In 1995, Tsukuda Hobby would follow up with a second installment
to their Mini Character Collection series. This time, featuring the cast
of NAMCO's weapons based fighter: Soul Edge.
The box colour for the second volume is brown with the game's title
written in Japanese Katakana as "ソウルエッジ" (Soul Edge).
The back of the box features Arcade screen and promotional renders
for the eight standard characters.
For those of you wondering where Hwang and Cervantes are, this
particular set was based on the first Arcade port of Soul Edge in Japan
where Hwang started out as a palette swap for Mitsurugi (in Korean
Arcade ports) and Cervantes was still an unplayable boss character.
Hwang would join the cast with his own exclusive moveset as well
as Cervantes as playable character with the Arcade release of Ver. II
a few months later.
Just like the first volume, the back of the box mentions that the included
eight figures are from NAMCO's new weapon-based fighter Soul Edge.
Each of the eight fighter's names are written in English, Japanese Kata
-kana, Chinese (Li Long), Japanese Kanji (Mitsurugi) and Korean
-Chinese Hanja (Seung Mi-Na).
The top of the packaging contains the same graphics advertising both
sets. Again, the Katakana reads "Mini character Collection Lineup".
The side of the packaging contains the cast using Soul Edge's in
-game graphics compared to Tekken 2's promotional renders.
The bottom of both packages contains Japan's standard "Safety Toy"
(ST) logo as well as the Tsukuda Hobby logo in both English and
Katakana.
Now, let's take a look at the figures themselves!
The first figure is of the German Knight Siegfried Schtauffen.
No relation to Final Fantasy's Cloud Strife, Siegfried comes with
his signature Zweihänder ("two-hander") sword.
The words "(C) NAMCO CHINA" are carved into the backs of
each figure.
Next up is Soul Calibur's resident masked lunatic, "Hell's Guardian":
Voldo!
Along with Voldo's claw-like Katars, Voldo's intricate mixture
of armor and fishnet attire are also visible.
Rumor has it that Voldo's design and background were heavily
based on "Pinhead" from the
Hellraiser movie series.
The third figure is of series favorite, the demon hunter and
renegade ninja: Taki.
Even in her first figure appearance, Taki's skin-tight attire leaves
nothing to the imagination.
Due to Taki's slender frame and chibi-sized head sculpt, the Taki
minifigure can be difficult to stand at times.
Taki is also paired with her sword original Kodachi sword Rekki
-Maru (Taki would begin to use her second sword Mekki-Maru in
the sequel "Soul Calibur").
"MANGOOOO" The fourth figure in the set is of the "White Giant":
Rock.
With trusted Battle Axe in hand and a grimace on his face, Rock
looks ready to battle!
Rock's beast cloak stretches down his back while a skull on his
left arm acts as shoulder armor..
Original series samurai posterboy, famously nicknamed the "one
man army": Heishiro Mitsurugi.
Another highlight from the series, there is plenty of detail in
Mitsurugi's first-ever figure.
Mitsurugi is posed ready to unsheathe his Katana.
I especially like the flowing wind effect used for Mitsurugi's
hair.
Tsukuda Hobby also sold keychains of both Tekken and Soul Edge
characters around the same time. The Mitsurugi figure still contains
a hole at the top of the head where the chain would have been inserted
into the mold.
Most likely, this Mitsurugi figure was the first of the eight
characters chosen to become keychains.
The Nunchaku wielding Li Long takes the stage as the sixth
figure in the set.
This minifigure would be Li Long's only figure released to date.
Another series favorite is Greek Warrior Sophitia Alexandra.
Sophitia comes dressed in her in-game battle armor and is
equipped with her sword and shield weaponry.
The back of the Sophitia minifigure features Sophitia's waist
length braided hair and sandal straps.
The third and final female cast member from Soul Edge: the staff
wielding Seung Mi-na.
Plenty of detail has been placed into Seung's attire and weapon.
Most notably, the ying-yang symbols which adorn Seung's gloves
and boots.
Scale wise, the Soul Edge Tsukuda Hobby set are slightly smaller
in scale when compared to volume 1's Tekken 2 set (again under
2 inches (4.5cm). Though, the Soul Edge figures more than make
up for this factor with the added detail and included weapons for
each fighter.
The Soul Edge set would be the last of the Mini Character
Collection Series to feature figures based on any of NAM
-CO's properties.
Tsukuda Hobby would release two more volumes (No. 3 and
4) with characters based on "Sakura Wars"
(サクラ 大戦 其
ノ弐) (with co-licensing from SEGA) in each set before
filing for bankruptcy in 2002.
Personally, I feel Tsukuda Hobby missed out on including
SEGA's popular Virtua Fighter franchise to this series.
