The art for this figure is by the popular Chinese artist wlop. They have had several statues of their work made, especially for the characters of their series Ghostblade. I did read some of the Ghostblade series, but didn’t really gel with it.

There are two versions of this figure – one with tattoos and a special edition with none. The tattoos are half the reason I ordered it so didn’t want the special edition. For Chinese buyers, the tattooless edition was only available to people who had previously purchased Light Year Studio statues, but international distributors just had her up as a normal preorder. Both editions were the same price at CN¥3,280. I ordered through an international distributor and the total cost including surface shipping was US$540. So not a cheap lass, but she is 1/4 scale.

Original Art

This is the original art piece the figure is based on:

Link: https://x.com/wlopwangling/status/1833707395463496028

Box

Front:

The front of the box is dominated by a photo of the figure, nicely framed with gold vines and a “Silvermoon” logo.

Back:

Here we have a closeup of her face. /review. Oh, you want more angles? OK.

Sides:

One side is kept simple with the logo, then the other side has the obligatory information dump. All of the PU!

Contents:

Not sure when it happened, but the leg of my figure leapt over to near where most of the base is stored. Didn’t notice until after taking this photo. It should be in the hole just above where the brush is sat (also not sure where this was supposed to be in the box). Fortunately no damage was caused by the leg relocating itself.

There is one other empty hole – this is the bottom part of the base which I had already taken out at this point. Here it is:

I got #257/298. Took a photo of this prior to assembly, as I’m not going to see it again.

Manual and Assembly

The figure did come with a loyalty card and certificate, but didn’t photograph these. I did, however, photograph the manual because oh my goodness, the assembly.

Here’s the front of the manual:

Nice clear image of the figure and its logo.

And the back:

…and this side tells you it’s the assembly instructions. And a QR code for Light Year Studio’s WeChat for aftersales issues.

So let’s get onto the meat and potatoes, the instructions themselves:

Looks pretty simple right? Just follow the instructions, pop the stuff on as shown and done? Just like Naga? Ohhh nooo.

The gripes start as early as instruction #2 – this part just rests in place and doesn’t clip on. Fine if it’s nowhere it’ll get nudged or have a breeze flow past, but otherwise I’d recommend tacking this in place. They did provide some tack, so I have tacked it at the back on two spokes so it can’t move. Where I plan to put her she may get some vibrations which may well knock this part about so tacking it in place will prevent it going for a wander.

Next problematic instruction – #4. It’s not immediately clear which way around she goes and can sort of fit either way. The magnets also suck so it doesn’t really pull her down and hold her on the base.

The biggest problematic instruction however is #8. Getting her head on is an absolute trial. And because of the way things are shaped, you must assemble in the order given with little leeway to do it any other way. Once her hair is on you don’t have clearance to assemble the hair strand in #5 or her arms. The hair strand between her legs slots into the hair at the same time as her neck but it flops around like nobody’s business – would be nice if they provided a peg to peg it into her neck then for her head to go over both parts so that aspect would be easier. But getting her hair over the stand, head on her neck and her butt on the base is just incredibly, incredibly fiddly. I swear they should have made this more parts so it wasn’t so convoluted to put together. Or at least had the strand connect to her solidly in some other way so you’re not trying to awkwardly peg two things at once. Not sure how long it took me, but it was 2 sessions of messing about. Wouldn’t be surprised if I was fiddling with the sodding thing for 20-30mins and getting quite rough with it just to get things in place. Eventually got there, but oh man, it’s not a friendly figure to assemble in my opinion.

Overall, it’s nice to have instructions, but they’re far too sparse – some information of which way around she sits on the base would be nice, and maybe some instructions of how to do the head assembly without forcefully attacking the thing would’ve been nice. Ideally, I think some modifications could’ve been made to facilitate easier assembly.

Base

Let’s start with the base. These are the pesky struts that sit against the base:

I can understand why this is a separate piece as it is on the fragile side, but I don’t understand why they didn’t add at least couple of pegs to it to lock it into place.

The base as a whole:

The whole base does look pretty cool. Some hints of silver do add to the piece and add an element of wear and tear to it.

Figure Spin-around

The hair colour is definitely a lot less pink than the promo photos – the final colour is definitely more silvery which is more fitting with her name, but it is also purple rather than pinkish. I like purple so this is an improvement for me, but if you were hoping for pastel pink hair…. she ain’t got it.

The tattoos are very painted-looking, which is in keeping with the art but in some respects does look like she may have been sharpie’d on rather than tattooed. It doesn’t bother me, but can see this feeling odd to some people. There’s a nice variation of colour in the tattoos so they’re not just a flat black.

Figure Close-ups

Face:

As can be expected of expensive Chinese figures, they spend time on the faces. I love her pale blue eyes and thoughtful look. The lipstick smudge is deliberate – it is part of the original artwork but not this intense of a smudge. Her face is less round than the art. Overall, I like her face though it’s not the most detailed I’ve seen on a higher end figure.

The ears have a bunch of sculptwork and shading to them, but honestly…. I don’t think they look that great. I don’t think we could expect the furriness of the original art, it is close to the promo images but it’s just not doing it for me. The upper shadow on her left ear isn’t visible when looking at her, but the ears don’t sit smoothly to the head. Under intense lighting the colouration looks more off than it does on display, but they just stick out somewhat.

Back of the head:

Personally prefer the colouring of her ears back here, but not sure if the texture chosen really fits. The hair you can see there are various colours running through it.

Arm:

She has the obligatory gold band to hide the arm join. It’s fairly unobtrusive but do wonder if they could have added something more fitting to her naturistic theming. Here you can see where the tattoos vary between red and black.

Body tattoos:

Looking up close, you can see the way they have a painted effect. I feel two ways about the effect, but it has grown on me. We also have the boob squish up against her leg.

On her hip we can see some of the golden knickers they’ve given her so she’s not entirely nude. Once assembled, this is about the most you see of it.

Arms:

And here you can see the result of me trying to get her head on 😅 Unfortunately I’ve got some paint transfer from her hair to her arm – haven’t cleaned it off yet and didn’t notice until editing the photos. Will likely clean this off at some point, but goes to show the frustration I had assembling the dang thing.

The tattoos are nicely detailed here and complement the figure well.

Hands:

Her hands are nicely shaded with some red tones. Not sure if they were trying to give her cuticles on the hand holding her leg, but the painting looks a bit off here especially on her middle finger. It is a bit noticeable when viewing, but not massively so.

Back of her hair:

She has no lack of hair. They’ve done a decent job of adding sculpted strands to it, and it does fit around the base reasonably well if you get it in the right place. I do like the way it flows around the base, but wish you could put the back of the hair on separately or it was PVC+ABS with lots of plasticiser so that you could at least bend it so it wouldn’t get in the way so much when trying to get her head on.

I like the silvery tones, though if you were expecting the colours from the promo this may be disappointing. She is called Silvermoon, so having silvery hair makes sense but the promo was very much pinky in tone:

Pesky strand:

This piece you slot between her legs whilst building up the figure, and it connects into the head. I came so close to leaving it out. You could probably get away with not having it, but I didn’t want to be defeated. You can see it from certain angles but honestly I wouldn’t have noticed it if they omitted it.

