Category: Figure manufacturer origin

Elf Saint Sora Loyes – ODD

In celebration of ODD being whitelisted, I’ve decided to review one of my ODD figures that I’m yet to write a review/article for.

So today we have Elf Saint Sora Loyes, Arrested and Charged. The Future Fantasy series storyline is that beings with beneficial abilities/properties are captured and their DNA taken. From the DNA, clones are made which are placed in machines which the super rich can buy and take advantage of them. So that gives them an excuse of why there are so many copies of the same figure :}. And also places them firmly in the NSFW+ section for MFC.

The buying

This was one of my early preorders on Superbuy. I didn’t have a specific list of Taobao sellers, so I picked one who seemed to be legit. Fortunately for me they were, and 9 months later after some fraught checking for the final payment I was able to settle up and receive my goods:
https://i.ibb.co/BjJ7nNL/458c3f60-08f1-45fc-a219-19e1eb46ef07.jpg
Thought it was cute they used the loyalty card to censor the image.

I was reading on hpoi how she weighted “20 catties”. After some research I found out that a “catty” was 500g, so that makes her 10kg… and sure enough it was 10kg shipped weight! ODD figures don’t shirk on the weight – and most of it is the figure’s container. The vending machine is very heavy.

Being ODD’s first figure, this order was a gamble. But I was willing to risk it for such a relatively unique figure. Between it being ODD’s first and the fact distribution was limited to China, not many people followed me down the rabbit hole for this one.

The figure

Let’s admire her in her full glory:
https://i.ibb.co/9rYd28z/front.jpg
Assembly for this figure was a pain – getting all the parts to sit right was a challenge, and I actually broke one of the parts in the process – one of the tubes to her chest snapped when I was tying to bend it – it did say in the instructions ODD uploaded to heat and bend it so I was expecting more flex, but nope. Fortunately the break isn’t very visible and is hidden behind her during display. And I’m unlikely to ever sell this figure.

Face:
https://i.ibb.co/nc5tfTq/face.jpg
She doesn’t have the happiest expression…. but neither would I if I was trapped in vending machine. There’s a good amount of detail in the eyes and the mouth is sculpted, which I appreciate. The hair sculpt is a bit on the chunky side, but we have some shading here albeit minimal. Bearing in mind this is the first figure from a new brand, I think it’s pretty solid. We have an ear tag detail – would’ve been nice to have some numbers here instead of the line of circles, so have to make up your own mind what it means and why she has it.

Let’s follow the ring around her neck:
https://i.ibb.co/Q9LmZcC/heart-monitor.jpg
It magnetically clips to the back of the vending machine – assumedly this is some kind of health monitor to ensure we don’t accidentally kill our elf. The sculpt and paint on this part is a bit on the iffy side, but overall I don’t find the flaws distracting.

Looking to the other side:
https://i.ibb.co/7Qtw0D1/intercom.jpg
We have what seems to be an intercom, if we want to talk to our elf. I like the way they’ve connected it up to the panel for the milking cable to give a sense of realness to the construction.

Chest:
https://i.ibb.co/C6DgNyr/boobies.jpg
The body paint is nice, with the pinkish highlights. Gives a fair amount of depth to her body. Getting the milking cups to her nipples was a massive pain – they didn’t naturally sit in the right place out of the box and I had to white tack them to her nipples to get them to stay. Can see a bit of it on her right boob. Now they’ve been in that position for a few years, they do stay there now (and probably don’t need the white tack any more). She has a pair of decently sized milkers.

Restraining bar:
https://i.ibb.co/RTRD7kH/bar.jpg
Augh, this thing. It does the job it needs to, but can be one of the more annoying parts to get right when putting her together. It goes under her arms and has some tack to attach it to her back so it doesn’t move around whilst you’re getting her into the machine. If you do get it just perfect it can wedge up against the walls. It helps prop her up by leaning on the two rests. In some ways it’s nice she’s not “marred” with pegs or divots, but on the other hand it would’ve made assembly easier. Nice for people who may want to display her outside of the vending machine, a pain for the rest of us 😆.

Body:
https://i.ibb.co/sgD5c5N/body-upwards.jpg
There are a fair amount of shading accents on her body – some people may find the effect rather unsubtle, but personally I like it. She does have a bit of “webbed leg” going on, but nothing too drastic for a figure like this. Looking close the paint on the ankle restrains is a bit messy but it’s not visible when not up close. They have given her bands around her legs – no real explanation for them, so enjoy the eye candy?

Blood draw:
https://i.ibb.co/JF48g9T/leginjection.jpg
This part plugs into her leg – this close up you can see where I didn’t quite get it flush with her leg. A plastic band is painted on her leg, pretending to be what holds the line into her leg.

“Juice”:
https://i.ibb.co/v3486jm/mirror.jpg
I wonder what they could be harvesting here 🤔. Her toenails are nicely painted. The ankle restraints simply sit atop the holders in the machine. The dildo is held magnetically in a hole in the base so is securely attached. So you could leave this part off if you wish, but there is a hole in the mirror for it. Nice of them to have a shield to prevent the machine door from getting dirty.

More of the mirror:
https://i.ibb.co/b5TLzkq/mirror-2.jpg
It allows some viewing of what you can’t see from the front, but with the dildo there’s less to see.

OK, now we’ve looked at what’s doing the vending, what can we vend?
https://i.ibb.co/gWHgNgz/options.jpg
Saliva: ¥CN 50 ($US 7)
Pussy juice: ¥CN150 ($US 21)
Urine: ¥CN 50 ($US 7)
Milk: ¥CN 100 ($US 14)
Blood ¥CN 400 ($US 50)

(USD rates based on exchange rates in June 2024 if you’re reading this in the future).

So, uh, what do you fancy? A nice cup o’ wee? And do they serve it warm or cold?

Interestingly the selection dial has the options in English:
https://i.ibb.co/f4Ywr9M/dial.jpg
All of these controls are static – no moving parts here.

Once you’ve made your selection it’ll go into the cup below the dispenser:
https://i.ibb.co/0Kb5LrZ/drink.jpg
Cup handily labelled “elf juice”. So you don’t mix it up with your coffee. This cup is a separate part so you can also display it elsewhere but I decided to tack it down after moving the vending machine a couple of times and having it fly off across the floor. The ridge does help it not fall if you’re sliding it around but greater movements will send it flying.

Escape!
https://i.ibb.co/B3mrXjp/no-ji.jpg
Agh! Where did she go?! Getting her back out for photos wasn’t too bad, though I did break part of the blood line :/. Yeah, wouldn’t recommend disassembling unless you have to, and leave the blood line in or very carefully pry it instead of pull. When moving it, she does stay in place with the amount of resting points she has.
The details inside the machine are good – enough details to give it a sense of realness, but maybe the vent at the back could’ve done with a bit of shading. The silver parts of the milking wires magnetically connect like the health monitor – they have similar but larger square slots behind the panels. The lighter pink inside gives a good contrast to the outer hot pink.

Handle:
https://i.ibb.co/bvMMsYq/handle-back.jpg
The handle has magnets on the back to hold the door shut. On mine, the handle is a bit loose when the door is open, but shutting the door pulls everything tight.

Here she is out of the machine:
https://i.ibb.co/ZNRJ99Y/body-front.jpg
The health monitor does come off, just didn’t fancy taking off her head to do so. Her genitalia look somewhat odd when she doesn’t have the dildo in there.
The silver part of the blood line is not supposed to be here…

Hair:
https://i.ibb.co/zb7CyWx/hair-back.jpg
A little bit of shading towards the ends of the strands, but nothing other than that. Is sculpted with a decent amount of detail though.

Butt:
https://i.ibb.co/S0WmcTN/butt.jpg
Here we can see how the bar tacks to her back. Yeah, this is how you’re supposed to do it. The little mark on the bar was there when I unpacked it – not damage inflicted by me. They have shaded back here and given her wrist restraints, though you won’t see those when she’s in the vending machine.

But what happens if we “unlock” the coin door?
https://i.ibb.co/0JC79bN/coinstore.jpg

The keyhole here is a button that you can press to turn on the light:
https://i.ibb.co/Y7xRrDv/front-light-on.jpg
The light will show up any dust adhered to the acrylic door 😆

With the door open:
https://i.ibb.co/P55Rcxy/closeup-light-on.jpg
LED lights don’t photograph the best, but it’s quite a nice yellowy light.

The light itself:
https://i.ibb.co/mq1z4FK/light.jpg
A strip of LEDs allows you to enjoy Sora Loyes in the dark.

The panel also lights up:
https://i.ibb.co/Wvn9tH4/list-lit-up.jpg
I do like the light-up effect for these. Very reminiscent of a vending machine, though maybe not a modern one.

Lastly, a quick tour of the outsides of the vending machine:
https://i.ibb.co/Dp8cy19/top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/725BkzB/left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/7jddcCv/right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/g6f8Bm1/back.jpg
There’s details to be found on all of the sides, which is much nicer than it just being exceedingly plain. The mark on the top was my fault.
The front-facing picture of Sora is creepy though – with the very round, blank eyes and drool. Feel like they could’ve made this cuter and fit in a bit more but it’s nice they’ve added some artwork to the sides. The vents here have deeper grooves so don’t look as flat as the one inside.

Overall, I think she was a strong start to ODD’s figure-making “career”. There are some bits that could be polished that would’ve made it a better figure but am happy with what I received. I’d prefer it if the vending machine wasn’t so heavy, but it does make it feel like you get your ¥CN 2000’s worth.

DreamX Studio – Rei Ayanami

DreamX are producing a line of these Evangelion undressing figures. As I’m not collecting Asuka or Mari I’ve skipped on those, and just gone for the Rei. There are some more coming, but not decided if I will order them or not.

She does come with both a long-haired and short-haired head but I have only taken photos of the long-haired one.

So here she is:

The tape player is just a “bonus” accessory – it doesn’t have a place on the figure, but you can put it on the base for a more messy dressing scene. Or you could get a table prop to put it on.

The figure itself I’m really pleased with – the shine on the plugsuit is good and the blue hue of Rei’s hair is mesmerising. The paint is a liitle off in places, but that won’t really show on display. She was smaller than I expected, but that’s more because Rei herself is petite. She does have translucent hair, so that will put some people off but I’m not bothered by it. The glasses took a little bit of adjusting to get in her hands, but they sit well and she’s not at risk of dropping them. She has a nice skin tone too. Face could maybe do with a little more shading, but not a dealbreaker imo. Overall, I’d recommend this figure to a Rei fan. It’s an unlicensed figure though, so may not be easily obtainable.

LingZe Studio – Kaworu Nagisa

Here we have a spicy statue of Kaworu – I got the deluxe edition which comes with the naked lower half and 🍆. He also comes with his trousered lower half, so you can enjoy this half-dressed Kaworu if you don’t want to see what’s under the fold.

Here he is with the clothed arm and legs:

You can use the unclothed arm in this configuration too, which I prefer:

The paint detail on Kaworu is fantastic imo, but the EVA Mark.06 colours leave a fair bit to be desired – the finish is nice, but the colour choices are a poor match. The blue is far too light of a blue and the silver parts are more white than silver. The lower head spike also doesn’t quite match the rest of the blue parts, but not distractingly so. Definitely noticeable when assembling, but not attention-grabbing on display. However, if you are familiar with EVA Mark.06 the lightness of the blue is distracting. If you’re not bothered by this colour mismatch, then this is a great statue for Kaworu fans…. if you can get hold of one… I declined to buy when he went up for preorder, but did manage to snag one slightly over MSRP on Taobao after seeing photos of him on Twitter and kicking myself for skipping the preorder. A day or two later, the seller sold out of the 6 units they had.

And now for the spicy bits!

The nails are really nicely done and lifelike. Plenty of detail on the penis too, but doesn’t quiiite look like it belongs – probably needs a bit more of a skintone match near the base to make it match up with the body. All the penises have this in common. I swear his upper body fits in better than I have it shown here. I do like the “bonus” red details on his hips. The silver band might be distracting for some, but I kinda like it.

And now for a 🍆 brigade – he comes with a lot of options to choose from, so here they are:

Plenty to choose from! But I’ve gone with the one used in the intial photos. Maybe some day I’ll switch it up a bit. Am glad I was able to get this statue, as Kaworu isn’t exactly blessed in the figure department. I did want it when his POs went up, but I had so much on order at the time I couldn’t really justify adding to cart. But since then my orders got thinned out so I was able to pick him up on release.

Gentleman 18 Studio – Sukuna and Megumi

This one spicy? Yes. Very. Much spice under the fold. Warning: 🍆 ahead.

Gentleman 18 Studio did a really good sculpting and painting job on this one. It was a bit of a pain to assemble, don’t have everything in perfect orientation here, but some fiddling would likely get everything sitting just right.

I ordered the normal edition – this didn’t come with the medical bed and extra heads, but it did come with a drip and stethescope, but didn’t really feel like setting them up. Unfortunately did a bit of damage to the strap in Sukuna’s hand, but can’t see it so oh well.

Hope you enjoyed your lewd journey around this statue 🙂

Top cast-off for Kanno by Otherwhere

Instructions of how to cast off Konno – instructions under the fold as NSFW.

1. If they haven’t fallen off already, remove right arm and head

2. Twist around left arm and remove (it is on a round joint to allow you to do this)

3. Remove her tie – it pops off from the centre of the knot.

4. Unpeg top where tie was attached

5. Heat up top for a few seconds with a hairdryer.

6. Gently pull off top

7. Remove bra

8. Reattach head and arms, and display!

Wonfes 2022-2023 Shanghai – My personal picks

In this article, I’ll detail the statutes and figures that caught my eye. Not seen much activity on Wonfes Shanghai on MFC, so thought I’d add something of my own.

The first thing I’ll cover is a figure I’ve already got preordered – Dragon Princess by ULoop Studio:
https://i.ibb.co/h7rLzhC/20231002-123220.jpg

Promo:
https://i.ibb.co/nPhR582/7cf7d9f7ab604791b257ff9efe2002f0.jpg
Was on the fence of whether I was going to preorder her as I thought she might be pricey. When she came out as 899cny, into the cart she went. I love the carefree expression and the mechanical parts – am a sucker for mechanical parts, horns and tails – so this figure delivers for me. Doubting she’ll be cast-off – would be nice but I think she’s fine as she is even if that’s not an option.

Whilst we’re on ULoop, this figure was shown:
https://i.ibb.co/HGtLLQ2/uloop.jpg
Cormorant is a family of coastal-inhabiting birds, which is something I learned when looking this one up. So yeah, she’s part person, part bird. She doesn’t have any specific “yes” points for me, but for some reason she appeals to me. Will see what the finished prototype is like and her price – if both are good I may stick this one into my basket. A pretty unique figure.

Now onto Evangelion stuff – let’s start with one I may preorder – the CCP x Yoshi EVAs:
https://i.ibb.co/R6hzhF2/20231002-114732.jpg
These figures weren’t revealed at WF Shanghai, so some people may already have these on their radar, but it was my first time properly noticing them. Unless the price is utterly bonkers, I’ll likely order the EVA-01 and the EVA-MP. Not sure I’ll buy the EVA-02 – I don’t have infinite space, and not so into EVA-02. Beast mode and I probably would XD.

Now onto some EVA stuff I’d love to order but will be stupid-pricey so I won’t bother.

First this one by Jimei Palace and Weta:
https://i.ibb.co/RTmt2G2/20231002-144340.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/54WKTv5/20231002-144353.jpg
I love the diorama and the very mechanical look of EVA-01, but this one is priced at a premium as expected – 6888cny. Looking at the MFC page, seems like it went up for preorder some time ago, so good luck finding one too. Still, will be a great piece for the people who have the space and the dough. If I had it, I’d probably display it with the default arm, but the one with the spikes is eye-catching so I’d probably use that one for a time.

Onto these EVA-01 and EVA-02 pairs by Kaiyodo:
https://i.ibb.co/KrQ9vPB/20231002-154754.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/68cVBCp/20231002-154730.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/3WzWTsV/20231002-154734.jpg
In the background you can see the price is a spicy, spicy 49,999元… That’s over 1 million JPY! Or just under 7000USD for each pair! Looks like they have done previous versions of these, but as of writing these ones aren’t added to the database.
I really love the EVA-01 with the white accents, but this one ain’t going to be fitting in my wallet. Sadge.

This figure I added to my WF2023Shanghai folder but probably won’t order:
https://i.ibb.co/pRYXd3L/20231002-160327.jpg
She’s Princess Wakasetai by Charm. I love the colours and pose, but I don’t think she’s a stand-out enough figure to displace anything from my collection.

Then there is this dude by Ribose:
https://i.ibb.co/KG7ctcP/ribose.jpg
Ensemble Stars!! isn’t a series I’m familiar with, but I’m a sucker for wings and tail, plus a dude. Being Ribose his pricetag is likely to be on the lower end, so I might squeeze him in somewhere despite being a franchise I’m not familiar with.

Onto the last thing that I may actually order:
https://i.ibb.co/JdWScST/O1-CN01-Il8-Kq51-L1-Vbmbvn-Y4-62061239.jpg
Yep, a figure by ODD had to squeeze in here :P. The shipping on this one will no doubt be baaad, but who else is gonna produce a shark lady in a tank? This one was announced awhile ago, but still waiting for them to open preorders for her. She’s gigantically tall, so finding space for her will no doubt be interesting. I have an idea of a space if it doesn’t get filled by anything else in the meantime!

