Hello, everyone! Long time, no see, eh? Welcome to the Hobby Haven!
I've been MIA for a while, mostly due to fun (not really) RL stuff, but also partially because I didn't have much to post about. But finally I do, so here I am! Today, I've got the first in (hopefully) a short series of figure reviews for you guys. (This is, of course, assuming the rest of the figures get shipped here in time.)
Our figure today is a figma of the character Hikaru from the manga/anime series Magic Knight Rayearth, by Clamp. It's an older series, vintage the mid-1990s, and it's one of my two big favorite series by Clamp (the other being Tokyo Babylon, which I would kill to get figures from). We got an announcement at WonFes a few years back that we would get figma figures of all three main characters from Rayearth, but there's really been no timeline provided on when. Lo and behold, several months ago, I discovered that our favorite peppy Magic Knight of fire was going to be released in February; so with any luck, the rest of the girls will follow suit soon.
I picked mine up from HobbyLink Japan, where you can still buy her! (I've checked other retailers and haven't had much luck finding other copies for sale.) I pre-ordered her and paid about $50 before shipping. HLJ, like BBTS, offers a "warehouse" option where you can have purchases held and then shipped together to save some money. The big draw is that like Amazon, HLJ doesn't charge you until the item is in stock; so if you pre-order something, you have time to save up. Prices are also given in Japanese yen, which is great when the exchange rate is favorable. (Of course, I'll keeping shopping around to see what retailers offer me the most flexibility and best deals, but for now, I'll stick with these folks.)
Let's take a look and see what's in the box!
The box has a beautiful matte finish, and it looks really classy. It's a very clean, slick layout.
Hikaru is a very cheerful and energetic girl, full of pep. She's also quite serious and brave when it comes to battle, and the poses that Good Smile chose for her box art are dead on.
Almost the entire side of the box is taken up with some suggested poses.
This is a little bare-bones. You get Hikaru herself, plus an alternate bang-piece, two extra faces, two extra sets of hands (seen below), a stand (seen below), and her sword.
I was so excited that I started taking pictures right away. Hikaru has a lot of plastic carefully wedged around her joints to prevent the paint from being worn away. Hikaru's depicted in her classic outfit: her school uniform and her armor. As a side note: this is the initial armor that the characters get at the very beginning of the show. I feel like it was a good choice, given the simplicity, but keep this fact in mind as you read on.
This is a Figma-branded plastic bag. I have no idea why this is here or what it's for, but I can always put my snacks for work into it. Or fill it with beetles. Or make it into an aquarium.
This is the least exciting part of the post, and I apologize. But you're probably going to skip over this anyway to get to the goods, so I guess anything I type here will be moot. I could say horrible things, and no one would know! But I'll be good, and point out that this is the disassembled stand, with the extra hands and what looks like some replacement joint parts. SO EXCITING.
This cuts off a bit of Hikaru's face, but you can get an idea of the sculpting here. Look at the armor. LOOK AT IT. Everything is clean, with bright, precise painting and flowing lines. The white and gold of the armor really makes the red of her clothes and hair stand out. And the necktie! That beautiful bow! That clean little logo!
The faces that Hikaru comes with have nice, sharp details as well. Besides the default cheerful/open-mouthed face, she comes with a more angry/determined one, plus a cutesy closed-eye smile.
One of the visual gimmicks that Clamp sometimes does in Magic Knight Rayearth is drawing Hikaru with cat ears when she's being particularly cute or ditzy. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that it was included, although I would have preferred a Mokona accessory instead. (Maybe Mokona will come with one of the other girls?)
Her range of motion is pretty good, and while the joints may be stiff, I find that I vastly prefer that to the super-wobbly joints I had with my Figuarts. When I put her into a pose, it stays as a pose! Her default hands are balled-up fists. See above: "What, ya wanna fight? Let's go!"
All right, I finally took the plastic off. BE CAREFUL when removing the plastic under her shoulder armor! The armor is wobbly but not really supposed to come off, and I've heard other collectors accidentally snapped theirs off during the plastic removal. The armored glove-thing on her left hand is removable and I almost lost it twice when I took her hands off.
The way that Hikaru's skirt is sculpted gives her a sense of movement; it's very appropriate since Hikaru can never stay still!
I love the boots: the colors, the way they're sculpted, the way that you can almost feel and imagine the heft.
Hikaru's long ponytail swivels! You can move it at the base to swing it towards whichever side of her body that you want. The tip of the ponytail also swivels, so you can easily display her bow.
This is the final form of Hikaru's sword; you could say it's her "ultimate weapon," I guess. It's so beautifully intricate. I love how the hilt's design both looks like Rayearth, and evokes the feel and movement of fire. It's sculpted and painted beautifully, with metallic scarlet and gold paint and teeny little pink jewel details that match her armor. One gripe: why is she wearing her first form armor but carrying her final form sword? (I admit that I would love to see figures of the girls in their pimped-out final form armor, which is both over-the-top and majestic.)
The grip of Hikaru's sword is removable to facilitate sliding it into her "gripping" hand piece. That way, you just slide the grip into her hand, and then pop the sword back onto the grip. (Protip: The notch on the grip and the hole in the sword's hilt are shaped a specific way, so you'll need to be careful when re-assembling these.)
I'm amused by the fact that Hikaru is nearly as big as her sword. It's going to get even crazier once Fuu gets here, since her ultimate weapon is a broadsword longer than she is tall. It's very light, but it doesn't feel flimsy. I'm still a little nervous about breaking off the tines on the hilt, though.
Here's the stand! Pretty standard. I feel like there's a great dad joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going to bother with it today. You win, universe!
Not bad! Dear Lord, she is tiny.
Here is the instruction manual! The reverse side has the same instructions but in Japanese.
She comes with two extra sets of hands: "gripping" and splayed out. I confess I'm a little bewildered at the fact that there are two "gripping" hands. Hikaru is right-handed, so why would she be holding her sword in her left hand? There isn't anything else, like a shield, for her to hold in her left hand, so chalk this one up as a question mark. (I like that they come on this nice, sturdy little holder. And it has the Figma logo! Everything in this is branded with the Figma logo, come to think of it. It's a little weird, given that the Figuarts accessories were either Sailor Moon-themed or just blank.
If I had to make one complaint, it's this: Hikaru's right shoe has scuff marks on it, and I'm not quite sure what they're from. They show up pretty easily, given that they're white.
Overall, I am way impressed with this. The superior joints, the attention to detail and the sculpting of the figure are top-notch, and everything screams "quality." I wish there would have been another accessory or something else included, given the higher price. In all, I'm pretty satisfied with this and would heartily recommend it! It's been far too long since the last time I've seen Rayearth merch, and if this heralds some new goodies, I can expect nothing but great things.
