DSC_2478
Who here likes consistency? You know, that warm, familiar feeling every time you go to Taco Bell (going down or out.. up to you)... very consistent? You've been there enough times and you've generally had all their menu items and your opinion is that "it's alright". Then there's that one time out of the blue, you decide to try something vegetarian off the Fresco menu, only to realize it was a horrible, horrible mistake? Well, that's kind of like what happened with this particular entry: Figma Megumin from Kono Sabarashii Sekai ni Shyukufuku wo!.. however you pronounce that.
As with 99% of the magical girl entries on my list, I know nothing about the actual character. Couple of Wiki pages presents a personality that, as expected, fits the way she looks. As taken from a Fandom page:
"Megumin is a straightforward girl, who speaks in an old-style Japanese dialect. She can be very hyper and lively at times and has chuunibyou tendencies like the rest of the Crimson Demon villagers. She is very intelligent, but has very little self-control, especially when it comes to using Explosion magic. She has no problem wasting her spell on empty plains or abandoned castles, as long as she can use Explosion once a day."
There seemed to be quite a bit of excitement when the figure was announced a while back, so as I always do, I found a decent deal on one that had a few issues while out and about, figuring "it's a Figma, it'll be alright" and away I went. The issues being that this was an Amazon Warehouse deal, so it wasn't complete, though the only thing that was missing was the instruction manual. The peg holding her cape in place had snapped off, and her head wasn't in place, of which the latter I figure I could just go home and pop that sucker right back in because, well, wouldn't be the first time a head came off a Figma after being jostled.
Well, jokes on me. After trying with no success, I took to the Internet, and read a crap ton of negative reviews on this figure, ranging from poor QC to horrible design. The head thing? Wasn't the only one; several complaints on Amazon said the same thing, with most not even bothering to try to attach the head. I had to grind the hole to widen it before the neck joint would actually fit, and now it's a bit loose and prone to falling off. I read stories of the staff showing up broken. Seems overall, these Konosuba girls (as they are called) have been plagued with QC issues.. I'm glad I didn't pay MSRP on this figure, let me tell you.
Megumin comes with a typical payload when it comes to Figma. There's the figure, three total face plates (slight smile, attacking, scared), her hat, her cape, alternate hair with eye patch, energy effect for eye, staff, purple orb for staff, spell effect with staff end for attaching said effect, her Familiar Chomosuke, six additional hands plus one dedicated spell casting hand, and the usual Figma stand.
Based on the screen caps I've seen, it appears that overall, Max Factory has captured the overall silhouette of Megumin herself, and her look when equipped with her gear. Of course, she's a lanky Japanese school girl, so not exactly hard for Figma to replicate. Chomosuke is freakin' adorable.. not quite Kirby adorable, but pretty damn close. Sculpting details are up to snuff, with clean fingers, good texture detailing on the outfit, and some minor muscle definition on her bare back. Face plates look spot on.
Articulation is pretty typical for a Figma.. when she doesn't have her cape on. You have full motion ankles, single jointed knees, full motion hips, waist, mid torso movement, full motion shoulders combined with bicep swivel, standard elbows, wrists, and head articulation. Mid torso movement is limited due to the joint being embedded inside her outfit, which is a soft rubber material. I'm not sure if it's like this for all the recent Figma (I'm kind of behind schedule), but Megumin features this hinged joint which allows for a deeper range of motion when it comes to head tilt, while at the same time offering the same ball jointed base base of head joint that permits the standard range of motion there. The cape itself has two points of articulation, allowing for a simulated flow look which is great, but putting the cape on also limits the range of motion when it comes to raise the arms up into an overhead position. Her skirt also limits the movement of the upper legs, which in turn limits the number of stances you can have her in. Because of this, I found it very difficult to balance Megumin on her tiny feet, and as such a stand is pretty much needed for everything.
Paint work is, as expected, solid across the board. Even the yellows appear to be well applied, with no significant overspray or lumpy paint residue. The only ugly paint spot are the silver on her buckle and her necklace, which are relatively ugly, but not "gouge my eyes out" level. Decal work is at its usual level of excellence.
Building quality and design is where things kind of went South. I've already talked about my problems out the box above, but there's more to discuss. First and foremost, that stupid, stupid hat. So, someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided that rather than have the hat attach via a peg or something like that, decided the best way to have the hat sit on her head is the put a really thin piece of plastic on the inside of the hat, and have that clip between the two hair pieces.. sounds alright in theory until you realize actually getting the thing to fit in their is a nightmare because there really isn't enough clearance to slide the front hair piece in place should you try to get the hat in place first. So instead you end up leaving a slight gap, and cramming the hat on her head, hoping for the best. The eye effect is a separate piece, and it is up to the owner to use their hamburger finger to squeeze this tiny plastic piece, probably the size of a syringe needle, into place so it doesn't fall out of the hair. I found that the joints on the figure, while fine by themselves, aren't really meant to carry the weight of the staff, particularly if it has the energy effect attached on the end of it. The body itself is pretty typical build, so no too many complaints here.
So in the end, we had the potential for an outstanding Figma, one having vibrant colour and personality., only to have a multitude of QC issues and crappy design choices knock it down a few pegs. Without her hat and cape, Megumin is honestly average at best, as she really can't do much other than sligh variations of standing up. I guess if the cape wasn't broken on mine, at least I would keep the cape on constantly as it does add to the character. But that hat.. it's such a hassle to put it on you either never take it off or you just give up. The best parts of this set are the scared face and of course, Chomosuke.
Better luck next time, I suppose.