Gamma Studio showed this insecty lady:
https://i.ibb.co/BLsVYDj/gamma-studio.jpg
Looking at their other stuff, the preorder prices weren’t toooo high so she may be affordable for me. Though I’m on the fence of how much I like her – will just have to see how the coloured prototype goes. I like their other insecty/augmenty stuff they’ve shown but not enough to plop down a preorder.

Aaaand back to the things I love the look of but unlikely to be able to afford.

These two are a series called “Life and Death” and are by PIJI studio:
https://i.ibb.co/xSq7XhS/PIJI-Life-and-Death.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/8zL9xs0/PIJI-Life-and-Death-2.jpg
They look amazing, but no doubt they’ll be highly priced. Thinking 8,000cny or north of that (1,000USD+, 166k+ jpy). If I was to get one, it’d be the black insectoid one. PIJI announced these a long time ago but they’re not yet in production. Ah, if only I had infinite space and budget.

And onto the pricey fellow that maybe I’ll try and work into the budget if possible:
https://i.ibb.co/NSzcD6x/MYOUHEstudio.jpg
This statue is by MYOUHE Studio. The title of it is “幻·灭”, but not sure how it should be translated due to not knowing Chinese. DeepL offered up “phantasmagoria”, which I think fits it well.
And, oh boy, is this one going to be a space hog:
https://i.ibb.co/MNvhdJ6/005-YFXZVgy1hik6zxtgj1j327w199kjl.jpg
An amazing and interesting piece. Here’s some more photos:
https://i.ibb.co/DksQ6W9/005-YFXZVgy1hik701kc1yj32801hcqv5.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/wzBYm0F/005-YFXZVgy1hik6zwxjfpj31hc2801ky.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/3TWy6ZN/005-YFXZVgy1hik6zvoiioj32801hcb29.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/V9ZJX9X/005-YFXZVgy1hik702qzw8j31hc280x6p.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/hRM5drf/005-YFXZVgy1hik703wefgj31hc280qv5.jpg

Promos:
https://i.ibb.co/Yb721Hz/006y-UEz-Vgy1hieu5nqj09j31y72xge81.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/Pgby6VG/006y-UEz-Vgy1hieu5n596qj33bh2bchdt.jpg

Overall from Wonfes Shanghai 2022-2023 there isn’t a huge amount added to the “must preorder” column for me. A lot of impressive and pricey stuff was shown, though generally you’ll see more of that through Chinese social media vs the “more boring” PVC stuff. Though from the PVC photos I did see, most stuff was already on my radar or not of interest to me. I do like the Chinese Wonfeses, as they tend to have more unusal stuff that isn’t garage kits versus the Japanese one.

Did you follow any of Wonfes Shanghai this year? Did anything catch your eye?

NL Studio – Thanos – Jack-o pose

The meme, the legend… presenting Thanos in the Jack-o pose! This figure took the internet by storm in 2022 when NL Studio announced they were going to produce him. If you’ve not heard of this figure, oh boy, you’re in for a treat! Warning: eggplant ahead!

This figure was offered in 1/6 and 1/4 scales, both with a standard and a deluxe edition – the deluxe coming with two bodies, one “clothed” and one naked. I went for the 1/6 deluxe edition – with Thanos being a large chap in general I felt the 1/6 would be sufficiently large and wanting the two bodies, the 1/6 deluxe was pricey enough at CN¥1880 (US$265).

Shipping woes

Deposit went fine, replenishment (final payment) went fine, studio didn’t take long to dispatch. Then came the fun with international shipping. He was just under the limit for volumetric shipping so ended up paying for the shipping service so I wouldn’t have to pay an eye-watering amount for volumetric shipping – his shipping via SAL was CN¥560 (US$80), volumetric was clocking in at least double that. So I stumped up the cash, and waited. Then Chinese customs refused it. Arrggghhh. Then came an agonising 2.5 months wait for it to be returned to the agent’s warehouse and get stocked back in, not knowing for sure if it was going to happen.
Thankfully it returned and my shipping was refunded, whew. In the intervening time, EMS prices came down significantly so it cost “only” CN¥585 to reship via EMS. And another CN¥20 for the shipping service…
And if the shipping wasn’t cursed enough, EMS took 14 days, when other parcels were taking 7. But he arrived and that’s the main thing!

Base

Let’s first see what number I got by flipping the base:
https://i.ibb.co/xHnmqd0/base-bottom.jpg
I think the universe is telling me he is indeed cursed. I hope the mail delay wasn’t him trying to Thanos Snap the other parcels he was shipped with.

Top view of the base:
https://i.ibb.co/zF33rmG/base-top.jpg
The base is decently weighty which is pretty common for resin bases. As Thanos is known for his destruction they went with a destroyed piece of concrete with bits of twisted metal reminiscent of parts of a building. The metal parts look good, but the concrete/asphalt looks a bit bland in person and could’ve done with a bit more variance in shading. As it is, from certain angles it does look plasticky. It’s nice they have included some earthy bits though I think they could have done adding in some darker earth tones.

Closeups:
https://i.ibb.co/m0PZDwq/base-closeup-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Njq52yf/base-damage-closeup.jpg
The sculpting is really nice, but the paintwork could do with a little work. Overall, it’s decent in my opinion.

Edges:
https://i.ibb.co/bdDYf89/base-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/h7kVrnK/base-back.jpg
The layered effect is really cool, but the dirt bits aren’t really selling themselves properly as dirt – the bits that have more definition between the dirt and surface paint do look better than the ones that seem to be blended.

Overall, the base is not cursed. Unless we’re counting the 66 on the bottom of it. The paintwork isn’t top-notch, but mostly does the job. I could see someone with painting talent adding in a bit more shading and definition, but I don’t think it’s a necessary thing. The figure does cover up a good chunk of the base when on display, so the greyness of it isn’t overly obnoxious.

Figure parts

Starting off with the sword:
https://i.ibb.co/LJW9G2y/glaive-up.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/GkWHdVJ/glaive-down.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/378kQ6W/glaive-side.jpg
The detailing on the sword is nice – everything is painted neatly. And it’s apparently a sword rather than a glaive but being double-ended it was a bit hard for me to tell XD.
Mine curves downwards at the ends – I don’t believe this is intentional, but will have to monitor to see if it bends over time. May have to unbend it or put it away if it becomes a problem over time.

Head and limbs:
https://i.ibb.co/9yqwKGs/parts-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/kxvNRqZ/parts-botttom.jpg
As he has two bodies his legs, arms and head are all separate parts which connect using the power of magnets. His armour (barring the infinity gauntlet) has had battle scars and weathering applied which is nice attention to detail. We even have some dirt on the soles of his boots. No complaints with the parts here.

Let’s take a closer look at the head:
https://i.ibb.co/Kj8MFtS/head-front.jpg
In my opinion the head has been done really well – he has a creasy face and they’ve managed to replicate that well. We also have some realistic-looking eyes and they’ve given his lips a different colour and sculpted his teeth.

Other views of the head:
https://i.ibb.co/Zgwjksk/face-34.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/pPMJsgh/head-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Vg8h3yC/head-back.jpg
His helmet has been really nicely done – the small details are painted well and all the battlescars in the sculpt.

The infinity gauntlet divides into two:
https://i.ibb.co/S7Mf5Hq/gauntlet-batteries.jpg

And we have a switch and two batteries:
https://i.ibb.co/FqmvgVn/gauntlet-batts-closeup.jpg
I had to have the original batteries removed for shipping reasons, and one detail that was lacking attention was the direction of the battery compartment – the plastic part is actually the wrong way around. One prodding it with a bench supply later confirmed this fact. It’s a very minor detail and doesn’t affect anything – just gotta put the batteries in the opposite direction than labelled. The terminals are around the standard way.
Getting the batteries in there can prove a little interesting as the gauntlet magnet can “steal” them, so have to watch out for that!

Gauntlet turned on under photography lighting:
https://i.ibb.co/0nfwZMv/gauntlet-on.jpg

Gauntlet under room lighting:
https://i.ibb.co/N13jYkh/gauntlet-on-no-lighting.jpg
So under very bright lighting you only see the large stone light up – but under normal conditions the second photo is more accurate.
It’s a neat feature, I don’t think it’s the best it can be but is neat for people who like lighting effects.

Bodies

OK, here’s where the cursedness will begin – time to show off the bodies!
First up is the body that sports a rather fetching metal thong.

Here it is from the front in its chickenlike glory:
https://i.ibb.co/v3ZprVZ/thong-body-front.jpg
Yeah, these bodies look rather funny without the head and limbs attached. The skin texture has been well done, with multiple colours of paint. We’ve also got his speckled skin texture replicated along with the lines that run across his body.

From above:
https://i.ibb.co/VNZk7My/thong-body-top.jpg
The thong consists metal straps that fit with Thanos’ style and I like the work that’s gone into imagining how a metal thong would work. It also slightly presses into his skin – much prefer this than some of the “bikini bites” some Japanese figures get where the clothes dig very deeply into the skin. We’ve also got a little bit of asscrack on show :). And plenty of muscles to admire.

Getting close to the thong:
https://i.ibb.co/GMtKTKt/thong-body-thong-closeup.jpg
A little bit of “skin webbing” going on here, but not enough to be noticeable. And two very pert buttocks. Thanos definitely didn’t skip bum day. Is that a thing? It should be a thing :P.

From the back:
https://i.ibb.co/qyP483K/thong-body-back.jpg
Lighting went a bit bad on this photo so has ended up coming out a bit different. But this is what we get to see from behind.

Let’s flip him over:
https://i.ibb.co/34cC5hL/thong-body-chest.jpg
The body sculpt and painting is really nice – plenty of shading and detail to his body. And painted male nips! C’mon Japanese manufacturers… give us more like this. Well, you don’t have to make them purple.

Closeup of his pouch:
https://i.ibb.co/SmNkGT7/thong-body-pouch.jpg
Shiny enough to reflect my lighting! If you don’t want the full Thanos experience, this leaves at least something to the imagination. Reasonably spacious, but I think he’d be in trouble if he got an erection in this thing – trouble with metal is it doesn’t really flex.
If you didn’t want to think about erect Thanos, you came to the wrong blog – don’t worry, you won’t have to use your imagination for too much longer.

Arm muscles:
https://i.ibb.co/znTh8fV/thong-body-arm-muscle.jpg
These look a little odd in the way they don’t quite meet, but this bit isn’t very visible once assembled.

And now for the naked body – if you want to leave Thanos’ nether regions to your imagination, this is where you’ll want to get off of this ride.
Now for some untrussed chicken:
https://i.ibb.co/CVmWRSg/naked-body-front.jpg
From the front both the bodies are similar – only the lack of a thong.

View from above:
https://i.ibb.co/xMDjn0b/naked-body-top.jpg
Above is also similar, only we’re now treated to a full view of asscrack.

Let’s lower our angle:
https://i.ibb.co/zVfbHY3/naked-body-butthole.jpg
Aaand here is where we get a full view of his balls and butthole. The butthole does look a little crater-y – not the best sculpting here. They have gone full ham on the ballsack giving it shading and texture.

If we go lower, we can start to see the penis:
https://i.ibb.co/Bj8b9fx/naked-body-back.jpg

Let’s flip him over:
https://i.ibb.co/YbsX9pY/naked-body-bottom.jpg
So this is what the posing pouch was hiding! I think from this we can ascertain he’s a grow-er rather than a show-er. For the rest of the body it’s the same as the clothed one.

Looking down at the offending article:
https://i.ibb.co/FJyGjSY/naked-body-chest-closuep.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/7tTcQDY/naked-body-penis-tip.jpg
There is a dimple representing the hole. I think the hole could have done with a little bit of dark shading to make it more hole-like. We can also see he has an oval penis rather than round.

From certain angles this makes it look kind of weirdly flat:
https://i.ibb.co/JHGCGxQ/naked-body-flat-penis.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/pr3C34p/naked-body-penis-closeup.jpg
Whilst penises can be oval I feel like this one is a bit too oval which makes it look deflated from certain angles. I’d associate Thanos being girthy in every direction. We have plentiful vein sculpting and shading though.

Full twig and berries:
https://i.ibb.co/G0FwqNQ/naked-body-penis-bottom.jpg
Looks good from this angle, and is plentiful in the size department without going crazy.

Naked body from the sides:
https://i.ibb.co/rcBh9Xd/naked-body-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/8BvRpk2/naked-body-right.jpg
With him unassembled, we have a glimpse of the twig from the sides. He’s got a vey bendy back but the pose kind of necessitates that.

OK, that’s the bodies checked out on their own – time to put on some limbs!

“Clothed” body

Clothed might be an exaggeration for the body sporting the thong. But it’s the easiest way of distinguishing it.
Spin-around:
https://i.ibb.co/NWYkw1S/thong-thanos-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/BT0ZWpR/thong-thanos-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Z1vx4vw/thong-thanos-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/vVvL9ZZ/thong-thanos-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/tMxwNvR/thong-thanos-top.jpg
If you just want a Jack-O Thanos without the full nakedness, this one delivers. The pieces all fit together well, and he looks good with his head just above his arms at a slight angle.

Time to swap some pieces:
https://i.ibb.co/yfsPb6Z/bodyswap.jpg

Naked body

And now we have the version not suitable for guests:
https://i.ibb.co/KX0zzGJ/naked-thanos-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/XstjPjR/naked-thanos-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/F4tkYbP/thanos-naked-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Dw8h1wh/naked-thanos-right.jpg
With the limbs attached to the body it gives a greater viewing angle of his penis. Still requires selective angles to see it, and you don’t see it from the front. So whilst he’s exposed, it’s not immediately obvious. With my naked body, his left leg doesn’t attach snugly to his body though I could likely remedy this with some white tack. It doesn’t affect his display but when you put him down his leg does shift a bit – a minorly annoying defect which doesn’t exist on the other body.

Some more shots for some closeups of the goods:
https://i.ibb.co/2kXrLWq/naked-thanos-penis-closeup.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/sP5tsbX/naked-thanos-penis-closeup-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/WxQ6kvH/naked-thanos-ballsack.jpg
Yep, definitely there and pointy. He might have an eye out with that thing :).

Display mode

And now for the final spin-around on his base:
https://i.ibb.co/80Y7QJG/assembled-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/tKsMfGL/assembled-gauntlet-on.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0qj3RB5/assembled-34-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/fC4S1mV/assembled-balls.jpg
He doesn’t have pegs to attach to the base – you simply rest him on there. So he needs to be displayed somewhere where he won’t get knocked, but he has a decent amount of weight so he won’t shift too easily. The sword slots into a hole on the base, but was a bit difficult to get into the right spot.

Overall, he’s a surprisingly good-looking figure – though that should be partially expected as he is pricier than other 1/6 resins I have. The figure isn’t flawless – if I could improve one thing it would be the paint detail on the base to make it a bit more lifelike. I’d say most of the issues I have are minor and he looks fine on display. And he can sit around, surprising anyone who dares go for a side view :D.

ODD Mastermind – 10cm edition

Marketed as just an ordinary brain, we have the Mastermind from ODD. This figure comes in two sizes – this small 10cm edition and a 30cm edition that’s not released yet. In imperial units, that makes it 4″ tall.

The box:
https://i.ibb.co/kQdXWt9/odd-box.jpg
In ODD style, it’s pretty plain with some warning information on the back.

Inside the box was just the black EPE foam protecting the figure – no story card with this one. So we’ll just have to make up our own story of how this brain came to be – it it reminiscent of yours…? Let’s take a look to see!

The figure:
https://i.ibb.co/WK124GV/jar-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YDbrzQn/brain-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/FnTLM9W/brain-34.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Fn2Dqsd/upwards-angle.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/DfzvK8Z/closeup.jpg
For the size, I’m impressed with the details and the paintwork. You can make out the brain’s components quite well and the wires are nicely patterned to give them that chunky industrial wire vibe. All the parts are nicely shaded to give them definition.

And it also has a light-up function:
https://i.ibb.co/FKtDwZV/light-on.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/c81PW97/light-dark.jpg
It’s not the most impressive feature, but it’s a nice addition. Probably not going to use it much, if at all. I hope they go mains powered for the larger version as they tend to provide better LEDs with their mains powered figures, but we’ll see.

Overall happy with this smol brain and looking forward to the big one being released. But not looking forward to the shipping cost for that one! This smol brain currently displayed in one of my cabinets, but may sneak around the house to surprise unsuspecting guests.

So who’s smarter… you or the ODD Mastermind? [According to MFC, 70% are dumber and 30% are smarter]

Marin Kitagawa – JM Studio

This figure is an unlicensed resin. I bought this figure as I fell in love with the succubus design – as of time of writing, I haven’t read/watched My Dress Up Darling.

The box

Front:

On the front of the box, we get to see both versions of the figure, and I get a banner on mine saying the first 100 preorders get a womb tattoo. Ooh! And some quality censoring on the nipples 😆

Box sides:

The left side is the contiunation of the image on the back of the box. On the right we have a list of information you usually get at the time of preorder, and a QR code that is the link to their QQ group.

Back of the box:

We have a nicely posed photo of the figure 🙂

Top of the box:

Not much to see up here.

Foam (with the pieces taken out):

We have a decently compact layout, and everything was well-protected so everything came intact. Each hole held one part, so no poking around for missing parts.

