Figma is Max Factory's answer to Kaiyodo's Revoltech line of action figures, perhaps more specifically the Fraulein sub-line. The first mass-release is the uber-cute, hyper-intelligent, artificial alien lifeform, bookworm, physics hacker/magician, and killer guitarist, Yuki Nagato, from 2006's breakout anime hit, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, for you Japan-ophiles out there).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXO0Baqzme4

I can sum up my thoughts in one single, hyphenated word: Fraule-who?

Revoltech still has the desktop super-robot monopoly, but with this kind of competition, Fraulein is pretty much dead to me.

Yuki is pretty much perfection in the realm of poseable small-scale action figures. Clocking in at just over 13cm/5 inches tall, she fits comfortable into the 1/10 scale range, even though the line itself is listed as unscaled. Fraulein might have more seamless body sculpts, but Figma trumps them on pretty much every other level. The joints are perfect, nice and tight, with silky-smooth movement in any direction. None of the angle-jointed shoulders that make the Fraulein's arms difficult to pose, everything moves intuitively. And the most important part is that she holds together. The joint connections are all nice and solid, nothing pops apart unless you want it to.

I'm truly impressed with the engineering here, though. Yuki has a very natural range of movement in all of her joints, capable of mimicking all but the most extreme of human joint range (she can't sit on her feet, for example, or touch her knees to her chest, since plastic can't "morph" like flesh to give the proper clearances). And along those lines, best plastic clothing on an action figure ever. I'm simply amazed at how well thought out they are. First off, the bits of clothing like her skirt, collar, and the torso part of her cardigan are all molded in very thin, highly flexible plastic, that shifts very naturally with her articulation and doesn't get in the way at all. I'm most impressed with her skirt, which is actually molded in two parts. There's a rear half that's overlapped by the front half, the division of which is fully hidden by the pleats in the "fabric". What this means is that her legs have full range of motion, even in contrary directions, and her skirt doesn't get in the way. She can do front-back splits and side splits with ease, with no interference whatsoever. And to top it off, there's just the right amount of overlap to the two parts, such that instead of looking like two pieces of plastic separating, it simply gives the illusion that the skirt is stretching. And because it's so thin, in sitting poses, the skirt actually folds with her legs, instead of just lifting up and looking silly. Amazing. Her cardigan is another interesting piece of work. I was expecting it to be a vest-like design, that looped over her shoulder joints. In reality, it's actually more like a "cape", fastened only at the back, with parts that hook around front and under her collar. What this means is that it's movement isn't restricted by her shoulders, so you can have it sweep out behind her a bit for action poses. And finally, maybe not the most impressive part, but certainly the most interesting, is that really, she has no crotch. In its place, she has a ball-jointed T-bone that holds her legs on, and a pair of flexible plastic panties to disguise this. It's actually a really elegant solution to a common problem with female action figures. Either you give the figure a really tight panty-line, thus restricting the hip movement to about 45 degrees forward, or you give her 90 degrees plus of movement, but create giant hollow space to give that clearance. They've solved the problem by making that panty-line flexible, so it shifts with the leg movement. Additionally, this lack of restriction allows her to stand and sit with her legs perfectly together.

Poseability, as I touched on, is top-notch. Similar to the Revoltech line, joints are primarily composed of a modular joint system. Unlike the hit-or-miss Revolver joints, though, these plug solidly into the body parts and don't slip out haphazardly. They don't ratchet either, instead relying purely on friction for tight, smooth-as-silk joint movement. She's got these "Figma joints" in her neck, elbows, knees, ankles, and modified versions in her shoulders (the ones in her shoulders are a bit more ball-shaped, rather than disk-shaped, and instead of a straight peg, they're ball-jointed at the torso connection, allowing her to swing her shoulders back, curl them forward, or shrug). The result is great range of movement. Elbows bend about 150 degrees, knees closer to 160. Ankles tip back about 80 degrees, forward about 20-30 (restricted by the tongues of her shoes), and "rock" about 30 degrees in either direction, so she can stand flat-footed in most poses. Balljointed hips with almost 90 degrees side motion, 90 degrees back motion, about 100 degrees forward motion, and a swivel at the tops of the thighs. Full range of shoulder motion, plus the aforementioned extra joint at the torso. There's a balljoint in her hips at her waistline, and another in her belly, about where her shirt meets her skirt. The Figma joint in her neck allows her to turn her head, tilt her head to either side about 20 degrees, back about 10 degrees (blocked by her hair), and look down about 30 degrees. Hands are built pretty much the same way as Microman/Busou Shinki, with a post that goes into the arm, and a hinge at the wrist. They're balljointed at the end so that they click into place, though. Because all the Figma joints are post-in-socket style, they swivel at both ends, although the sculpting of the figure restricts most of these to more natural movement ranges, instead of free-rotation (for example, her bicep swivel is restricted by her sleeve sculpt, so it turns 90 degrees inwards and outwards for 180 degrees of motion, but it can't spin fully around).

