A range of new official PlayStation figures have been announced, including characters from Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok. Created in collaboration with toy company Spin Master, The Shapes Collection is a new line of collectibles based on top PlayStation Studios games.
The first to launch will be a deluxe 6-inch Aloy action figure, painstakingly modeled after the protagonist of Horizon Forbidden West. It will feature 42 points of articulation, allowing for a huge range of possibilities, and comes bundled with 15 accessories.
This includes five interchangeable face plates (letting you change her expression), six alternate hands, her trademark bow, arrows, a quiver, and a spear. It is currently available to pre-order for $49.99 / £48 at Amazon and the PlayStation Gear store with shipping expected to begin in August.
Other figures include Aloy's companion Varl, the legendary samurai Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima, and Kratos and Atreus from God of War Ragnarok. These will cost $29.99 / £28.80 each and come with two to four accessories depending on your choice of character.
They're pretty cool little models on the whole and look like quite good value collectibles if the quality of the finished product is on par with the promotional material. Interestingly, each figure is actually based on one of the digital sculpts used in the production of their respective games - which might be the reason for their excellent level of detail.
Arno Schmitz, lead character artist at Horizon developer Guerrilla Games, explained some more about the creation of these figures. "It was a great pleasure to work on the Aloy and Varl figurines together with Spin Master," they said. "They are based on the actual digital sculpts used for the game, something you can really see in the final result. We made sure the many articulation points made sense and even the finest textural detail shows up on the figures."
"A personal highlight was the ability to provide different facial expressions for Aloy, which, together with those many articulation points (even her hair has some!), make her a very poseable figure," they continued. "Also, the technique used to apply color to the faces meant we were really able to maintain the likeness of actual models, something that was very important and adds a lot to the appeal of these figures.”
Jason Connel, creative director at Ghost of Tsushima studio Sucker Punch Productions, echoed a similar sentiment. "We’re excited to have a new action figure version of Jin that fans can keep on their shelf to protect their home," they said. "Jin’s Ghost armor has so many beautiful details, including intricate fabric patterns and overlapping armor plates that are integral to the design of his character. In addition to his katana, it’s also always important to us to see all of his various Ghost tools represented to capture his different fighting techniques.”
Hopefully, this is just the beginning and there are even more figures on the way. We might not be getting that rumored PlayStation 5 version of Bloodborne any time soon, but a highly detailed miniature version of The Hunter could be the next best thing.
