Review date: 2/20/2005
Revised: 2/21/2005

Manufacturer: Medicom

Released: 2005

Availability: NORMAL

Type: Trading Figure

Personal Story:
I knew about this figure but I didn't know if I was ever gonna get it since it was available as an exclusive in Japan. It was later mass-produced by Medicom so I preordered it and patiently waited until it arrived.

Sculpt:
Naked Snake's sculpt is very similar to the sculpt of the Solid Snake kubrick from Metal Gear Solid 2 that Medicom released a few years ago. The hair piece is reused and is identical to the Solid Snake figure. The body sculpt is new though. Medicom sculpted all the little accessories that Snake carried in the game including his knives and various pouches. It's all very detailed with little knickknacks. But sadly, they're all sculpted onto the figure as a single piece. But his right leg does have two straps holding his knife which is also a single piece of plastic. I'm disappointed that none of his knives were removable. Snake LOVES the knife in the game and yet we aren't able to play around with him holding his knife. What a shame.

One other problem I found was the holster. The Solid Snake and Special Force kubricks had holsters to hold their pistols but it seems like Medicom forgot to give that to poor Naked Snake here. His holster is one solid plastic that's not even in scale with the gun. I thought the decision to exclude a working holster was terrible. So if you wanted to have him hold the rifle instead of the pistol then you'll need to store his pistol safely somewhere. Like I said, terrible decision. We didn't get a knife AND a working holster? What gives?

The included accessories include his pistol and rifle. They are nicely detailed like with all of Medicom's other offerings. But there seemed to be more attention paid to these guns than with Medicom's previous efforts. Since Snake loved his pistol so much (and the game told us so much about it), I'm glad they didn't give us some generic one. The guns have all the right parts and grooves etc. Even the silencers on the tip of the guns have tiny grooves and dents. Excellent. There was some minor warping with the rifle but it could be an isolated incident with my figure. Like I said, great details but the lack of his knife (his preferred weapon of choice) was a major mistake.

The only major flaw I found with the sculpt are the ears. The ears weren't cut correctly and there seems to be an extra piece on his ear lobes. It's weird and doesn't seem to be an isolated problem. It looks a little odd.

Paint:
The paint is very clean with some minor problems. The colors are quite accurate to the source and his face is very clean. I'm glad they added all the lines and details on his face because it looks just like the character because of that. It is NOT the same design as the Solid Snake kubrick. The camouflage design on his outfit is excellent and very well done. It's very close to the source. All the little accessories on his outfit were painted including the clips and straps on his pouches. Nice. The guns are also nicely painted with plenty of detail including a bit of silver on the pistol and some nice camo pattern on his rifle (even the straps on the handle were painted!). I was very impressed with the guns' paint job. Great job on that department but I did find some slop with the pistol's silver paint here and there. I was able to fix some of it.

Some other flaws I found were some bleeding near his hair and bandana. There is also some bleeding from his outfit to a couple of the accessories. It's all fairly minor but I found it quite uncharacteristic from Medicom. Maybe it's cause this was a mass-produced figure that some quality suffered in the process. It's minor but it's something that I can't overlook since Medicom rarely has paint problems like this. Too bad.

The figure in its packaging. Very nice design with the camo element. But I thought the card was a little too big.

"C'mon Commie biaaaatches~!"

The guns. Lots of nice details but where's the coveted knife???

The back.