Kotobukiya 1/7 ARTFX J Yami Yuugi

"ITS TIME TO D-D-D-D-Review your fucking figures" - Atem, probably.

Today we're taking a look at the ARTFX J Yami Yugi. Not to be confused with the other ARTFX J Yami Yugi or the new upcoming ARTFX J Yami Yugi. Jokes aside, this is the first one released, and is a standard release unlike the Duel with Destiny which was apparently limited. As a result, this figure has had a total of 7 releases over the years since 2012. The latest release was in 2021. I ended up buying him for 80 USD off of Bait's website. He was 10 to ship alongside Bakura and arrived relatively fast. I believe he's still available there as well, for the same price. You can also buy the alternative Duel with Destiny Yami Yugi there too, if you so wish.

The first release of this figure came with a Millenium Puzzle keychain. However, since I have the 7th release, I didn't get that. I also don't really have any plans to seek it out in the future.

Here's a photo of him. Ignore the fact that the lighting on him is so much more dramatic than later pictures. At some point after looking at a ton of my photos, I decided I hated how dark they all were and set up a lighting diffuser with... rubber bands and tissues. Unfortunately I was too lazy to set up the decorated photos once more, so for now, some of these will be a bit scuffed.

That aside, I do really like this figure. For a really simple figure, he's just really cool. I remember my sister came over earlier last month, and the instant she saw him she just went "WOAH, HE'S SO COOL!" and quite honestly, that was like, the one figure I owned that seemed like it ever impressed her lol.

Alright, time to talk about the box. Normally, I don't look at a box and go "Honestly, I love that." but these figures are kind of an exception. I love how much fun Koto seemed to have making the boxes for most of their figures (At least the ones I own, and well, I do own quite a few). The top and front window let you see in and you're greeted with this glittery gold background that has hieroglyphs all over. The colors are bold and eyecatching. There's some very retro Yami Yugi art in the corner, and the windows on the back & side (which I only took 1 picture of because you get the point) are shaped like the Millenium Puzzle. And that's such a fun detail. On the other side is a compilation of shots of the figure, which tend to be on most Koto boxes.

I didn't take pictures of the blister when I took him out. Honestly, I probably forgot. But if I have them, I'll have to go looking at some point. I probably could do with cleaning out all my photos. Or just... taking some of the missing review photos, as I have quite a few boxes I need to go back and photograph.

Here's the 360 view. I didn't end up taking as much shots as I thought I did, but you get the idea. Very simple figure, but still looks pretty good. I feel like even from the back, you can make this figure look fairly good. But his front angles are the best for displaying him. He's also pretty small. Despite his stance and his coat, they don't make him too big. But he still will take up some space. If you have deeper shelves, not as noticeable, but on something not as deep it'll feel awkward. I place him between the 2 Koto Kaibas which are huge, so it's probably why my brain tells me "Oh, he's not that big!" but putting him on a Billy shelf for example, he'll have to come a bit foreward.

Anyways, time for details. I just took a few shots focusing on Yugi & his duel disk with his coat on. As I said earlier, the pose is pretty cool. He looks as if he's about to play a card and probably win a match. The details on all the pieces are pretty nice. Duel disk comes separate and slips onto his arm, rather than being a separate arm entirely which some of the others tend to have. I don't know if they changed that for the Duel with Destiny Yugi or not, but if I end up picking him up, I suppose I'll tell. Cards are detailed on their backs, but their fronts include the standard black box and label, which is always a bit funny to me. Oh well, it's not like it matters considering that we literally aren't looking at that most times.

Like most of Koto's Yugioh figures, he has alternative parts. In this case, it's just his collar and wristband that come separately, as the other collar is attatched to his coat, and his other wristband is attatched to the Duel Disk. Which brings me to the point of assembly.

So, despite this figure looking pretty simple to assemble, it's kind of not. And mostly because of how you slide the chain with the Millenium Puzzle on. If you put it under, it'll cause the jacket to get stuck. But putting it on over the jacket doesn't slide in as simple as planned either, because it makes it hard to slide the head in properly. I found myself having to hold the chain slightly back as I slipped the jacket & collar combo onto his head's peg and then let it go once that was situated, then put that onto the body. Sound's simple, but it took a lot of adjusting to get it to sit right. Luckily the Duel Disk hand is easier, but the peg was pretty stubborn despite that. Both of the pegs had extreme paint transfer as well, but considering the fact that you don't see any of it, it doesn't really matter.

Honestly, I hated taking his coat & Duel Disk off to get these pics because that meant assembling him again, but I did it for this post solely to have these shots. Now I will proceed to not touch it again unless I absolutely have to.

Base is just okay. He's screwed in securely, as most modern Koto bases tend to be. The base isn't overly huge and I honestly like that it's just around his feet, not taking up much room. Broken concrete isn't exactly my favorite design for a figure base, but it's less offensive than a giant white or black circle.

Anyways this figure's pretty awesome. Let's wrap this up with the usual positives and negatives lists.

The Positives

• Pretty affordable price point.
• Dynamic pose, good paint job, generally a really good Yami Yugi figure
• 1/7 means he's not too terribly big
• Generally seems to reprint so if you don't want to pay aftermarket price, he might come around again soon, considering the 7 releases so far.
• Generally one of the nicest Yami Yugi PVC figures on the market. He's a scale, so he'll match the scaling of other 1/7ths, he has a higher quality on paint and sculpt, etc. But probably not as nice as the higher quality resin & polystone unlicensed statues that exist out there.

The Negatives

• Assembly a bit annoying.
• Minor paint errors which I didn't really touch on in the review.
• While I personally don't have issues with his size, if you have a much more shallow shelf, you might have some difficulty with him.

I think this is a great figure if you're looking to collect Yugioh stuff. Because most Kotobukiya figures tend to have a low price point as well as high availability, he's not too hard to find. His markup on some sites might be a bit higher due to his last release being 2021 though, so keep an eye out for that. If you're not huge on Yugioh but still vaguely interested, he's not a bad buy, assuming you don't get him for a super inflated price. Anything higher than 120 on him though seems like a ripoff, and even then, 120 is still pretty steep. So if you're able to, definitely grab him off Bait if you're within the US. For outside of the US, I don't tend to know his aftermarket price, but I haven't really looked.