Yuki's loaded with extra parts and accessories. Standard to the Figma line is the clear stand. It's jointed at 4 places (5 if you count the torso connection), with screws/nuts in all the hinges so that you can tighten it up if it starts to loosen, and a swivel where the support arm plugs into the baseplate. It plugs firmly into a hole in her back, and stays there. Again, a huge step up over Fraulein, since it can actually support the figure without having her inexplicably floating off the ground, with the hinge joints being a lot stronger than that lone double Revolver joint. Beyond that, you've got 8 extra hands (fists, gripping, pointing, and relaxed grip) plus a Microman-style hand rack, alternate shoes (white indoor shoes vs. brown outdoor shoes), a closed book, an open book, an alternate face (looking slightly to the left, which is about Yuki's only real facial change in the Anime anyways), an alternate set of bangs with glasses attached, and her folding chair. Only things that would have put this set absolutely over the top would have been a cloak, oversized witch hat, star wand, Shamisen, and a guitar. All that would have put this set way out of the price range that Max Factory was probably shooting for, though. Maybe they'll release a Cultural Festival Yuki later on in the line. In a surprising, and welcomed, bit of thoughtfulness, included in the box is a heavy-duty, Figma-branded "Ziploc" bag large enough to hold the figure and all the loose accessories, for those of us who have no room to store an increasingly space-consuming selection of boxes. Major kudos points there.

This is simply an aces release all around. I have a few minor complaints, and they're only just nit-picks:

- It would have been nice for them to add an extra joint at the base of the neck, so that she could look up more, and also give more arch to her back for some of her more acrobatic poses.
- The way the red bow at the front of her uniform is attached looks ugly, since from the side, it's obviously just a glued-in tab of plastic.
- I wish her eyes were given a more glossy finish, to better represent Noizu Ito's character design. Those eyes are like coloured pools of light, they just suck you in. The figure's eyes, while replicating the colouration, are dull.
- A neutral point is in the standardized Figma joints. Some people draw issues with the way they break up the figure's contours, especially on bare skin areas like the crooks of elbows and knees. I can accept it, though, since I know sacrifices have to be made to the sculpt to allow the articulation to work. At least the Figma joints are smooth, unlike the Revolver joints and their "+" design.

That's about it, though. Everything else is pure Max Factory quality here. Having seen some of their fixed-pose statues, their manufacturing quality holds with their new action-figure line as well. Paint work is clean and crisp, with no visible slop, and colours are vibrant. Nice subtle shading in her hair and cardigan, and sharp molding with minimal to no seamlines. With only a moderate price step-up from the Fraulein line, but a massive increase in sturdiness and accessory load-out, it's pretty easy to see which line gets kicked to the curb for me. Max Factory has a winner on their hands. Kaiyodo's really going to have to step up their game if they expect their Fraulein line to remain competitive after releases like this, because Figma blows it out of the water in pretty much every way imaginable.

And of course, this thread is useless without pics:

In box:

Packaging:


What's really nice is that there's no fuss with the packaging. Just slit the tape seal at top or bottom, and that's it. No tape holding the trays together, and the accessory baggy isn't sealed either.

Contents:


And the obligatory Hare Hare Yukai shots:



BOOOON!!





And yes, I did change her shoes where appropriate.

"How's that book?"

"Unique..."

I really need to get Kyon to push her around; "...Nagato, when reading, is apparently rooted to the floor"


Fight's on:

The bookworm's got a mean kick:


So cute:


And this is the kind of thoughtfulness that really puts Max Factory at the top of this race:

Thirteen year old Cale Tannor’s life was a sheltered one. He’d never even been off his farm, until the night his family was murdered in a mass attack. While escaping the tragedy in his homeland, he forms a bond with the last Spirit Sword, one of the legendary talking swords of old. He is joined by a beautiful Indian princess, and a one-eyed ex-Ranger. As the last Imperial Knight in existence, Cale and his friends must work to unravel the mystery of the Night of Sorrow, and save their land. But first they must stay alive. Can they overcome the forces of evil to accomplish this quest?

On the bright side, Target might be back in the picture, so we can start peg warming in three locations instead of two.

Tell us what you love about this event [The World Cup] and what you are most looking forward to. If you had to explain to someone who is a big sports fan, but hasn’t been exposed to the World Cup, how would you describe it to him or her in terms of what makes it unique. Go on the web and find some pictures to post on your blog that capture the emotions that represent the World Cup. Now give us a sense of “your” teams. Who are you pulling for and why? How do you feel about Team USA – one of your teams? Why / why not? Do you have any soccer or World Cup rituals? Tell us what they are please.