The extras

As I preordered early, the figure came with this transfer you can apply to the figure. Haven’t decided yet if I will apply it.

The clothed body:

Assembling was a bit involoved when it came to the head, neck ruff and wings, so didn’t want to reassemble on this body. Not a bad looking body, but the top does look weird whilst the body is unassembled like this. There is a lot of part reuse between the bodies – feet, tail, arms, wings, ruff and head. So not hugely convenient if you want to switch between bodies.

The rest of the review is NSFW, so click the button below to see more.

Assembled body

With assembly, getting the right order took some work. It’s best to put on the ruff, the head then do the wings. There’s enough space between the hair strands to slip both the wings in. Getting the ruff aligned took some work, but I got there in the end. The tail was a bit of a fiddle to go in, but the feet, arms and ponytails were easy. Getting the cushion orientated correctly took a bit of time – eventually I worked out the corner “nibble” goes against her right arm. Once assembled she needs the cushion to not roll over.

The body is nicely shaded as well as the hair, and also enjoying the shiny tail. The black parts of the clothing don’t have shading, and the shading on the ruff is very subtle. I’m not bothered about the lack of shading on the black parts, but I think the ruff could do with some detail to differentiate the buttons and the bow. You can’t really leave the ruff off – it hides the join between her head and neck, but you could fashion some choker for her to wear pretty easily, if you wanted her more naked.

Face:

She has a cute smile and the eyes are done well. Also loving her little horns. The hair shading is pretty stark – I like it, but it is a bit mismatching with the rest of the figure.

Moving down to her chest, the nipples are nice and not overdone, and I like the nice round shapes.

Left:

She looks nice from this angle, can work as a viewing angle if you’re not bothered about her facing you. The cushion is a nice texture and nicely sculpted.

Right:

From this angle, we can see the light doing the heavy lifting on the shading for the black part of her dress. I like the way she’s sitting twisted around, and the sneaky tail poking over her leg.

Close-up on that tail:

Was a bit of finagling to get the tail at the right angle. Assuming this is the correct one :). I like the way it is wrapping around her body as well as the glossy finish.

Back:

Here we can find her wings and 🍑. She has very shapely buttocks. Some people may find her wings a bit bland, but I think for this scale they’re fine and fit the figure well. Once you work out the assembly order, the wings go in pretty easily, which is nice as they often can be difficult on figures. They seem to fit firmly, and I didn’t have any issues with them escaping whilst photographing a figure so they shouldn’t fall out when on your shelf.

And finally a shot of her on display:

Looking very cute on her fluffy base :). Overall, the stand-out parts of this figure is the body and the head. None of the details are bad, and what’s there is neatly painted. Resin collectors may not be happy with her size – she’s a 1/6 with a pose that is compact – but fits well into a PVC collection that isn’t all FREEing bunnies. The figure to the right of the photo above is a 1/4 scale, so she will look dwarfed by them. Being a small figure, her packed weight was 1.6kg, so she was cheap to ship.

Overall I’m happy with my purchase and to have another cute succubus in my collection 🙂

Sanis – ClayM

This figure is by ClayM, and distributed by Lechery in Japan.

The box, as imported from China:
https://i.ibb.co/vYZY9NF/box-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/99mqJfD/box-side.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Xkt22HK/box-other-side.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/VLdN2zL/box-back.jpg
Interestingly for the Chinese release they have stickered over the Lechery logos and address on the back of the box. Looking at Hobby Search, under the big logo labels there is a Lechery logo and a ClayM logo without the text.

Here are the parts in the polystyrene:
https://i.ibb.co/zhqFq7Q/boxtrays.jpg
Nicely protected, but would’ve been nice to have instructions. Most of the assembly is obvious, however I did break the cast off chest cover by doing it wrong. If you want to avoid this, I’ll cover that later.

With her chest part on:
https://i.ibb.co/vksyfgZ/clothed-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/3Tf2yys/clothed-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/JrGRHct/top-closeup.jpg
The cast-off part is a bit wiggly but does seem to stay put if positioned and left alone. It can wiggle and reveal her nipples though.

Cast-off chest part:
https://i.ibb.co/hYGzPyW/top-side.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0D4vb6m/top-front.jpg
If you look at the right of the image just above, you may be able to see the hairline mark where I broke it.

To avoid breaking it, remove her right arm first:
https://i.ibb.co/55dMM3W/armless.jpg
Very important! Even if it appears you can wiggle it out, learn from me. No you can not.

Putting the arm back on and noticing an odd hidden seam:
https://i.ibb.co/hsLNnSG/seamline.jpg

Cast off:
https://i.ibb.co/RBBbs32/uncovered-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CskRmLF/uncovered-front-offset.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YRVVTYy/right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/TBnfcj1/left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/ggwpxJh/back.jpg

Having a look at her bassy base:
https://i.ibb.co/KxFyjCp/butt-base-solo.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/ZN0p0PR/butt-base-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Cw7pFf7/base-base.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/TtZ18mZ/butt-angled.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/3BLMXfF/but-base-with-feet.jpg
A demon butt, with themes from her own design.

With the base tail attached:
https://i.ibb.co/MM9fBy0/tail-seat-base.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/ZKMfZD0/tail-seat-top.jpg
The base provides a nice, stable perch for her to sit on. It’s more leaflike than her own tail, and has its own vagina… If she overbalances when moving her, it’s more likely for the tail to pop from the base than her fall off this leaf. Or at least that’s what I found.

Head:
https://i.ibb.co/fGVNzbp/face.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/f15CDV5/face-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jGfBfxp/hair-back.jpg
Her face has a very resiny look to it, which I’m not the biggest fan of. I do love her hair and horns though.

Part of me wishes she had a shorthair head too as she has this lovely design on her back you can’t see for her hair:
https://i.ibb.co/WVbWqvr/back-no-head.jpg

Chest:
https://i.ibb.co/Ksp6qZf/bewbs.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/dPjGZTG/veins.jpg
She’s certainly blessed in the chest department. She has some subtle veins painted across her chest too.

Other detail shots:
https://i.ibb.co/j570HFn/neck-detail.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jbSQBxD/wrists.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/HxMmwcn/rigth-left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/V92zmzs/left-leg-closeup.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/2tS6HZQ/wings-closeup.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/fCJL3Td/tail-end.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CvP7mP5/cake.jpg

Sleeping Cthulhu – Blue ver. – WeArtDoing

Decided to do some showcase blogs of some figures I’ve got recently, that aren’t necessarily featured on MFC. As I won’t be providing much in the way of analysis, I’m filing these under the “loot” category, rather than review.

This figure is of a sleeping female Cthulhu in a can. The figure is by WeArtDoing. I now have two of the three variants – this one I bought in stock from a random store on Taobao. She was 1188rmb with 15rmb freight collect. International shipping ended up being 270rmb – may’ve been cheaper if I had them remove the batteries, but I was juggling a couple of other parcels at the time, so just shipped as-is.

The figure comes with an edition card and three mediocre-quality postcards. I got #19/299 – which is ironically a lower edition number than the one I preordered.

https://i.ibb.co/9s65KdC/postcards-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/f0rRcYs/postcards-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/NFd3qXF/card-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5BFxbHG/card-back.jpg

Photos of the figure:
https://i.ibb.co/FHs4XMq/angled.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/ZfdyLfP/can-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/6gLcbJr/body-closeup.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/PcK9KVk/right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/fkZ3xJ0/left.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/crVdTcL/hair-back.jpg
I do love the strange theming and the blue colorations. The body is a bit plain for its shininess – in some lights it does look a bit like bootleg plastic, so it would’ve been nice to see some extra shading to offset that.

Tentacle close-ups:
https://i.ibb.co/GcvDw1Z/tentacle-closeup.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/gyqqYsJ/back-tentacle-closeup.jpg
I love the texture moulded into the tentacles and the colour transition.

But wait… there’s a feature:
https://i.ibb.co/x7GXJjB/can-bottom.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/VxFjQkH/can-button.jpg
There’s a hidden switch that turns on an LED in the can. The can bottom is held on by magnets, so it’s easy to take off and put back on again.

Here’s some photos with the LEDs on:
https://i.ibb.co/mz461zh/light-angled.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/FW5XdKZ/light-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/BtMz6mJ/light-top.jpg
The light is quite pretty and does add to the figure.

Overall, I’m happy with my purchase. It’s a fairly unique figure, and I do love me some Cthulhu-themed things. Out of the blue and pink variants, I think I prefer the pink one, but both are pretty.
I have her displayed with the pink variant, with another one of WeArtDoing’s figures:
https://i.ibb.co/2q4Pmgk/shelf.jpg
This shelf is a work in progress, so it’s fairly empty right now. If you like to see a similar blog for either of the other two figures in the above photo, let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Pick Me Up Miku instructions

Original (requires Weibo account, Chinese): https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404786134344401123

This is a translated version of the operating instructions for Pick Me Up Miku. The wording has been machine-translated then rewritten by me to (hopefully!) make sense.

  • Unscrew the screw at the bottom of the base, open the battery cover and insert 3 x AAA batteries and close the battery cover
  • Open the battery cover at the bottom of the remote control, insert 1 x CR2025 battery and slide it in.
Position of the test button – this becomes relevant later, if you need to do diagnostics if your base does not function correctly
  • Press the ‘switch’ button on the upper part of the remote control to turn on the base light
  • The arrow functions are as follows:
    • Up: Increase the brightness
    • Down: Decrease the brightness
    • Left: Next lighting effect
    • Right: Previous lighting effect
Remote buttons

If there is a problem with the remote control or lighting effect, please refer to the following steps to check operation and diagnose issues.

This should be a flashy GIF. But the filesize was too big. So enjoy this still image.

NOTE: The following instructions are only for self-testing/fixing Pick Me Up Miku when the base lighting is not working properly, and is not suitable for daily operation. If it functions normally, please do not use this part of the guide, so as to not cause issues.

If the lighting does not work after these diagnostic steps, please consult our after-sales. [Author’s note: Not sure if this is available to international customers, but they do have an email of support^at^apex-toy.com. If you bought from an international retailer, I would advise contacting the retailer in the first instance]

Test base lighting

  1. Open the battery cover, install 3 x AAA batteries and close the cover. Preferably, use three of the same AAA batteries with the same amount of usage. Ensure the batteries have sufficient charge.
  2. After confirming the batteries, press and hold the button next to the battery cover for about 3 seconds to light up the base. Press and hold again for 3 seconds to turn off.
  3. When the base is lit, quickly press and release the button next to the battery cover to switch the lighting effect.

If the above works, the base lighting has been confirmed to be functional. If not, it is likely a fault with the circuitry.

Test remote control pairing

  1. With the signal-transmitting port [that’s the LED-y bit] pointing upwards, the button at the top is the “switch” button, and the four lower buttons are up, down, left and right.
  2. Install the battery for the remote control, and press a button. The signal transmitter port should emit a red light.
  3. Install the base batteries, and test the remote buttons, as per the instructions.
  4. As the remotes are paired at the factory, please ensure you’re using the correct remote for the correct base. If the light is emitting from the remote, but not controlling the base, please proceed to pairing the remote.
  5. Pairing the remote: Ensure the batteries are installed in the base, then press & hold the the switch under the base for 3 seconds so it turns on. Aim the remote at the base, then press & hold the up & down button simultaneously until the indicator light at the top of the remote begins to flash. Remove one of the batteries from the base, ensuring the light turns off, then re-insert the battery. Once the battery is re-inserted, the base light will flash several times and the remote indicator light will turn off to signify the successful pairing.
  6. If pairing wasn’t successful, you can remove the batteries from the remote control and base and try again. If it continues to not work after multiple attempts, please contact aftersales.

Idol Cthulhu (Fengrong Culture)

Do you like your figures cute, but just a bit scary? Then this figure is for you!
This review is pretty long – feel free to scroll past any sections that don’t appeal.

About Fengrong Culture

Fengrong Culture is a Chinese manufacturer, so you won’t find this figure in the MFC database.
Fengrong Culture was established in 2017, but this is their first release – they did intend to release another figure prior, but was cancelled before being available for order, likely for licensing reasons.

One thing to note this is the review of the figure without the DX base – the DX base is a separate release in China, and I do have this on preorder. Fengrong currently estimate 15th-20th August for the base’s release. The base was originally going to be resin, but due to the number of orders received, they changed it to be PVC & ABS. Oh, and it has lights and a speaker…

My history with the figure

I believe this figure was first revealed at Wonfes Shanghai 2019 – my first glimpse of it via an image posted to a Discord server I was on. I then promptly forgot which server it was posted on, and then couldn’t find it a week or so later. Thankfully awhile later someone reposted it, which allowed me to track down the details.
From there, I discovered Fengrong’s Weibo, which allowed me to keep track of the figure. I also discovered hpoi’s site (a Chinese MFC), so also watched the figure there.
Not knowing if the figure would see any international distribution, I registered with a Taobao proxy and did a couple of in-stock purchases to investigate how it worked, as well as looking into how deposits/preorders worked.
I decided to preorder this figure with hpoi’s store, as it was highly rated and seemed to be a good bet.
Then came the usual preorder wait. And delay. Then delay again… At one point the release date wasn’t known, but eventually Fengrong published that she’ll be sent out at the end of July. True to their word this time around, I was able to pay the replenishment (final) payment, and she was at my proxy very shortly after.
EMS from China to the UK took 11 days, so didn’t have too long to wait once she was enroute.

Figure box size and weight

As some of you reading this are likely waiting on their preorder from AmiAmi, the box weight & dimensions are:
Weight: 1875g
Dimensions: 330 x 265 x 190mm
So prepare for hefty shipping.

Figure’s box

Front:
https://i.ibb.co/wYNmC45/box-front.jpg
We have an interestingly-shaped window here, showing off most of the figure. We have some glossy-printed tentacles which give a nice texture and detail to the box.
We also have the figure’s name in Chinese and English, plus the tagline “Rhythm from R’lyeh”, which I like.

Sides:
https://i.ibb.co/G94Bpqb/box-right.jpghttps://i.ibb.co/Y2YtYXn/box-left.jpg
Not too much to see here – some little star windows, and the continuation of the front and back designs.

Back:
https://i.ibb.co/N94bySW/box-back.jpg
We have the figure in front of her illustration. Interesting choice, works OK. At the bottom we have mostly the standard warning text and figure information, plus an authenticity shiny from Fengrong and the barcode.
The design is pretty enough, but not hugely exciting.

Top:
https://i.ibb.co/WtYtmjr/box-top.jpg
This was taken after I did the photoshoot, so we can’t see the top of her head here, but it wasn’t the most exciting angle in the window. Does the job.

Bottom:
https://i.ibb.co/tM8WRF4/box-bottom.jpg
Nothing to see here. Move along. S’gone all moiré though…

Liner:
https://i.ibb.co/YpGVNCB/box-backdrop.jpg
Seem to have a jumper pattern here. You don’t really see a lot of it through the box’s windows when the figure is in the box, so it’s fine. Not sure how they decided on this pattern – doesn’t really have anything to do with the figure.

Info card:
https://i.ibb.co/KDLpxcc/info-card.jpg
Has some basic safety/warranty information. However, we have some kind of exchange code at the bottom – for an app/website that doesn’t exist yet… Well, I’ll keep an eye on their Weibo for more info! See if I can get anything good, despite not being in China.

Box inner, if you’re curious:
https://i.ibb.co/YhJbRrK/box-inside.jpg

Blister

https://i.ibb.co/cxVSX4x/blister-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/HT4TpK0/blister-back.jpg
It’s a reasonably sturdy blister, but has bent a fair bit on the front. As a blister, it clips together well, and kept the items secure as I pulled it out of the box.
Looking at the blister contents, we have the main figure, a basic base and her mic. We also have an empty hole to the bottom right – nothing was in here, and looks like that’s the case for other people’s copies. Maybe they planned to include some headphones for her at one point?

Base

Top:
https://i.ibb.co/dbGx85R/base-top.jpg
I swear this came pre-fingerprinted. Ah well, it was gonna invariably gain some of mine at some point anyway, plus I have the deluxe base coming soon. Not a very exciting base – some detail to the edges and that’s about all we get. And one bit to support her foot.
This was more base than anticipated, as the prototype shots just showed her balanced on her tentacles.

Peg:
https://i.ibb.co/hLxWJZQ/base-foot-peg.jpg
The plastic pieces didn’t go together so well here, so we have some protruding edges. They’re hidden once she’s on the stand though.
A decently long metal peg here, to keep her stable – nice to see a metal peg, as that’ll stay nice and sturdy when displayed.

Bottom:
https://i.ibb.co/BsPBTDL/base-bottom.jpg
No copyrights, no nothing. Plastic grid might be useful if you want to put her on a display plinth smaller than her diameter though.

Unpacking the parts

Mic:
https://i.ibb.co/xqMY0fQ/mic.jpg
Not too much to see here – it is pretty small, so the details are sufficient. No notable paint mishaps here.

Cthulhu with her protective materials:
https://i.ibb.co/TWYTbcH/plastics.jpg
She comes with a good amount of plastic separating the parts, stopping her from scraping against herself. She also has a foam block behind her legs to stop her from swinging back and hitting her hair.
Closer look at the foam:
https://i.ibb.co/fSvrxCb/foam-block.jpg
There weren’t any instructions with her, so I just squidged it up and squeezed it out between her leg and tentacle, being careful not to nudge the bow on the back of her ankle off. I did waggle her body around, but not sure if it detaches, so left it be.