Organic leg:

More of the painted colour-varying tattoos here. Her toenails are better painted than her fingernails and the cuticle effect works better here. The toes actually have gaps between them, which is relatively uncommon for figures unless they’re spreading their toes.

Machine leg:

Love the look of this part. They blended the gold and clear parts well, and captured the machinery look of it.

Only one issue for me:

This part you have to putty in and it doesn’t tell you which way up to put it. You’ll see at the top where I put a little too much putty. I tried putting it in without putty, but nope, no friction whatsoever. Rather disappointing to have to putty in a piece like this – I’m not sure why they couldn’t make pegs that would stick into the leg without putty but oh well. This part came packed with the putty – the instructions don’t tell you to putty it, but it being bagged with it tells you all you need to know.

And the extra piece:

I know it’s in the original art, as an explanation as to why she has a mechanical leg, but I feel this piece is very “ehh”. The whole thing feels like an afterthought – the sculpting and paint seem very so-so. Might use this with a Nendo or something, don’t feel too inclined to place it with the figure. It’s only featured in the blurred background of the promo images so didn’t realise this even came with it until I unwrapped it and went “what’s this?”. I’m not against macabre elements in figures (and I do own a bunch of horror-themed figures, including Clive Barker’s Tortured Souls), but I just don’t feel it really fits to have it there with the figure. Just feels odd and misplaced especially when it doesn’t match the quality of the main figure. The blood looks good, but the trap itself is only one shade of silver which really makes it look brand new and/or kind of cartoonish, which doesn’t fit with the whole it chomped her leg off.

Conclusion

Another look at her again:

I think if you go in with no expectations and didn’t have to wrangle the assembly, it’s a striking looking figure with a decent amount of detail and of a good size. There’s certainly a lot of little details to appreciate but I’m not sure it quite fulfils the quality at this price point – assembly being a massive sticking point.

Compared to her promo image, the base feels a bit less premium and she’s a lot less pastel. I don’t think it deviates too much from the promo images but the pink hair is bound to disappoint some people I reckon. The tattoos are one of the main factors that set this figure apart from others, so paying the same price for the unadorned one seems rather crazy to me. Yes, you do get the mechanical leg but I don’t think that’s enough to set it apart from other figures at this price point unless you really don’t want tattoos on your figures.

For people who ordered on the basis of the artwork, I expect there will be disappointment from that angle. She’s not the soft, fluffy creature she is in the art though the promo images didn’t promise this. We’re also missing the spider and butterfly in the original art. Most of the differences versus the artwork were in the promo image so I expect most people wanting the art as a figure will have simply avoided ordering if it wasn’t similar enough.

Overall would I recommend this figure? Probably a no at its price point. If it was closer to CN¥2,000 then I’d say it’s a flawed figure but if you like what you see and prepared to wrangle it then go for it. I would have preferred it if she wasn’t so expensive, but happy to have her in my collection now that she’s constructed. It’s a striking piece that I don’t think matches with much in the market – would love to see more heavily tattooed female figures.

This figure came in two flavours – Memory Entanglement and Forgotten Festival. The second one had an Egyptian theme, but I preferred the straight-up tape-themed one, so that’s one I went for. I pre-ordered via the WeArtDoing Taobao store, and this figure cost CN¥1,180 plus CN¥13 local delivery. Shipping from China to UK was CN¥235. Which brings us to a total cost of CN¥1,428.

Box

The front of the box features the artwork for the figure. “Sleeping Beauty” is one of WeArtDoing’s figure lines, but this one seems to be wide awake. We also have what feels like “decorative text” phrases. The artwork is nice, but does feel somewhat bland with the font choices and amount of negative space. It’s not a bad box, but not one that stands out to me.

Back:

Not too much to see here. The standard “information block” you usually see on Chinese figure boxes in the second column and vague English translation in the third. In the top-left we have a sticker which details which variant is in the box – WeArtDoing normally only do one box variant and this is the only way you can tell which one is inside prior to opening it.

Side:

The side design is simple and effective. The tape may be doing weird things, but this may well be a supernatural tape.

Inside:

Not too many slots here, so not much to figure out. Though for people who already own WeArtDoing figures there may be a glaring omission – no card slot. A card was included, but it sat on top of the tapes in the top slot. The top small square contains the figure’s blindfold, bottom one is empty – I think this is for the other variant’s accessories. The vaguely anchor-shaped slot is the stand, and finally the blob-shaped one is for the figure itself.

Overall, the figure box is decent and reasonably compact given the pieces. I don’t think it’s my favourite WAD box, but it still looks good and protects the pieces in transit.

The figure

Let’s have a quick look at the stand first:

It’s a large and solid stand – shouldn’t have any issues of the tape falling off this bad boy. The fur base does stretch up the angled bit – personally I would’ve preferred the fur to stop at the very bottom as this area will likely be an annoying dust magnet. But hey, if you do rock the base at least it won’t mar whatever it is sat on.

Putting the first half of the tape case on the stand:

Without the figure, there isn’t too much to see here – just a furry pad for the figure to rest against. It’s nice and plush.

Putting the figure in the case:

A cool idea but for me the figure is too obscured. The face ends up being covered by either the print or the bar across the tape window.

Spin-around with the full case:

The container is very faithful to two stacked tapes. I like the fake tape labels on the side.

Taking off the lid:

The figure magnetically sticks to the base. The magnet strength is decent – it’s enough to hold the figure, but if you do nudge her she will likely slip. The tape wrapping around her body also works to censor anything too spicy. I like the way it’s not too much and there are loose parts spooling out around the figure. The hair also has a tapelike quality to me too.

Back:

The back of the figure is unsurprisingly very flat. Here we can see the shading on the hair better – her hair gets lighter towards the tips Apparently mine did have an oopsie – on her leg one of the tape strands has come loose. May reglue this at some point.

Chest:

She’s decently appointed in this area, but not overdone. There are a couple of joins visible in the photo, but I don’t feel like they stand out when viewing the figure.

Foot:

Apparently I failed to get a decent photo of her legs/feet. I like the way this bit of tape wraps around her leg and her feet have been sculpted well. They have even posed her toes which is a nice detail to see. The paint shading is also good in this area.

Face:

The camera struggled with the stark black background so did my best to edit these…

Her face is cute, and I like the open eyes and contemplative expression. She also has a nicely sculpted ear peeking through her hair. From this angle you can see there is some thickness to the tape – but this is a necessary compromise so that it isn’t too fragile.

If you want to increase the bondage theming, she also comes with an eye mask:

I think she looks good like this, but I prefer having eyes visible. It seems to stay well, though getting it in place is a little fiddly.

If you want to see the lid but don’t want it covering her, can pose it alongside like this:

It’s not a “realistic” display, but I like the way it looks. If I can make space, I will likely display it like this. The lid magnetises to one side of the box, so not at risk of slipping or moving. I was hoping to display her with the case closed, but it obscures the figure too much for my liking. I like her seductive pose and the way her body is more realistic proportions. The long hair goes with her “tapelike” nature.

If mass-producing company created this figure, it would likely be cheaper. For this figure, you’re paying a premium for small batch (limited to 698 for each variant) and unique theming. For me, I’m happy to pay the premium but if you’re looking for “value for money”, WeArtDoing isn’t likely a brand on your radar.

