An Early Glimpse At The First Metal Gear Rising Play Arts Kai Figure

Metal Gear Solid fans are now in a good period if they just so happen to be toy collectors since the franchise has gotten a major push in the merchandise front in the last two years.  Originally MGS has always had cool product representation such as the original action figure lines done by McFarlane Toys, but now that Konami has teamed up with Square Enix to produce figures we’re in a golden era of sorts.  With the Play Arts Kai series finally hitting upon the characters of MGS1, including the ever popular Cyborg Ninja, we can also expect some more relevant products to be released as well based on none other than Metal Gear Rising.

A series of figures based on Metal Gear Rising was kind of a foregone conclusion seeing as how that’s one of Konami’s big releases for 2012/2013 and receiving a figure of a cool cyborg ninja is thing most people generally appreciate.  Full details on the MGR figure line haven’t been revealed, but Hideo Kojima did reveal the first images of the Raiden prototype figure via his Twitter account.  

Currently in early prototype form, the Raiden figure may be unpainted but it’s easy to see what sort of detail and direction is being taken with the figure.  Featuring Raiden’s sleek yet slightly rugged look as found in Metal Gear Rising, the figure features his panel designed armor, which even has pieces that slide according to Kojima, along with his katana and massive gun, which I still don’t know what the purpose is since Raiden can slice and dice nearly anything.

Kojima didn’t elaborate as to the Raiden figure or who else we can expect to see from the line, but I have a feeling we’ll end up seeing that quasi Vamp character since he appears to be Raiden’s main foil.  We may have only received an early glimpse at a prototype figure but I continue to be impressed with the quality of detail found in the Play Arts Kai series and how Konami is going about choosing which characters to do next instead of doing nothing or releasing something two years later when all the hype and interest has died down.

Based on the current development of the Raiden figure and how fast other figures in the series have arrived on retail, we could see Raiden appear at retail in late 2012 or early 2013, possibly to tie-in with the launch of Metal Gear Rising.