Propped without base:
https://i.ibb.co/GxNcSVP/main-body-front.jpg
She can be balanced without the base like the prototype images show, but she looked a little wonky when I did this.

Assembly

Foot hole:
https://i.ibb.co/RDRyVrX/foot-hole.jpg
This fit fine onto the metal peg – was fairly easy to slide her on once I got the correct angle for the peg. Is a little bit of marking on her sole on my copy.

Hand for the mic:
https://i.ibb.co/3WpFp9S/mic-hand.jpg
This is what her hand looks like without the mic. You may see some excess rubbery stuff on her hand – I noticed this after this photo, but it just brushed off with a little force, thankfully.

*plop*:
https://i.ibb.co/7N1T4BM/mic-in-hand.jpg
It fit into her hand just fine, no issues here. Seems to be in there firmly enough too. Also note the lack of cruft on the back of her hand.

OK, that’s everything unpacked and assembled. Let’s give ‘er a spin.

Spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/9b9cQ43/front-with-mic.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/9sFpq6N/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/sb1ZBVb/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/gM7hBVx/spin-left.jpg
Yep, she’s definitely a statement piece of a figure. A bold green and definitely tentacle-y. Very heavy too – guessing that the tentacles were cast solid, as she’s a weighty beast. Complete opposite of a B’Full/Insight figure. Unfortunately that means she’ll cost a pretty penny to ship.

Close-ups

Face:
https://i.ibb.co/HTTLm1n/face.jpg
She has quite a cute singing face. For some reason, her hair is propped a bit away from her face – I don’t think it shows much on display, but does look a little odd. The cast isn’t the best but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen. We do have some nice shading here though. Her stray hair has some stark contrast on it – it doesn’t bother me personally, but I can some people finding this to be a bit of a paint flaw.
Looking at her hair accessories, the cast is a little blobby, and the gold-y part hasn’t been painted neatly.
Her face skin hasn’t been shaded, so it relies on natural shadow to give it depth. We do have some shading in her mouth though, and two cute fangs.
Her eyes might be a bit divisive – it’s an unusual pattern that fits her, but they do look like faces, which is a bit annoying when you notice it.
Looking at her head wings, we do have some paint detail, but nothing really in sculpt detail.

From the side of her face:
https://i.ibb.co/VCR9b5y/side-face.jpg
I think her head and mic hand have been posed well – really gives off the vibe she’s singing whilst she waves at her fans.
Her sleeve is shaded nicely, and her cuffs add some nice detail to the figure. The lines on the cuff look neat, and the ruff has been nicely sculpted.
We’ve also got a couple of starfish in her “hair” here too. I do like these little details.

Cthulhu bow detail:
https://i.ibb.co/1fghgMV/shirthulhu.jpg
This li’l dude is neat imo. He’s been sculpted well, and the greens are nice. His eyes are painted neatly… but the stars, not so much – here the paint is too sloppy imo – the one to the right of the photo has a fair amount of overspill. In close proximity it’s very noticeable, a bit of distance less so, but you can see it’s there if you’re looking.

Lower half of the dress:
https://i.ibb.co/tQKZ7jX/dress-lower.jpg
This angle we can see the sloppy gold paint more in focus. If you wanted to…
The dress itself I think has been moulded well, and feels like there’s some life to it with the bottom ruffles rolling upwards in the middle. There is a little shading on the green panel, but it is a bit indistinct. The white parts do have quite noticeable shading.
Loving the three layers they’ve given her dress – adds volume and detail to the dress.

Bow:
https://i.ibb.co/XShSQ2N/bow.jpg
Close up it looks a little chonk – that’s to say a little blobby in the sculpt. Being close up to it doesn’t do it any favours, but looks fine from a viewing distance.

Wings:
https://i.ibb.co/BKVfkS1/right-wing.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CvVNCs9/left-wing.jpg
Unlike the head wings, I feel like these two have had full attention paid to them – much more detail in the sculpt and paint here. These two wings add to her cuteness and cthulhuness :D.

Legs:
https://i.ibb.co/0MfVM8H/legs.jpg
Looking at the top of the stockings, it does look like the dark blue banding is a bit different in widths between the two legs, but I don’t think it is something particularly noticeable unless you’re looking up close.
She has bits of shading on her stockings, which help add depth, and a little bit of wrinkling at the back of her knee. I also like the little star details here too.
Her shoes match her tentacles in colour, but have been done with a gloss finish. Unfortunately where the paint blobs out ever so slightly it does produce quite a dark tone which makes her straps look like they’re a little dirty up close.
The bows behind her legs don’t stand out too much, but are a nice additional detail.

Boat:
https://i.ibb.co/tHyT0QX/boath.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/DL2zMVF/boat-side.jpg
I love this little cute detail – it does look like a boat tossing in the sea of her tentacles. Again, this is a detail that looks fine from a distance, but up close the sails are rather blobby and unshaded. If I was to change this bit, I’d probably add some grey shading to the sails to hide some of the deficiencies in the sculpting. Though I think a more experienced manufacturer might be able to work on getting a better cast for the sails.

Top of the tentacle-hair:
https://i.ibb.co/YQzgjqf/hair-back.jpg
Isn’t the most attractive meeting of hair, but the lower parts of the tentacle joins is fine. We can also see the shading on the tentacles – I was worried they wouldn’t have much shading, so I was very happy to see this. The shading is pretty striking from a distance, which can be seen in the spin-around shots.
For the backs of the wings, we can see the head wings lack detail on this side, but her body wings are also shaded and sculpted back here. Though one is notably darker than the other. I don’t mind a bit of variance, but some people may find this bothersome.

Lower meeting of the tentacles:
https://i.ibb.co/Ss7PbWZ/tentacle-cluster.jpg
These tentacles meet up nicely.

Wiggly tentacles:
https://i.ibb.co/QH0hqD3/backtacle.jpg
Here we can see more of the shading, and I do like the wiggly lines of these tentacles at the back. The top is slightly glossy, which I think works well.

Suckers:
https://i.ibb.co/LCwp7C8/suckers.jpg
She wants to stick right to you }:). The undersides of her tentacles have some subtle shading to add depth. The suckers aren’t sucker-shaped, but do mostly look the part. Now I’ve mentioned that, it’s probably going to annoy someone :P.

And that’s a tour of Idol Cthulhu!

Conclusion

So is she winning any awards? I think she deserves an award the concept – I love the idea of a Cthulhu idol. The figure definitely has a fun vibe to her, and I think the shading is better on the figure than I was hoping – most of her has some elements of shading, though her face doesn’t. With the liveliness of the figure, I think she’s fine on a simple base, though there is the complex base being released later.
Some of the paint details could’ve had more attention put in – though the only one that really bothers me is the stars on the chest Cthulhu. There are a couple of bits of sculpting that could do with refining, but nothing I find particularly bothersome.
I’m glad I went through the journey I did to order this unique figure, and I think it’s a solid first figure for Fengrong. Her recommended retail is around ¥12,000, which looking at the figures around that price point in my collection is a fair price for her.
With postage, she cost me around ¥18,550. If you’re in Europe, I’ll be curious how much she cost to ship (I shipped her via EMS from China) – see how ordering from AmiAmi compares when they have her.

Do you feel she’s worth her retail? Have you ordered her from China/AmiAmi? Excited or scared for her?
Thanks for reading this review! And a thank you from Idol Cthulhu!
https://i.ibb.co/mNSHwXL/facey-face.jpg

Official vs Bootleg: FuRyu Leafa Noodle Stopper

Today is another noodle stopper – Leafa from Sword Art Online.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): n/a
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥2,160 (£15.09)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): £3.00

Let’s get this blog started with the spin-around:
https://i.ibb.co/Lp8VCqC/spin-fail.jpg
Erm, time for some white tack and to start this again… The first fail of the bootleg – it won’t actually act like a noodle stopper as the weighting on her is so uneven she’ll just fall off what she’s perched on.
White tack sourced and applied…

Figure spin-around
https://i.ibb.co/tmZT60P/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/nztYt5m/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Qn7V4dz/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Y7Q7wB2/spin-left.jpg
Yeah, the finish on the bootleg is looking rough – poor paint, gaps and that brightly yellow hair. Oh, and the unsightly white tack I’ve had to use to keep her on the stand.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/b3dXv4c/face.jpg

The eye decals are almost competent on the bootleg – the various bits seem to be all present, albeit in the wrong colour and slightly squashed, plus the lines above her eyes are too thick. The too-thick lines also follow through to her eyebrows and mouth – the eyebrows look OK, but the mouth is somewhat scary at this distance, with the mottled paint.
The bootleg’s hair is a blobby, seamy mess, so nothing unusual for a bootleg here. The hair also entirely lacks shading, whereas the official has darker tones towards the ends of her hair.
I don’t think her hairbands look great on either, but the bootleg’s right hairband seems to have completely missed the mark.

Hairband:

https://i.ibb.co/Sy0DhBt/hair-flower.jpg

Both are flawed here – my official has some stray paint and the green loops are slightly off from where they should be, though I’d definitely rate the bootleg as worse here – less care has been taken to draw the green line in and the paint has got gaps in from the uneven surface. The bootleg’s moulding is also blobby, misshapen and rough.

Left side of head:

https://i.ibb.co/M6BC4DS/headl-left.jpg

Here we can see more paint shading on the official which is lacking on the bootleg. The moulding is also poor here on the bootleg – most noticeable from where her pigtail goes underneath her fringe – the lack of paint shading and depth makes this look odd. The bootleg’s ponytail also comes with a bonus seam.

Top of head:

https://i.ibb.co/KwXzd1T/head-top.jpg

Some rough bits to be seen on both here – both have a distinctive seam as part of the fringe part. The bootleg has some very uneven paint here – lots of blobs and mess in the paint itself… and no shading.
The bootleg’s ponytail looks like it is separating too – it didn’t fall off during the review, but I won’t be surprised if it comes off at some point.

Side of her head:

https://i.ibb.co/XzWbL1P/ear.jpg

Paint on the bootleg is decidedly rough here – lots of unevenness and blotches. Her hair parts haven’t been assembled correctly, leaving a larger gap above her ear than there should be.
We can also see some laziness with the green paint – the hairband doesn’t even go all the way around.

Back of hair:

https://i.ibb.co/gzYwVhN/hair.jpg

Neon, unshaded and bits of bonus plastic – yep, we’ve got most of the usual flaws in the bootleg’s hair. Her ponytail also hasn’t been attached correctly, meaning it sits to the left of her instead of over to the right. Whilst this does mean you can see more of her bum, it’s not doing us much favours due to the flaws (more on that later).
The flower band in the bootleg’s hair is also a plain white, instead of the official’s green-white, showing a cheaping out on the paint.

Let’s get a close-up of that backside:

https://i.ibb.co/HF58CbN/bum.jpg

I think on the official’s sculpt they sculpted it well – you get to see the shape but nothing on show. We’ve also got some creasing in the material to make it more lifelike.
Now the bootleg, oh the bootleg. For starters, the parts aren’t assembled correctly leaving unsightly gaps by her left leg and back. The shape of her bum is slightly lost, making it less well-defined. The green paint has been roughly done and we have what looks like a fingerprint in the white paint, making it look messy.

Arm:

https://i.ibb.co/2KKFXW4/arm-side.jpg

Here we have the typical armband that is used on a lot of figures to hide where an arm joins the body. On the official, it is mostly doing its job, though there is a little gapping. The bootleg on the other hand has a massive gap all the way around her arm so the join isn’t hidden at all. The paint is also too thin leaving the flesh-coloured plastic showing through. We also have an unsightly seam mark running down her neck and upper arm.
Moving to her top, the bootleg’s is very poorly assembled and the neck strap isn’t even pushed into the hole correctly, leaving it broken and revealing the unsightly assembly hole. The painting is also very poor – the strap lacks the buckle detail and the paint is very messy on the cup. We’re also missing the line detail on the cup.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/chFnTZ1/swim-top.jpg

There was an attempt.
The official’s is far from perfect on mine – one of the lines runs wayyy off, the silver buckle paint is a bit lacking, but we do have the nice little flower ring detail.
And then we look at the bootleg and realise how much worse it could be. The strap is overly thick and rough, and the buckle details aren’t painted at all. The moulding has gone very badly wrong here – the ends of the straps have gone very blobby and odd. Due to this, neither side of the strap has been assembled properly, with her right side nowhere close.
Moving to the cups on her top, the edging paint is very messy – no neat edges here. The inner lines haven’t been painted at all, and the flower ring has missing flecks of paint. Just underneath her top on the bootleg, we can see a decent amount of overage on the white paint too.
Erm, is the bootleg’s stare-face also creeping people out in this photo?

Stomach:

https://i.ibb.co/TkvJGbp/stomach.jpg

Both of the actual stomachs on these figures looks fine to me, though the bootleg does have bonus shiny. To the bootleg’s side, we can see a visible seam line that doesn’t show on the official and we have some gapping between the parts.
The quality of painting of the green band on her bottoms is about the same on both, but the bows are much nicer on the original – the green paint matches and the bows have much better definition. On the bootleg we can see the peg hole where the bow should attach, and the bottom of the ribbon has gone to a strange rounded shape.

Left leg:

https://i.ibb.co/2g55pRp/left-lef-side.jpg

Yeah, the bootleg bow doesn’t look any nicer from this angle. And we get to see her leg looking like it might fall off.
The quality of the plastic on the bootleg’s leg is also particularly bad here – we can see lots of small scratchlike imperfections in the plastic.

Right leg:

https://i.ibb.co/x7WnnMv/leg-side.jpg

Again, the bootleg’s bow is very messy and the wrong colour – there’s a surprising amount of excess plastic left on the bow. Around the bootleg’s bow we can seemingly see some bits of stray glue.
Moving to her hand, the bootleg’s has sunk down a bit so it is no longer resting on her knee – though this change in pose isn’t particularly noticeable unless you have them side-by-side. The bootleg’s hand though lacks definition and has become blobby and looking slightly mutant.

Foot:

https://i.ibb.co/SKgv1CS/foot.jpg

Focus didn’t go so good here… Stupid bootleg hair getting in the way when it shouldn’t do.
Surprisingly, this part came out OK on the bootleg – was expecting it to be as deformed as the hands, but the feet actually came out OK.

The flat side:

https://i.ibb.co/dK84Fsm/bottom.jpg

Yeah, minimum effort here for the bootleg. Here we can see how poorly assembled this figure was, with massive gapping on both legs. We have a very obvious seam, and the shiny, rough plastic. Plus some excess plastic that wasn’t shaved off.
The official doesn’t have any of the above flaws, and actually has some paint detail on the skin, despite this part not usually being visible.

Conclusion

The bootleg you very much get what you paid for – it’s a low-quality copy of the original with many flaws. Even at a distance, some of the defects are visible – the extra paint on the top, the poor assembly of the parts (especially the top’s strap) and the poorly painted mouth giving her a slight creepy vibe. Even if you can live with the visual flaws, this bootleg has a propensity to roll over due to the incorrect assembly of parts – I believe it’s mostly to do with how her hair was glued on at the wrong angle. So as well as being kinda ugly, she’s not functional either, so definitely couldn’t recommend.
I think the poor quality is fairly evident, but I can see a novice collector dismissing most of the flaws as “cheap prize figure”. It’s a bit unfortunate my official does have a major paint flaw, but looking at the MFC gallery not all of the official ones are like this (might even just be mine).

Official vs Bootleg: FuRyu Asuna Noodle Stopper (Ordinal Scale)

Sword Art Online (SAO) might not have the best reputation, but it is popular enough that its prize figures get bootlegged, so now I have four of the SAO noodle stoppers to look at. First up on the block is Asuna.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): n/a
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥2,060 (£13.06)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): £5.53

The official I preordered on AmiAmi.

Box

This one I got the box for, just to see what the boxes are like. I no longer have the original box, so there isn’t a direct comparison here.
Front:

https://i.ibb.co/zRm0Lxd/box-front.jpg

Interestingly they’ve kept the FuRyu logo, but removed the JAMMA logo. The JAMMA logo should be sat underneath the FuRyu logo.

Sides:

https://i.ibb.co/h2G1V85/box-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/khxmVt9/box-left.jpg

This box is thinner than the original and lacks the claw machine grab holes. The sides are also the same side duplicated – on the official one side has the copyright mentioning Kadokawa and SAO.
We can also see the print quality isn’t great and Asuna is a bit bluey and fuzzy.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/VJdVSp7/box-back.jpg

This is a mildly inferior copy of the original. Also note the dotted circle where there should be an authenticity sticker.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/4f6nLnp/box-top.jpg

The top image has been squished to fit the non-square top, leaving the text looking slightly stretched and jagged.

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/vwYGzv3/box-bottom.jpg

Not much to see here, but this does show one of the fold lines you do tend to get when a box has been flattened – if you’re buying something “new” that has similar fold lines, be suspicious of its authenticity.