Overall, I’m happy with the design and the quality of this figure. It’s definitely a unique piece with a thought-out base, though I wish the tape window design didn’t cover her face.

For this figure, I preordered him after my preorder for Sidney Verry by Men’s Virtue Studio fell through as production was cancelled:

I preferred the colours and theming of this one to Green Pepper and wasn’t sure I’d really have the space for the pair – original plan was to see how this one turned out then potentially scrabble around for a Green Pepper if he sucked. Sidney is a lot more incubus-themed than Green Pepper, which made him the more interesting preorder for me. However, seeing as I wasn’t going to get him any more I jumped on the Green Pepper preorders. Fortunately Green Pepper was popular enough to complete production and eventually make it to my doorstep.

Box

The box is huge:

I didn’t include anything for scale, but it’s large – 57x47cm.

Depending on which language you speak, it’s either a rave party (English), stuffing party (Chinese) or a jam (of the fruit variety) party. I believe “stuffing party” is supposed to be the intended translation.

On the front we have an 18+ rating by “CADPA”. Didn’t know that game rating organisations now rate figures 😂. CADPA is the Chinese equivalent of PEGI or ESRB. Also we’re told to recycle the box – I think I’ll keep mine, thanks. Interestingly we only have Milk Club mentioned on the front of the box.

Front edge of the box:

The back of the box is the same and the other sides are more of this design, so didn’t bother to include. Bottom of the box is plain black.

The silhouettes give the box some nice Halloween theming. The Chinese text reads Halloween & Pumpkin & Stuffing. We also have a fake barcode that has the text “HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL” and “MADE BY YYGN & MILKCLUB”, so YGNN do get some of a mention on the box.

Figure spin-around

Let’s have a look at this guy and see if he’s worthy of doing some stuffing:

The transparent bits came out better than I hoped and love the details on the base. The figure was surprisingly easy to assemble – the parts went together well and he sits firmly on the pumpkin. One improvement from the prototype is he has no arm seams which is nice to see.

There are two disappointments for this figure. The first is the scar marks – they’re too distinct in my opinion and look more like tattoos rather than scarification or wounds. In the prototype images they’re much closer to his skin colour and thinner which makes them look more like marks on his skin rather than ink. It doesn’t ruin the figure for me, but it does detract. The second disappointment I’ll get onto later – see if you can spot the omission.

He also comes with a brown-haired head:

They’re both the same sculpt, so all you’re choosing is the hair colour here. I prefer the white hair, so have gone with that in this review.

Display bust

If you love both of his head designs, you also get a bust to display the head you’re not using:

An interesting addition that allows you to keep both heads on display. Seems fairly stable – haven’t had issues with it falling over. The sculpt and skin paint are the same as the figure, but it doesn’t have the scars on his shoulder. Can’t say I miss having them on this bust. This bust was advertised in the original promo images but I completely forgot about it so was a surprise on unboxing. It’s fine – I’ll sneak it into one of my displays, but it’s something I could take or leave.

Close-ups

OK, let’s start with the elephant in the room – the missing feature:

Yup, due to the Chinese restrictions he came with no penises. He was supposed to come with three choices but came with… none. Mine was a proxy order so there was a chance I missed out, but I talked to someone who preordered from an internationally-facing site and they didn’t get any either. Bummer.

Due to where he’s holding his hands he gets away with being a Ken – if displayed at a mid or high level it hides that there is nothing there. Which is fortunate as the underwear he comes with is absolutely terrible:

I did try doing a test fit with the gusset and it was a nope. It also transferred a little paint that I had to clean off 😒. The straps don’t clip to the main part so it’s a total waste of space in my opinion – you have to provide your own glue or putty to keep it together. It does give the impression of him having anatomy but it’s not really worth the grief of making it work. If I wanted to give him undies I think I’d buy or make a fabric pair for him. Can always give him some cotton balls…

OK, with that out of the way, let’s check out some of the details on the base:

The ghosties are cute but do seem to be dust magnets 😅. The cross doesn’t have a big peg, but seems stable enough. The wood texture is nicely done on it.

Pumpkins:

These are the stars of the show on the base – they have a good detailed texture and have vibrant orange colouring. They maybe could’ve put the paler yellow in the eyes of the bigger pumpkin like the smaller one, but this doesn’t show so much once Green Pepper’s ass is on it. The dimples on top of the large pumpkin are to keep Green Pepper sat still, and they seem to do the job well. The pumpkins aren’t initially on the base and install with large pegs.

Branch:

This part is also initially separate and connects magnetically to the side of the base and was easy to attach. In terms of assembly, this figure was easy to put together. Only part I had some trouble with was his head but once I got the angle right it snapped into place.

The sculpt on this branch is detailed. There is some shading on this part but it’s not very distinct. It looks the part though and fits in well with the base.

The tilework on the base is also nicely sculpted and shaded. Overall, the base is a solid addition to the figure and compliments Green Pepper well.

Faces:

Looking closer I’ve finally noticed there is a difference I was picking up with the faces – his left eye is cross-eyed on the white-haired face and not on the brown-haired face. I knew there was something bugging me. Honestly I find the expression kind of strange – like he’s about to say something. Would’ve been nice to have included a head that was smiling or otherwise more interacting with the viewer.

Both are nicely sculpted and painted, so no complaints as to the quality from me.

Side of the head:

I do like the way his horns aren’t a simple shape making them more unique. The white hair has a decent amount of shading it to make it feel like hair.

Back:

Looks like mine got a stray dot of yellow in the middle, whoops. Other than that, we have plenty of sculpting here to give his hair depth and detail.

Markings:

Unfortunately the edges are far too crisp, the colours too dark and the transfer backing is too visible to pull off the effect they were going for. They really do look like some kind of Halloween temporary tattoo, which is a bit of a shame.

Leg:

Here we have a bit of a leg weld, where the parts of the leg are joined together. Could’ve done with some darker paint in there to hide that or moulded so more of his leg is pushing into the upper leg so there’s less of a slit. The upper thigh markings have the vibe of a 00s barbed wire tattoo. The skin shading is really nice though.

Wings:

The wings come as one piece – taking them out of the box was a bit of a fun time but assembly is dead easy as the whole thing just plugs into his back. Love the colour and the gooey texture moulded into them. Transparent parts can be a hit or a miss – these ones are a hit for me.

Spine:

He has this interesting spiky design down his back. I like it, and kind of wish they played with this motif from the front – maybe some spiky elbows or around his ankles or something like that.

In the above photo you can also see the big peg that keeps the wings in. And the magnet that’s mostly hidden by the spine. So do wonder if this was actually some artistic license to help obscure this joint.

Tail:

Love the shape of the tail – he could do some real damage with this fellah. The colour matches with the wings and has more of a gradient in the tail, fading to clear at the tip of it. Whilst the wings do have some clear tips it’s not as obvious as the tail. There isn’t any blend between tail and his back, but not personally bothered by this. Overall I’m happy with the detail and look of the tail.

