Poison
A transsexual street fighter and thug that first appeared in the original Final Fight arcade game. She has since made appearances in several other Capcom titles.
Trivia
1. Poison and Roxy share the same game sprite in Final Fight, the only difference is that Roxy sports orange hair instead of Poison's pink.
2. There has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding Poison (and her pallette swap "sister", Roxy) over the years. When the Final Fight arcade game was being ported over to the SNES (Super Entertainment System), Nintendo of America allegedly expressed concern to Capcom over Poison/Roxy--they didn't feel violence towards women was appropriate (Final Fight is a beat-em-up game, you basically waltz through level after level, pounding on goons). Capcom countered this complaint by changing the female characters to male cross-dressers/transsexuals--the idea being that now that they were men dressed as women, the characters would get NOA's okay. No dice; the characters still got cut from the North American version and replaced with the generic males "Billy" and "Sid". [My take: The "violence towards women" thing was crap, because, prior to Final Fight's existance, Nintendo had allowed many games, including titles in the same genre as Final Fight, to be published for their game consoles which contained female enemy characters that the player could fight/kill (Linda in Double Dragon springs immediately to mind as an example of such a female character). In my opinion, the scantily clad outfits Poison and Roxy wear, that leave very little to the imagination, were probably the real concern. To support that argument, consider that the Sega CD port of Final Fight does contain Poison and Roxy, but their outfits were changed, giving them longer shorts and tops to cover more skin.] More recently, Poison and Roxy were again victims of the Nintendo morality police: They were removed from the Game Boy Advance port of Final Fight and replaced with the male character "Billy". In the bonus background information found in Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1 (2005), their official background stories state that Poison is a male cross-dresser and Roxy is biologically female.
3. Poison was supposed to appear in the games Capcom Fighting All-Stars and Final Fight: Streetwise. The former game was canceled, and she was cut from the final version of the latter (however, voice samples for Poison/Roxy can still be found on the game disc if you have the proper hacking utilities).
4. A "super-deformed" version of Poison/Roxy appears in the NES game Mighty Final Fight. This "Poison Kiss" is supposed to be Poison's younger sister. She is described as being a corrupt cop, which gives some explanation for the trademark cap and cuffs that are part of the character design.
5. Many of the Final Fight villain characters are supposedly named after rock bands/members. It is believed that Poison gets her name from the band of the same name.
6. In addition to the original Final Fight game, some variation of Poison appears in the aforementioned Mighty Final Fight, Final Fight: Revenge (where she wields a whip), SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, and as a companion character to Hugo in the Street Fighter III and SNK vs. Capcom game series. Poison/Roxy also makes cameo appearances in some Street Fighter Alpha backgrounds and in various Capcom art pieces (an example of this is a Super Street Fighter II illustration where all the SSF2 characters are enjoying a day at the beach--Poison and Roxy are shown fawning over Vega/Balrog).
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BACKGROUND:
The boy that would grow up to become Poison was raised in a Los Angeles orphanage, along with his friend, a girl named Roxy. From a young age, this boy identified himself as female, rather than male, and, as he grew older, he began to dress and act more and more like a girl/woman, eventually shedding or hiding all masculine attributes and living as a woman entirely by his early teens. It is reasonable to assume that he had breast implants, and probably some other cosmetic surgery, to further shape his body into the feminine form he desired. The need for large amounts of money to finance the costs of these expensive operations may very well have been the driving force for Poison joining the criminal organization Mad Gear. Roxy, although not terribly comfortable with Poison's lifestyle choices, stuck with her friend and also joined Mad Gear. As part of this gang, Poison, Roxy, and their comrades, worked as paid thugs, terrorizing and subjugating Metro City. Mad Gear's stranglehold on Metro City continued for many years until a new, incorruptible mayor, Mike Haggar, took office. Mad Gear kid napped Haggar's daughter, Jessica, in an attempt to coerce him into cooperating, but this was a fatal error: The enraged Haggar, and his friends, Cody and Guy, took the law into their own hands, systematically dismantling Mad Gear by force. Shortly thereafter, terrified of being jailed for her activities while part of Mad Gear, and the resulting exposure of her true gender that would entail, Poison framed Cody, whom she secretly loved, for her crimes--as a result he was incarcerated in a penitentiary. While Poison felt guilty about this outcome, and even visited Cody behind bars, she did nothing to clear his name. In recent years, Poison has left her criminal past behind and gone legitimate, managing the wrestling career of her fellow ex-Mad Gear muscleman, Hugo.
ABILITIES:
- Speed/Agility
Poison is very fast and light on her feet, as well as acrobatic.
- Hand-to-Hand Fighting
While she has not trained at any formal school/dojo/gym, Poison is well versed in the art of street fighting. Her style incorporates techniques from several different disciplines, acquired either through experience/experimentation or watching others do battle.
- Seduction
Poison is adept at using all of her womanly wiles to entice men to do what she wants them to. Failure to woo her target usually results in rage and then, later, in private, self-doubt and depression.
WEAKNESSES:
- Overcompensation
Poison goes to great lengths to exude sex appeal. She dresses in skimpy clothes, constantly flirts with males, and behaves in a provocative manner. Poison thrives on the responses these actions invariably garner--they serve as constant reassurance, "proof" to Poison, and everyone else, of the world's acceptance of her as a woman. Her greatest fear is to have her real gender exposed.
Materials:
Newsprint, cardboard from a cracker box, tissue paper, paper plate, colored paper, paper clips, wire twist ties, aluminum foil, white glue, hot glue, and acrylic paint.
Dimensions*:
(*The dimensions for this model can vary, depending on how the joints are positioned. The numbers given are for the figure in a 'neutral' standing pose without the hat on.)
8.1 cm/3.2 in. x 3.0 cm/1.2 in. (highest point x widest point)
Articulation:
Twenty points total: Neck (2), mid-torso, waist, shoulders (2), elbows (4), wrists (2), hips (2), knees (4), and ankles (2). The bracelets and handcuffs also move freely, but I'm not counting those, as I feel they're more like accessories than part of the figure, even though they are permanently attached.
Time:
A little over two days; construction ran from 10/20/07-10/22/07. The majority of the figure was completed on the 20th and 21st, with a few finishing touches made on the morning of the 22nd (hat, handcuffs, belt, and some additional hair).
Mid-Construction Photos
For comparison purposes, below are three images of Poison from different sources. The first, on the top, is Capcom's official art for Poison from the Final Fight arcade game. The second, on the bottom left, is Poison's sprite from the Japanese Super Famicom (SNES) port of Final Fight. The last, on the bottom right, is Poison's sprite from the Street Fighter III series.
REFERENCES:
(In no particular order of importance.)
- Playstation 2 Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1 video game (contains Final Fight arcade game as well as background information, character bios, artwork, etc).
- Game Boy Advance Capcom Collection Mini Mix video game (contains NES Mighty Final Fight game).
- Super Famicom Final Fight game.
- Wikipedia Poison and Mighty Final Fight articles.
- Google 'Poison' image search.
- GameFAQs Mighty Final Fight game guide.
- Street Fighter Pallette Database Hugo & Poison sprite web page.
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