Figure Unboxing and Review: Nendoroid Seragaki Aoba

By TReina - Tuesday, June 13, 2017 - No Comments

This is a Nendoroid which I had for quite some time already. I pre-ordered it when it was first released because that was the point in time when I was into DRAMAtical Murder and with Aoba being the protagonist, it's difficult to pass him up!

However, despite Aoba being one of my first few Nendoroids, I realized that I never actually spent much time playing with all his interchangeable parts, until I got Noiz. Despite so, after putting them in a relatively BL pose, I stopped collecting DRAMAtical Murder Nendoroids all together and never played much with these two anymore.

Recently, I got an offer for them which spurred me to get them from my detolf and the sight of them made me remember all the fun times I spent in the game itself~ So I decided to make this and Noiz's article before selling these two off. I know that they will be going to a better family to be loved and cared for better <3

Packaging
As usual, let's begin with the packaging.

It's not very clear in this image but the box is slightly damaged due to wear and tear, such as the fraying at one of its corners (image below). This isn't surprising since the item is about 2 years old after all, but I have always cling-wrapped my Nendoroid boxes so perhaps it is time to consider how to store them better since cling-wrap doesn't seem to be foolproof.

Going back to the box itself, this is the back of the box, which features Aoba in his different poses. This is quite common for Nendoroids then as well and has became a standard packaging nowadays,

Next up, the blister pack. Aoba doesn't come with a lot of items but those that he comes with are very useful. He has three faceplates, two hair parts (one with him wearing headphones), a second torso, changes of limbs, his 'Scrap' brain hologram, and Ren (his all-mate in dog form!)

The blister-pack for my copy has become slightly looser from how I remembered it as but that is also expected since it isn't brand new anymore.

The Figure Itself!

Let's take a look at the different parts he comes with. First one raring to go is his default faceplate and pose with Ren. Ren just looks so fluffy and cute~

Though, one drawback of Dmmd Nendoroids is that they come with many segmented parts (which is more obvious in Noiz's Nendo). What I mean by this is that their limbs can be made up of 3 to 4 parts instead of the usual 2. While this increases the poseability of the figure itself, it also makes it increasingly difficult to set up and this might be more of an issue if said parts are loose.

One very cute but annoying part Aoba has is the hood of his jacket which is a different part from his attire (image above). To put it in place, you have to balance it on Aoba's shoulder while pushing the neck joint into place. While this itself isn't daunting, the hood results in a loss in poseability as it reduces the angle Aoba's head can tilt upwards in, due to the chunky strands of his hair at the nape of his neck.

Taking this chance, I'll like to showcase Aoba in his alternative hair and body parts too. This hair is slightly different from the other one not solely due to the headphones but also the longer light blue strands draping down toward his chest.

Let's take a better look at this new hair part before comparing it to the other.

You can even see words on the headphones!

As you can see, the longer strands directly connected to the main back hair part, albeit the weird seam lines, On the other hand, Aoba's other hair part does not have that but instead have the longer strands directly sculpted and painted onto his navy shirt (image below).

And yes, that was how I posed my two Nendoroids!

Next, let's move on to Aoba's embarrassed faceplate, which is also our third and last faceplate for him. A zoom in on Aoba and we can see slight hints of the blush on his cheeks which make him even more cute. That side glance and small smile~

Using this opportunity, let's look at the sculpting for Aoba's attire. The headphones around his neck are peeking out ever so slightly but the compact size (as compared to the one on his head) makes it a very nice addition.

Dmmd prides itself on the puffy clothes which GSC pulled off wonderfully. The jacket looks warm and possibly even inviting. I want to try it on to see if it is comfortable enough for Aoba to wear it daily!

That aside, the buttons on either side are sculpted on wonderfully, and you can tell the size difference between the buttons on the main jacket and on the hood.

Focusing on the belt now, you see that it has a texture going all around and the belt loops are in place. Although the belt is mainly one flat color, it is topped out by many sculpting goodness such as the additional layer for the flap to make the belt look more realistic.

Here we get to see how accurate the brain symbol on Aoba's jacket is. I remember this being a very expensive and limited-edition jacket that some guys were robbing Aoba of but I cannot remember past that point :>

You can also see the difference in white shades of his clothes and his hood. Alas, the problems of having Nendoroids with white parts on display for a while... probably due to the white and plasticizer... Well, this is something that a magic eraser could easily resolve but not many places in Singapore stock up on those.

His shoes are all puffy too and this is retained in the Nendoroid and made to look a reasonable size as well. Aoba also has only one gloved hand, which has a circle cutout at the back of his hand and that is right there too.

However, there are some problems that the figure came to me with that was not addressed by me to GSC upon purchase, mainly because I didn't know how amazing their customer service was at that point in time.

Firstly, there the top of Aoba's alternative hair part has some paint scratch. If I knew I could ask for a replacement from GSC then, I would have gladly done it. However, in hindsight, this isn't that huge of a issue visually.

The second is some paint transfer at Aoba's embarrassed faceplate. This is something a magic eraser can easily resolve as well, but it probably wouldn't be much of a visual issue either since it would be covered by the hood of his jacket anyway.

The above two points are things to take note of if you have Nendoroids for quite some time.