You can also appreciate his toned bum from this side too 😉

Conclusion

Overall, I’m pleased with the look of this figure. It’s disappointing his penises were cancelled, but he interestingly looks fine without one. If I could change one thing about him it would definitely be the scars/cuts – they do look like cheap Halloween temporary tattoos and I much rather they had the more realistic look in the promos. The promo had them as healed scars, in the final product they’re kind of neither wounds or scars. For the skin some people may find the shading overdone – I think his collarbones ended up a little over-dark, but otherwise happy with it. I like the way his body is muscly but not an overdone beefcake.

The transparent parts came out better than I hoped, plus the base detail was well-executed. The underwear was an underwhelming disappointment, but thanks to his pose these can be left in the box. I have a feeling if he did come with penises I would be mildly disappointed how hidden they were thanks to his pose. Swings and roundabouts.

Could I recommend this figure? Ehhh. Depends if his negatives detract too much for you or not. Most of the figure is solidly executed – parts fit well (if we ignore the underwear), the painting and sculpting is solid in most areas, but then we have the skin markings that have a temporary tattoo vibe.

This is the first figure by the company UnBound so was a gamble of a preorder. However, they have partnered with Native for distribution so less of a gamble than an independent manufacturer. Native usually have fairly high standards for their own figures and those they distribute.

In recent years, Native has partnered with AmiAmi for international distribution and this was my first Native-distributed preorder with them. After placing my preorder I waited. Then I waited. And waited some more. He was originally supposed to release in January 2025 but didn’t release until December 2025.

In terms of price, he was JP¥25,200 and the shipping was JP¥3,310 for registered air small packet.

Show NSFW

For this one, I originally decided to pass on the preorder, being very undecided which variant I wanted and the price. However, I saw some photos from Wonfes Shanghai and changed my mind – so I ordered the last one in stock of the “Isys” variant. They did three versions –

Blue Prey (Unlimited):

Keraha (limited to 20):

And the one I ordered, Isys (limited to 20):

The limited variants were CN¥2,280 to preorder and Blue Prey was ¥1,980. I couldn’t resist the shininess of Isys, so into my cart it went.

Box

The box is nice and sturdy, decorated with a custom sticker that wraps around it:

You do need to tear through the sticker to open it, but at least this ensures it won’t open in transit. They have carefully placed the designs so you don’t need to tear through one to get into the box. For a small producer, it’s a very nice box, higher quality than my previous purchases with them which is nice to see.

Inside of the box:

The foam insert held the parts well, with extra foam pieces to ensure nothing rattles in transit. I didn’t have any big issues taking anything out of the foam. The small square held some head feathers and some putty to help stick them.

Bonuses

In the top of the box, there were two promo images printed on photo paper:

As they’re printed to photo paper, it does give them a glossy finish. I got prints 56 and 77 in the run 😆. I like the fact they gave two so you can choose what vibe you want if you wish to display these. I probably won’t, so they’ll go into my postcard album.

Instead of an edition stand, it came with a signed coaster:

Confirming I did indeed order 20 out of 20. So I suspect they did take into account the order the limited editions were ordered in – which is nice because usually you get a random allocation. I likely won’t use it as a coaster but it’ll probably float around the desk as it’s pretty. I prefer to use coasters I don’t care about ruining.

Figure spin-around

Wow, he’s a shiny, fancy fellah. I love the way he coils around the skull and feels like he’s looking at you.

Figure close-ups

Head:

So much detail to the head – the shading is excellent, the eyes have a fiery shine and the tiny details on the horns.

The three feathers on each side to the back are not initially attached to the figure – these need to be added with the putty provided. Looking into the gaps, they did do a test fit so there was already some putty on the figure. They did give plenty of extra putty if there isn’t enough – I did end up having to add a tiny bit more to get a couple of the feathers to stay. There isn’t a guide of which one goes where, so had to just fiddle around and look at the photos to work out where to put them. So whilst this was a fiddly process and I did need to reseat one after it slipped it does mean they’re not at risk of breaking whilst in transit.

I may have gone a bit overboard with the head photos (this wasn’t all the ones I took….), but it is so well-shaded. The colours are lovely and blended well. It has a very striking appearance thanks to the well-chosen colours. The glass domes over the eye print give the eyes some depth, but do not give a “following eye” look. Though the rest of this guy’s presence, you know he’s watching.

Crest:

As well as the head feathers, we have some going down the top of his spine. I like the black banding detail – gives a vibe of snakelike patterning to them. The feathers also have a good texture sculpted into them which helps with the feathery vibe.

Belly scales:

If you’ve seen my review on the Animal Planet Baron’s Racer, here’s what a more expensive belly scale paint job looks like – the shading is much more blended in and gives more depth to the scales.

Body scales:

Man, painting this must have taken forrevvverrr. I just love the shininess of the blue paint and the stripy pattern down the back. The scales are also raised, giving a spiky appearance befitting his lava skull.

Tail scales:

The colour and patterning changes at the tail, which is a neat inclusion. The colours gently shift so there isn’t a stark change between the two.

Skull:

Last but not least, the skull. With this feathered viper it has been given a lava theme, which I think fits well with Isys’s colour scheme. Here you can also see where Isys’s body colours shift from the main colour to tail colour. There is also shading on the body to represent the glowing light coming from the skull which is a neat addition. The texture and colouration of the skull work well to complement Isys himself.

Conclusion

Often with garage kit pieces, you don’t get to buy a prepainted version. Tooth Fairy Studio often offers both unpainted and painted versions of their pieces – and for this I’m grateful! I have little painting ability, let alone enough skill to produce a paint job of this quality. At CN¥2,280 it’s not a small chunk of change but for a limited production piece with this quality of paintwork I definitely felt like I got my money’s worth with this one. This is my third purchase of their prepainted kits, and it is definitely my favourite. If they release any other prepainted kits in my wheelhouse, I would definitely be considering an order.

For the more budget-conscious snake figure collector, I now present the Blue Baron’s Racer (philodryas baroni) by Animal Planet. This figure was CN¥428 and is the second figure in their “Realistic Nature Series”. Most of Animal Planet’s figures have a chibi quality, so this is a line of reptiles with realistic proportions.

As they’re a company that mass-produces, we get a pretty retail box:

The company name gets translated a few different ways so you may also see “Animal Heavenly Body” and “Animal Nebula”, but it will always be the same logo. It’s a very solid box, and we have some product photos so we know what we’re getting. The lid slides off, but due to the sturdiness of the cardboard it forms a strong vacuum seal so takes some effort and time to open. They do provide a couple of small cut-outs to grab the inner of the box, but they don’t give a huge amount of purchase.

Foam:

Interestingly the foam that contains the snake is on top and the base is underneath this. Most companies will put the base on top to make it obvious it’s in there. Wonder if they’ve had to field complaints of a missing base when it’s really just hidden underneath.

The hole in the top right is for the bonus item, for those that preordered.

Front:

The Baron’s Racer comes preassembled onto the branch and does not come off. It’s not glued on, so will move around a bit. Apparently I had him slid up the branch for most of the photos, but it does slide down and sit on it properly, which will be shown in a later photo. The branch attaches to the base via a peg moulded into the base. The attachment is sturdy – sturdy enough to make it feel OK to pick it up by the branch only, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this lest the base does detach itself.

I do like the dynamicness of the pose – it was the main thing that attracted me to buy this figure.

Face:

D’aww, what a cutie. Up close we can see how the paint is less precise than expensive small batch figures – the black line does bleed a bit but will still look great on your shelf.

