Friday, November 29, 2013
Review: Figma Sayaka Miki
| Figure Information | |
| Manufacturer: | Max Factory |
| Figure Number: | 124 |
| Origin Series: | Puella Magi Madoka Magica |
| Scale: | Non-scale |
| Height: | Approximately 12.5cm tall |
| Original Price: | 3,500 Yen |
| Packaging: |
Sayaka comes with this deceiving (like the show) kiddy styled box design filled with stars and cutesy lines covered in blue. A clear window up front lets you view through the majority of the package while one side features a half body shot which is common in figma boxes, the other side being a plain figma label. The back retains the selling points of the release with all the product shots and whatnot.
Like many figma boxes, a cut out for di:stage use is presently inside the box and in this case features the series title along with portions of how Sayaka's box is designed.
| Details: |
Starting from the top, I'd say her hair was well sculpted from bangs to some spikes at the back; along with the well sculpted hair is that her hair color is captured quite nicely. Now, her cape, the default cape, is divided into 2 parts, the mantle which is using solid plastic and the actual cape which is made of cloth; While I'd say it's a nice move, I did wish max resorted to making it a full cloth since the solid part greatly hinders Sayaka-chan's shoulder movement, also one of the downsides of picking cloth (white cloth at that) is that it'll be more prone to dust absorption in the long run, thus, requiring more cleaning sessions than other figures.
One major detail I appreciate through out Sayaka's finished product is that the gold trims on her outfit, be it on the cape or her armor, are all done in an almost perfect application. Her chest plate stands out as it is painted in glossy light blue, and interesting enough, even though it's glossy, it perfectly matches with the light blue shades found on her unique diagonally cut skirt which is made up of sturdy plastic material. Also good to see that Max did not mess up the moon crystal found on her midriff. Overall, Sayaka as a molded figure is great, I've seen some minor flaws on detailing but there's minimal in existence in my figma Sayaka.
| Accessories: |
I have mixed opinions on her accessories, technically Sayaka coming with 8, yes, EIGHT FRIGGIN swords would seal the deal as each sword also comes with a place holder so one could recreate her semi UBW-ish sword summoning. Sword aside Sayaka also comes with a pre-molded full plastic cape in a flowing manner, which, IMO, looks a lot better than her default cloth cape. The two sets of accessories mentioned above are Sayaka's assets but now, for the bummer part...
We all know Sayaka was one of, if not, the most emotionally crushed character in the tv series to the point that she even had an almost insane expression in the mid of the series run. Well, aside from her default face, Max only provided us with a shy face and semi-angry shouting face. Face-wise, it's really disappointing that she lacks an angry face and an insane blackened face which could've made it much more worth it; I really wish she could've come with those two but what can we do? It is what it is. XD
Lastly, Sayaka has 4 pairs of alternate hands, 1 pair of among which have caught my attention of having a poor quality control; these are the sword gripping hands, I've actually looked up a bunch of Sayaka figmas and found that in most cases (also in my friend's figma Sayaka), one of the gripping hands actually have a very short thumb, looking like it was cut or broken. While I've seen a lot having the same case, I've also seen some which have had theirs perfectly sculpted, so, I guess, it's a matter of luck of getting a decent gripping hand and in my case, I ain't one of the lucky ones.
| Articulation Points: |
Sayaka utilizes your average figma joints in most of her parts so I'll just be discussing the range for most of this section.
Her head can look up quite nicely but is the exact opposite when looking downwards due to the plastic parts of either of the 2 capes. Additionally, her head's sideways movement provides a very decent rotation.
Again, the cape is a major drawback on Sayaka's joints, her arms can only move forward to around a 90 while sideways go around 45, although it goes higher when using the dynamic cape. Her shoulder joint gives her a full bicep swivel while the elbows allow her arms to bend to quite a realistic touch of around 125 degrees.
Her torso articulation, works pretty well especially for bending downwards while it is also quite capable of rotating sideways to a good extent.
Sayaka's articulation points are really disappointing I must say as she's getting hindrances all over the place and this time, it's her skirt. I really do not know why Max went away from their usual layered skirt, but Sayaka has it in a full layer-less plastic which almost renders her hip joints unmovable, giving her forward, backward and sideward movement a very little range. Similar to her shoulder joints, her hips also work as thigh swivels and her knees bend to a decent 90. Lastly, her ankles tilt and rotate quite nicely thanks to the figma joints.
| Poseability: |
Despite some limited points of articulation, I'm very amazed at how Sayaka manages to wield her sword in countless ways, she's very capable of taking different stances when single wielding her swords.
The limited shoulder joints actually does not prevent one from posing Sayaka in dynamic ways and I must praise the figure for surprising me with that fact.
Additionally, Max actually advertised something we didn't see Sayaka do in the original series (but she finally did in the recent movie), it was to dual wield her swords.
If one wasn't enough, posing Sayaka-chan with two swords make the playability go an extra mile in its fun factor and she can really do a lot with it, be it in mid air or in plain ground meelee fashion.
Learning how to mess around with her cloth cape actually gives you more variety in her stances and poses while the alternate cape is always ready to help Sayaka look awesome when preparing to strike those witches. The dual wielding also makes Sayaka a very passable titan slayer hahaha.
While her shouting face proves to be a a good ally in making dynamic poses, her shy face, on the other hand, exists to give her the relaxed, cute poses allowing her to be her usual carefree self. Additionally, hiding Sayaka's face gives this incredible aura of her being in her despaired state and it works nicely IMO.
| Final Thoughts: |
While her build certainly gives her problems in posing around, Sayaka is definitely not a brick and is in fact, very capable of doing dynamic stuff. What really hits the down of this release is the lack of faces to assist the once despaired meelee fighter. It is safe to say that Max actually gives us more options with the release of the uniform/casual versions for those that lacks faces but certainly, among the figmas of the 5 original magic girls introduced for the franchise, I'd have to say that Sayaka is around the 2nd weakest release in the Magic Girl version releases but don't get me wrong, this figma still is a very decent release. Would I suggest it? Definitely if you love her, get it, if not, well, do it for the 8 swords? (lol) but seriously, I've seen figmas with far worse articulation and Sayaka definitely does not fall under the poorly articulated figures.
I got mine from amiami during her first release (and when I still didn't like Sayaka XD)
I give this now karma free magic girl a slashing 3.5 out of 5.
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