DSC_2478
Who here likes consistency? You know, that warm, familiar feeling every time you go to Taco Bell (going down or out.. up to you)... very consistent? You've been there enough times and you've generally had all their menu items and your opinion is that "it's alright". Then there's that one time out of the blue, you decide to try something vegetarian off the Fresco menu, only to realize it was a horrible, horrible mistake? Well, that's kind of like what happened with this particular entry: Figma Megumin from Kono Sabarashii Sekai ni Shyukufuku wo!.. however you pronounce that.
As with 99% of the magical girl entries on my list, I know nothing about the actual character. Couple of Wiki pages presents a personality that, as expected, fits the way she looks. As taken from a Fandom page:
"Megumin is a straightforward girl, who speaks in an old-style Japanese dialect. She can be very hyper and lively at times and has chuunibyou tendencies like the rest of the Crimson Demon villagers. She is very intelligent, but has very little self-control, especially when it comes to using Explosion magic. She has no problem wasting her spell on empty plains or abandoned castles, as long as she can use Explosion once a day."
There seemed to be quite a bit of excitement when the figure was announced a while back, so as I always do, I found a decent deal on one that had a few issues while out and about, figuring "it's a Figma, it'll be alright" and away I went. The issues being that this was an Amazon Warehouse deal, so it wasn't complete, though the only thing that was missing was the instruction manual. The peg holding her cape in place had snapped off, and her head wasn't in place, of which the latter I figure I could just go home and pop that sucker right back in because, well, wouldn't be the first time a head came off a Figma after being jostled.
Well, jokes on me. After trying with no success, I took to the Internet, and read a crap ton of negative reviews on this figure, ranging from poor QC to horrible design. The head thing? Wasn't the only one; several complaints on Amazon said the same thing, with most not even bothering to try to attach the head. I had to grind the hole to widen it before the neck joint would actually fit, and now it's a bit loose and prone to falling off. I read stories of the staff showing up broken. Seems overall, these Konosuba girls (as they are called) have been plagued with QC issues.. I'm glad I didn't pay MSRP on this figure, let me tell you.
Megumin comes with a typical payload when it comes to Figma. There's the figure, three total face plates (slight smile, attacking, scared), her hat, her cape, alternate hair with eye patch, energy effect for eye, staff, purple orb for staff, spell effect with staff end for attaching said effect, her Familiar Chomosuke, six additional hands plus one dedicated spell casting hand, and the usual Figma stand.
Based on the screen caps I've seen, it appears that overall, Max Factory has captured the overall silhouette of Megumin herself, and her look when equipped with her gear. Of course, she's a lanky Japanese school girl, so not exactly hard for Figma to replicate. Chomosuke is freakin' adorable.. not quite Kirby adorable, but pretty damn close. Sculpting details are up to snuff, with clean fingers, good texture detailing on the outfit, and some minor muscle definition on her bare back. Face plates look spot on.
Articulation is pretty typical for a Figma.. when she doesn't have her cape on. You have full motion ankles, single jointed knees, full motion hips, waist, mid torso movement, full motion shoulders combined with bicep swivel, standard elbows, wrists, and head articulation. Mid torso movement is limited due to the joint being embedded inside her outfit, which is a soft rubber material. I'm not sure if it's like this for all the recent Figma (I'm kind of behind schedule), but Megumin features this hinged joint which allows for a deeper range of motion when it comes to head tilt, while at the same time offering the same ball jointed base base of head joint that permits the standard range of motion there. The cape itself has two points of articulation, allowing for a simulated flow look which is great, but putting the cape on also limits the range of motion when it comes to raise the arms up into an overhead position. Her skirt also limits the movement of the upper legs, which in turn limits the number of stances you can have her in. Because of this, I found it very difficult to balance Megumin on her tiny feet, and as such a stand is pretty much needed for everything.
Paint work is, as expected, solid across the board. Even the yellows appear to be well applied, with no significant overspray or lumpy paint residue. The only ugly paint spot are the silver on her buckle and her necklace, which are relatively ugly, but not "gouge my eyes out" level. Decal work is at its usual level of excellence.
Building quality and design is where things kind of went South. I've already talked about my problems out the box above, but there's more to discuss. First and foremost, that stupid, stupid hat. So, someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided that rather than have the hat attach via a peg or something like that, decided the best way to have the hat sit on her head is the put a really thin piece of plastic on the inside of the hat, and have that clip between the two hair pieces.. sounds alright in theory until you realize actually getting the thing to fit in their is a nightmare because there really isn't enough clearance to slide the front hair piece in place should you try to get the hat in place first. So instead you end up leaving a slight gap, and cramming the hat on her head, hoping for the best. The eye effect is a separate piece, and it is up to the owner to use their hamburger finger to squeeze this tiny plastic piece, probably the size of a syringe needle, into place so it doesn't fall out of the hair. I found that the joints on the figure, while fine by themselves, aren't really meant to carry the weight of the staff, particularly if it has the energy effect attached on the end of it. The body itself is pretty typical build, so no too many complaints here.
So in the end, we had the potential for an outstanding Figma, one having vibrant colour and personality., only to have a multitude of QC issues and crappy design choices knock it down a few pegs. Without her hat and cape, Megumin is honestly average at best, as she really can't do much other than sligh variations of standing up. I guess if the cape wasn't broken on mine, at least I would keep the cape on constantly as it does add to the character. But that hat.. it's such a hassle to put it on you either never take it off or you just give up. The best parts of this set are the scared face and of course, Chomosuke.
Better luck next time, I suppose.