Lookin’ atcha:

From here we can see where there’s darker colouration near its spine and the upturned nose. It’s definitely not letting go of this tree.

Tree view:

They’ve done a really good job of the bark on the tree. Definitely has a realistic feel to it. In the second photo above you can see where there is a join in the snake – as far as joins go on mass-produced items this is actually pretty well-hidden.

Back:

The belly scales are nicely sculpted and have been given their own shade of paint and dark wash. Close-up it is a bit uneven, but from a short distance it does the job. With the unevenness of the colour some bits look a little like it has picked up some dirt vs shading on the scales.

Tail:

At first, you may miss where its tail ends, but here it is. Looking at photos of Baron’s Racers (they’re not a snake I’m super familiar with) they do indeed have no real distinction between “arse” and “tail” – whilst snakes may look like one long tail, they do actually have a tail below where their cloaca is. On some snakes there will be a distinct size/shape/pattern difference between body and tail, others you have to flip them over to find their tail. On this model we can actually see where the tail starts – if you look at the top photo you’ll see a dark line – pretty sure this is a paint detail to show the anal plate (that’s where the stinky poos and wee come out of).

Looking at the inner part of the tree, I like the texture on it but the way they’ve painted the core makes it feel like a cartoon tree versus the rest of it. Whilst some trees do have a band between the lighter and darker parts, I feel it would have been better to either not have it or blend it in. It’s far from a dealbreaker though as this part isn’t really that much on show.

Couple of angles:

I love that they went for a tangled pattern around the branches and it is poised to potentially strike – it certainly gives the figure more interest versus a simple coil or pile. So what it may lack in paint detail it makes up for in pose and sculpt.

And now for that preorder bonus:

Aww, a hatching Baron’s racer! So cute! Does seem to have a bit of bug-eye but it’s not a real snake, so no need to worry about its genetics.

Some other angles:

I feel some artistic license has been used here to make it more aesthetically pleasing – snake shells are normally quite thin and snake babies normally cut a slit (or six..) so they don’t fold out as is shown here. But to model that would be a pain and potentially not show much of the snake head, so I think this is a reasonable compromise as this way you don’t get any seams on the egg. You wouldn’t get the egg yolk-looking stuff in the egg either – normally it’s mostly snake with some egg white. They may have some yolk left to absorb attached to their belly button (yep, they have them!).

When displayed, you don’t really see into the egg unless you plan to put it on a low shelf. The base has a velvet bottom so you can place it on the main base without damaging it:

The eggs bonus helps the large base look less featureless:

You can also enjoy the main Baron’s Racer being sat properly on its branch in this photo. When the egg is posed like this, it does look more like a slit in the egg rather than a large hole, so the artistic licence paid off. It’s also a bonus item that you technically paid less for, as the instock price for this figure is CN¥448, so preordering saved CN¥20 as well as netting this extra cutie.

I do like the way it adds detail to the base and stares up at moma? papa? Due to the way the main snake stretches out on the branch it needs a bigger base to counterbalance, so having something to add to the base does make the whole piece more aesthetically pleasing. For instock orders however, going to have to find your own snake-flavoured decoration if you want to add to the base.

Overall I like this figure – it’s pretty unique as far as snake figures go on the current market. In terms of improvements, I’d prefer if the tree ends were less cartoony and if the seam was a little better hidden, however the seam does show up less when not under photography lighting. For the price point, the paint detail and quality is as you’d expect. For anime collectors, it’s about the same price as a Pop Up Parade or a couple of prize figures. I feel it fits into that space of premium budget figures, but is a figure for snake lovers.

Continuing my snake purchases from Snake Gorge, I pre-ordered this ball python figure. I was particularly interested in this one as I have a normal morph ball python as a pet. Ball pythons are also known as Royal pythons and have the scientific name of Python regius.

So I paid my deposit, paid the balance and CN¥1,880 and some days later…

See the red writing on the right? Yeah, that restriction stops you from shipping an item out. Oops. And that’s a lot of money to spend on something I couldn’t return and potentially ship out. After writing an email to support, thankfully they changed the restriction and allowed me to ship out. I wasn’t worried about customs issues personally – on an x-ray it would appear as an inorganic “poo” (last I checked PU resin didn’t have any bones or organs), and anyone inspecting it for more than two seconds would know it was a resin model. However the proxy was nervous about it, so slapped it with the most restrictive restriction… which still allowed EMS, so EMS it went. Didn’t even hesitate to clear Chinese or British customs. Glad to know I can still import PU resin.

But hey! It’s a testament to Snake Gorge’s quality! So realistic your proxy may refuse to ship it 😅. I would love to order one of their 1:1 scales, but they’re around CN¥5,000 and not sure if I want to deal with the back and forth to be allowed to ship it. Oh, and also scrounging up the CN¥5,500-6000 to buy and ship it.

Snake Gorge just package their snakes in foam:

Not the most glamourous, but gets the job done. The snake itself came in a plastic bag so that it wouldn’t rub up against the foam.

So let’s have a look at him:

Well, I say “him”, not sure how you can sex a resin snake, especially when the species lacks external physical traits to denote gender. No cloaca to probe on this one. But hey, this one I won’t have to clean up any stinky poops! Or get lost behind my desk…

Let’s take a better look at his face:

D’aww. Certainly looks the part with his cute face, heat pits and triangular body. At first I wasn’t so keen on the whitish areas between some of the scales, but this is part of the patterning of a ball. Can see my pet snake has these too. The painting is very precise – the patterns are sharp and keep to the scales.

Some side views:

Honestly can’t fault the shape. They’ve even given his body some folds near where he’s sharply folded himself. This fellow has decided to tuck his tail up into a fold – mine I’m pretty sure prefers to curl his tail beneath him and tuck it in there.

Back view:

He looks nice all around – his pattern stretches all over his body which is nice to see. The faded areas are where the pattern would fade towards his belly scales, but think there are some areas that may have benefitted from a bit of darker paint.

On the second image you can see where they have moulded a flat bottom for him – one key feature a real snake doesn’t have. This doesn’t show when viewing him normally, and didn’t really notice it until photographing him to show it off.

From the top:

Yep, that’s definitely a ball python in a ball! Can definitely appreciate the pattern from this angle, and the way they’ve incorporated the colour fade into the head stamp. His head looks a lot like my pet python’s head.

Bottom:

Instead of the coaster depicted in the original promo images, they’ve gone for giving him a flat base and a layer of velvety material to protect your table/vivarium top.

And what’s that?

Another feature that real snakes lack – a logo baked into their side to say who made them. Another feature I didn’t notice until I sent some photos to someone on Discord. Can also get an appreciation of the paintwork up close – there’s some speckling to add texture and detail to the scales.

Overall, I’m really pleased with him. He was pricey, but you do get a lot of detail and accuracy to the real thing. He’s a handful in size – so you could think of him as a juvenile or a ~1/2 scale adult. There’s a good amount of weight to the figure – I’d say heavier than a python of this size would be. Would recommend to someone who has the budget for a realistic-looking snake model.

