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REVOLTECH HOKUTO NO KEN REVOLUTION 012: THOUZER

Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech

   "The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Ridureyu is back with another look at a Revoltech figure - take it away, Ridureyu!

Before I begin, a word on translation:

The Japanese language is very elegant and beautiful, but also extremely limited and rigid in form, especially when compared to English.  The language is phonetically-based, and also certain sounds that we are familiar with simply do not exist - hence the L/R problem, or S/TH/Z, or even B/V.  This is why "McDonald's" in Japan is "Makudonarudo."  Thus, when a character in Japanese media has a "foreign' name, translation can be quite difficult.  Sometimes there are cues - Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z is named for "Vegetable," and that is why we do not say "Bejiiter."  Now, there is a character from Fist of the North Star whose name could conceivably be translated as Souther, Thouzer, Thouther, or even Sauzer.  Looking at the evidence:

*He is the master of the South Dipper Phoenix Fist, one of the styles of the South Dipper Holy Fist.
*He is one of the Six Sacred Fists of the South Dipper.
*His symbol is the Southern Cross.
*Shin, another member of the Six Sacred Fists of the South Dipper founded a city called Southern Cross.
*The South Dipper Holy Fist itself stands in opposition with Hokuto Shinken, the North Dipper Holy Fist.
*His empire is in the South.
*He is occasionally compared to the Southerly wind, also known as a Souther.
*He bears a surprising resemblance to the American musician, J. D. Souther.

So, how does Revoltech translate his name?  THOUZER.  TO be fair, he was Souther in nearly every translation since the 1980s, save the recent arcade game ("Thouther"), the new PS3/XBox 360 game ("Thouzer"), and this figure.  The old 1990s Kaiyodo toy even called him Souther, and Revoltech is part of the same company!  The 2008 spinoff anime series also translated his name as "Souther," and I will continue to call him that for the review.  But the Revoltech figure officially calls him "Thouzer."  And now on to the actual review:

Souther is the sole inheritor of Nanto Ho-O Ken (South Dipper Phoenix Fist), the strongest of the Nanto (Southern Star) arts.  His specific style is passed from father to son, and can only be practiced by one master at a time.  Souther's teacher, Ogai, adopted him, and they loved each other like a real father and son.  Thus, when Ogai tricked Souther into killing him to uphold the "one master" ideal, it emotionally devastated him.  Souther reasoned that he only felt so much pain because of love, attachments, and emotions, and thus denied them all.  Later, he declared himself The Holy Emperor of the Southern Star, and conquered a huge portion of land after the nuclear bombs dropped.  Souther decided to build a gigantic pyramid mausoleum to honor both himself and his deceased master, and exclusively used children as slaves to do it.  Souther's immense cruelty often bordered on parody - he refused to eat unless there were starving orphans watching, and he often gave would-be assassins free shots at him if they were willing to sacrifice their families first.  Souther kind of took things a little too far.  His fighting style, Nanto Ho-O Ken, specializes in the same cutting and stabbing motions as the other Nanto schools, although his is far less fancy.  He has no stance, because to have a stance implies defense, and Souther's technique is all about offense, speed, brutality, and practicality.  But if you actually harm Souther, you will find that he does indeed have a stance just for special occasions.  He likes to leave cross-shaped wounds on his victims, although significant ones merit a formal execution on top of his pyramid.  For a man who "rejected all emotions," Souther was quite capable of letting out a good evil laugh whenever he felt like it.

Souther was born with <i>dextrocardia situs inversus totalis</i>, meaning that his heart (and pressure points) were reversed, making him essentially immune to Hokuto Shinken, Kenshiro's (the hero) martial art. Raoh (the series main villain) refused to face Souther, and he actually defeated Kenshiro on their first meeting.  Ken recovered and learned Souther's secret in time to defeat him, but not before Souther brutally executed Shuu, one of the most kindhearted characters in the series.  Ken used a "merciful" attack to finish Souther, which helped him realize the error of his ways before he died.  This doesn't make him any less of a jerk.

Souther is one of the most famous villains from Fist of the North Star, and appears in some form in almost every adaptation or toyline.  Most recently, he has been featured in one of the remake movies as well as being selectable in all recent video games.  He is also apparently the favorite fictional character of Goto Yuka, a famous Japanese actress, who actually has people call her "Thouther."  As long as she doesn't enslave any children for her pyramid-building project, it's all right.

