Tag: phat

Official vs Bootleg: Jibril – Great War Ver.

For my inaugural Official Vs Bootleg, I’ve chosen to do the most-voted for option: Jibril. I own the Great War version, as I liked the darker wings and more warlike vibe.

The official version of this figure can be found on MFC here.

Images will be clickable throughout the blog, if you wish to see the full-sized images.

As this is the first blog, see if you can guess which side I have the bootleg on in this picture:

So… did you guess correctly which figure is which?

I should imagine most of you worked out which is which :). To me, the thing that stands out the most is the drunken angle which she is holding her scythe – her arm on this side has been mis-manufactured, causing this kind of odd angle. This, coupled with her expression, makes the bootleg look drunk to me, and she’s in the kind of state where she can hold onto things, but not really too concerned with what angle they’re at.

Continue reading “Official vs Bootleg: Jibril – Great War Ver.” →

Asuka Langely – Evangelion – Parfom

As I bought Rei, I had to go for Asuka too, so here she is, having a good pout:

As with the Rei figure, her hair is very nicely painted, and the face works well. The plugsuit also feels well-designed from the front, to work with the articulation. 

Left:

Here I’m actually hiding the stripes with her hand :P. Again, these can look kind of odd when you articulate her. From the sides, her suit is pretty much the same as Rei’s, only red. 

Right:

Here are the stripes…. not lining up at all. So I’m not likely to pose these figures side-on. Her hair looks nice though, and the hair seam would be more hidden if I gave her fringe a bit of a shove ¬¬. 

One issue I’ve had with this figure is with one of her legs – iirc it is the right one – when I first opened her, it was loose in the box, and feels a bit prone to popping off. Not sure if this is common with Asuka, or a bit of a defect with mine. Should be fine when she’s standing still, but during posing, it’ll probably pop off again. 

Back:

Her hair flows nicely back here, and the shading really adds to it. Paint all looks good back here, though you can’t see much of her.

Doll:

I loved the fact that she came with such an iconic accessory – and the painting is all very nicely done. Only issue is getting her to hold it – there are no pegs or anything, so you need to either balance it or tack it to her hands, if you want her to be holding it, like on the box art. Currently I ended up putting this in storage, but I may choose to tack it to her at some point, so I can have her holding it and not get pissed off when I knock it out of her hands for the nth time. 

Faces and hands:

Same as Rei, she has two other faceplaces and two spare sets of hands. I almost feel as if there should be some kind of “wacky” set of hands that should come with Asuka, but that’s not to be found here. 

Overall, she’s a solid figure. I think what’s there is well-designed and thought out, but some more hands wouldn’t have gone amiss. Again, it’ll come down to what the price tag is – looking at Mandarake, the price tag on these has gone down a bit, and I think I agree with this assessment. 

Rei Ayanami – Evangelion – Parfom

This was a figure I got some time ago, but never did do the blog for. So… no time like the present!

Front:

First thing that stands out to me is her hair – I love the way this has been sculpted and painted. I like the colour of her eyes – it complements the colour of her hair. The green parts that go over her chest are attached to the other half, so they don’t block the articulation of her upper half. The red dot is also on her lower half, which helps her not look too odd when articulating. 

Face:

Her hair clips are nearly painted, and the shading in her hair is subtle but effective. I think this expression fits Rei very well. The lines on her suit are also neat. 

Left:

The way her hips are make the lines odd on her suit -they’ve extended them onto the hinge part to include it, but this ends up looking odd if you articulate her. Her arms look good though. Due to her chibi proportions, she has very small feet, and wouldn’t balance too well (if at all) without the stand. This stand design works pretty well though.

Right:

I like this splayed hand. Her hair also looks good from the sides, and I think the seam is pretty well-hidden, even though it is right there. As her fringe needs to come off for her faceplate to be changed, there had to be some kind of visible seam. 

Back:

The shading on her hair works well back here, and the paint on backpack looks really good. Here we can see better where they’ve added lines to make her suit work with the hinge style chosen for this figure type. 

Glasses:

She can’t wear these, but you can have her holding them. I think they look pretty decent. 

Alternative hands and faces:

I think the faceplates have been well-chosen to fit Rei, but you don’t get a lot of hand choices. I don’t see this as a big problem, as I don’t think chibi figures are necessarily suited to action poses. Might’ve been nice to have another set, just to round it up to the usual 3 alternative pairs. 

Overall, I’m pleased with this Parfom figure. I think the hip joints are the most problematic part, which will likely be a bit of an issue on most figures in this line imo – I think a decent part of if you’ll like these figures is if you mind the hip ball joints. For me, I prefer this proportions these figures have to “normal” chibis. I think they are a little on the pricey side for what they are, but the paint is above average for an articulated figure imo. So I think if you like the proportions of these figures, and aren’t bothered by the joints/hip design, then I think you won’t be disappointed. If you’re on the fence, I’d probably say give this line a miss. 

Ryuko Matoi – Kill La Kill – Phat

With the re-issue of this figure, I thought about pre-ordering it, but missed the pre-order period. When kicking around on Nippon Yasan, I noticed they had her in stock for a decent price, so went ahead and ordered her:

Here I have both of the blade parts in her hands, though you’re not really supposed to do this, so removed the longer blade for the rest of this review. On the subject of the blades, both are really nicely painted, and have shading on them. 

Here is a close-up of the shorter blade:

Probably a little hard to see in that photo, but if you look closely, you’ll see it’s not an even shade of red. 

Let’s get a little closer:

My main gripe with this figure is the pose doesn’t really show her off. Imo she needs to be displayed higher than eye-level for you to see her well, and her twisted body can lead her looking like she’s hiding her details from certain angles. The broken ground is nicely painted, and feels like it should be heavier than it really is Sadly the piece you put in, which has the clear peg, is not too well painted on mine. Initially it is a similar piece without the plastic peg, but I don’t really want to risk her bending over time… though on the subject of bending… When I was putting her in the base, I did try to warm her legs to get her to bend, but I think there’s reinforcement in them, so didn’t have much luck with that… so she might stay up just fine over time. However, with them providing the support, I’m not going to risk it.

Slightly angled view:

Looks more imposing this way. 

Matoi’s right:

Some definite side-boob in evidence. Her hand is at a funny angle, but this is just a round peg, so you can correct that. She also has another hand that’s splayed, which is the one she’s initially “equipped” with. I have this one on, as she was holding the long scissor blade. Some nice-looking upper leg there.

Left: 

I think her body looks nice form this angle, but the back strap looks too flat. More on that later. Her clothes are shiny, which can be seen here, which might not be to everyone’s taste. 

Matoi’s back from above:

I do like the back of the suit here- it’s really well done. Back strap does actually look OK in this photo. 

Arse:

That boob really wants to make a showing :P. I think the back strap in isolation maybe doesn’t look as bad as when you’re looking at the figure irl. I think it’s mostly because it’s done in a different technique than the front ones (this one is part of the figure, whilst the others float) that makes it look odd. I think they may have used a separate sculpted piece, like the front straps, to make it not look like a tattoo in comparison. 

One thing I didn’t capture with these photos is some of the red paint is a bit sloppy on the lines on her boots. Bit of a shame for a more expensive figure. Waiting to see if this one grows on me some more, but it’s not quite as epic as the pictures of it made me feel. In the right spot this one could work, though.