And for those who want to see what the cork base looks like, here’s the one I got with a hognose I haven’t reviewed yet:

He covers up pretty much the whole design, pretty much only leaving the outer circle. So I can see why they ultimately chose not to include the cork base. The hognose only takes up the centre so you can read the outer text. I put the hognose in an acrylic case with the other two snake models I reviewed and it wasn’t big enough to accommodate this base, so I could sit him on it if I want to.

This fellow was a random purchase – bought him from a collector in a Discord for collectors who collect male statues/figures.

After doing some research, turns out this dude has a backstory:
In 2230, humanity’s exploration of multidimensional space eliminated material scarcity and simultaneously led to the evolution of the spirit, gradually progressing towards a higher level of life.
With evolution, humans lost their emotions and feelings, which circulated and were sold as currency. Only a few people are born with the ability to generate emotions; they are called emotion creators.
If it is proven that androids can generate emotions, it will be a great step forward for humanity.

So… I guess we’ll see what kind of emotions this guy generates!

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Have you ever bought a figure or item just to document it? Well, now I can firmly add myself to that list. I have bought stuff out of curiosity, but this one firmly falls into this camp. If you are just here to see the figure, feel free to skip down to where the pretty pictures start :).

I did a review of the original figure – which can be found here

The ordering

I skipped out on the pre-order. I was curious about seeing it but didn’t feel the need to own it – whilst she had 90s cool, I had the original which has a more appealing colour scheme to me. I could just wait for photos to appear on the internet from someone else who bought it right? Was especially curious how the silver parts would turn out.
So I waited. And I waited. Nothing. She’s not MFC-eligible, so that was one source that was out. Nothing appeared on hpoi or anywhere else I searched.

Finally I cracked, and tried ordering her from the ClayM store – only the order languished unfulfilled so I cancelled it. AmiAmi had stock – playing with the basket they only appeared to have one in stock – so it felt like now or never. No waiting for her to hit clearance like I originally expected her to go – her original version did get clearanaced at AmiAmi. So I ended up ordering her, she went to “orders closed” as expected, but then a day or two later they had another in stock. Not sure if they didn’t know their stock level or found another one when they went to pack my order – but she’s now out of stock again. As of writing, Hobby Search as “a few left” of the deluxe edition.

As she’s a big box I sent her surface. Took 78 days to arrive to my door – surface has been slowww from Japan to the UK for the past 6-12 months. But she finally got here, for me to share with the world.

Notes about the figure

Manufacturing/Production

This figure is a prime example of how the whole Chinese “pipeline” works and why the MFC data with manufacturers and producers gets all tangled up.
Both Sanis figures were produced (which includes manufacture) by 寶德(香港)貿易有限公司’s (Baode (Hong Kong) Trading) subsidiary 惠州市盛世文化有限公司 (Huizhou Shengshi Culture). However, for the first release this was distributed under Lechery in the Japanese region – some Japanese “manufacturers” actually just commission stuff to be produced under their name. Years ago, this would be an opaque process and it’d be regarded as some nameless factory did the production, however in the 2020s we’ve seen a lot of “behind-the-scenes” manufacturers become their own brands and market their own figures. For this recolour, Lechery wasn’t involved and Shengshi released it under their own branding of ClayM in all regions. A lot of what is presented as a manufacturer, especially for Chinese figures, is actually just a brand. Often the underlying company has a longer Chinese name and then the brands are often in English and have much more attractive names to a casual audience. For ClayM, you will have also seen their releases under the Kaitendoh branding – Time Rabbit Yuki was also a ClayM product and you’ll see their logo on the box.
If you want to know how the Chinese work out who is related to who, they can look up the company on their company registry (which they have now locked down from foreigners, RIP) and see what trademarks are registered to the parent company. Ones that are separate company entities can share directors, revealing there’s a relation between certain companies.

Scale

With the mixed distribution, the scale of this figure is either 1/5 or 1/6 depending on who you believe. So whilst you’ll see the original marketed as 1/5 or 1/6 depending where you buy, there isn’t two different-sized versions of this figure – ClayM advertised her as 1/6 and Lechery advertised her as 1/5. Which is right? Who knows. If it helps you decide a scale, her head is about 43mm tall from chin to top of head (not including horns). By my calculations, if you believe her to be human-sized she’s 1/5 (average human head is 18-20cm, so 21.5cm full size is close), if you think she’s more Amazonian then she’s 1/6. As far as I know, the original artist hasn’t been fully revealed, so can’t ask to see if she has anything of a canonical height.

Review!

Box

Front:

Interestingly, despite going back and editing the box they haven’t updated with new photography – we see the original colour variant on the front and the sides. As the sides are identical to the original, I didn’t photograph them. For the front the ClayM logo is now printed onto the box and the “Sanis” logo has been refined. It does look classier, but is less legible. The heart pattern that existed as a background on the lower half of the box is also gone.

Back:

Again, the ClayM logo is now the default. For some reason the original art now has a purple background crudely edited behind it – not sure why. You can see remnants of the original background in the holes in her wings and as part of the tail flame. Here we can see the producer listed as Shengshi, and the studio listed as ClayM. The scale has been left as 1/5 on the box and a sticker over the barcode. What’s under here?

The original barcode. I wonder if they just plain forgot to edit the bottom section with the new details (barcode, scale).

Top:

The only indication we’ve ordered the correct version – a sticker stating it’s the “Black skin, different colour” version. Whilst I knew her outfit and details were a different colour, I didn’t realise she’d be tan as well lol.

Opening the box:

Same as the other version, a polystyrene inner with ClayM-branded strapping. Not the highest quality polystyrene so don’t be surprised if you end up with some on your floor if you buy either variant.

The parts:

It’s a 2-layer blister, the parts arranged for efficiency of packaging rather than ease of assembly. So you’ll want to lay both out prior to assembly. There aren’t any instructions but assembly isn’t too difficult. I’d recommend assembling the base first, followed by sitting her body on the leaf. From there, you can turn her backwards – assemble the lower wings first, then the rest in any order you like.
Only one change from the original – the tail hole has a slightly different shape, which will be revealed why later.

Base

Bottom:

Not much to see here. Same as the other variant.

Top:

The black paint is more matte than the original, but we do have a purple shiny finish on the upper areas that shows when the light reflects off of it. In low lighting conditions it’ll appear near-black, but we have the advantage of photography lighting to show the shiny purple effect :).

Base assembled:

The leaf also has the same purple shine to it – I really like the effect.

Closeup:

There are dimples to help her rest correctly on the leaf. There are two magnets where her butt sits that holds her firmly to this leaf base, so you don’t need to worry about her falling off of it.

Spin-around

Definitely something of a 90s aesthetic to this colour scheme. Her face has a bit of gloss to it, and the eyes are definitely attracted to her thigh-highs with the colour contrast and shine.
The other thing that stands out to me is her skin colour doesn’t match the base – her base didn’t get the tan treatment. Guess she ran outta bronzer. I’m sure for most people it’s going to be her giant bazongas that are stealing the show – they’re definitely up front and centre and plenty of skin to look at.

Cast-off

For casting off, it’s the same procedure as before and honestly something they should’ve documented so you don’t risk breaking her. Her right arm wiggles out – may take a bit of waggling – it is magnetised into the side of her body, then you can pull it downwards (do this off of her base). The chest cover then can be pulled downwards with a bit more wiggling to reveal her chest:

Her left arm is firmly attached, so don’t try to remove that one.
Chest cover itself:

It has some purple shading on the part between her arms, but you won’t see much of this. The purple line running around the edges is a bit sloppily painted but not too bad.