Revoltech (That's "Revol-Tech" as in "revolve," not "revolt") is a Japanese toy company owned by Kaiyodo that is known for their innovations in articulation, particularly the "revoltech" joint, a unique kind of ratcheting ball-and-socket combination.  Most of their toys are robots, although they have recently branched out into more humanoid figures, such as their Fist of the North Star "Revolution" line.  These toys have covered most major and minor characters of the series, even including a few exploding punks just for the fun of it.  Souther is figure #12 in the line.

Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech

Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech

Packaging - ***1/2
Souther's packaging is the same as others in this line - a fairly large cardboard box with an interior plastic tray, and a clear plastic cap over that.  It uses no twist ties or rubber bands, but Souther and all his parts fit nicely into their slots.  The packaging seems a little large, but it does an excellent job of protecting everything without making any of the parts hard to remove.  The back of the packaging contains some information on the character, his accessories, and Revoltech-style joints, but these won't mean anything to non-Japanese speakers.

Sculpting - ****
The sculpt captures Souther perfectly.  He wore a couple of different outfits during his tenure in the series, but this is recognizably the one he had in both fights with Kenshiro.  Souther is a tall, blonde man with generally heroic features (the irony!).  He wears a light armor cloth shirt, ordinary slacks, and fairly ornate boots.  The sculpting is rather good, catching details like the straps on the back of his shirt, or his large eyebrows, or even the Bindi dot on his forehead.  The inclusion of the Bindi is odd, as there is no indication that Souther is Hindi, but the dot can signify anything from spirituality, caste or marital status, or religious affiliation.  In his case, he probably wore it to signify his "holy" emperor status.  It also makes for a nice pun with his generally-aryan looks.  Souther's facial expression is a very nice touch.  He is giving a smug little smirk, which is how he looked about ninety percent of the time.  if you tilt his head up a little, the angle makes him look thoughtful, which is close to his appearance right before he died.  His clothes are well-sculpted, especially that shirt - it looks like a breastplate most of the time in the series, but then tears like cloth near the end.  His musculature is also good, keeping the original style without making him too beefy.

Souther is 6" exactly. This is somewhat odd, as most 6"-scale figures are slightly above that.  He will fit in nicely with MOTU figures, however, although he isn't as bulky as most of them.  Scale might be slightly annoying, as Souther is meant to be a tall person, but will seem a little short when compared to most 6" lines, such as Marvel Legends or DC Universe.

Paint - ****
Souther's paint is immaculate.  Every single detail seems perfect, from the rivets on his shirt/breastplate to the Bindi on his forehead.  His eyes are also quite well done, helping to encapsulate his absolute smugness.  Work on the hair is also noteworthy, as Souther is blonde without the paint obscuring sculpt details of his hair.  There is also a light wash over his skin to allow the musculature to stand out.  I could not find any paint slop on the figure, either - everything was precise and on the mark.

Articulation - ****
The Revoltech line is known for its articulation, and it delivers on its promise.  Souther's articulation is the same as most other figures in the line, although his movements may seem freer due to the lack of things like shoulder pads getting in the way.  They all seem sturdy, although I would recommend testing each joint first before really moving them.  Remember, Revoltech joints are ratchet-based, so there will be some resistance between clicks.  Most pieces, such as his wrists, knees, or chest can come apart easily rather than break, which offers some nice durability for the figure.  I was impressed with how many poses this figure can take - Souther's fighting style may not have been very fancy, but there are a few specific positions for him that would be very hard for an action figure to reproduce.  The only one I had trouble with was his introductory pose - seated, legs crossed, slouching a little, head resting on hand.  Souther's closed hand just barely misses reaching his chin, but that is far better than any other toy I've had.  Most importantly, you can pose him in any of his attack positions, including the Tensho Juji Ho (heaven-Soaring Cross Phoenix) stance, or his subsequent aerial diving attack, or even about to throw the spear he used to kill Shuu.  If you can find a pyramid topper in the right scale, feel free to pose him on top of it!  Remember, Nanto Ho-O Ken has no set stance except for the Tensho Juji Ho, and relies mostly on blinding speed and freeform offense.  Most poses would fit his fighting style, so feel free to experiment!

Revoltech joints are fairly hard to hide, but the sculpt generally did a great job of it.  His wrists will look bad almost no matter what you do, but the shoulders (the other main problem area) are very well-disguised.

