Hunting the Elusive

“Shantiti & Ne-jyu” is a pair of figures released exclusively by Etsu Magazine. Previously covered here, the figures came out pretty much on schedule, though I held off on a shipment until last week. As to who the characters are, they are originals from an illustration that Tinkle had done for an earlier issue of Etsu. Scale is 1/8, sculptor is the prolific Miyagawa Takeshi (T’s System, 宮川武), manufacturer is Clayz. Cost: 7800 yen each, 15,000 yen bundled. Each figure came with a base, which, true to the original drawing, has “crystal” structures growing out of it. The package also came with a boarded drawing by Tinkle, and a background of a starry night, presumably for use when taking photos of the figures. I chose not to use this, however. [Gallery]

While this is a pair of figures, they do not really interact with each other in any significant manner. They sit side by side, and the bases fit together so they sit closer together. In any case, reviewing two figures at the same time can be a bit difficult for photography, so I chose to photograph the figures separately most of the time.

During the course of photographing for this review, I managed to stuff up quite a bit. In my first shoot, I used a black background, but I decided to change it to white in a second shoot. It is thus quite easy to tell which photos came from which shoot, as I decided not to waste some of the shots from the very tragic first session.

While the blame for the screw up must be apportioned to me and my poor skills, I must note that these figures are of a quality considered normal for Clayz, which is really a B-tier manufacturer of figures.

Since I had a number of super-bright LED lights lying about (used for light drawings, occasionally), I decided to go with the crystal theme and light up the structures in the figures’ bases. They turned out pretty nice.

Chief among my concerns: A fairly large flaw on Shantiti’s leg, casting deficiencies causing dimples in various parts like the hair and clothing, a fairly poor paint job on the clothing, flimsy cocktail glass for Shantiti, and very reflective decals used for the eyes.

The flaw on Shantiti’s leg is visible in 07.jpg (left, above). It’s like some glue dropped on it and dribbled downwards. Additionally, the cocktail glass for her to hold is rather too weak, with the plastic bending of its own accord. Probably can be fixed with a hair dryer. I must also note a lack of attention to detail, as the “liquid” in the glasses are level, as if they were being held totally upright, not tilted, as the characters are doing.

In terms of sculpting detail, this is a fairly standard job by T’s System, with fairly realistic fabric folds. However, since there isn’t much by way of clothing, I didn’t expect to be blown away.

Despite all the flaws I pointed out regarding Shantiti, I actually like this figure more than the Ne-jyu figure. Her face and just the overall feel of the figure gives a much more Tinkle-like feel. This is actually a figure which you can look at and identify the original artist from.

One last look at the face of this figure. I must note that the shiny decals used for the eyes were extremely frustrating, because they would reflect the lights and cause a glaze effect. Repositioning some of the lights and/or the figure helped, but it was seriously a pain.

From the get-go, Ne-jyu suffers from a number of technical problems. First of all, the hair is far too shiny. If Clayz had done a matte-spray or changed the nature of the plastic used for the hair, it would look much better. In fact, I considered doing a matte-finish myself, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

From the above pictures, there is a visible flaw on the little crown hair ornament which Ne-jyu wears. There are also casting artifacts on her hair, and the paint job on the hems of her clothes leave a bit to be desired.

As you might have noticed earlier, these figures are true to form for Tinkle’s artwork in terms of pantsu.

A look at the crown, with the flaw very visible.

The stem on Ne-jyu’s cocktail glass is much more robust, and holds its form well.

My problem with Ne-jyu is that her face is really hard to get right. First of all, I always get distracted because she looks like Rika. Secondly, her face only really “works” from a VERY limited selection of angles. In fact, she looks weird if I shoot from a level angle, and extremely weird if I shoot from an angle on the right. This might have something to do with the fact that her eyes seem to be looking sideways.

While the figures come on their base, I think there are definitely opportunities to take them off the base and have them sitting on level surfaces. Given the fact that their legs actually hang off the surface of the bases, doing this causes a change in their sitting angle, but it works if you think of them doing crunches or relaxing.

In fact, I think, given their costume and cocktails, they would work well at a poolside or at the beach, if you are inclined toward outside shoots.

While the coloured LED thing was a pretty good idea, the colours didn’t really come out in the lighted photography.

Turn off the lights, however, and you get a pretty good result.

Overall, while the figures are pretty cute, and I especially like Shantiti, they are plagued by all manner of technical problems. For the collector who is used to quality like the GSC Saber Lily, this can be quite shocking. However, I actually have a number of Clayz’s figures, and while I am disappointed they have not brushed up on their manufacturing quality (especially for exclusive figures), I am not surprised.

That said, I was really pleasantly surprised by how well Tinkle’s work survived being ported over to the 2.5D form of figures, especially with Shantiti, whose face was exceptionally well-done.

While personally, I thought the 15,000 yen was well spent (being a past expense, and a premium to pay as an avid Tinkle fan), I think the more level-headed consumer would be hard pressed to shell out over 7000 yen each for the figures at retail. I think a more reasonable price would be around 5600 yen each (this is of course, discounting the limited availability status and fanboyism).

Technical: A number of previous figure review shoots were done with three halogen lamps (one through an umbrella, another reflected on a smaller umbrella, and a third small one diffused through a Lightsphere), but since these were all mounted on my desk, there was limited flexibility in the arrangement. For the second shoot for these figures, I took one of the lamps and put it on a jury-rigged tripod to make a “light stand”, took out the smaller halogen lamp, and used my flash gun+diffuser/reflector combo, tethered to the camera with a control cord. This solution, while working quite nicely, has a deficiency which can be seen in a number of photos, namely, different temperature lights coming from the halogen lamps and the flash.

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