The figure!

Before we get her head on:

What was immediately apparent to me was the more visible chest lines – she has these on the original but they’re very subtle. Here they’ve used a silver paint so they have much more contrast to her tan skin. It was putting her body on the base for the first time that I realised she was tan rather than the very pale skin of the original. Personally I like the skin tone, but wish the veining was a bit more subtle – in between the original and what we have here.
The pink-silver transition on her legs has been done well. Not sure if these are tights or boots lol. Not a big fan of the “texture” of the pink personally – would prefer shiny or more matte rather than this semi-gloss. The silver is shiny enough to check out my lighting at her knees 😆

Back:

Here we can see the back pattern which will get covered up by her hair. Oh, and also her wide dump truck – she has plenty to stabilise herself out back. The pattern on the edges of her clothing have been sculpted so there is extra definition between the clothing and body. The paint isn’t 100% so she does have a bit of mutant flesh. The skin tone difference is quite noticeable against the base.

Closeup of the back pattern:

With this version, still lamenting she doesn’t come with a short hair/updo head that can show this detailing. The paint is quite sloppy in places so maybe it is best covered… Can see a bad paint slop to the lower right and there are a couple of streaks of silver on her skin. There’s also mutant skin here as the edges haven’t been painted silver in all places. Looks like they were aiming not to paint the edges but imo it’s better when manufacturers can so the raised parts can be attributed to the clothing rather than being mutant flesh.

Once her head is on this is about all we see of the back patterning:

It’s something, but not a lot.

Face:

She has sculpted eyebrows – personally not a fan of these. Also I think she was drunk when she applied her lipstick – it’s a bit of a mess. Irl, certain angles it looks fine, others you can tell it is a bit of a mess. The silver line at the top of her lids looks better irl than this closeup photo. She’s lost the angled eyebrows of the original and gone with a more conventional shape. What is visible irl is the silver overpaint from her horn crest. I do like the colour scheme on it though.
For her collar they didn’t fully lean into the silver/pink colour scheme and kept the base colour close to the original and just made the tip part pink. Though if they did go with silver there would be less contrast between her hair and her collar.

Side of her head:

I do love her horn design. For this variant they’ve given her horns different colour schemes – her front horns go from silver to pink whilst her back horns go from purple to pink. I think it’s a nice touch to add two gradients for this one. Am also a fan of the plated horn design of the back horns.

Back of the hair:

Their hair is a bit rough on this one – if you’re not too close it doesn’t show too much, but there are definitely some marks that aren’t supposed to be there. I think some of the speckling may be intentional but it doesn’t make for a good finish imo. The gradients are also less exciting than the original – I wish they added some tones to her hair – either some blue ones to contrast with the scheme or pink highlights to fit with the theme.

Neck closeup:

Due to the collar being a separate part, the heart design does look a bit wonk from certain angles. One of the red dots on her collar didn’t get its proper allocation of paint, and we can see how rough some of the hair tips are. This isn’t a figure that looks good close up.

Chest cover closeup:

It wasn’t until I edited these photos that I noticed the chest cover had some paint scraped off – looking to the left you can see a crusty bit where the sliver paint either didn’t adhere or got scraped off at some point. Here we can see the contrasts between the silvers – the silver parts do have slightly different tones and textures. Whether you like this will depend on your preference – but I think it does help add contrast to the figure which silver can normally lack. Also note how you can’t see the shading on the chest cover mentioned earlier – this isn’t something you’re going to see unless you’re specifically angling the figure to see it or taking it off so feels a bit strange they added that but not shading in other spots. And you’re not going to be picking up and rotating this figure – more on that later. The red detailing at her wrists is fine, no major paint errors or anything.

Chest from above:

Here you can see how the veins are very drawn on with this one – they almost look like pencil squiggles and I could see someone mistaking these lines for paint transfer. If I didn’t own the original Sanis I know I’d be wondering if they’re intentional or not. She has nipples of the pointy variety and some subtle darkening around them for her areolas. So nothing crazy in the nipple department, which is fine by me.

Tail:

This is the one part that’s differently sculpted versus the original – her tail loops around the front instead of the back. For the tail tip, the sculpt is the same but we have two red dots painted on it. There is some blobbed paint on one of the lower nobbles on the tail. To me, there’s just something a bit unsatisfying about the paint job – the shading and colours don’t quite gel together for me.

Wings:

This is the only part where assembly order matters – the lower wings want to go in first before the upper wings. Tail can go in before or after – whichever you find easiest.
And oh boy, the wings. Both editions have this problem – the wings aren’t magnetic and the fit is extremely loose. If you have putty, I’d recommend using it. If not, buy some – can get some white tack or similar. For this review I haven’t tacked the wings, but I will likely do so before I move them again. And this is a big reason why you probably don’t want to be picking up and moving this figure much – the wings will very easily drop out.
As for the wings themselves – they’re quite pretty – lovely silver and pink gradients. It’s just the fit into the back that’s poor – and unfortunately that shows too. Would’ve been nicer if the holes were sculpted just right for the wings to fit in. The “flapping” really is not a feature.

Sanis and Sanis
Didn’t do a full spin-around for this but here she is next to the original and both cast off:

Here you can see how the tails are different, and pretty much everything else the same. I wish they did more with the variant’s hair – just seems a washed-out version of the original and it would’ve been nice to have something more distinct for this one. For the collar, can see how the original version had better cohesion with the collar colours – feel like they could’ve done more to make the collar different on the variant. Overall, I think the paint was less rushed on my original than the variant – there is less paint spillage on it. However, looking at the tail I do wonder if my original has a paint error and there is some black paint missing on the tip in the middle – one of the middle blobs was painted but the other not.
The base butts are different skin tones from each other, but not massively so.
Overall, the original is my favourite of the two – but the alternate colour variant has grown on me. With her being tan, it does add more difference than just having an outfit change. I think the colour scheme has less mass appeal than the original but it does work as its own thing. With the tail change, it would’ve been nice if the the wings were fixed too, but no dice. Though that means you could do a certain amount of part swaps – wings, tail, base. Head swap would look strange with the different skin colours. Personally I don’t feel the need to do a part swap – I don’t feel like the original would be improved with the alternate colour’s parts.

Conclusion

Would I recommend this figure? If you’re asking, no. The quality isn’t there, and the colour scheme is something you’ll know if you want it or not. If I was recommending between the two, I’d recommend the original over the variant. When I saw this variant originally, I was confused who wanted it – the original wasn’t super-popular – on MFC it has 67 claiming as owned and 38 on hpoi. This variant has only 2 people on hpoi claiming as owned and one of them is me. Looking at the “wished” statistics on hpoi, approximately 1,000 were contemplating the original and less than 200 for the variant. So I feel like these colours didn’t really appeal to the masses.
But it’s an interesting figure, and I’m glad to have finally seen the final product.

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.

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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.

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.

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

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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:

In ODD style, it’s pretty plain with some warning information on the back.

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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]

This figure was an instant preorder for me – I like monster characters, especially of the aquatic variety. I did have some small reservations as I didn’t think Tomato Girl came out as well as it could’ve done. I don’t actually own Tomato Girl, but haven’t been that impressed by the photos I’ve seen. However, for an octopus girl I was prepared to risk it.

