S.H. Figuarts Yoshi review

A while back, Yoshi made his cinematic return in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie; while it was decent as just a fan service montage and sucked as a film, one thing I did like was that Yoshi was done with real justice. Granted, having Donald Glover do the same sound effects is pointless when Japanese voice actor Kazumi Totaka would already be perfect, but at least he just does Yoshi noises and not say a single word in English. Setting aside the mid movie, why do we love Yoshi? I'd argue it's a mix of him just being plain adorable, the undying loyalty towards Mario and friends, and him being worthwhile both as part of a main Mario game and in his own spinoff series is what keeps him as one of the main Nintendo faces without a shadow of a doubt. Plus, it's always satisfying to play as him whether you're actually controlling him or riding on him, but I will always find the fan theory that Mario abuses him to be dumb as hell. Like can y'all stop making these lame ass fan theories that makes Redditors ejaculate, or should I make my own to prove a point? Anyways, with Yoshi's Figuart receiving a reissue, let's see how well this guy holds up for an older release!

Here we have Yoshi in-hand. We aren't quite doing the normal front-side-back photo trio given Yoshi's design is going to make it hard to see his eyes with his big nose. As expected, this figure is a mix between molding parts in separate colors to prevent color mismatching, and painting certain areas where needed (such as the saddle and the fins on the back). Given his character design is always going to have cartoony proportions, I think Tamashii nailed the look pretty well. With fewer articulation cuts that break up the sculpt like on the Mario Brothers, Yoshi looks a bit more naturalistic in comparison. The arms are a bit segmented like the Bros, but at least the hips don't look a bit shrunken due to the proportions the plumbers have, requiring that forward leg movement is done by making the spaces above the legs smaller so the joint could work. Even the mouth doesn't look segmented, especially with his chubby face and big nose making it less noticeable. As for the quality of the figure, it's generally robust yet the torso is a bit hollow. My theory is Tamashii wanted to make sure he wouldn't weigh too much on the flight stand if he were to have either bro on his back. Speaking of which, we also have a left hand holding an egg, two alternate saddles meant for each bro, an open right hand, eyes facing forward, and his tongue probably measuring at his height. 

Articulation includes a hinge within the head to look up and down, neck rotation, jaw-ticulation, universal shoulder range, hinged elbows, wrist rotation via the pegs and barely any inward hinges (though I can't get the pegs within the forearms to rotate so the wrists bend inwards only). The hips and ankles are on ball joints, but there are no knees. I like that the display options are easy to swap out for the most part, though the hands can be hard to pop in real good whereas the eyes don't have enough friction to keep them in place. O will admit that I wish the egg could be detached from his hand so it can be plopped in one of the invisible tiles. The tongue thankfully is easy to swap once to pop the head off, and I like that the saddle is able to hinge back to give the head more space to point up.

For those wondering, the wider saddle is meant for Mario while the thinner one for Luigi. I love recreating some of the cover poses that were used for New Super Mario Bros Wii, and I was hoping to do the same for Super Mario Galaxy 2 if not for the way one of the hands works with Yoshi. Still wish we got both various versions of Toad and more Yoshi repaints so we can recreate the 4 player craze NSMBW brought since keeping everyone in the same screen could make things a bit hectic. I know Jakks Pacific made plenty of Toad and Yoshi repaints, but they won't sit that well without the balancing support of that cradle.

Overall, while Yoshi is always mandatory for a Mario collection I am a bit let down by the potential not being as realized as I was hoping. Not that this is a bad figure, but I wish he had a few more accessories for mostly the eyes or hands. Then comes the price discussion: I know I got Mario and Luigi years ago, the former from a comic shop and the latter from Amazon, so they may not have been entirely accurate to the MSRP.  From what I remember, Yoshi went for $40-45 in the first run, and the jump to nearly $70 should rightfully throw people off. I know Tamashii charges some Figuarts more than others, especially if their Dragon Ball cast has proven anything with Goku and Vegeta usually being for casual collectors while other characters get a higher price tag. That said, Yoshi's equally as recognizable to casual fans as the Mario Bros, and on top of that, doesn't he still have the same value of accessories as them? Even the recent Mario reissue gives him a flight stand that should have been included with the first run, so the price hike is probably Tamashii wanting to make this figure seem more like a bigger deal than it really is. I know it's 36 years since Super Mario World came out, and we also got his NES game just sharing his name a year after SMW came out, plus the recent movie regardless of its quality...all I have to say is that you should wait for a sale if we were to get one. I hate saying that because Yoshi is one of those characters you would feel bad saying "no" to, but so have to say it how it is when it comes to value for money. The rest of the figure is generally good, I just wish they didn't upcharge it considering the kind of character we're talking about. I know some will bring up inflation, tariffs, or aftermarket prices, but those aren't excuses for a company that does some practices with certain releases. Case in point, the Ranma Figuarts nearly costing $100 despite having mostly similar accessory counts with the main anime faces of DBZ, One Piece, and Naruto at your local Target or Walmart to encourage new collectors.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