Figure spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/THf09G3/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YLt1Nzq/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LNYvSFm/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/XZnQrT6/spin-left.jpg

Huh, I thought Asuna had orangey hair? Bootleg Asuna says no! Surprised by how off the hair colour is on the bootleg.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/4147h96/face.jpg

Bootleg: stare, stare
The hair and eye colours are massively off on the bootleg – not being very character-accurate here. The official’s hair is the orangey-brown it should be and the bootleg I think had chocolate melted over its head. Just… so bad. The bootleg’s hair is also blobby in shape and the sculpt is ill-defined.
The official’s eyebrows match her hair, the bootleg’s is some other shade of orange that matches the bootleg’s eyes instead of her hair. Quite odd.
Getting to the eyes, the bootleg’s aren’t just lacking a lot of detail but are incorrectly coloured and shaped. I don’t think they were thinking when they chose the eye decals.
The bootleg’s mouth is probably the most inoffensive part and looks OK, though its colour doesn’t match.
Lastly, the bootleg has pasty, shiny skin making her look potentially slightly ill. Glad the official isn’t like this.

Chest:

https://i.ibb.co/WKMNbBd/chest.jpg

Poor bootleg Asuna is losing her top! The paint for her straps doesn’t even go all the way to the
top of her neck.
Here the shiny, pasty skin of the bootleg is on full show and not making her look great. The official is a much better skin tone. The loss of detail in the bootleg cast really doesn’t help her skin’s appearance.
The paint on the official’s top is on a par with most prize figures, the bootleg’s is almost neater, but completely missed the line on her left boob. The bow on the bootleg appears to be red plastic rather than painted, which gives it a cheap feel.

Bra strap:

https://i.ibb.co/ZGBHkCJ/bra-strap.jpg

The official’s strap looks like it is lightly pressing into her skin and the bootleg’s, well, looks like it’s trying to chop her in two. The seam line going down from the top’s strap on the bootleg also adds to her unrealistic look. With the bow and the strap, the official’s match up perfectly in colour, but the bootleg’s does not look like a match.
Looking further to the left, her hair bobble is painted neatly on the official, but the hair colour is most definitely intruding on the bootleg version.

Side of her hair:

https://i.ibb.co/ZN3f6qG/hair-side.jpg

Yuck, don’t think I’m going to get over the bootleg’s awful brown hair.
With the official, we can see the way her hair was laid in sections dangling over her shoulder. This part passed the bootleggers by, and hers is piled up incorrectly, leaving it floating unnaturally in the air.
Moving to her arm strap, the official’s does look too tight for my liking, but the bootleg’s is thick, uneven and looks incorrectly assembled towards the back.

Wrist ruffle:

https://i.ibb.co/LnN9kgw/wrist-strap.jpg

Here we can see how the bootleg’s hand is misaligned – maybe they thought she was supposed to be waving? The shiny skin makes her hand almost look like a gelatinous blob to me.
Going to the band around her wrist, the bootleg’s has lost all detail and is a painted mess. Much prefer the original one.

Hair:

https://i.ibb.co/LNYvSFm/spin-back.jpg

The mould mostly matches on the bootleg, but is somewhat sadder. The hair on the bootleg hasn’t been attached properly from the upper hair to the scrunchie leaving it looking even odder.
Due to the poor construction and deformed moulding the bootleg’s hand now sits atop her hair instead of on the ground level where it should be. Slightly better than hanging freely I suppose.

Hand:

https://i.ibb.co/xF1FgdV/hand.jpg

Whilst we’re on the subject of her left hand, here is a close-up of it. Not sure if the dirt on the official hand is my fault or not. Her left hand does look odd from certain angles on the official, and the bootleg has the same curse. Plus the added one where they had to have some floaty, and her palm isn’t even level with the surface. Her wrist manages to look even more bizarre.

Skirt bow:

https://i.ibb.co/yynDs0P/side-bow.jpg

Again, we have the colour mismatch between the official and the bootleg. The bootleg’s bow looks kind of sad and melty instead of lying flat due to gravity.
The leg bands on both look OK to me, just different.

Left side of skirt:

https://i.ibb.co/cDBCngP/skirt-left.jpg

Here we get to see the true horror of the bootleg paint. And the fact I don’t dust my figures as nearly as often as I should.
These lines are slightly ambitious for a prize figure, so they have come out a little sloppy on the official. The bootleg manages to take this to the next level though, and the skirt line is barely there and the cross painting is definitely sloppy and thin.
Going to the plastic of the skirt, the official has been painted in white giving a more matte finish, and the official has been left plasticky which doesn’t look good in my opinion.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/P64yBQ6/feet.jpg

Ah, this time the bootleg can have the dirty mark. And seeing as I opened the bootleg for the review I can categorically say this is Chinese dirt.
The foot moulding doesn’t suffer as badly as some other parts, but we can see her toes have become shorter. The bootleg’s feet are also closer together, giving her a different pose.

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/NWJQLWK/bottom.jpg

Here we can see they’re both flat on the bottom. Useful for the shelf-sitting :). Here we can also see how different the leg and hair positions are, which is a theme running throughout the bootleg figure.

And maybe to try and make up for the sadness that is the bootleg, it came with some equally sad-looking accessories:

https://i.ibb.co/G3KQk6w/toro-keyring.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/NNK23kG/hairband.jpg

First we have the thinnest rubber keychain I’ve ever seen, allegedly of Totoro – this thing feels very thin and not very nice to touch. The metal chain and ring are also very thin and could be easily broken.
Next we have a hairband that doesn’t feel very well made and has a little plastic heart that says “shen xi”. Not sure what the translation of this is. I don’t have hair long enough to use this, but even if I did I’m not sure it would last long – the fabric felt loose and would probably come apart if it was used.

Conclusion

The bootleg? No… just… no. I couldn’t recommend it to anyone. The hair and the awful eyes make it not look like Asuna, and I’m not sure if someone who didn’t know who Asuna was would particularly want this pasty, sweaty-looking mess. The box could likely fool some people, but I think once they pulled this brown-haired, light-orange-eyed stranger wearing Asuna’s bathing costume out of the box they’d be mighty confused.

Official vs Bootleg: FuRyu Momo Belia Deviluke (Drink Holder)

Today’s blog will feature the drink-hugging Momo by FuRyu. This is one of a set of FuRyu knockoffs I bought – the other ones in this set will be noodle stoppers. As she’s pretty skimpily dressed and there’s some closeups of her bikini bottoms I’ve marked this blog NSFW.
As these FuRyu blogs will be shorter due to the size and complexity of these figures and me no longer owning the boxes for a box comparison, these blogs will be released at a quicker rate.

I chose this particular figure as it’s a favourite of mine of these small figures, and is a little different from the other noodle stoppers.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): n/a
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥2,060 (£14.03)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): £3.00

The original I preordered on AmiAmi.

Figure unbagging

This bootleg simply came in a clear bag, but an immediate issue presented itself:

https://i.ibb.co/nMTQC4X/bootleg-armless.jpg

Ah, hrm… not going to be hugging many bottles like this!
Unfortunately it was not a case of plugging the arm back in:

https://i.ibb.co/LCZ81MX/bootleg-arm-break.jpg

Here we can see where the arm peg has simply snapped in half. Before I commenced this review, I glued the arm back together with some cheap superglue. The bond wasn’t great, but sufficient enough to allow me to photograph it.

Figure spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/G9rZ4Kq/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/8jtyxmV/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/RC9bjYC/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YZYY1n5/spin-left.jpg

A fairly similar effort, but we can see that the hair is a mess, the panties are a different colour and her bra doesn’t show through her clothes in the same way.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/DQ61QNP/face.jpg

For the official, we have a cute, smiling expression and the bootleg… has a face only a mother can love. The eyebrows, embarrassed cheeks and mouth have been done in pale colours on the official and fit in with the rest of her face whilst the bootleg has lines done in a much stronger red and thicker than their official counterparts. It’s almost as if the bootleg has fresh wounds rather than facial details.
Moving to the eyes, the bootleg has lost significant amounts of detail – we’re missing two shades of purple and the white shines are underneath the black iris markings leaving her eyes looking odd to me.
The official’s hair is a pleasing peachy-pink and contains some shading. Bootleg’s hair is blobby and poorly moulded as you’d expect of a bootleg and painted more of a “pure” pink.
Moving down to the bow, the official’s looks nice, even if it is’t super-detailed, whilst the bootleg’s has a dent in it.

A closer look at the bootleg’s hair:

https://i.ibb.co/f2T7Db0/bootleg-hair-gap.jpg

The hair on the bootleg is actually partly loose – it will wiggle around, but it didn’t actually come off (and that’s with me trying to some extent). If it gets pushed up, it looks really ugly. Official has no such problems and remains in place.

Hair decoration:

https://i.ibb.co/Pt26pyZ/head-side.jpg

The official’s hair flowers are painted well for a prize figure, and we have some paint shading in her hair, which is also a treat for a prize.
Now the bootleg, oh dear. The flowers are barely painted, making it hard to tell what they’re supposed to be. We’ve got plenty of excess plastic, including some wisps of the stuff at the lower back. The hair seam is also very messy, completing the bootleg look.

Hair tips:

https://i.ibb.co/zJnkhzh/hair-tips.jpg

Both are actually shaded here, so points for both.

Top view:

https://i.ibb.co/2cwP52N/top-view.jpg

The seam in the hair on the official has been blended to some extent, decently well for a prize. Bootleg doesn’t have such attempts made, and we have spiderweb of lines making the top of her head look odd.

Body:

https://i.ibb.co/wBtf0zf/chest.jpg

The official’s shirt is a peach/off-white colour, and we can subtlety see she has a pink bikini top underneath. The bootleg’s top has been painted with a rough, stark white paint and her bikini top is a lot more visible than the official’s. Guess she got the cheap shirt from Primark.
The finish on the official’s shirt is much nicer in my opinion – the shiny finish gives it a silky feel, whilst the bootleg’s just look like she’s been dipped in paint.
The stomach definition is fairly similar on both, but the bootlegs is slightly less defined.

Bikini bottoms:

https://i.ibb.co/KVTsqk9/crotch.jpg

The official has a hot pink bikini, but the bootleg’s is more of a berry colour. The painting is also not very good on the bootleg, and there is a noticeable amount of paint on her abdomen.
Looking at the bootleg’s legs, something has gone quite wrong with the plastic casting, and it looks like she has sores on her upper right leg. I find it slightly unpleasant to look at. Along with the skin aberrations, she has a dirty knee and dirt spots on her left leg. My official does have some dust on it, but that’s British dust rather than factory dirt.

Shirt side:

https://i.ibb.co/M1mH96Y/shirt-seam.jpg

On the official, we have a subtle seam line for the shirt that’s been sculpted, but on the bootleg it is much more noticeable. The slapped-on paint on the bootleg shirt is in full view here too.

Shirt back:

https://i.ibb.co/BVgk2fs/shirt-back.jpg

The bikini strap on the official has a bit of a sculpt to it, whilst the bootleg doesn’t. With the bootleg it feels a bit “painted on”, but does look OK in the photo in my opinion. The sculpts have come out pretty much a match, but you can see the rough paint at the bottom of the bootleg’s shirt. The bootleg has also come with some free dirt on her left shoulder.

Backside and tail:

https://i.ibb.co/2YLy5DF/tail-side.jpg

The tail on the official is a much more pleasing shape, and happily springs into the position shown. The shading on the official tail is a fair bit more subtle. Both tails have excess plastic on them, which would’ve been nice to not be there. The main issue with the bootleg tail is the position it naturally resides in – it curls up against her body and just looks messy. It is also a less solid plastic giving it a cheap feel.
Looking at her bikini bottoms, the bootleg is horribly painted with a massive chunk of overage. Her leg is also not attached well to her body leaving a large gap.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/XJyxNps/feet.jpg

Here we can see the playful nature of the official tail and the “feh” of the bootleg.
Moving onto the feet that this shot was taken for, they’re actually pretty similar. The official’s left foot has a copyright stamp on it that the bootleg doesn’t. Official does actually have a bit of shading, but the bootleg doesn’t look noticeably worse for not having that. The toes weren’t perfectly replicated on the bootleg, but definitely a lot better than other bootlegs I’ve seen.

Underside:

https://i.ibb.co/K2HCtCH/underside.jpg

Here we can see the difference in finish on the skin between the two – the official is matte whilst the bootleg very much has “cheap figure shine”. Again, the official has some shading in the skin that the bootleg doesn’t (located at the back of her knees). The bootleg also features a noticeable seam on her outer right leg.
In terms of the sculpt, the bootleg fares well, and is pretty close to the official. The toes do look a little longer on the bootleg, but I think that’s mostly a result of the finish.

Action feature:

https://i.ibb.co/VCpQGjN/arm-bendy.jpg

The official has rubbery arms so that they can be bent as shown above to squeeze a bottle into her grip. The bootleg has solid plastic arms which sort of defeats the “use” of this product, and mine would just snap anyway seeing as she came broken. So definitely a win for the official product here.

Conclusion

The official is definitely better than the bootleg, though the bootleg does look OK for £3.
Telling these apart is quite easy – if the face doesn’t immediately scare you away, the colour of her clothing and the shiny finish are also clues to the figure being bootleg.
The main disappointing feature of the bootleg is the fact she can’t hug a bottle – the plastic arms won’t allow her to hug as many items and the plastic would likely snap if you tried to give her a bottle. In terms of looks, the face is definitely not good, but it was the tail that really stood out to me as being poor quality – whilst it might be possible to improve the pose of the bootleg’s tail, it will likely deform again over time.
Going to be sticking with my official figure for this one.

Official vs Bootleg: Kotobukiya Ayanami Rei – Party Dress ver.

This one I found an interesting choice on the case of the bootleggers – this figure is still being actively bootlegged, despite its aftermarket price usually being quite low. So what can we get for bootleg prices?

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥3,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥4,290 (£30)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $13.70 (£11.13)

Box

Front:

https://i.ibb.co/qp78wXR/box-front.jpg

The Kotobukiya logo is conspicuously absent on the bottom left, along with the authenticity sticker. They have also removed the warning texts as well – not sure why bootleggers do this sometimes.
Interestingly the text that says “Party dress version” above Ayanami’s name is white on the official but black on the bootleg. Not sure why that happened as the box doesn’t appear to be a total recreation. The blue colour is slightly off, but not in a way that screams “bootleg”.

Right:

https://i.ibb.co/Kj0mN4x/box-right.jpg

On this side, we can see they have removed the Kotobukiya logo, the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” text and the warning text from the bottom edge. Not sure why they object to people being warned to be careful with the product.
In the top left there is less contrast in the blues on the bootleg, but nothing that massively stands out.

Left:

https://i.ibb.co/Sc0tT0L/box-left.jpg

Here they seem to have gotten lazy with the editing and just removed everything in the bottom left, plus the warnings.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/Pg0XbhR/box-back.jpg

Here they’ve removed certain parts of text and rearranged what was left to vaguely fill the space. Anything that references Kotobukiya has been removed, but we do seem to have the corrected text slapped on there, instead of whatever’s underneath my box’s correction sticker.
This box also has had its barcode replaced with one for a sticker sheet. Well, I suppose it’s a sticker sheet by Kotobukiya! One of the bootleg boxes which shows it can pay to check the barcode.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/hYSGjzr/box-top.jpg

Not much different here – no Kotobukiya logo and they’ve removed the Japanese for “Party Dress Ver”

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/PZJTQgK/box-bottom.jpg

Slight difference in the shade of blue. Not much to report here.

Now to open the box:

https://i.ibb.co/BzyPmk1/box-opening.jpg

Ah hm, here we have the bootleggers cheaping out – with the official we’re greeted with a card inner whilst the bootleggers have decided to print the box double-sided so the design is directly onto the box itself.
Here’s the official’s inner:

https://i.ibb.co/gPyLQGT/box-official-card.jpg

This blue part slides out and isn’t attached to the box.

Blister:

https://i.ibb.co/P63hMdk/blister-front.jpg

The official blister is a bit different from your average blister and folds open, as well as having a separate support piece to place Rei upon when packed. The bootleggers have gone for a very basic clamshell design.

Blister side:

https://i.ibb.co/mRxz59H/blister-side.jpg

Note the trapeze shape at the bottom of the official, whilst the bootleg is a “normal” design.

Here is the official blister opened up:

https://i.ibb.co/MDDM79W/blister-official-open.jpg

A small thing, but a pretty cool feature.

Base

My official was purchased secondhand and opened and there’s a couple of scuffs on the base, though the scuffs don’t really show once Rei is on it. Let’s see if the bootleg can make a worthy replacement:

https://i.ibb.co/K9rGfxN/base-top.jpg

I’m not feeling it… The official’s base is a much nicer velvety material, and the bootleg looks scuffed on the edges from the outset.

Underneath:

https://i.ibb.co/z7F7LGb/base-bottom.jpg

The official’s base is made from a rigid blue plastic and has the copyright printed on the bottom. The bootleg is thin clear plastic with nothing printed on the bottom.

Let’s see just how thin the bootleg is:

https://i.ibb.co/6RrQ1LJ/base-bootleg-bendy.jpg

Yeah, this thing can be bent with little force. It really is cheap and naff.

Let’s shed some light on the matter:

https://i.ibb.co/5v6ZX08/base-lit.jpg

Official is entirely opaque, as one would expect. The bootleg however… doesn’t do much to obscure the photography light. The fluff stuck onto it is very sparse and the base plastic is ridiculously thin.

Overall, this base is a poor replacement for the official. It looks naff, feels naff and is well… naff. I’ll be sticking with my official one, thanks. I expect if I did use the bootleg base it would eventually bow in the middle thanks to the plastic used.