Accessories - ***
Souther outdoes many figures in the Revoltech line when it comes to accessories, but still feels slightly short.  He comes with a whopping five pairs of hands - closed fists, open fists for holding a weapon, open hands, flat palms, and the Tensho Juji Ho hand gesture.  You can mimic absolutely every hand gesture Souther used in the series, and that is saying something. The flat palms are also incredibly good - the majority of Souther's attacks were cutting motions, and thus you will need them for nearly any attacking pose.  The "Tensho" hands are useful for the aforementioned stance, but he also used them during parts of his aerial dive or a few other attacks, and they can be used to hold small objects easily. 

Aside from the hands, he comes with his mask, the spear used to kill Shuu, a typical two-part Revoltech base, and an orange plastic coin, and an orange box to hold everything.  That box is welcome, as it also has room for another figure's smaller accessories, since not all of them come with one.  The coin serves no purpose except to advertise Revoltech.  The mask is an odd anomaly.  In the anime, he wore it for all of two scenes, and in the manga he technically never did - it made an appearance on a chapter title page as well as in the background to hide Souther's identity, but he never actually used it.  Oddly, that single page also gave him a sword, which he held for a grand total of five seconds in the anime.  The old 1990s figure gave him that, too, allowing you to dress Souther <i>as he never actually dressed.</i> It's a cool mask, though, and fits decently on his face or in his Tensho hands in a nice alternate use for them.  But the mask highlights a problem with this figure - no cape.  Souther wore a white cape whenever he was not fighting, including the only times he was seen with that mask.  Its absence is very odd, especially considering that he has his mask.  The spear is quite nice - it comes in two pieces so it can slide into his open fists, and fits very, very snugly.  Its sculpt and paint are just as good as the main figure and mask, and looks good in his hands.  He only used it once and briefly, and it technically isn't his spear at all (it belonged to a henchman), but that one use is iconic enough that they've made throwing it a special move for him in both recent video games.  For the most accurate pose, one of Souther's open hands works well as his "aiming" hand before he threw it.  The lack of his cape is worth a full star, but everything else is quite good.  The Revoltech base is standard for the line.  it offers good standing support, and can suspend him in the air, too.  Again, test the Revoltech joint in the top of the base - it is made of more brittle plastic than the figure, after all.

Value - **1/2
I hate how much Revoltech toys cost, although $30 is only $10 more than, say, the average MOTU Classics figure (and it's less than you will probably have to pay on E-bay).  For your money, you do get a high-quality toy and a ton of accessories, at least.  On the secondary market, Souther retails for anywhere from $30 to $50.  He is often sold out, but I found mine for $30 before shipping, and that was quite recently!  Keep your eyes out and check most Japanese importers.  If all else fails, there's always E-bay, or even Amazon if you don't mind swallowing an insane $45 price tag.

Fun Factor - **** or ***
For fans of Fist of the North Star, this figure is a must-have.  Souther is one of the most powerful, prominent, arrogant, dramatic, and delightfully despicable villains this series has to offer, right up there with Raoh.  However, to people who don't know anything about the series, he is just a blonde guy with a spear.  Despite the potential scale issue, he does fit in with 6" figures, and his look is close enough to MOTU that he can fit in with those guys as well.  What saves him if you know nothing about the series is the extreme poseability of the Revoltech joints and general quality of his sculpt and paint.  Just understand that if all you want is a Revoltech, there are likely other and more visually-exciting options out there.  Amusingly, he looks enough like a hero that most kids would probably make him one in playtime.  Just don't ever tell them how Souther built his pyramid!

Overall- **** or ***
Whether you are or aren't a fan of Fist of the North Star, this is a good figure.  If you like the series, this is a fantastic figure!  If not, Souther may seem a little visually boring, if solid.  He definitely needed his cape, but that isn't a deal breaker.  After all, Souther fought his final battle without a shirt, but we don't have a naked torso for him, and don't really need one, either.  He certainly looks great in any Fist of the North Star display, as well as a few others.

Where to Buy -
Again, many places that import Japanese figures, such as Yes Asia or PowerAnime will probably have Souther, as well as Amazon or E-bay.  The best way to find one is to search on Google (Remember to search for "Thouzer") and compare prices, as they vary widely across the board.  It's worth hunting for a deal - remember, he was meant to retail for about $30, so that's where you should aim.  The character is popular and the figure is well-made, so beware markup or unavailability.

Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech
Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech


Thouzer (Souther) action figure by Revoltech


This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer. Photos and text by Ridureyu.

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