Behind the Yellow Tracksuit

This Bruce lee figure is modeled after the look of his wardrobe for his last film; Game of Death. While the movie was completed by the Golden Harvest and Warner Bros studio years later after Bruce died, the story of the film is vastly different from what Bruce planned on doing to it.


In the released film, Bruce's character is Billy Lo, who is a martial arts actor who(along with his girlfriend) is being hassled and harassed by the local syndicate in the hopes that Billy will become apart of their organization, like other martial artists and famous people who joined. He refuses even after constant warnings and fights, and they attempt to just Kill him during one of his movie sets.

While they indeed shoot him in the face, he is not mortally wounded, but has his friends and doctors fake his death so that he can be out the hair of the syndicate and plan his revenge against them in secret.

However, this was NOT BRUCE's original plan/story for the Game of Death movie...

Bruce's version was that he was playing a retired Martial Arts Champion, by the name of Hai Tien, who is forced by a korean crime syndicate to take part along with 4 other martial artists/fighters in a raid on a 5 level wooden Pagoda that has some hidden treasure on the top level(which is what the korean crime boss wants), But Bruce and the other fighters had to get past the warriors on each level; each with different fighting styles more dangerous and deadly than the last.


Bruce only managed to complete 3 of the fights in the pagoda(as far as we know) before he paused it to do Enter the Dragon and of course before he unfortunately died.

Bruce's plan for this film was to showcase the full extent of his Legendary Jeet Kune Do and fighting philosophies.
One of his philosophies was about being formless and shapeless like Water, and being able to adapt to any situation and fighting style.

While the other martial artist and fighters(protags and antags) were wearing their Karate Gi's and their style's formal wear, Bruce was to wear the jumpsuit to signify the style of NO style and be almost like a blank slate that was not set in its way(like the other fighters), but fluid and flexible enough to become anything or adapt to anything, yet have enough strength, skill, and strategy to overcome most things, even the odds.
 


According to one of the wardrobe people who worked on the game of death(during the time Bruce was working on it), the Yellow color was picked because the script notes and/or screenplay involved a scene where one of the opponents kicks Bruce and leaves a footprint....(we all know that scene...lol) so it was a choice between Yellow and Black jumpsuit and for obvious reasons they chose Yellow. (little known fact)

Later on, One of Bruce/Hai tien's moniker, was "yellow faced tiger", so that MIGHT have been a reason(in film) why Hai Tien had on yellow?

In the released Game of Death movie, Billy Lo steals the yellow suit from one of the syndicate's biker henchmen,(who are all wearing different color jumpsuits) in order to try and fool them during the motorcycle fight scene near the end of he film.(which was cool btw).


Regardless of the complete film being a mess, We were fortunate to be shown the extended uncut footage and fight scenes that Bruce did shoot while in the jumpsuit along with 2 of the 4 partners he was to go up the pagoda with in the docudrama 'Bruce Lee in G.O.D as well as 'A Warrior's Journey'. I recommend seeing those films.

The yellow Jumpsuit stood out for everyone to see and has become Iconic in pop culture as im sure you've seen this suit on many other characters both real and animated..., and now it comes in the form of a fully articulated figure!!

APPEAL & DETAIL

So, right of the bat, I can say this figure looks GREAT!! Its a very good representation of Bruce in the yellow tracksuit from the Game of Death film.


The figure stand about 5 1/2 inches tall and is actually just a tad bit taller than the first Bruce Lee Figuart, which is a good thing, because I always thought that the figuart was a bit too small.

I know Bruce was not a tall guy, but he was 5'7 almost 5'8...its not like he was 5'3. In one of my pictures, I had Bruce next to the Michael Jackson figuart and MJ was a whole head above Bruce, which is not accurate since MJ was only 5'9 in real life.

But anyhoo, im glad the figure is taller this time around.



The head sculpt is amazing and it actually looks better than the one on the first Bruce Lee figuart. Its an all new sculpt for the hair and its looks like as if his hair grew alittle more from the previous head sculpt. The face scans are nice on these face plates and although it does not COMPLETELY look like Bruce, its close enough. The 'smile' face probably bares the closest resemblance.