Figure spin-around

OK box, bad base, let’s see how the figure itself holds out.

https://i.ibb.co/xJJV423/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YkHjs56/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/qyD6mRH/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/LRyTyLg/spin-left.jpg

Can definitely see some colour variation going on – most notably on her tights. The bootleg overall seems to have a more “potato-y” look where everything is slightly less distinct. We also have shiny face syndrome where the bootleg hasn’t been given a matte finish.

A couple of extra angles for the spin-around:

https://i.ibb.co/RyYVxhh/spin-top.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/sCmC8vr/spin-bottom.jpg

Yep, definitely some imperfections and shininess to look at closely on this bootleg.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/C91x370/face.jpg

Hmmm… that bootleg face. First thing that stands out is the skin – the official is matte finished whilst we have a shiny finish for the bootleg. And then we have the facial features – the bootleg’s eyes are too bright of a red – I’d personally say Rei’s eyes are more like the official’s. With the bootleg’s lack of finish and the lack of a paint line between her lips her face also looks rather blobby.
The bootleg’s hair is lighter and dirtier but the ends aren’t as blobby as other bootlegs I’ve looked at, but still not a crisp mould.
Moving to her sleeves, the top of the bootleg’s right sleeve is rough and uneven. Personally, I’m not a fan of the shade of blue of the bootleg’s shirt either.
Looking at the dress near her neck, the pattern has been painted neatly on the official and we have three shades of blue. The bootleg’s isn’t too bad, but doesn’t match the mould lines nor have the lighter blue infills.

Turning her around slightly:

https://i.ibb.co/mGRvRjN/front-end.jpg

Here we can see that the bootleg’s arm seams haven’t been smoothed out well.

Right earring:

https://i.ibb.co/RHzJCZ8/earring-and-hair.jpg

The earring itself on the bootleg has turned into a blue, blobby mess. On the official we can clearly see it is supposed to be an earring poking through her hair.
Looking at the hair itself, the joins have been much more smoothed out on the official, and the bootleg’s seam lines aren’t the same as the official’s.
Moving down to where her upper body meets her dress the bootleg wasn’t and can’t be assembled correctly – the joint has large gaps and the parts don’t share the same shape to join up properly.

Left earring:

https://i.ibb.co/WsYdFjJ/earring-othre.jpg

This one is even more of a blob on the bootleg – looks like the bottom half of the earring didn’t get cast and they did they best they could with what was there. The official’s adds a cute touch to a fairly simple figure.
Hand mould isn’t great on the official, but slightly more blobtastic on the bootleg.

Top of the hair:

https://i.ibb.co/h1jq3tX/head-top.jpg

Official we can see some paint shading in the hair. The main seam is fairly visible, and the bootleg is not too dissimilar for this seam. We do get a lot of dirt on the bootleg however. Not quite shading…?

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/2F8CfMJ/back.jpg

Man, the bootleg really doesn’t hold up from this angle.
First of all, we have the terrible shirt-dress seam – figure can never be good if the parts don’t fit together. The shirt is lacking shading and is just generally an “off” colour.
Moving to the dress itself, the shading has been done far too sharply on the bootleg and too widely. We’ve also got a very unevenly applied finish so she’s sort of matte in some places, but has a very shiny spot on her bum which looks really weird when the light falls on her.
The one thing that held up was the crease sculpting – if the paint wasn’t so poorly applied, the creases in her outfit would look good.

Gap on her dress from the other side:

https://i.ibb.co/ZhMXTKp/dress-gap.jpg

The separate parts are more of a match here on the bootleg, but we’re definitely gapping. For the seam that runs down her dress it looks like the official has “dressed” this up to make it look like a fabric seam, but the bootleggers have missed out on that trick and left an unfinished plastic seam instead. We can also get a good look at the seriously uneven finish on the bootleg from this angle too.

Legs and lower dress:

https://i.ibb.co/VMwzrxK/lower-dress.jpg

The paint on both legs of her tights matches on the official but on the bootleg they’ve become weirdly different blues. The casting has gone decidedly rough around the edges of the bootleg’s skirt. And yet another area where we can appreciate the even finish on the official.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/PrZmfwG/feet.jpg

Yeah, those blues on the bootleg don’t look good. Here we can see the janky assembly of the bootleg means her feet float above the floor, especially her right leg that should be lying on the ground.
The bootleg foot also features some missing finish.

Dress pattern:

https://i.ibb.co/C6JW86p/dress-pattern.jpg

An attempt was made with the bootleg – the overall design is reminiscent of the official’s but doesn’t follow the moulding and wonks off to her left side.

Bottom of the dress:

https://i.ibb.co/hDdx0HV/dress-bottom.jpg

This part of the figure should be flat so she lays evenly on the base. The official has achieved this, but the bootleg is horribly warped like a wet piece of wood.

The parts don’t even match up correctly on the bootleg:

https://i.ibb.co/fDXZb32/bootleg-dress-uneven.jpg

This doesn’t really show when she’s on display, but does demonstrate the quality of manufacturing for this bootleg.

Conclusion

The box for this bootleg could definitely confuse a novice collector – the box itself is of a nice quality, though they have edited out the Kotobukiya logos. The printing inside the bootleg’s box gives it a more premium feel than some of the bootleg boxes I’ve seen.
The figure itself isn’t the worst bootleg I’ve featured but definitely falls down in the details. I think a “bootleg collector” would be happy with this figure, but with the gaps and odd paint I don’t think someone who collects official figures only would be happy with this. And probably not fooled with its poor quality.
In terms of reusing the base, I wouldn’t bother. It’s so low-quality you might as well not use a base for the official figure if you don’t have the original base. Or make a mini-rug out of some carpet or fluffy material.

In terms of telling it apart from the official, the box has a few giveaways – the missing logos and warnings, incorrect barcode and non separate cardboard inner. For the blister, it doesn’t have the “opening” design of the official.
For the figure itself, the poor finish, blobby earrings and poor assembly are major clues to its lack of authenticity.

Official vs Bootleg: MegaHouse Kaworu Nagisa (G.E.M.)

This bootleg was slightly on the harder end to get hold of – there weren’t very many people selling it, and even less of those were including his box which I was intrigued in due to the pictures I’d seen of it in the past where it looked very similar to the real thing.
The other difficult thing about buying this bootleg is that it could’ve cost more than I got the official for, so I ended up waiting for a sale to buy it.

There is a lot of box action, so if you want to skip it scroll down to “Figure in blister”.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥6,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): £21
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $24 (£19.33)

The official version I bought secondhand from an MFC user.

Box

Front of the box:

https://i.ibb.co/88f7BwD/box-front.jpg

Wow, these are similar. The most similar official vs bootleg box seen to date. The GEM logo is slightly less in the corner, no authenticity sticker and the colours are a shade or two off – not something that’s noticeable without the official box next to it.

Sides:

https://i.ibb.co/3vR2HhD/box-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/m0hV9YY/box-left.jpg

Again, the print colours are slightly off but it doesn’t instantly scream “bad print quality”. Looking up close, the bootleg does have some pixeling going on.
In the lower side photo, you’ll see the bootleg box is popping apart but I’ve had a bad track record with this box type, so falling apart doesn’t necessarily mean much.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/6HxLD7c/box-back.jpg

Here the printing differences are more obvious in my opinion as this side mostly consists of images of the figure. Here we can see the print has gone a bit blueish and the artefacting is on full display.

Top:

https://i.ibb.co/y5L9FBK/box-top.jpg

Here the red ring is noticeably less at the top on the bootleg box due to the print being misaligned. So if this print is misaligned, this is a good sign that you’re looking at a bootleg (I’ve only got one box sample, so not sure if all the boxes will be misprinted like this).
This ring has also not been replicated properly – instead of the outer ring fading smoothly out, there is a sudden transition from the colour on the “arms” to the outer ring.
Lastly, the bootleg has one piece of square tape, whilst the official has three.

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/dcdf6gR/box-bottom.jpg

Not much difference to be seen here – this is a copy of the text, so not much challenge to replicating.

Flap:

https://i.ibb.co/TcYLRKN/box-upper-flap.jpg

Ehh… again, very minor difference.

Now, if you can look into/open the box, you can see some actual differences:

https://i.ibb.co/PDm2hJ7/box-inside-lid.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/r4wTsmv/box-inside-front-window.jpg

Of all things, the bootleggers cheaped out on the adhesive. MegaHouse has gone with thick lines of adhesive with more deliberate shapes. The bootleg box has squiggles of glue which won’t hold the plastic so well. If the plastic’s coming off, then you may want to check if it was glued on properly in the first place… Again, the glue giving up definitely can happen on official figure boxes, but it can be a sign to be more wary of what you’re buying.

Insert front:

https://i.ibb.co/zmJfSx3/box-insert-front.jpg

The official has a shiny finish, and the bootleg is only vaguely shiny – see the camera reflected on the bottom flap. The print on this definitely looks a lesser quality to me – it’s gone murky and miscoloured and the gradients have gone to shit. Maybe not super-noticeable if you only have that one to look at, but a definite contrast to the official.

Insert back:

https://i.ibb.co/3YqHBDL/box-insert-back.jpg

MegaHouse went for the higher-quality cardboard, whilst the bootleggers went for a cheaper, more yellowy variety.

Figure in blister

https://i.ibb.co/vxHzqB3/box-blister-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/28XYjBX/box-blister-back.jpg

They look very similar in the blister – definitely hard to tell them apart like this. Would be more similar if mine was new and had the static plastic sheets inside. The bootleg’s blister is wilting a bit though from being a cheaper plastic.

Base

OK, let’s have a look at the base before Kaworu bursts out of his plastic prison. I’m sure he’s enjoying it in there.
So here they are:

https://i.ibb.co/28n7MHT/base-side.jpg

First thing that’s immediately obvious is the upright parts of the base differ in amount of transparency – you can see through the official’s base stand to some extent, but not through the bootleg’s. Looking at the edges of the top face by the pegs we can see where the moulding has gone slightly wrong on the bootleg and it isn’t quite the shape it should be.

Base from above:

https://i.ibb.co/n12Ns1n/base-above.jpg

Aha! I’ve seen a “major” difference! Have you seen it yet?!
I’ll reveal that one in a minute… Firstly, here we can see the transparency issues extend to the bottom part of the base, and the difference in the uprights is even apparent from this angle.
Looking at the text, the bottom line’s font weighting seems to be incorrect. They pretty much nailed the main logo… but then failed at the subtext.

Now to get up close and personal with the text to see the difference:

https://i.ibb.co/Df3ygjs/base-fullstop-closeup.jpg

Yup, they’ve missed the full stop off the end of the tagline. How dare they!?
This close-up also showcases the skinnier text of the bootleg.

Bottom:

https://i.ibb.co/g9Kdr53/base-bottom.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/MPQt6rT/base-bottom-shinty.jpg

With the light going through the base, you can see the plastic difference. In the upper picture we can see that both bases have the copyright – one of the rareish times where the bootleggers haven’t scrubbed the copyright.
The lower images shows how the light reflects differently off of the two bases. Left lets light through or shines, the bootleg is a much more diffuse effect.

Ah! It looks like bootleg Kaworu has popped out of his box – let’s try him on the stand:

https://i.ibb.co/XYksQch/bootleg-foot.jpg

Hm, yes, those flaws that I saw near the pegs were a sign of things to come – he doesn’t sit quite right on the pegs and is a little wobbly. He doesn’t feel like he’d fall off when displayed, but if he was knocked he’d be far more likely to go flying and possibly take the pegs out with him.

Ah, official Kaworu has now made it to the party – time to look at them both together.

Figure spin-around

https://i.ibb.co/S7M07kP/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Q9ZLz95/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/2FDjXBY/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Fn8rwpX/spin-left.jpg

From a distance they’re pretty similar – most noticeable things to me are the difference in hair and suit colour, and his head is angled differently.

Figure close-ups

Let’s see what they’ve done to Kaworu’s beautiful face:

https://i.ibb.co/vwvm4nk/face.jpg

Apparently bootleg Kaworu has been rolling around in the dirt – we have a particularly noticeable dirt mark on his nose and some dirt scattered on his right cheek.
Going back up to the hair, we can see the paint is very different between the two – the bootleg’s is thickly laid on and is a much simpler shading job than the varying shading of the official. The tips of hair across face are mostly shorter on the bootleg and less refined.
His eyes have been mostly been replicated well, but I can see a bit of a scratch on my bootleg copy in the white shine in his left eye. Lastly, the mouth has been given a lighter shade, which softens his face, but still maintains a Kaworu look.

Hair seam:

https://i.ibb.co/WnXCNNn/hair-seam-hole.jpg

Here my bootleg wasn’t very well assembled, leaving a pretty visible gap between the parts of his hair.

Hair from the other side:

https://i.ibb.co/61GFPG9/hair-34.jpg

Very blobby here on the bootleg. The seam comes a bit closer here, but we have flecks of paint in various places. Official is smoothed and finished well.

Hm, that hair colouring is looking a little off on the bootleg… let’s take a closer look:

https://i.ibb.co/vBFghDt/hair-back.jpg

Ew, yuck. Looks like bootleg Kaworu has spraypainted his hair silver. This colour pick wasn’t a good one on the bootleg. The detailed shading is also missing – on the official, the tips of the hair are light grey whilst the shaded undersides are painted a dark grey.

Chest:

https://i.ibb.co/HH63dtS/chest.jpg

First thing that’s apparent is the slightly different posing of the hand on the bootleg – his hand is pulled back slightly than the official.
Looking at the ‘pips’ on his collar, they aren’t as neatly painted as the official.
The “button” in the middle of his chest has a distinct outer ring on the official, but this detail is missing from the bootleg. The triangles underneath this aren’t quite within the lines of the bootleg, giving it a messy appearance up close. With this close shot we also get to see some roughness in the silver paint on the bootleg, but it’s not particularly noticeable in person. The lopsidedness of the silver parts is more noticeable though, but kinda gets away with it by making it look a bit like he’s maybe leaning a bit.

Hand closeup:

https://i.ibb.co/WpV1GV7/hand-left.jpg

The small red details on his suit have been replicated well on the official, but the bootleg looks like they were kind of making it up whilst they were going along. We seemingly have an extra black dot on the upper one, and the lines haven’t fully been drawn in.
The official also has some shading here that isn’t present on the bootleg – if you look at the end of his cuff, it is darker than further down.

Side of the suit:

https://i.ibb.co/vvh2K6B/side.jpg

Here we have a few paint imperfections on the bootleg – a black fleck near the upper silver part, the purple bleeding into the blue, a mess of paint underneath the lowest silver part.
Looking at his hip, we have some shininess creeping in on the bootleg that isn’t present on the official.

Right arm:

https://i.ibb.co/KwFFztw/arm.jpg

Here the bootleggers painted the discs on his upper arm silver – they’re supposed to be silver, but this is missing on my official at least. Strange to have a bootleg that got it right when the official didn’t. If only the bootleggers could nail the painting… We’re missing a black line on one disc, and the other isn’t very distinctive.
Lower down, we have some missing paint on the bootleg- the indent misses the shading the official has.
For some reason the elbow part is a really weird misshaped mess on the bootleg – looks like has been squished and given a strangle oval-y shape.
Lastly, the blue paint also lacks shading here on the bootleg, whilst we have ample on the official.

Right hand:

https://i.ibb.co/sJr8DdG/hand.jpg

The discs on the official match up with the other ones, and the bootlegs are the similar half-attempts to the other ones. Again, we have paint shading on the official but not the bootleg.

Left arm:

https://i.ibb.co/9Y22hZ3/left-shoulder.jpg

Here the discs look a little silvery on the official… but the bootleg ones are an absolute mess. The painting here is severely messy on the bootleg, especially considering the rest of it is relatively decent. No such complaints with the official for me.

Shoulders:

https://i.ibb.co/WDdjcHv/shoulders.jpg

Here we can see the linework is largely better on the official than the bootleg. The official isn’t entirely neat, but less sloppy than the bootleg. We can also see a major problem occurred during moulding – his left shoulder parts don’t meet up properly, wit the upper part curling under. Mmm, quality. The top ridge of the “backpack” has also become a victim of poor moulding and is significantly rounder on the bootleg than the official. It doesn’t look horrible, but lacks the distinct definition that it should have.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/VSpbpnj/back.jpg

Here you can see how the backpack doesn’t stand out as well as it should on the bootleg, thanks to the bad mould. The 6 on his backpack has also missed the central spot, leaving it looking a little odd.
Moving down the back, we have a glossier black part than on the official and a very glossy butt that has lost its shape. The official has some sculpted ass cheeks so you can see exactly how tight an EVA suit is, but the bootleg is missing anything in the way of asscrack. We’ve also go some “plastic worm tracks” in the bootleg’s butt, which makes it look odd when the light is shining on it.
The black triangle on the right of the bootleg has also very much come short of the line it is supposed to be touching.

Hip:

https://i.ibb.co/2Wb5hgF/hips.jpg

Here we get to see some good ol’ defect on the bootleg. When taking off the protective sheets, it looks like some of the coating came off with it – not sure if that’s because its been in the box too long or if it was put in the box before it was dry. At the bottom of this section we’ve got some uneven paint on the bootleg.
The top of the hip bone has gone a little wrong on the bootleg and doesn’t look right to me. He’s supposed to be a bit bony here.

