(Play Arts Kai) Rise of the Tomb Raider Lara Croft Review

In a nutshell,
Paint: 9/10
Articulation 8/10
Detailing 9/10
Fun Factor 10/10

In this review, we'll take a look at Rise of the Tomb Raider's Lara Croft, by Play Arts Kai (PAK). I never owned a PAK figure prior to this one, so I cannot compare Lara with another PAK figure for height comparison. I usually prefer my action figures to be around 6" tall, with the exception of Transformers Masterpiece figures. However, PAK was the only toy brand that was making an articulated Lara Croft figure, so I decided to get her.


The packaging is really nice! We get pictures of Lara in cool poses, and the front flap can be opened up to display a window for us to see the contents, along with some description of Lara Croft for us. The inside of the box is rather plain, but one interesting thing is that the instructions are printed on the sides of the inner backing of the box. To my surprise, the figure also comes with a display stand, which I was unaware of.

Paint: 9/10
The paint is pretty good! I could not find any faults in the paint job. It's nice that the exposed parts of Lara (ie. the hands, face) have "dirt" on them, not enough to make her look horrible, but just enough to show that she was in the wild for some time. Definitely better than leaving her spotless and clean. My only minor complaint is the black marks under her eyes, that seems slightly off to me. It could be just me though.

Articulation 8/10
The articulation for this figure, despite it being so huge, is good! 

• Head swivel
• Ponytail joint
• Neck pivot
• Shoulder joints
• Bicep Swivels
• double-jointed elbows
• Wrist joints
• upper torso joint
• Hinge joints between the hips and legs
• Upper thigh swivel
• double-jointed knees
• Ankle joints/pivot

The plastic material used for the clothes provides slightly more range of motion for Lara, which is always welcomed. I wish the head can look up and down a bit more though. When moving the neck, you can actually see a gap between the neck and the body when you look from above, which can be unsightly. Also, my figure's left knee joint is slightly loose when straightened, and the upper thigh swivel joint seems to come out a bit rather easily. It is not bad enough to make me hate the figure.

Detailing 9/10

I have to admit, the detailing is really impressive! The earrings, the boots, the attire... everything about Lara is very well-detailed! Even her accessories, like the pickaxe, are detailed nicely. You can see the necklace around Lara's neck, although you may need to look from a higher angle in order to notice it. Her face is quite nice too! Not 100% accurate to the game, but nice enough without deviating too much to being an anime look.

Fun Factor 10/10

This is where Lara shines. I do not own the Lara Croft from the first Tomb Raider (2013) game, but I noticed that the previous figure came with 1 climbing axe among the accessories. Playing the game, I notice Lara Croft having 2 climbing axes this time, and I'm pleased that PAK do give us 2 axes. They also give a revolver and survival knife, along with some arrows and a recurve(?) bow. I'm glad that PAK went with an elastic string for teh bowstring, instead of a hard plastic they used in the earlier figure. Definitely allows for more poses of Lara pulling back the bow! The alternate hands are more than the previous version of Lara, too. We get 2 open grip hands for the knife/axes, a hand for the pistol, a hand to hold the bow, and lastly a hand that has an arrow attached to it. I think the last hand is really cool to have, and I'm glad PAK included that inside. I saw reviews of the previous Lara Croft figure where the arrow is separate; I prefer this version as putting the arrow nicely on the hand may be a huge hassle. The accessories are plenty, allowing many fun poses. They attach onto Lara Croft just fine, although the bow might hinder posing a bit due to its size. My only issue about the bow is the peg near the handle, which is used to attach the bow to Lara's back. The peg is quite huge, and can be rather unsightly when you pose Lara holding the bow. Hiding it from a shot would require you to play with angles. 

So do I recommend this figure? I don't collect many PAK figures, so I'm unsure if this figure is considered pricey. But if you're a Tomb Raider fan like me, and love to collect action figures, I'd strongly recommend this figure to you! I have read about how PAK figures tend to have numerous quality control issues, but I have not faced any with my Lara Croft so far. The only two things I can think of are the slightly loose left knee joint when the leg is straightened, along with the left thigh swivel that seems to come out a bit. Apart from that, this figure has proven to be an awesome set!