Another thing about the figure is the body. Its on a new body mold specifically for Bruce. It does kinda remind me of the Power Rangers body's though alittle.

The body/suit is very nice and has a very nice almost golden yellow color. The rolled up sleeves, wrinkles, and folds and whatnot on the arms, legs and all throughout is done exquisitely. They even have the sewn line going down the front of the torso, as well as the zipper line on the back. So thats amazing attention to detail!!


The black lines on the side of the suit are sculpted in and not just painted so thats good.

The skintone is nice though I think Bruce may have been a tad bit lighter, but its no biggie and it matches the same of the original Bruce Figuart. The lower bare arms are done nicely like the last figure, and even include the black bracelet that Bruce wears in the scenes. Again good attention to detail!

The "Ad-Asics" trainers (adidas - Asics fusion) shoes are also done very well and look like the primary version of the shoes Bruce wore. They are accurate in color too, as the shoes Bruce wore were a lighter yellow than his suit.


Yes, During the scene where Bruce fought Grandmaster Ji Han Jae, the asics stripes on the side became the Puma stripe underneath the adidda stripes. The "Puma-didas". LOL

 and of course, in the "Bruce look a like" scenes from Game of Death, the shoes were straight up yellow adiddas.

The shoes on the figuart also has treads on the bottoms of them as well, once again AMAZING attention to detail!!





Although there is not much to the suit, it was done to perfection! There are really NO flaws with the look of this figure, unless your version has any paint mishaps. Besides that, this figure look wise is flawless when you compare it to what was shown in the movie.

ARTICULATION

So now onto Articulation. This is S.H. Figuarts, so if ive told you once, Ive told you a thousand times, you can expect the VERY BEST in articulation when these guys are making figures!!







Much like the first Bruce Lee figure, we stay with the NEW mods to the articulation thats now being done with alot of the new figuarts that are coming out now. Since this is a new body, there will be some slight changes but overall still the same thing you can expect if not a little more.

• Ball Jointed Head which allows it to look up and down. It rests on a ball jointed neck which allows for even MORE head movements like pivots. The head can virtually move ANY possible way you want.
  
• Butterfly inner shoulders
• Diaphragm swivel
  
• Ball jointed waist
• Arms rotate 360 and spread out far with hinges
• Double jointed elbows
• arm swivel

• The wrist joints are the same as the original Bruce Figuart, so Instead of being on a 'ball' peg, it has a small very thin 'rod peg'(for lack of a better term) that the hands just click into. This makes the look of the wrist to the arm more fluid without the ball peg gaping and such.

• Hip configuration is pretty much the same as the first Bruce, maybe some slight changes. so we have the new configuration that allows the Legs to move more freely forwards, backwards, and side to side, however, there is no more 'dislocating' the legs to make for better range of movement. So while some range has been lost, others have been made better.
  

• Thigh/leg swivel
• Knees are single jointed
  
• Foot articulation has the feet able to move down slightly, but up quite alot, as well as ankle pivot and toe bend.

ACCESSORIES

Bruce comes with:

• 4 interchangeable face plates(default included).

The 'smile' DID come from a facial expression Lee made in the film, lol.


Unfortunately you cannot swap out face plates with the other Bruce Lee figuart because the connection is alittle different due to the sculpt being different from the previous figure. BUT you CAN swap out the whole heads! the neck pegs are the same size so that GREAT news!

• 2 Nunchaku(one with both sticks completely outwards, and one with a bend) I personally do not like the way these chucks were made. I think they are too thin, and I would have liked it better if they used an actual string for the connection between the sticks. They are soft plastic so you can bend them alittle.

• 1 green Bamboo whip/stick

• 5 pairs of hands

• Fists(default)
• Weapon holding hands
• Cupped hands
• Index finger pointing hands
• Open palm/extended fingers hands

You can also use the hands of the previous Bruce Lee figuart.


Petty much everything Bruce had in the pagoda scenes he shot. Only thing missing Is the black Nunchaku carrying case.