HAO Great Muta (Facepaint Ver.) figure review

Starting in 2003, Japanese toy maker HAO ARTS OFFICE (named

after founder & sculptor Kenichi Hao) started to release a series of
5 to 7"inch soft-vinyl figures.

The HAO collection would feature recognizable faces from NJPW,
AJPW, PRIDE, UFC, NOAH, ZERO1 Baseball and even the world
of Sumo!

Today, we'll be looking at one of the most sought after figures from
first few waves of the HAO collection in the form of HAO's Great
Muta (Facepaint Ver.) soft vinyl figure:
                              

Notice the NJPW Lion Mark logo in the top left corner?

With collectors in mind, all HAO figures come in a special clamshell
packaging that can be slid off like a picture frame without damaging
the cardboard backing of the package. This is great for collector's who
'd like to display their HAO figures freely and then store them away
in their original packaging when not on display.

The front and backside of the cardboard packaging for the Great Muta
HAO figure has a very sophisticated stone tile design. The packaging
also contains a small bit of writing in English.

The writing on both sides of the packaging reads:

"HAO COLLECTION #SP-002 グレート・ムタ [GREAT MUTA]
                  FIGHTERS FIGURE LIMITED MODEL
This figure is the selected superstar from world sports entertainment.
Learn the spirit behind a figure shows you a new perspective on your
passion for the fight."

The first Great Muta design featured in this series is based on The
Great Muta's classic facepaint design from his early NWA/WCW
and New Japan Pro-Wrestling days.

                               

Following Japan's long-standing tradition of molding their figures
in statue-like poses, the HAO Great Muta figure is sculpted to
resemble Great Muta's pre-match thumb across throat taunt.

                               

With articulation in Muta's wrists, waist and arms, it is also possible
to rotate Muta's right hand into a thumb down taunt pose!

From the 3-dimensional Japanese Kanji written on Muta's facepaint
"Shinobi" (忍 right side) and "fire" ( 火 on left side) to Muta's classic
wristbands with Ninja Deathstar decals and green lips ready to spray
poison mist,  the level of detail in this Great Muta HAO figure is
amazing!

While my Kanji is a little rusty, I believe the Kanji pictured above
on Muta's pants roughly translates to "Great Muta".

Each of the "SP" (special edition) HAO figures comes with a mini
booklet providing a short bio of each Wrestler along with a serial
number. The Great Muta Facepaint edition was numbered to 3,500
total figures; all being individually numbered within each booklet.

The inside of the book mentions many of The Great Muta's highlights
such as defeating Sting for the NWA World Television Title on September
3rd, 1989, Muta's IWGP championship victory against Riki Choshu on
August 16th, 1992, winning the NWA World Heavyweight title against
Masahiro Chono on January 4th, 1993, winning the IWGP Tag Team titles
with Chono on October 19th, 1997 (as members of NWO Japan), Muta's
iconic fight against The Great Nita (Atsushi Onita) on August 28th, 1999.
Competing in WCW once again in 2000 and an IWGP match against rival
Power Warrior (Kensuke Sasaki).
                           

HAO Muta Scale - various Great Muta and Keiji Mutoh HAO figures.

Overall, the Great Muta classic facepaint figure is a sight to
behold. HAO did an excellent job capturing Muta's likeness
for his first HAO figure and the detail of this variant is easily
noticeable.

As the HAO series would progress, HAO would increase the
scale of each Keiji Mutoh/Great Muta figure in the years to
follow.