Hunting the Elusive

This just in today, costing 5247 yen (Hobby Search excludes tax for us overseas people), released in Japan last week. Arin is a character from the "skirt golf" game pangya. The "special point" of this figure is the translucent clothing to emulating wet clothes (or whatever). For coverage of the normal version, which comes with white clothing and blue hair, see Moeyo. The Miyazawa limited edition (always a sucker for limited stuff) has black clothes and grey hair.

Let us begin from the beginning. This figure comes in a box. The box is colourful. The box is clear on 5 sides (the top has not been photographed). The figure is packaged in a normal plastic enclosure clamshell which offers sufficient protection, but which seems to be molded rather generically (where other figures have contours which fit various details of the figure, this figure just has a bubble which accommodates the head, the hair and the torso. The golf club comes as a separate accessory in the box. The head is detachable so as to allow you to push the shaft of the club through the figure's holding hand. This task is a bit hard, and the parts feel really delicate at this stage, but I eventually manage to do it without breaking anything.

General view of the figure in rotation. The figure comes mounted on the base already.

It seems to be attached pretty strongly with screws or a similar device. The figure interfaces with the base through a protrusion on the base which is made to look like the effect of a water splash.

 The legs seem to be intertwined in a rather dynamic pose, and at some angles will look pretty odd as if they were bent. Because of this, it is unsure whether this figure will be prone to lean, although considering the secure attachment to the base and the support of two legs, it seems unlikely. The shading and contours on the legs, especially around the knees, are particularly well done, although the surface of the knee seems to be quite rough, and emerged from the packaging with some flecks of dust/other particles on it, possibly from the factory machining.

It is possible to discern minor artifacting on the right thigh, possible the remnants of flash.

The sculpting of the material for the clothes which graduates in translucency toward the hem, is very nice, especially where it gets bunched up by the hand. However, the combined effect gives it the effect of a kind of gel.

Medium-zoom views on the upper part of the figure. The sculpting is for the most part well done, but there are problems with the surfacing on the face and the upper arms in that they seem to be not-so-skillfully sanded, resulting in various small flat planes which do catch the light. The black band on the left arm of the figure is also not properly painted. The material used for the flesh of this figure is a lower-quality plastic and the fact that it is not finished properly in matte means that throughout the photography session I had to take care to minimise gloss or sheen. As the photos attest, this was not always successful.

Details on the "golf club": The gradient on the ribbon is a detail I find pretty appealing.  I particularly like the "late afternoon" lighting effect glancing off the smooth back. The realistic sculpting in that area is pretty nice.

Two different focuses in these photos. In one, the focus is on the top of the hair, with its accessories. In the other, the focus is on the hair curls in the foreground, offering a look at the texture (which seems to be pretty rough).

The face of the figure. What I find particularly disturbing are her eyes. If you focus on them, they can get rather scary. "Her eyes...they're DEAD!" is one of the thoughts floating in my head, along with "Chameleon eyes" and "Albino". Seriously, what's with Korean games and characters with dead/blind eyes? Can't they add a bit more highlight to their characters' eyes and make them seem alive?

Other than that, the face is pretty nice.

Some more "erogenous" zones being the focus here.

And the obligatory fan service for those who like to perv on plastic.

Overall, this is a good figure, although my dissatisfactions with the material and the finishing on the "flesh" part strikes a dissonant echo with the previous Solid Theater releases, the farcical "Play Stationery" series. In terms of quality then, I will have to renege on my previous comments about this figure being similar to Nao.

Photography setup notes:

As per normal, a tripod, white cloth background and two desk lamps running halogen-type bulbs, with additional ambient lighting by the warm-glow compact fluorescent room light. Low-level flash was used to fill some of the lighting (it seems having two lights is insufficient: some areas remained less-than-satisfactorily illuminated). One halogen lamp was on the left hand side of the figure, whilst the other was on a portable table and positioned nearly next to the camera. Due to the afore-mentioned quality of the figure, I tried to bounce the light off the white cloth, and the diffuser box was also brought in although it seems much less effective as a reflector with halogen light.

Upon review, the photos for a few "poses" were deleted and shot again a second and third time, yielding much better results.