Upper legs:

https://i.ibb.co/LJ4grNS/upper-legs.jpg

Mmm yes, not really a match in the blue colour department. The bootleg is a fair bit lighter than his suit should be – I’d consider the official a close match. Also with the blue paint, the different finish is fairly apparent here, with his legs usually catching some of the light.
Moving on, the black lines here suffer from moulding and painting problems, changing their shape and appearance.

Lower legs:

https://i.ibb.co/mrnML2w/lower-legs.jpg

For the most part, this area looks OK on both. The bootleg seems to have a bit of a bent left ankle though. Hope he’s not falling off!

Backs of his legs:

https://i.ibb.co/X5k6bkF/back-of-knees.jpg

Interestingly the square parts aren’t coloured in on the official but are on the bootleg. They’re supposed to be coloured, looking at the handy dandy Kotobukiya Kaworu figure I have next to me, so a mild bit of disappointment for the official here.

Side of leg:

https://i.ibb.co/yBfR4qz/leg-stand.jpg

Not too much different here – mostly the suit paint as previously mentioned, and a fairly minor paint flaw in the linework on the bootleg.

However, this part of the bootleg’s right leg didn’t come out so good:

https://i.ibb.co/Y3tHkYd/bootleg-leg.jpg

Lots of roughing up of this surface – the plastic sheeting was very much stuck to this part of his leg, leaving this mess behind. Erk.

Soles:

https://i.ibb.co/dJqYCmg/soles.jpg

The official is nicely sculpted, with the sole pattern recreated in detail. With the bootleg we’ve lost the sharp angled edges and the sole looks like it has been worn down. We’ve also got a massive air bubble problem here – we’re making figures not soda, dammit. There’s also been some scraping on this bootleg foot, which isn’t the best.

Conclusion

Telling these apart in the box, and you have your work cut out for you – the differences are relatively minor, and most won’t really show up too well with a low-end camera/poor lighting. If you’re buying this guy, then you may just want to skip any that don’t have the authenticity sticker. If you’re in need of comparing parts of the box to ascertain that it is official, then I’d recommend the G.E.M logo and the top of the box. If the box is opened, then looking at the glue patterns inside might be the way to go.
Out of the box, the hair is the most obvious difference in my opinion – a lot of attention was put into the hair of the official, and not so much in the bootleg. His hand not touching his chest where it is supposed to may also be a giveaway. A side photo of the stand would also likely show if it is a bootleg or not, with the lack of transparency. If you’re looking at it in person or have close-up shots, the backpack edges and “6” print are likely to stand out. The air bubbles on the foot of mine make it apparent it isn’t official, but this might not be something present on all bootlegs.
Honestly, this is the best-looking bootleg I’ve done to date. Yes, he has his flaws, but on a shelf he would still look good if you can give the suit colour a pass. When the official does show up for sale though, it’s usually pretty cheap so I’d still recommend getting that over this, ignoring ethics. I do wonder if this pretty darned close bootleg is part of the reason of his price dropping so far in the aftermarket – I don’t think he’s worth his original MSRP, but I think that the ¥2-3k he seems to go for in the aftermarket is pretty darned cheap.

Official vs Bootleg: Medicos Super Action Statue – Kaneki Ken

This figure ended up on my list of figures to cover as I saw a video of the bootleg on Youtube, but without the comparison to the original. Having the original, I noticed a number of differences and wanted to do a blog of my own about him.
If you want to watch the video that inspired this review, here is DStar01’s The is NOT the Super Action Statue Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul video.

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥7,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥6,980 (£51.87)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $19.46 (£15.11)

I bought the official during a sale on Nippon Yasan.

“Box”

So here we have a bootleg bang, a knockoff bang, a KO bang

https://i.ibb.co/wKP0h18/bootleg-box.jpg

This bootleg I didn’t order with the box, so this is what arrived. Free dirt, sideways spare head… and a missing hand.
Which is actually in the box, next to the kagune:

https://i.ibb.co/Bn8MNxp/bootleg-loose-hand.jpg

So that’s the unboxing off to a good start! And yes, I also had a war with the tape to get this guy out.

Accessories

With this guy, we get a decent selection of spare hands, and unmasked head and his kagune – that’s the red thing for those who haven’t watched/read Tokyo Ghoul.
Front of the unmasked head:

https://i.ibb.co/NZL0FBL/head-unmasked-forward.jpg

The hair is immediately noticeably different, with the official’s being grey and the botoleg being more like a snow white. Moving down the face, we have grey eyes instead of ice blue. The mouth hasn’t got as much paint, but is there enough to look OK. The part of his jacket on his neck is generally painted less neatly on the bootleg and with a shinier paint.
Lastly, the skin tone is noticeably different – the official has some fleshy tones under the paleness but the bootleg is just straight-up pale.

Side of the head:

https://i.ibb.co/5xFs1Jk/head-unmasked-left.jpg

Yep, definitely lost detail on the bootleg – the hair is much smoother than the official as well as some of the hair clumps not coming to a proper point. The seam is also more obvious in the bootleg’s hair, partially due to this lack of detail to mask it and partly because it is just less neatly done.
With the neck we can see the joint has a bit of a gap, and the bootleggers didn’t really bother with the skin paint here. I think the neck paint is a bit too thin on the original as well, but thankfully this spot doesn’t show much.

Hands, hands, hands!

https://i.ibb.co/VB736sy/hands-selection.jpg

Yep, all present and correct. Well, maybe not totally correct – the bootleg’s are less pallid here, and the fingernails aren’t as neatly painted. Nothing truly disastrous, but you can see where the quality suffered.

Now onto the main feature of the accessories, the kagune:

https://i.ibb.co/4Ys2Vvp/kagune-top.jpg

The painting is much nicer on the official – we have much more shading which really brings the kagune to life.

Middle, back:

https://i.ibb.co/grR9ssW/kagune-back-middle.jpg

Here we have the most pointless of peg bits imo – this is mostly to help you get it the right way up more than anything, but these pegs will sort of hold it to his back, more than you’d expect.
Not sure why this bit got painted on the official, when the bit behind it didn’t get much paint and it doesn’t show when attached.
Pegs are a bit blobbier on the bootleg, and the edges slightly more rounded. Not much difference here.

Middle, front:

https://i.ibb.co/7gQ6nFk/kagune-hole.jpg

This side of the middle of the official has enough paint to blend it in with the rest, thankfully. Joint colour choice is a bit iffy on the official, would be nicer if they were more of a mid-colour of the kagune.
The bootleg’s kagune tendrils match its middle in terms of colour, so all good there. The joints are also a better colour match given the surroundings… or at least they would be if the paint wasn’t falling off of the joints. Bootleg could’ve won some points here, but no, it had to be screwed up.

Comparing a tendril:

https://i.ibb.co/Vpsw17m/kagune-standing-side.jpg

Here you can really see the difference in the paint – much less contrast in the bootleg. Just wish they continued the colouration from the tendrils on the official to the root part so it looked more as one. The bootleg, with its lack of variation ends up better in this regard, but not to the point I’d consider using the bootleg kagune instead of the official.

Overall the bootleg’s accessories are decent. Nothing too out of place, but definitely differing from the official, and usually not in a good way.

Base

Super Action Statues all come with the same style of base, but with a copyright on the back for the figure it belongs to. Let’s see what the bootleggers have replicated of this.

Base’s base:

https://i.ibb.co/dgBYMrd/base-bottom.jpg

The official base’s plastic has blueish hue whilst the bootleg has a yellower tint. We’re also lacking the Medicos logo in the middle. Other than that, it’s a copy.

Copyright:

https://i.ibb.co/C9jwK1m/base-copyright.jpg

Official: Present
Bootleg: Nope. So this one is probably used for anything SAS.

Stands from the side:

https://i.ibb.co/yNfffdC/stand-side.jpg

Looking pretty similar here – you could use this as a replacement for a broken Medicos stand without it looking out of place. There is some air bubbles in the bootleg, but not anything too serious. However there are a couple of more significant issues…

Extension pin:

https://i.ibb.co/j3HwfFN/base-bootleg-standpeg.jpg

This is very tight on the bootleg. At first I couldn’t get it in, but it did actually go fully into place partway through the photoshoot.

Bent arm:

https://i.ibb.co/qF261TB/stand-bent-arm.jpg

Yeah, this isn’t so great. Bootleg came bent out of the box, which isn’t the most attractive look for a stand arm. And doesn’t say anything great about the plastic’s quality.

Overall, the bootleg stand does the job, but just doesn’t look the best at doing it. Not sure how much abuse it would stand up to, though.

Figure spin-around – as-is

Let’s see how he looks without his kagune attached.

https://i.ibb.co/rQmyYpV/spin-nokagune-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/vHdvGWJ/spin-nokagune-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/jMmxgXR/spin-nokagune-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/7yBpwDh/spin-nokagune-left.jpg

Please forgive me for using the kagune peg out of laziness… but the bootleg extension peg was rather stuck on there and I didn’t want to risk breaking it early on in the photoshoot.
Those. Purple. Feet. That was the main thing that stuck out to me – the silly coloured shoes. Kaneki has more class in his outfit that that.
Overall, we can see a marked difference in the colour of his suit and the shading in his shorts. With the suit colour, the chest of the bootleg may appear broader, but is actually the same size. Comparing the bootlegs touching, they are the same height and dimensions.

Before we get up close and personal, let’s do a posing test:

https://i.ibb.co/3kfZxwr/arm-articulation-test.jpg

Yeah… the bootleg did NOT pass this. His legs buckled, and his left arm flops down at the elbow. The shoulders on the bootleg hold most poses, but sometimes they’ll flop down to some extent. If you grab the bootleg’s torso and give him a good wiggle, his legs fly all over the place – no tightness in his leg joints at all. The official has no such problems – the joints articulate easily and hold the poses you put them in.

However, the hip joints aren’t as bad and will hold a pose if you ask them to:

https://i.ibb.co/bzLdC38/leg-splits.jpg

Figure close-ups

OK, let’s get this bootleg standing up again, and have a closer look at the paint and the details.

Masked face:

https://i.ibb.co/SXXcHcC/face-masked.jpg

The hair on the bootleg’s head is a step-down from the official, but an improvement on the other bootleg head – more of the sculpting detail survived though we still have a messy moulding job.
The black paint on the bootleg looks slopped on compared to the original. The eye decal didn’t come out right, leaving his pupil slightly misplaced and the red veins partially hidden.
Next we come to the teeth on the mask – the differences are relatively subtle, but adds up to a feeling of wrongness – not helped by the dark gum paint.
For the price point of the bootleg, the face isn’t bad, and doesn’t look so bad when not looking so close with the camera. You can see the paint mishap on his nose quite well though.

Top of the masked head:

https://i.ibb.co/fxJbmx3/hair-top.jpg

Not too bad, but lacking the paint detail of the official. Main issue here with the bootleg is the hair hasn’t been assembled properly, leaving a gap.

Shoulders:

https://i.ibb.co/jMw2fSz/shoulders.jpg

The official’s painting I’ve always thought is a bit weird here, and didn’t quite look as it should. I don’t think the bootlegger’s had a clue either, and just sorta aimed at the spot instead of filling in the area.
We can also see the thin edge of the bootleg plastic, compared to the properly-finished edges of the official around the neck. If you pose the bootleg a lot, you may end up damaging the edges due to this.

Chest:

https://i.ibb.co/7n4GbzV/chest.jpg

I much prefer the colour and finish of the official’s suit; the bootleg’s just feels kind of… eeehhh. Just doesn’t have the classy shine or the deep bluey purples. The bootleg’s zipper also doesn’t go down the zipper line – starts off next to it, and manages to get with the plot just before it disappears into his shorts.
The paint on the cream parts is also lacking on the bootleg – we’ve got some marks in the paint, and the triangles don’t stay within the lines. The official ones do escape the lines to some extent, but with less paint in the overage so it stands out less.
The bootleg also has some moulding defects in the plastic – you can see some “worm trails” left from poor moulding near the bottommost cream details. These don’t tend to be visible unless caught by the light though.

Right arm:

https://i.ibb.co/1KsF8wW/arm-side.jpg

Again, we get to see the poor edges on the bootleg’s plastic and the lacklustre paint.
The official we can see where the paint lines on his cuff line up, but on the bootleg they don’t quite.
The bootleg’s shoulder pad doesn’t quite match the rest of it, whilst the official manages to work the shading through the entire arm.
There’s also a different colour joint in the wrist – we’ll get to this later.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/5TspY0P/back.jpg

And here we have a paint error on the bootleg… the arrow part of his suit hasn’t been painted on the upper part of his back.
The shinier paint of the official shows off the definition of his back more – something I can appreciate.
Moving to the visible part of his back, honestly I feel both figures are equally bad here in slightly different ways – both could do with some tidying of the skin paint.
Moving to the top of his butt, the shading on the official again brings out the definition of the sculpt more and looks much nicer to me.
Moving to the top of the shorts, the official has a fairly normal-looking band whilst the bootleg looks kinda… tubular. Some of the moulding detail has been lost on the trousers – the creasing has gone from the middle and the pockets look like they have softer indentations.

Shorts:

https://i.ibb.co/y5JnZj9/pants-front.jpg

Very different on the colouration here – the black shorts of the official match the outfit, the bootleg ones I feel stand out a lot more. Also not a fan of the greeny-grey colour they are.
The poor moulding at the top of the bootleg shorts continues around to the front and does not look good.

Feet:

https://i.ibb.co/8NymFDV/feet.jpg

Seriously, why did the bootleggers paint his feet bright purple, instead of, y’know… the same colour as the rest of his skintight suit?! I guess I’ll never know…
The purple paint is also put on too thickly which makes it look worse and sort of rough.
Both of these figures the ankle cuff paint isn’t great.

And here’s me attempting to articulate the bootleg’s feet:

https://i.ibb.co/2K6NdVb/bootleg-feet.jpg

The ankle joints work OK, but those toe joints ain’t going anywhere. Completely frozen in place – very likely just to break the figure than get them working.

OK, let’s get to some accessory replacing – let’s start with the maskless head.
Pop:

https://i.ibb.co/4dHrTn9/head-removal-part-1.jpg

Hm, OK, this is how the official detaches, and this is what happened on the bootleg… not supposed to do that, but oh well, let’s grab the neck and tug it loose:

https://i.ibb.co/7gWcbvp/bootleg-broken-neck.jpg

Dammit. Didn’t even hulk it – it snapped with very little force. At first I didn’t even realise it snapped until I looked into the bootleg’s head and saw this broken-off joint. So if you want the unmasked head on the bootleg, you very much run the risk of breaking the figure.

The review must go on:

https://i.ibb.co/WfbzPzM/maskless-face.jpg

The bootleg head actually balances enough to get this comparison finished, but not going to get much in the way of dynamic poses out of him now. Minus a lot of negative points for the bootleg.

Let’s move onto a hand swap:

https://i.ibb.co/5kYB1HF/bootleg-hand-joint-oops.jpg

Sigh. You’re gonna play this game, bootleg. The wrist joints are supposed to stay in the body. The wrist joints are tiny, so it’s a fiddly but doable operation to put it back where it belongs.

Wrist joints:

https://i.ibb.co/4JK492f/wrist-joints.jpg

The official’s are flesh-coloured to give him wrists, whilst the bootleg’s are purple to match his suit. This difference isn’t really too noticeable as they do match his suit but can look a little silly when you notice it. I think the skin-coloured ones were a better choice.
The bootleg’s wrist joints are a bit rough, having excess plastic and less precise moulding.

Completed hand swap:

https://i.ibb.co/gZ9R33r/swapped-hands.jpg

Both were easy to do. And the hands look fine. However, you know the way bootleg Kaneki’s hand was rolling around in the box? Yeah, the left hand can drop off sometimes, as the joint doesn’t seem to have the band that helps hold the hands on. It’s not terrible, but if you’re posing his hand it’ll probably drop off.

The bootleg hands work on the official figure:

https://i.ibb.co/DQYkhfY/hands-replace.jpg

Whilst they are a different skin tone, as he’s wearing a full body suit the difference isn’t super-noticeable – here the official hand is to the left and the bootleg to the right. So you could use these as a replacement if you lost or broke a hand, but you’d probably want to replace both.

Kaneki and his kagune

OK, let’s get these set up for a spin-around:

https://i.ibb.co/BtnFrVg/kagune-pose-fail.jpg

Dammit. Bootleg Kaneki, do you want to stand up for me for the rest of this review please?

Spin-around:

https://i.ibb.co/VmnVNsd/spin-kagune-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/p1pCWyN/spin-kagune-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/xgbZCt9/spin-kagune-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0C4LQ7m/spin-kagune-left.jpg

The bootleg kagune look fine from the front, in isolation from the official. From other angles though, those joints look bad which does count against it.

“Closed” kagune:

https://i.ibb.co/Jq4bgj9/kagune-closed.jpg

Both kagune hold their poses well, so you get the same poseability out of the bootleg here as the official.

Conclusion

Before I write this, let’s have a look what we’re left with:

https://i.ibb.co/M68qZq3/figures-posed.jpg

Oh, um, gosh… going to be hard to recommend this bootleg!