I preordered this before orders in Japan were available so didn’t get to get the AmiAmi scroll. Would’ve been a nice bonus to have.

So let’s see what we got!

Box

The box colours work well with the black and the muted blue. The tentacle designs are a nice inclusion to decorate the box instead of leaving it plain.
The box unfolds to reveal a lid, and underneath there is supposed to be the two pairs of ribbons tied in the middle. However on mine these were already untied as the proxy had done an inspection so wasn’t sure how they were supposed to go – there are photos from other users in the MFC gallery for her, if you wish to see the inside of the box. The figure and her accessories are in a cut EPE foam block, so everything is held securely. Which, based on the rough time that the figure I had her shipped with (ODD Lille – see previous blog), is a good thing!
Overall the box is good-looking and functional. Two very good traits for a figure box!

Sadtiems

When I first inspected the figure, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. I was talking to someone on Discord who mentioned they sent theirs back for a break. What break? I inspected the figure more closely and:

Damnit. Some glue on the end of a sharpened BBQ stick later and I had it repaired. I left the figure for 24 hours to check if the glue was going to hold and luckily it did. Looks like there’s a QC issue where this bundle of tentacle wasn’t given enough glue and the slime pulls on it a bit, resulting in it separating like this. Fortunately it wasn’t as bad to repair as it may look – pull it down slightly, apply glue with stick, then hold in place for 1-2 mins. I held it longer than I normally would due to the weight and the slime potentially not helping! If you need to do this repair yourself, I’d recommend a long pointy object for glue application and to do a test fit before starting glue application – you have to push it in a certain way to go back into the right place, and the damaged paint should be fully hidden if it’s back in its original position.

Figure overview

The figure mostly comes as one piece, so didn’t do an accessories section – there is a small amount of assembly with putting on the treasure chest lid, sword, dagger and necklaces.
The figure comes with various paper bits, which are folded up like a sealed treasure map. I forgot to take a photo, so here is one by Toprharley:

Annoyingly, the loyalty card is slightly bigger than credit card size but did just fit in my card holder.

So let’s look at her set up:

Wow, certainly a lot to look at here – no shortage of tentacles and she has been hoarding some treasure. I love the shiny finish on the tentacles and the colours came out well. We also have plenty of slime.

A couple of other angles:

Colours so pretty… prior to getting her, I was worried she was going to be a bit too washed out but was glad to find out that was not the case, and I love her purple-blue hues.

Left:

The slime looks good, plus there is a good amount of ‘animation’ in the tentacles.

Back:

She also has tentacles back here, guarding the back of the chest.

Top:

From this angle you can get a feel for her size. She’s not a small lass! From here we can see she’s about as wide as she is long. But as a 1/3 scale, she wasn’t going to be small XD.

Figure close-ups

Now we’ve seen the figure in its entirety, let’s look at the smaller details.
Top of her head:

The shading nicely converges towards the middle of her tentacle ‘hair’. The spikes are also nicely shaded, but only one of them seems to have green speckles, which makes it look a little odd.

Face:

She has a cute face nested in the tentacles. There is some purple shading on her face.

Body:

Her body sculpt is good, but the shading is lacking in my opinion – she has painted nipples which is nice, but the body doesn’t have much distinction otherwise. I feel this is partly stylistic but I think would’ve benefitted from a bit more subtle shading around her chest/belly button.

Legs:

She has very lean legs – not much in the way of muscle or fat here.

Feet:

If you like your figures barefoot this is a part of the figure that may appeal. I like the way she’s spreading her toes on one foot to give her more character.

Weapons:

She’s not left unarmed to protect her treasure – she has a sword and a dagger to keep her jewels safe. Getting the sword into place was a little bit difficult – needed to use the light on my phone to find the hole it slots into. Once you know which way to direct it, it slots into the hole easily. If it won’t go, try rotating the sword. Both weapons look nice and are sturdy once assembled.

Chest lid:

The connector is pretty small for this part but feels decently sturdy once in place. The sculpting and shading has been nicely done on this part, though the metal banding could possibly do with more shading to sell the damage more. The wood finish is pretty shiny which is a bit of an odd choice to me.

Nestled gems:

She has a couple of these translucent balls – not quite sure what they are. I like the way she’s holding one instead of them just lying about the place. As for what they do and what they’re worth… who knows?

Necklaces:

She comes with two necklaces to hang off of the chest ‘teeth’. They’re a little awkward to get into the right place, but do look nice when added.
With the chest having these green spiky teeth, I do wonder if it could protect itself if it wanted. Or maybe it’s some kind of trap set by the octopus girl herself? Maybe this is some kind of interesting couple? Monster and the Mimic? Whichever way, the shading is nicely done on these protrusions.

Gooey slime:

Liquidy parts on figures often look bad, but I’m glad to report the slime looks slimy. It is rubbery to the touch. I’m really happy with the way the stretchy slime parts came out.

Suckers:

Also really happy with the way the suckers came out – they’re actually sucker-shaped unlike Idol Cthulhu’s. The bottoms of the tentacles nicely transition to paler colours. If she grabs on, she isn’t going to be easy to shake loose!

Back tentacle:

Just admiring the shiny finish and the speckles :). The purple sheen really adds to the figure.

Gem decorations

She comes with some gems to decorate the base with:

A fun way of making a boring base not boring! However they will likely go all over the place when setting them up – the bits vary in size a lot so you may find the smaller and larger bits pinging off in various directions as you pour out the gems. Initially they do start plastic-wrapped, but the ones in the hessian sack the bag burst at the bottom, so pulling them out just ended up with a plastic bag in my hand XD.
These photos is with roughly half of the hessian sack contents, with none of the extra golden ovals (whatever they are? Not sure).
If you buy this figure, I would suggest putting it where you intend to display then pour the gems out carefully a bit at a time to cover the base. Putting them back in the bag after the photo session was a mildly time-consuming process.
I’d say they’re worth the effort though – it does a good job of decorating the base.

Conclusion

She’s a big beast, and here she is displayed in my cabinet:

Whew, just fits on the shelf! At ~8kg I wouldn’t recommend trying to display her in a detolf lest it breaks the shelf. This cabinet is a shop display cabinet so is designed to be able to take a good amount of weight.
I haven’t put all the gems on the base – there are a lot of them! So I’ve left the extras in the bag and displayed it next to her. To get the gems on the base, I cupped my hand and poured some into the larger spaces available on her base. From there, I spread them out before pouring more. Some went flying, but not too many.

Overall, I’m really pleased with this figure and glad I got her. Some may find her rather small for a 1/3 but I was expecting it to be like that. The paint is mostly great, though I’d like to see a tad more shading on her body. The manufacturing flaw with too little glue on the tentacle is not great – I’m not the only person that had them separate – but easily fixable. And if you squidge out any glue… hey, more slime! There are some parts that should’ve probably been sculpted to touch like the tentacle going through the chest teeth, but they don’t stand out enough to bother me.
I think most people will be pleased with this figure so long as it survives the journey, though it does have its imperfections. Whichever way, it’s nice to have a monster girl that isn’t some kind of cat.

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.

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