Monday, July 7, 2014

Review: S.H.Figuarts Cure Happy

Figure Information
Manufacturer: Bandai
Origin Series: Smile Precure
Scale: Non-scale
Height: Approximately 13cm tall
Original Price: 4,410 Yen


Packaging:


Much like the first Cure (Cure Peace) released for the Smile Precure SHF line, Happy follows the same style of packaging but this time being filled with pink and purple with product shots from the sides and at the back. Though for one, product shots alone, I think Happy has a better show accuracy between her and Peace; but to finalize that, let's head to the review! (After tha box shots below that is!)


Details:


At the glance of Happy's default face, she really looks stunning and is very show accurate if you ask me, the details on her hair accessories are captured just as nicely as her face. Now the fun part of the head is her hair, I really like how bandai did it as they captured it perfectly down to each of her pointy hair strands and this makes me really Ultra Happy with the details so far.


Much like Peace, her body's technically the same but the outfit does have some differences such as losing the shoulder pads and having just a bit shorter coat tails. Details are still spot on such as the symbol on the ribbon's centerpiece and the dangling Smile Pact on her skirt.


Though details are very satisfying, there is one point where I actually am not ultra happy about, and it's with the jewels on her shoulder pads, I don't know if it's a solo case but I do know is that my piece has some bad paint work going on in there, if you zoom on the pictures below, you can actually see quite a chunk of excess pink around on where the jewels lie/connect on the shoulder pads. It's not really that major but it is a major eyesore for me.


Accessories:


Accessory-wise, you get 3 alternate faceplates the "spirit" charging face, a shouting face and a smiling face; default open hands aside, you are provide with a pair of kira kira hands and fists as well as a joined hand forming the heart for her Happy Shower. Since Smile has 2 mascots, Miyuki comes paired with the main mascot, Candy (kuruuuu~) as well. The usual heart stage and fixed neck joint are also available. While I have no complaints with the accessories, I really wish that they included the Smile Pact hand like that of Peace's. XD

Articulation Points:


So as not to be really redundant, I'll just focus on key differences on Happy vs Peace since their frame shares the exact same engineering and you can just view the general comments at Peace's review if you want to.

Starting of with the head, generally speaking, it's the same but it's good to note that the manner of adjusting it differs because of Happy's hairstyle, I think for most part, it's more free but also more tricky to get the head to rotate sideways due to the bulky tails.


Happy also has joints on her tails and they really work fully with swivels and hinges, a really must-have point of articulation and bandai nailed it! Kudos to you Bandai Tamashii Nations!


Last of the key differences lies on Happy's shoulder pads, at default set up, you can only raise up to a 90 but I actually forgot to take a picture but her shoulder pads does have swiveling points on them so you could easily swivel it to the back to fully raise her arms; also note that leaving the shoulder pad on its default place makes it tricky to rotate the shoulders.


Technically the rest of the points are the same with Peace already so I'll just leave a photo dump below. One thing I also noticed was whenever I was forcing the leg to go higher, pelvic piece opens on its own, so idk if this is a case sensitive or not as well.


Poseability:


Given the handsets and faces, I find Happy to work better than Peace's set since all of her faces are in character and does perfectly represent the pink leader. SHF Cure Happy is just a wonderful piece to play around with and I feel more safe with bandai retaining the ball joints on the wrist connectors.


Though SHF Cure Happy can pull off a number of good and iconic poses and some dynamic ones, I really wish that they could improve on the skirts as this has really been preventing Figuarts Cures to really do some extreme dynamic poses for the longest of time now.


Overall, SHF Cure Happy is a very neat articulated figure, the joints are really easy to play with as like with Peace and certainly, the Smile line is pretty much a winner as the figures can really stand (without the use of tamashii stages) even with such big and wild hairstyles (let's wait for March though lol). And for some more dynamic and action-y poses, here's Happy fighting against my favorite figuarts mook, Shocker Combatman!



And lastly before I end the section, here's a little baton passing scene which I based from a fan art that I saw before.

And this also serves as a teaser on who's next up on review~

Final Thoughts:

Being the 2nd release in the Smile Precure line of S.H.Figuarts releases, I really think that Miyuki/Happy is the stronger release despite mine having some minor issues mainly because she really feels accurate. For Articulated Figure and Precure fans, she is definitely a must as her frame is updated and is pretty much one of the better leader Cures that has the Figuarts treatment so far. For her pricepoint, I feel ultra happy for what I got since everyone else after her are released as Tamashii Web Exclusives already.

And once again, another item I got courtesy of CWToys! Also, this review is the first of the processed requests from my "The Next Review?" ad in MFC and several other networks like Tumblr and Facebook. Requests are still open (month of July 2014 only), so check out the list and comment away in one of those portals! The request came from a friend of mine who goes with the username, Zykes, on MFC. I still have 2 requests queued from him, so, watch out for them! 

I give Happy a sparkling 4.5 out of 5!

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