DSC_1681
After 3 months of travel, which included approximately 7 weeks of sitting at Osaka International Airport, my Mandarake purchase in April 2020 finally arrived.
Here she is in all her glory, Sailor Pluto, the last of the Sailor Senshi on my "to get list".
BFF to Chibi-Usa, Sailor Pluto, or "Pu" is the Guardian of Time and leader of the Outer Senshi, soldiers gifted with stronger power than their Inner Senshi cohorts. She is generally stationed at that one spot preventing trespassers from entering the future. Well, things got screwy and required Pluto to not only abandon her post, but eventually abandon her timeline completely and return to the present under the civilian guise of Setsuna Meioh.
In addition to being a very competent soldier, Sailor Pluto also bears one of the three Sacred Talisman, along with Sailor Uranus and Pluto, that are needed to find the Holy Grail, the only thing that can stop "The Silence", the big baddie in Season 3 of the original run.
Plus she's the only one with no sleeves on her tunic, so you KNOW she's badass.
Based on what I was reading, Pluto was a bit annoying to get due to her Exclusive release nature, something that I've run into with several of the Endgame releases.. hence my resorting to Mandarake.
Contents of the box are what you'd expect it to be - the figure, four total face plates (neutral, smiling, shouting, eyes closed), her weapon (Garnet Rod), various hands, and the standard base. The head of the staff comes off just like in the show so you can display Pluto holding her talisman.
While I wish I could say that this was just a copy and paste overview from the other Senshi, there are a few critical items worth noting.
First off, on the positive side of things, to my eyes Sailor Pluto is one of a handful of Sailor Moon Figuarts that got the proportions right, with the other two being Super Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn. I'm not perfectly confident about her scaling, but that's another story.
Much like the other two, Sailor Pluto's faceplates seem to be the right shape, and actually wrap around her to her neck without any unsightly gaps around the ears.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about the greatest barrier to enjoying this figure - her hair. Sailor Pluto has lovely knee length Olive green hair. Good news, Tamashii Nations replicated this. Bad news, it's one solid piece of hard plastic with one point of articulation on the top of her head which is much more annoying to position than you'd think. The same stiff plastic makes up the front of her hair as well, so overall Pluto has a slightly different sheen to her hair as compared to the other Senshi. Detailing on the hair is average - it won't impress, but it won't make you question the manufacturing process either.
There are a few more exciting poses you can get her into, but in general Pluto is going to be one of those figures that does a lot of epic standing, and even then you might want to consider using the stand full time.
Articulation wise, she's got what the ladies do (ankles, knees, hips with pull down, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, elbows, wrists, and head), but as stated above your limiting factor is going to be the hair. I guess if it is any consolation, I don't remember Pluto doing much other than her projectile attacks so no crazy gymnastics come to mind.
Paint work is the usual mix of good and meh when it comes to this line, with the messiest spots around her waist where the white paint meets the skirt - interesting thing to note is that the skirt is a separate piece, so basically this is not a masking issue.. they just really sucked at applying the paint. That's kind of the story overall - it's pretty good, then you hit a spot where you go "OOF". Decals on the face are pretty solid.
Finally there's build quality and yeah, good all around. If you've handled one Senshi you've generally handled them all. In the event you haven't, expect limbs to the right size, joints to be tight, and finishes on the various parts to range from "great" to "you really didn't try that hard did you", a common problem with earlier Figuarts. Overall, most handling will be find though as always extra caution when changing hands or doing any sudden movements is recommended.
That, friends, was the last Sailor Senshi. Pluto looks great as far as aesthetics go, but from an articulation perspective sadly the hair is quite limiting. Still, there's no doubt that Pluto will look great standing in with the rest of the crew, which is probably the only reason you'd be getting one of these to begin with.
DSC_1681
After 3 months of travel, which included approximately 7 weeks of sitting at Osaka International Airport, my Mandarake purchase in April 2020 finally arrived.
Here she is in all her glory, Sailor Pluto, the last of the Sailor Senshi on my "to get list".
BFF to Chibi-Usa, Sailor Pluto, or "Pu" is the Guardian of Time and leader of the Outer Senshi, soldiers gifted with stronger power than their Inner Senshi cohorts. She is generally stationed at that one spot preventing trespassers from entering the future. Well, things got screwy and required Pluto to not only abandon her post, but eventually abandon her timeline completely and return to the present under the civilian guise of Setsuna Meioh.
In addition to being a very competent soldier, Sailor Pluto also bears one of the three Sacred Talisman, along with Sailor Uranus and Pluto, that are needed to find the Holy Grail, the only thing that can stop "The Silence", the big baddie in Season 3 of the original run.
Plus she's the only one with no sleeves on her tunic, so you KNOW she's badass.
Based on what I was reading, Pluto was a bit annoying to get due to her Exclusive release nature, something that I've run into with several of the Endgame releases.. hence my resorting to Mandarake.
Contents of the box are what you'd expect it to be - the figure, four total face plates (neutral, smiling, shouting, eyes closed), her weapon (Garnet Rod), various hands, and the standard base. The head of the staff comes off just like in the show so you can display Pluto holding her talisman.
While I wish I could say that this was just a copy and paste overview from the other Senshi, there are a few critical items worth noting.
First off, on the positive side of things, to my eyes Sailor Pluto is one of a handful of Sailor Moon Figuarts that got the proportions right, with the other two being Super Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn. I'm not perfectly confident about her scaling, but that's another story.
Much like the other two, Sailor Pluto's faceplates seem to be the right shape, and actually wrap around her to her neck without any unsightly gaps around the ears.
Now that we got that out of the way, lets talk about the greatest barrier to enjoying this figure - her hair. Sailor Pluto has lovely knee length Olive green hair. Good news, Tamashii Nations replicated this. Bad news, it's one solid piece of hard plastic with one point of articulation on the top of her head which is much more annoying to position than you'd think. The same stiff plastic makes up the front of her hair as well, so overall Pluto has a slightly different sheen to her hair as compared to the other Senshi. Detailing on the hair is average - it won't impress, but it won't make you question the manufacturing process either.
There are a few more exciting poses you can get her into, but in general Pluto is going to be one of those figures that does a lot of epic standing, and even then you might want to consider using the stand full time.
Articulation wise, she's got what the ladies do (ankles, knees, hips with pull down, mid torso, shoulders with some collapse and bicep swivel, elbows, wrists, and head), but as stated above your limiting factor is going to be the hair. I guess if it is any consolation, I don't remember Pluto doing much other than her projectile attacks so no crazy gymnastics come to mind.
Paint work is the usual mix of good and meh when it comes to this line, with the messiest spots around her waist where the white paint meets the skirt - interesting thing to note is that the skirt is a separate piece, so basically this is not a masking issue.. they just really sucked at applying the paint. That's kind of the story overall - it's pretty good, then you hit a spot where you go "OOF". Decals on the face are pretty solid.
Finally there's build quality and yeah, good all around. If you've handled one Senshi you've generally handled them all. In the event you haven't, expect limbs to the right size, joints to be tight, and finishes on the various parts to range from "great" to "you really didn't try that hard did you", a common problem with earlier Figuarts. Overall, most handling will be find though as always extra caution when changing hands or doing any sudden movements is recommended.
That, friends, was the last Sailor Senshi. Pluto looks great as far as aesthetics go, but from an articulation perspective sadly the hair is quite limiting. Still, there's no doubt that Pluto will look great standing in with the rest of the crew, which is probably the only reason you'd be getting one of these to begin with.