Figure Name: ArtFX J Yu-Gi-Oh! 1/7-scale Yami Yugi
Figure Maker: Kotobukiya
Retail: US$69.99
Available at: Koto US

Yami Yugi's box is pretty huge. I should have put in a comparison shot, but he's real tiny-looking next to it. The reason the box ended up being kind of huge is all his accessories are packed in around the main figure (his jacket, the cards, necklace, extra bonus keychain/accessory, and his card duel disk), so the tray ended up a little super-sized in comparison to the figure's stature. The important thing is that he's safe and sound when he gets home to you, though; right? Right.

Once he's free, he just comes attached to the base and nothing more. In order to get the jacket on, you've got to pop his head off and do some swapping with his collar and then slipping on the necklace. As you can see, he looks a little silly without the cards in his hands. I'm sure some creative folk might pose him with other items, but for the sake of this review I just stuck with his accessories.

The first things that popped out at me were his bright, shiny pants and the matching jacket. I know some folks have got issues with glossy finish, but I love it on this figure. In pictures like this the gloss gives them this liquid look, but on the shelf it gives the clothing material just enough shine to just stand out. You don't need to worry about getting a sun tan in your own home or that the gloss is way too globbed on.

The jacket itself is pretty cool, and it adds some nice depth and dynamism to Yami's look overall when combined with his other accessories. It also gives him more movement since there isn't anything else to go by except his pose, in which he looks like he's about to slap a card down to wreck some faces.

The cards have a simple design on both sides. The face looks like your typical trading card game style thing, but with no particular monster details. The back is just as nondescript. I didn't need them to be too detailed though, so this doesn't particularly bother me. For being so tiny, I'm just glad they're nicely molded and feature a clean paint job.

In order to get them fixed into his hands, it's just a matter of wedging them in. The single card just slips in between his fingers, and the spread hand slides in place easily from the right side (Yami's left) of his left hand.

Yami Yugi's card duel disc goes around his arm, so you've got to pop his hand off in order to get it on. His hand came off easily, but you do need to be careful removing the bracelet as the peg has an extra chunk on it - don't want to be snapping that piece off by accident.

Once it's installed, you've got yourself a duelist. Again here, notice how clean the paint is on for being smaller parts of a figure. The craft work with this figure is great.

Now, I mentioned the necklace before (with the Millennium Puzzle) when I was talking about installing his jacket, so here's a look. The lines are perfect and it hangs from a simple lightweight chain. Do be careful when dealing with this, though, as the loop might pop away from the chain if you tug on it even mildly hard. It'll come right back together again, rest assured, but be mindful of it to avoid losing parts.

Before we get to his face, I'll cover his other details at is waist. That's right... time for the butt shot. Well, Yami Yugi doesn't have much of a butt, I'm afraid. I will however point out that his utility belt is a separate piece from his pants and wiggles just a little bit.

Besides that, I just appreciate the subtle molding of his top. He's a skinny guy and his art style is pretty unforgiving (especially with that uncomfortable-yet-cool-looking thrust hip pose I always poke fun at with the One Piece P.O.P. figures the guys end up in), but the overall effect is attractive and vigorous.

Bonus: Millennium Puzzle charm! It's a nice add-on; a cool way to show your Yu-Gi-Oh! pride by carrying it around with you attached to your phone or keys.

Alright, for real now. On to his face:

Yami Yugi's eyes are huge. His hair is huge. It's pretty crazy.

Does it look just as I remember him? Pretty much. I think that the work here is flawless in terms of interpreting the character and art style we used to see in the cartoon. The detailing with his hair is especially cool - the yellow parts are a separate piece from the back layer of black and red. Of course, I should also mention that once again, the paint application is solid. There isn't any black paint bleeding into the red areas, or vice-verse. 

So, is this worth pulling the dough out of your wallet? If you're a fan of the character - absolutely. If you have no idea who he is but you appreciate a good figure when you see one, you might also want to consider giving Yami Yugi a try. More than the fact that he's a Yu-Gi-Oh! character (I wasn't obsessed with it or anything), what I like most about this figure (and other ArtFX J characters like the Yu Yu Hakusho boys) is that it comes from an old property. I can't say that I was in tune with figure collecting back in the 90s, and the quality of figures has certainly increased since then, so why not give the old guys a shot at looking their best as a PVC statue?

It isn't just the fact that Yami Yugi is a thing of my childhood, but also that this figure was reverently crafted. There are no extra frills, no updates to the art style, and no liberties taken to make him anything but himself, which is usually all I could ask for of figures in general.

Thanks again to Kotobukiya for providing Tomopop with this figure! Check out the gallery for more images which didn't make it to the main body of my review, and look forward to more coverage in the ArtFX J figure line right here.