Figure Unboxing and Review: Makise Kurisu (Kotobukiya)
To All,
In correspondence to my March 2016's loot post, today I would be reviewing a 1/8 scale of Makise Kurisu from Steins Gate. As one of the most popular female characters in Anime Universe so I won't be elaborating on Kurisu in much greater detail, but instead I'll be moving on directly to the figure itself!
Packaging
As much as the figure itself is beautiful, I do feel that the box could have been done much better. The browns and marbled effects used do tie in with Steins Gate, and the large window gives a clear unobstructed view of the front and top view of the figure itself. However, my only gripe was the damaged state that my box came in.
As I'm a perfectionist who actually minds how the state of my boxes come in, I'm very reluctant to give a high score for the box in this aspect as I fail to understand how such a tear could have came about during shipping. All in all, this tear has in fact convinced me that this box is not that durable, though the blister has obviously protected my figure from whatever caused that tear, so kudos to it.
The back of the box has a full view of Kurisu, accurately depicting how she would look fully assembled. Apart from using this to check if your copy of her figure is correctly assembled, it also provides a good illustration of Kurisu herself.
Now onto the picture of a blister to display her with all her parts.
I forgot to take a picture of the blister from the back but she comes with the main figure, a couple of gears, a phone and a base. The following pictures are to show what accessories she comes with in greater detail in the next section.
Base
As seen, she comes with 5 gears, each of varying sizes and a phone, in addition to the main figure and the base. The phone comes separate from the gear and is connected via a peg however, for the sake of this photoshoot I have attached the phone in case it gets lost due to its small size.
The base which Kurisu comes with is superb as well. I originally thought that it was a simple transparent base however, it does in fact come with grooves to make it look like a gear. There is also a hole for the peg on Kurisu's leg to enter as well, and the snug fit of the two makes it a rather stable figure.
Due to the compact size of the base, I find myself liking this Kurisu's figure more as she is capable of looking superb without taking up that much of space!
Posing and Assembly
There's no issue I have with her pose, though I must agree with many other comments that it makes her look very withdrawn and scared. Furthermore, the pose makes her look smaller vertically yet extremely tall. I have a small issue with the length of her legs, which is a little ill-proportioned when you form a ratio with her upper body and head.
On the other hand, assembly for her is acceptable but very tedious. She has quite a few parts to be assembled. Firstly, the gears have to be interlocked, placed in place with the phone, then she has to be placed on the base itself.
Do you still remember the photograph earlier with her five gears? Here are they, interlocked and with the phone in place.
These interlocked gears are then slipped into their respective places on Kurisu's legs. There are holes on her legs for the pegs on these gears to fit. Do note that each peg has a unique shape and size so do not attempt to force them too much into place. The gears do not seem very durable as well so try not to use more force than necessary too!
The picture above shows the peg holes for the gears and the picture below shows how she looks with the gears in place!
You can also see the position of the phone! I would have preferred if the phone is one gear higher so I'll be able to focus on it the same time I focus on Kurisu's facial features.
This is the peg that Kurisu comes in to connect her to her base. As the peg itself is quite thick and sturdy it helps to keep her stably on her base. The white part helps to prop Kurisu higher as it makes her seem like she is standing on tip-toe in this context. However when the entire figure is assembled, she would seem like she is stitting on those gears instead!
Sculpting and Painting
Let's start this section with a 360 of this figure before I delve in on the various parts of her I absolutely love!
Her legs are really long but since I have spoken about them in the previous section, let's focus on the good points instead of the shortcomings of this figure in this section!
I find that the face is usually one of the main focus of figures so I'll start with it. Kurisu's face is very reminiscent of the figure and the way her eyes are painted is very much alike to how the original artwork is like, which is a added bonus to the figure.
I also love the choice of color for her jacket. The patchy colors is, again, similar to how her illustrations for her jacket was and the way she wears it is so unique that it is already a trademark of hers. The layers bunching around her arms is incredibly realistic as well.
Moving on to her hair, the hue of dark red chosen is similar to her illustration again -- pardon me for repeating this point endlessly, I'm simply amazed how well a figure can match an illustration. As expected of a figure so popular that it had so many re-releases!
The way the hair catches light adds on to her beauty but I'll like to focus on the sculpt of her hair instead. Please do look at the pictures below!
Her hair is thick in the center and there is absolutely no stray strands and any dynamic movement to her hair like figures we see lately. However, her hair part can hold its own as each strand is incredibly detailed. The different strands go from tip to base and you can even see that her hair actually has several layers of varying lengths, especially when you focus on the ends of her hair.
From this image you can also see her jacket billowing out behind her in this pose. It still clearly displays her slim body shape while showing how the piece of clothing is actually in mid-movement with the billowing effect.
You can also view the gears in this view. Each gear is covered in light brown then dark brown in several halves. It isn't that visible in this image but some gears are more blended between the two different colors while others are not. I do not know if this was done on purpose or unintentionally left out, but I do think of it as a pattern as the smaller gears toward the bottom are much better blended compared to the larger ones on the top.
This image better shows how magnificent her hair sculpt is. I especially love how her ear is peeking through those layers of mahogany hair, and not simply forgotten by Kotobukiya and simply passed off as hidden by the hair!
The fact that Kotobukiya doesn't miss out on details is really amazing as well! As highlighted by the red circles, I'm impressed that Kotobukiya paid attention to the belt buckle although it is hidden by her raised thigh most of the time. But more than that, I'm amazed at them spending the time and effort to sculpt out the zipper and zipper head on Kurisu's boots in such detail! The silver shine given to them makes them stand out so well against the shiny black material of the boots~
Other than the length of her legs, another issue I have would be with the paint job at her hands. Basically it's how the black stripe of the jacket ending before it meets the index finger of her clenched hand, leaving an awkward white gap between the two. However this is merely me nit-picking as this is really a very minor detail that is not visible when the figure is displayed.
Enjoyment
I spent a long moment deciding between this and Good Smile Company's Kurisu but I decided to get this as I prefer the base in this version to Good Smile's version, probably because the gears in this base makes it more Steins Gate-esque.
From Your Fellow Collector,
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