Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini No. 01 – Cloud Strife

Possibly the most well known Final Fantasy character in the whole world, it's no surprise that the first figure of the Final Fantasy Trading Arts Kai Mini series of figures is Cloud.

The box goes through the same design with all the figures (at least, as of this post, until No. 06 Lightning). A clear window up front shows off the figures as well as the accessories that come with it while the back of the box shows various poses that the figure can do and all the signs and speech bubbles unique to this figure.

Cloud comes with a total of 4 interchangeable faces. The default small pupil angry eyes that seem to come with all the figures, a pair of neutral anime eyes, closed calm eyes and a blank face. Cloud also comes with 1 interchangeable hand to hold the Buster Sword. A base with the standard stand arms and sign clips is also included. Cloud's second body is him riding the bike seen in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. And finally 2 speech bubbles and a sign showing directions to various areas similar to the ones you would see in Midgar.

Aside from the ball jointed head, Cloud has 2 other points of articulation. His right arm is connected to his shoulder via a ball joint and since his right hand is removable, you have some extra wrist rotation.

Replacing the hand is simple enough. Though the extra hand holds the Buster Sword very well, the index finger and thumb were connected together which I ended up tearing when I stuffed the sword handle in. This left a white mark which I'm guessing is the underlying plastic color. Easily fixable but it might be a bother to others. The arm has no problem holding the weight of the sword so you can pose it in any way you like.

The 2nd body is attached to the bike and the effect is done via a head swap. Unlike the Lightning figure, where in you unpeg her legs and attach her whole upper torso to the 2nd body to have her riding the horse, Cloud's head swap is a more straight forward uproach. There are no connection points on the bike riding body to connect to the base with so the bike balances on its own. Though not the most stable of bikes, the figure can hold its own against gravity. Cloud will just be looking down for the most part.

My Cloud figure suffers the same problem I have with my Squall figure. The body doesn't attach well to the stand arms for the base meaning that posing Cloud on the base cane be a bit tricky. Again this does not mean that all Cloud figures are like that and maybe just be the luck of the draw. For it being the first figure in this new line, it's pretty darn good. I do wish that they went for the classic Final Fantasy VII Cloud instead of his Advent Children look.