It’s been a while since I’ve done a semi-obscure import review, and with Wonder Fest coming up soon I thought I’d take a look at a couple of figures I picked up last month.  Rounding up my Revoltech Takeya collection are two characters that depart from the look of previous releases.

I don’t normally review two figures at once, but it seemed pretty appropriate this time since both characters have usually been portrayed together in Japanese mythology since their inception.  No need to split them up now.  Of course I do have another reason, which I’ll get into in a minute.   But first, a little history on the characters.

Fujin, the God of Wind, is typically portrayed as a large demon-like creature with dark green skin.  He lives above the clouds and usually has a disheveled look to his clothes and hair.  His most notable trait is the giant bag that’s wrangled around his shoulders.  Inside are all the winds of the world, which he lets loose by opening one end.

Raijin, the God of Thunder, has a similar muscular look to his celestial counterpart, with the exception that he tends to be portrayed with more monkey-like facial features.  Raijin is typically seen surrounded by small drums, which he beats to cause thunder.  He is also known as Raiden, and was even credited for saving Japan long ago for foiling an invading Mongol horde by throwing lightning arrows down at them.

Interestingly, neither character was originally part of Buddhist mythology.  Their story reflects this by initially making them demons and enemies of the Buddha.  There was a large battle between the demons and thirty three gods.  Raijin and Fujin were eventually captured and changed their ways to now serve heaven.

Aside from their shared history, I also wanted to review these two figures together because they share the exact same body.  The arms, legs, and torsos on both of these figures are the same.  It’s easier to see when you have the two standing next to each other, but these two are a perfect example of how a few nicely detailed original pieces can go a long way in creating an entirely new character with its own personality.

It also helps that these bodies are entirely new to the Takeya line.  When compared to their earlier Buddhist counterparts, you can definitely see that these two gods, even without all that armor, are built much bulkier.  No wonder it took 33 gods to take them down.

The most important unique piece for each figure is their head.  Fujin has a thin jagged beard and mustache, but bushy eyebrows.  His mouth is open in an almost panting expression, while his small eyes burn intensely with a deep red center.  Lastly there’s the rhino-like double horn on his head, large lobed ears, and hair that’s appropriately blowing straight back.  Continue to page 2…