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Figure Review Duo: Nendoroid Popuko and Pipimi (Pop Team Epic)

After a bit of a break, I’m finally back with another review; as well as a new and improved camera! Find out how well this duo stacks up after the jump.

Popuko (the short one)

Price: ¥4,167 (About $40)

Release Date: 2018/07

Released By:  Good Smile Company

Pipimi (the tall one)

Price: ¥3,889 (About $37) Release Date: 2018/07 Released By:  Good Smile Company

If you’re a fan of the original 4 panel comics, or even the recent anime, these extras should be pretty familiar to you. Popuko comes with a bit more than Pipimi, so her price is slightly higher to match that.

Popuko comes with three faces (normal, pissed off, and sour), three speech bubbles (straight from the comic), a building being destroyed, a matching punching arm to complete the scene, an arm with a phone, crossed arms, two extra bent legs, two flapping arms, and two extremely large middle fingers.

Pipimi comes with two faces (normal and sour), two speech bubbles (also from the comic), a pointing hand, a rapidly pointing hand, an arm for holding a small microphone, two extra open hands, and two extremely large middle fingers.

I really like the included extras, with just these alone you can recreate some of your favorite panels, even with a speech bubble if it’s one of the included ones. Nendoroids are usually good with giving a lot of extras, but it’s still nice that these two got the same treatment.

One thing I should mention about the speech bubbles, is the ones with Pipimi that I received were both damaged.

The one of the left is starting to peel while the one on the right has a bit removed in the bubble. While most likely yours should be fine if you pick either of them up for yourself, this isn’t actually the first time I’ve had an extra like this damaged. Just keep that in mind for any 2D extras like this, it’s kinda a 50/50 from my experience if it’s in good condition.

For size, Popuko is actually quite a bit shorter than a standard nendoroid, even being barely as tall as the Super Smash Bros. Wii U Mario amiibo. Pipimi is about the same size as a standard nendoroid, it’s just her big noggin is most of the height instead of the body. But between the two of them, they’re accurately scaled which is a nice touch.

Must be a sour lollipop...

Both look great, they basically look exactly how you would think they would in 3D. With the included extras you’ve got a lot to work with as far as poses go. Both of their arms you swap out easily and can be turned at the end however you like, while the legs are on a ball joint. Pipimi, because of her odd shaped head, is a little weird to switch out the face plates on, but it works perfectly fine so I have no complaints there.

The middle fingers on both can be attached to most basic nendoroids, if you ever feel like having your other figures flip you off.

Phoenix Wright has met his match.

Overall, I honestly can’t really name any gripes with these two. They’re nendoroids, so they have a good track record, but these two definitely are worth the price. If you like the comics or just want to pay $40 for a pair of middle fingers, you really can’t go wrong. Just make sure if you buy one you get other, okay? What kind of heartless monster would separate the two?

Grade: A

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Figure Review: Figma Saitama (One Punch Man)

Back again with another figure review, this time of Saitama from One Punch Man. Let’s see how well his figure stacks up after the jump.

Price: ¥5,556 (About $50)

Release Date: 2017/02

Released By: Max Factory (distributed by Good Smile Company)

Everything shown above is what you get in the box: 7 extra hands, an extra pair of crossed arms, a (very tiny) cup with the Hero Association logo on it, an extra, more serious head, and of course the figma stand. Like the previous Bloodborne Hunter review, he doesn’t come with a whole lot, but this time the price is much more reasonable. I honestly can’t come up with much more in ways of accessories, but another head for the famous “Okay” panel would have been cool. Still, you get both sides of Saitama here so I think this is fine.

The size is about on par with other male figures in the Figma line at around 6 inches tall. His cape is pretty wide, so he does take up a bit of shelf space compared to some others, but overall, if you have a figma already you know what to expect.

I want to take a minute to talk about the cape real quick before I get into the rest of the figure. You can take off the cape, or move the two flaps if he’s wearing it for posing however you like, and blends pretty well with each half so it looks good. The big thing I’m not too fond of, is how you take it off and on:

The cape is attached on thanks to a very small, very hard to see clear peg. It looks fine on the figure, but you have to remove the peg if you ever want to attach him to the stand or remove the cape all together. I honestly almost lost it while taking photos, and had I not found it I would have had no way to attach the cape without the stand. While if you’re super careful that shouldn’t be a problem, that seems like a pretty easy way to screw yourself over. Personally, I would have preferred if it attached in some way with just the cape itself with indents or something, just so there’s no middle man between the figure and cape. I’d also be okay with just having the cape always on, but I do think it’s nice you have the option here.