From a standpoint of telling these apart, the purple clown shoes rather give it away as well as the shorts and the brighter-coloured kagune, which isn’t in keeping with what they should look like. The stand also lacks logos which makes it easy to tell apart.
As far as a replacement for the official, in some places it could but others it is so, so far away. If you wanted him standing in a not too dynamic pose and were OK with the masked head, then it’s a reasonable figure for its price tag. If you want the unmasked head, you’ll want to be very careful with the head swap and hope for the best – so I couldn’t recommend it to someone who wants the full functionality of the original.
Lastly, can this figure act as donor parts? The base functions, the hands would work but the rest of it I’d give a hard pass to. Without being repainted, the bootleg kagune is going to make it look like you own the bootleg, and the colours are off for the rest of the figure. Didn’t want to attempt a headswap of either bootleg head lest I accidentally damage my official one.

Overall, on its own it looks OK, but the flaws start to show once you place it next to the original or try using it as an action figure. Someone not familiar with the figure could mix these two up, but those clown shoes might act as a hint that something isn’t quite right. For the official, I’m not sure it’s worth the full MSRP as the paint is a little iffy in a couple of spots, but it’s a fairly solid figure otherwise. So I’d recommend looking out for the official at a discount price, however Kaneki Ken figures can be a massive pain to get hold of.

Official vs Bootleg: Alter Kurosaki Mea

Alter… one of the most highly regarded figure companies. Let’s see how an Alter bootleg fares to its original. Will this be the Alter of bootlegs? Let’s find out!

Want to vote on which figures you’d like to see in the Official vs Bootleg series? Head over to the OvB voting site!

Pricing

MSRP (without tax): ¥12,800
Price I paid for the official (inc shipping): ¥13,945 (£97.65)
Price I paid for the bootleg (inc shipping): $20.47 (£15.90)

The official figure I preorderd the second release.

“Box”

This bootleg technically came with a box:

https://i.ibb.co/SmJYFYc/bootleg-box.jpg

Hm, not really outclassing the original’s clear box here.

This is how the figure was packed in the box:

https://i.ibb.co/hYVtrWS/bootleg-box-inside.jpg

Not too bad, and did keep the figure protected in transit.

Here’s the parts laid out:

https://i.ibb.co/FKSK3TG/bootleg-pieces.jpg

Not the worst packaging, but nothing to stop the parts of the figure from rubbing up against itself.

Now to start unbagging these bits and compare them to their official counterparts.

Base

Top view:

https://i.ibb.co/drZ53ff/bases-top.jpg

The first things that stands out to me is the difference in colour of the text and the base size – surprisingly, the bootleg is larger than official. Looking at the edge of the base, we can see that the bootleg has a “triangular” edge, whilst the official curves down sharply. The “To Love ru Darkness” text on the bootleg is uneven and lacks the pink wing end markings of the official.
With the peg holes, the desk ones look slightly different – we’ll see why later. However, the biggest difference is the foot pegs – with the official the foot support is part of the base but the bootleg’s was attached to the figure, leaving two pegs to attach the foot support instead (more on this later).
The bootleg base is less transparent than the official, and there is no copyright text to see through it.

Underneath:

https://i.ibb.co/GRkBKpH/base-underneath.jpg

Not really anything extra to see here with the bases being transparent. We can see the plastics are quite different with the way the light goes through them, especially at the edges. On the bootleg, we can see where the “A” in “Kurosaki” has got a large printing mistake – a flaw that wouldn’t make it to an Alter figure base.

Foot pegs:

https://i.ibb.co/P4q3SwP/base-pegs.jpg

Yep, pretty significant difference here.

Size comparison:

https://i.ibb.co/mD4Mbst/bases-piled.jpg

The main writing isn’t too different in size, but the spacing is significantly different for the subtext. The size difference is pretty significant – bootlegs don’t tend to make parts larger, and frequently the opposite, so surprised the base is larger than just the chamfered edge.

Overall, the bootleg base looks decent, barring the printing flaw that at least exists on mine. The official does look nicer, but there isn’t anything particularly wrong with the bootleg one. The bootleg base couldn’t be used as a replacement for the original, as the pegging is significantly different for all of the pegs.

Desk

The lone accessory for this figure – the desk which she sits upon. How does our bootleg compare before we sit her upon it?
Top:
https://i.ibb.co/X5DWjGy/desk-top.jpg
The official desk has a grain texture on top, to enhance the realistic look of the wood whilst the bootleg is just a flat brown. Both desks have a hole to pin Kurosaki’s hair bobble into, though the bootleg one serves no purpose, which we will see later. The official’s hole has been countersunk, to allow the hair bobble to sit as flush to the desk as possible.

If we look at the lower edge of the desk in the top photo, we’ll see that it looks distorted. Here’s a close up of this area:

https://i.ibb.co/KLFtS24/desk-dent.jpg

This “dent” is to help the figure sit firmly on the desk. The bootleg lacks this extra feature.

Front:

https://i.ibb.co/chsFRFm/desk-front.jpg

Hm, do my eyes deceive me, or is that bootleg desk taller? Yes and no. The desk itself is the same size, but the bootleg desk has pegs whilst the official has peg holes, and this change is replicated on the bases hence why the parts are not compatible with each other.
The bootleg desk also leans somewhat – it is a bit rickety, and the legs will wiggle about a fair bit unlike the official. It has managed to stay together for this blog, though it did make assembly a little more difficult.
With the desk painting, the bootleg misses the finer details – the white pockets(?), the grey rubber feet and any shading on the metal. The wooden part of the desk has a noticeable seam running around it too.
The bootleg desk also looks like it might have been through the wars a bit – a couple of “dents” are visible on the upper metal part, which could almost be passed off as extra detail.

Sides:

https://i.ibb.co/ZBD1Y1G/desk-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/C7mTdLF/desk-left.jpg

The metal on the bootleg desk looks very cheapy compared to its official counterpart – Alter have done a nice job of replicating the metal look, whilst the bootleg paintjob is very simple. On the hook parts, we can see the limitation of bootleg’s casting, and little air bubbles give a rough appearance.

Back:

https://i.ibb.co/HVQZy3B/desk-back.jpg

Both of the desk shelves look like they’ve had a bit of a rough life – the Alter one is bent slightly upwards, whilst the bootleg’s is bent downwards on one side, plus a “scrape” from a moulding issue.

Underneath:

https://i.ibb.co/Jt094K0/desk-bottom.jpg

Here we can really see the peg difference. With the holes taking up most of the space in the feet, I suspect this is why the bootleggers changed it – the casts would need a decent level of quality to replicate this which probably wasn’t happening. With the official having peg holes instead of pegs, you could use this as a separate figure accessory, but I don’t think you’d want to display the figure itself without the base.
The bottom of the official’s desk shelf has been shaded. And the bootleg’s, erm, has not been.

Overall, the bootleg desk isn’t bad, but it’s a significant step down from the official, lacking certain paint details that gives the desk its premium feel (as much as a school desk can have that…).

Figure spin-around

Let’s see how well these parts fit together:

https://i.ibb.co/tZBn5RH/spin-front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/TtzF3Km/spin-right.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/gtCTqsn/spin-back.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/wMtCztZ/spin-left.jpg

Not too bad, at a glance. The more notable differences to me is the dangling bit of cape and the finish on her clothing. We also have the sad ahoge and wandering hair on the bootleg.
If you look closely at the bootleg’s left knee in the first photo (you will likely need to look at the enlarged pic), you can see where her hair has scraped against it during transit – being in a bag with no extra plastic wrap, the hair has rubbed one or two spots.

Figure close-ups

Face:

https://i.ibb.co/SVj5Mgn/face.jpg

Eeesssh. The eye prints on the bootleg are awful. Her left eye on the bootleg is completely in the wrong spot, as well as the layers not being aligned with each other. We’ve also lost all of the finer details, so she doesn’t even appear to have an iris.
The face itself is shinier on the bootleg – as evidenced by the shine above her nose. The bootleg also have some stray paint next to her mouth, and she has “slapped face syndrome” where the bootleggers have been a bit heavy with the rouge, leaving her face too red.
The bootleg’s hair has lost some details, which has been emphasised with the overly light colour used in the recessed parts of her hair. Not sure why they did this – a darker colour would’ve looked better, to emulate shadow. It looks like the bootleg’s hair has been given a pale-coloured wash, which extends the shading problem to other parts of the hair. Yeah, definitely liking the official’s hair more.

Braid:

https://i.ibb.co/ZXWgBSX/head-braid.jpg

Even my camera doesn’t like this angle of the bootleg…
The larger, upper bead/clip in her hair has a messily painted cross on the bootleg, and it isn’t made out of the translucent material the official has. The braid is also a different colour on the bootleg, making it look odd and not part of her hair. The bottom hair bead is painted a lot larger on the bootleg, and again, isn’t translucent. The hair on the side of the bootleg feels rather sad – the mould edge and lack of depth in the moulding makes it look kind of dead and lifeless, which the paint job does nothing much to remedy.
This angle also shows the misshapen ahoge well. Not quite the same.

Back of hair:

https://i.ibb.co/nCVNzJJ/hair-back.jpg

Here, the shading isn’t so bad on the bootleg. We also have the overly light wash present here too, making her hair look like a light source.
What truly mars the bootleg here is the stray red dot right in the middle of her hair. Can’t avoid that at this angle.

Hood:

https://i.ibb.co/K56RQd3/hood.jpg

Here we can see where the Alter paint job stands out – a good amount of shading here, to give depth and realism to the hood, whilst the bootleg has… nothing. Just plenty of one shade of blue. Towards the top of the photos, we can see how the official’s hair is nice and neat, but the bootleg’s is scruffy and unclean.

Star buckle:

https://i.ibb.co/44t3DjS/star-front.jpg

Here we get a threat of a peek of her chest, yet not have anything truly on show. The sculpt of the star on the bootleg has gone a bit wonky, leaving the points unevenly-shaped. The paint hasn’t been applied neatly, leaving spillage onto and off of the star.
Here is one of the places the lack of glossiness on the bootleg’s clothing is quite noticeable – one of the reasons I bought this figure was for the glossy clothing, so this is a pretty big negative to the bootleg for me.
The bootleg also looks to have Raynaud’s, which isn’t the best look for a figure. It looks like that her hand wasn’t painted – I wouldn’t be surprised if this area was assembled before painting, making it all but impossible to apply the paint. Assembly before painting seems to be a common theme with bootleg figures.

Stomach:

https://i.ibb.co/6w5PWBL/midriff.jpg

Here, the shadows are much more distinct on the official, helped by some subtle paint. The extra paint and matte finish on the official give her skin a much more lifelike appearance. From certain angles, the glossiness of the bootleg skin is visible – if you look close to her belly button there is a ring of shine, showing the different finish.

Pants:

https://i.ibb.co/y54NM4W/pants-front.jpg

The lack of gloss is again pretty noticeable here. The belt buckle is more neatly painted on the official, and the overall finish is much neater and nicer looking. We also have a difference in the arm pose here – on the official she is teasing you, the bootleg… not so much. With the bootleg, both the arm and hand are not in the same position, leading to the quite different pose. Her fingers are also overly white on this hand too with the bootleg – I think the bootleg needs to get her circulation checked.

On closer inspection, I noticed that the bootleg’s short/pants/thing was loose…

https://i.ibb.co/S5nvHjQ/bootleg-panties.jpg

They’ve made her into a cast-off… kind of. She has these panties roughly painted, but the skirt has been glued at what someone probably intentionally made a peg. As a result, she’s some form of forced cast-off, but not to reveal anything exciting.
If you wanted to do this cast-off, there’s a few major issues – the panties aren’t painted well and look a bit naff, she needs her clothing to sit on the desk properly, and I doubt it would go back on unless you glued it. So not really a worthwhile advantage of the bootleg, to be honest.
If there’s demand, I’ll rip off her lower clothing and take a pic. Requests can be submitted as comments below.

Left arm:

https://i.ibb.co/2Zyg4VH/left-arm.jpg

The paintwork is actually fairly decent on the bootleg here, and does try to emulate the original figure quite well. However, the lack of shiny finish and the posing kind of kill it. The moulding is also not as deep and detailed as the official, which further flattens its appearance.
With the posing, the angles of the arm and the hand on the official make her look seductive, but the change in angles on the bootleg make it look more like she’s just posing for a photo. It’s a small difference, but feels very different to me.
Looking just above her arm on the bootleg, the top fails to taper at the edges, giving it a very thick and not very clothlike appearance.

Close-up of the left hand:

https://i.ibb.co/McdNQnQ/left-hand.jpg

For the shading on her glove the bootleg has gone for a more standard appearance with the light focus on the middle, whilst the Alter one is lighter towards the left giving a better appearance of angled light. With the paint, the edges of her gloves are much neater on the official, and she has her fingernails painted.
Oh, and yes, the blood loss.

Right leg:

https://i.ibb.co/3yLFmjb/right-leg.jpg

For the skin tone, I feel it is nicer on the official than the bootleg. The bootleg leg from this angle isn’t too bad, though if you look closely at the band around her leg, it does’t quite fit together as nicely as it should.

Right boot:

https://i.ibb.co/Z8zYkNg/right-boot.jpg

The buckles on the bootleg are painted surprisingly nicely here. The paint shading follows the official pretty closely here, but there is a bit of shadow missing where the boot bends just above her toes. The moulding is a bit less distinct in places, but not massively so. If it had the same finish, it would be a decently close match to the official, though the silver paint is a different tone.

Left boot:

https://i.ibb.co/3WHsx9c/left-boot.jpg

Again, not a bad copy of the official, though the silver paint isn’t quite right here – we’re missing some to the “back” side of the buckle. And the sole of the bootleg’s shoe is a bit thicker.
Here we can also see the differing foot stands – the official is clear and matches the base and the bootleg’s is black. I think I much prefer Alter’s decision, seeing as the base isn’t black. When fiddling with the bootleg figure whilst writing this review (to see if she was cast-off or forced), it turns out she isn’t really glued to the foot support as I initially assumed from it coming pre-attached to the figure. It does have pegs similar to the official, so you could technically attach the foot support to the bootleg’s base if you wanted to.

Lower back:

https://i.ibb.co/5jGdC1z/hair-braid.jpg

The lack of different shades on the bootleg’s skin again makes her skin look flatter than the original. The moulding of her shorts went a little wrong here on the bootleg, and is a bit bunched up to her right. On the bootleg’s leg, the silver paint has been a bit overgenerously applied to the belt buckle.
Lastly, we have the hair braid – the red is a decent bit less vivid on the bootleg than the official.

Left side of her pants cape:

https://i.ibb.co/6ZJTvyR/cape-side.jpg

If you like the shiny, this part of her clothing will likely lead to the most disappointment. The official has a shiny, clean appearance, whilst the bootleg is rough and mostly dull. We also have a visible seamline, ruining the smooth appearance. Due to the plastic composition used on the bootleg and poor recast, it also doesn’t curl into a very pleasing position.

Back of her pants cape:

https://i.ibb.co/yfSc8ZL/cape-back.jpg

Yep, the bootleg cape looks just as dead and lifeless on this side too. If this was a prize figure, I think this is fine, but comparing it to the official… it just doesn’t hold up.
With the bootleg, we can see how the cape is used to hold her onto the table – with the official the hair is pegged to the desk, so it covers this slightly odd-looking part up to some extent.

Hair tips:

https://i.ibb.co/7VPDVKD/hair-frond.jpg

The bootleg’s paint has ended up a much darker shade of purpley red than the official. We can also see some rough moulding parts on it too. The curlier hairs are also less curly than the official – pretty common with bootlegs.

Hair bobble:

https://i.ibb.co/thffX8M/hair-ball.jpg

This part separates them relatively significantly – with the official being transparent, and the bootleg being opaque. The bootleg also hasn’t had its halves matched together properly, leaving it lumpy around the middle.
Also the bootleg lacks this feature:

https://i.ibb.co/gjwFmc4/official-ball-peg.jpg

Without the peg, the hair is annoying to pose and won’t stay where you want it easily – this peg holds the hair in the correct place, which helps hide the slightly unusual sculpting on her clothing, which is there to help her stay on the table firmly. I did try to check for evidence of the bootleg ever having a peg, but it doesn’t seem to have had one. Or at least it wasn’t there when it was painted.

Conclusion

First off: bootleg isn’t worth it for the cast off feature in my opinion. Official might not have this, but I don’t really want to display her with poorly painted pink-stripe panties. Honestly, blue stripes would look better in terms of colour choice.

As far as telling these apart, there are distinct differences on each of the parts, making it easy for anyone who knows what this figure should look like. The table misses key paint details – no texture on the top and a lack of properly painted feet, as well as shading. The base of the bootleg just doesn’t look premium, and has the nonmatching foot stand.
The figure itself lacks the glossy shine, very much making it look like a prize figure version of itself, also assisted by a lack of transparent parts. The eyes are easily the worst thing about the bootleg – it makes it look like she doesn’t have proper eyes when looked at up close, which I think would make this figure unappealing to a number of collectors.
For the bootleg overall, I think you’re getting what you’re paying for – I don’t think she’s awful, but definitely not up to par with the official. I could definitely see someone buying this and not knowing it was a knock-off, especially if she was sold at a price point closer to that of a prize figure than an Alter scale.
As for this being the Alter of bootlegs… hm, maybe? I think it comes closer than most of the bootlegs covered thus far, but I have one upcoming figure that I think is a closer match to its official counterpart, and this one is definitely not without its flaws, especially with that hair bobble missing its peg.