this Keyblade have the combination of a single devil and angel wing, again showing that Riku's is a Guardian of Light that can wield dark powers.

Keychain with Hearless emblem

The Way to Dawn also have a real keychain, but it's non removable. It got that Heartless emblem.

Way to Dawn grip

The grip of the Way to Dawn Keyblade is removable. So that you can attach this to the broken version of the Keyblade. It's scary to remove this piece because the guards of the Keyblade felt fragile. The decision why they made it this way baffles me.

Broken Way to Dawn (no grip)

This is the broken Way to Dawn Keyblade. The Keyblade's got broken in the earlier parts of the game forcing Riku to change Keyblades. Yeah it looks the same as the whole version minus the broken half of the blade. This one doesn't have a grip. That's why the grip of the whole Way to Dawn is removable.

Broken Way to Dawn complete.

This is the broken Keyblade with the grip attached. Why make the swappable grip when they can make both versions have their own grips to save us the hassle of swapping the grip to the two versions of the Keyblade?

INTERCHANGEABLES

Here's Riku's set of interchangeable accessories.

Riku's interchangeables

Riku DX got two interchangeable faceplates and four extra hands.

Extra faceplates

The extra faceplates looks good as the default faceplate. One is smiling and the other one is angry and looking on his left, it's like he's attacking some Heartless, Nobodies or Unversed. The eyes on these are glossy. The mouth of the angry face looks good but to me it only have some few uses depending on the figures pose.

Extra hands

These are Riku's extra interchangeable hands. They all look good and attach well on the wrist ball-hinges. Riku got left and right gripping hands making it possible to make this action figure dual-wield Keyblades. The other pair of extra hands are for more posing variety and gestures.

Display stand

My Riku DX doesn't come with a display stand. But if it were, this is the display stand that comes in the packaging. I thought that KH3 PAKs have special stands with the heart-shaped base. If I remember correctly, Sora KH3 PAK ver. 1 have the heart-shaped stand. Anyway, the display stand is very useful. No complaints here.

ARTICULATIONS

In deep thought

Okay, let's play and pose this Riku DX Play Arts Kai figure!

Casual stance

Head is on a double ball-peg. It can look and tilt side to side really well. Looking up is limited because the spiky hair at the back of Riku's head collides with the jacket's hood. The figure doesn't show any neck cuts, but this figure does have neck articulation and it's hidden. But again, it's limited by the soft flexible plastic used on the torso.

Reaching out to you

The shoulders have ball-peg-hinge joints. The hinge are kind of ratcheted because I can feel the joint "clicking" or locking in place when raising the arms sideways. The ball-peg helps the arms shift and rotate in four directions. A really flexible joint and good for posing the arms but it reveals some gaps on the figure.

Looking at his broken Keyblade.

Both arms have hidden bicep swivel joint under the jacket sleeves. It doesn't look awkward when rotating the biceps. The elbows are double hinged and I'm not a fan of this joint because it looks ugly when the arms are bent. They will look a bit better if they got some elbow caps. These joints can also make the biceps and forearms swivel. The wrist ball-hinges makes the hands move and rotate well. They look good on this figure too when posed.

Fighting stance

This figure have hidden upper torso (chest) articulation. It's probably on a double ball-peg but it doesn't really move that well. I kinda need to force it to make the chest move side to side, do an ab-crunch or bend backwards.

Going for an aerial spin attack

The lower torso (waist) articulation works really well, thankfully. The movement range is good. It can turn and tilt side to side well and can lean forward and back well too. To me, the torso articulation of this figure is its weakest point.

Air downward slash.

The legs can raise forward well and can go a couple of clicks to the back. They can raise well to the side making it possible for Riku to do some nice kicking pose. There's a hidden lap swivel on both legs, located at the lap's top strap. It' makes the legs more flexible in posing and it looks good. Both legs can also swivel on the ratcheted joints.

Running

The knees are double-hinged and as usual it moves really well. They still have that persistent visible cavity or gap problem when the knees are fully bent. The side pocked of the pants are articulated. You can adjust it depending on how the knees are bent.

Dual-wield mode (in this figure only, not possible in game).

The ankle ball-hinges makes the feet point up and down a couple of clicks from the neutral position. That's good enough range. The feet can swivel sideways and can pivot.

Wild dual-wield attack.

The feet also have toe articulation. Looks good but I can't find any use for this articulation. By the way, I find it difficult to make this action figure do some crouching pose or kneel on one leg.

SCALING

Height comparison time, yay!

Two Rikus!

Finally, a taller Riku action figure. I was disappointed when the other PAK of Riku (KH2) is on the short side. He's at scale now with most of the PAK figures in my collection.

Riku and Sora

Here's Riku compared to Sora (KH3D). I don't see any problem here because this is the younger-looking version of Sora.

He fits in with Final Fantasy VII characters.

Riku is shorter than KO(?) Cloud ver. 2 (FFVIIR), Tifa (FFVIIR), Aerith (FFVIIR) and KO(?) Sephiroth (FFVIIR). Even though Riku is shorter here, he still looks good when standing with the FFVII figures.

Riku with 2B and Noctis.

Again, Riku is shorter in this photo with KO(?) 2B (NieR:A) and Noctis (FFXV).

Both Harley and Miku look like characters from Kingdom Hearts.

Lastly, here's Riku with a couple of Nomua's Variants. The height comparison here looks good. Harley Quinn (Variant) is taller while Hatsune Miku (Variant) is shorter than Riku.

QUALITY ISSUES

The quality of this Riku DX PAK figure is amazing. I don't see any minor or major defects on this action figure that I got. The joints are really solid and not loose. One of his Keyblades have a really minor issue though.

- The pommel part of the Braveheart Keyblade is kinda loose.

CONCLUSION

Like I said, I'm confused. I don't know if I'm going to consider this Kingdom Hearts III Play Arts Kai action figure of Riku (Deluxe version) a knockoff, a factory reject, an overrun or a legit authentic one? Because this action figure looks and feels great. I haven't found any issues and defects. It didn't break after stress testing its joints while posing it. This DX version of Riku have all of its accessories, minus the display stand. I got this online box-less for around Php.3,500.00 (approx $64.00) versus getting an authentic for a price ranging from Php.9000.00 to Php.10,500.00 (approx $163.00 to $189.00). I'll say it's a win for me. Got my favorite Kingdom Hearts character's PAK figure for a cheap price. I'm still giving this figure review the tags: knockoff, bootleg, overrun and factory reject. But I leave it to you to decide to which tags this action figure falls.

Cheers and Happy Collecting!

More Riku!

Toy Review - Riku Kingdom Hearts II Play Arts Kai action figure