Just chillin’

Saitama is one of those figures with a simple enough design that nothing really gets in the way of posing. Other than when you have the cape on, he’s got a completely free range of motion and the joints don’t feel loose. With the cape he’s a little harder to stand on his own, but it’s definitely doable. And as mentioned, the cape can be posed as well so you can honestly make just about any pose work with a little balancing or help from the stand. His cup even has removable ‘liquid’ if you want to pose him having finished a cup of tea, which I think is an insane level of detail.

The sculpt is just as good, with it even having wrinkles in his suit. Granted his design is pretty simplistic, but I think they did a good job with his jump to 3D, so no complaints here.

ONE PUUUUUUUUNCH!!

Overall, I’d honestly say Saitama here a pretty solid figure. There’s several things I think could have improved the figure, but for $50 I think any fan will be happy with Saitama here. Just think about maybe investing in a GPS tracker for the peg, you don’t want to lose that.

Grade: B

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Future Figure: Splatoon Inklings

The Splatoon figmas shown off about a year ago are finally up for pre-order in both a standard and DX set.

Standard: http://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/7548/figma+Splatoon+Girl.html

DX: http://www.goodsmile.info/en/product/7547/figma+Splatoon+Girl+DX+Edition.html

Obviously I can’t vouch for how good they are yet, but I can say for what you get the price is actually pretty fair. If you’re planning on getting the DX version, I’d suggest pre-ordering ahead of time as I’m not sure how easy it will be to get down the line. Standard edition should be well stocked if most of the other Nintendo Figmas and Nendoroids are anything to go by (though there’s certainly been exceptions).

As for where to pre-order, my personal go-to site is https://www.amiami.com/eng/ . There’s no pre-order bonus from getting it from Good Smile Company directly this time, so with AmiAmi you’ll be shaving off about $20 on the DX edition.

I’m personally super excited for these, so I’ll be springing for the DX edition. They’ll release in May of 2019, so there’s still a bit of a wait before these are out. Any other Splatoon fans out there planning on adding an Inkling (or two) to your collection?

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Figure Review: Figma Hunter (Bloodborne)

Starting off this blog as my first review, I’ll be taking a look at the Figma based off the Hunter from Bloodborne. I’m still learning, so apologies for any rough starts. But with that out of the way, let’s get started after the jump.

Price: ¥8,148 (Looking at about $90 with shipping)

Release Date: 2018/06 

Released By: Max Factory (distributed by Good Smile Company)

Above is everything included in the box: the Hunter himself, four extra sets of hands, a figma stand for posing, the Saw Cleaver, and Hunter Blunderbuss. This is... not a whole lot, and probably my biggest complaint with the figure. Most Figma around this price range include a whole slew of accessories, face parts, hands, and other extras, but good hunter here is lacking in that department. However, the sclupt and paint job on both the Hunter and two weapons are fantastic. They’ve done a fantastic job of keeping it true to the game, down the small details on the coat and worn look the the saw cleaver. It’s just a shame that’s all there is, as Bloodborne has a ton of fantastic weapons that would have been perfect additions to the set.

Posabllity of the figure is another highlight, and something figmas tend to always excel at. The Hunter has good range of movement on his arms, and the bottom of the coat has joints so you can move the legs to your liking. The head can easily look left, right and down no problem, but looking upwards isn’t really possible due to the scarf. The saw cleaver can also extend like in the game, so you can swap between the two modes to fit your liking.

Size Comparisons

The hunter himself is standard size for a figma, about 5-6 inches tall. He’ll fit right in with any other figure of this scale (such as other figma, figuarts, and revoltech), but is slighty dwarfed by NECA Kratos here.

“Welcome home, good hunter.”

While you can get pretty much any pose you want from the figure, it’s not without some flaws. While the hand used to hold the hunter blunderbuss fits perfectly, the saw cleaver has a very loose grip when held in the hunter’s hand. When I was first doing the photo shoot, it fit great, but as I moved it around the hand holding it became more and more loose. This may be fixable with a little heat and pressure, but for now I’m not going to mess with mine just yet. Speaking of the saw cleaver, its joint is also a little too loose for my liking. Putting it in its closed form will sometimes start sliding into extended form if gravity has it’s way with it. However, fully extended it does tend to stay that way, so thankfully that’s consistent.

“YOU DIED”

The included accessories are perfect for recreating the boxart for the game.

The hunter does a pretty good job on standing on his own, most poses can be done without the help of the included stand. Some crazy poses using the saw cleaver can be difficult to balance, but generally the stand is hardly needed.

“Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap”

Overall, I can honestly only recommended the figure to diehard fans of Bloodborne. While there’s a lot to love with the figure, there’s also much to be desired. If the figure included some more weapons, or if the pre-order exclusive Messenger was part of the base product, the price might have been more worth it, but as is it’s way overpriced.

Quailty: 8

Posability: 8

Acessories: 6

Price: 5

Overall Score: 7/10