My most recent Anime Export package was actually the cumulation of about 4 months of preorders, as I really wanted to get my Maguire Spider-Man figure, as well as hopefully avoid those DHL fees by using regular postal fees again. As a result, I had some older stuff in the package, namely the Figma 530: Bunny Suit Planning 01 - Sophia F. Shirring, a character that just happens to be a rabbit based design, just in time for Easter 2023.
Like with the Halstad line, the Bunny Suit Planning series is an original work by illustrator Nadare Takamine,
The very first thing you'll notice is just how visually appealing the figure is. Naturally, there's the curves, but there's also the colour scheme, which is predominately white with gold, black, and translucent blue highlights. If this sounds familiar, it's because my favorite design of all time, KOS-MOS, also featured this colour scheme.
Retailing for about 12,000 Yen, this is one of the more pricey Figma sets. However, she does come with a good number of accessories.
- 1 x Main Figure
- 4 x Face Plates (Neutral, Happy, Smirking, Worried)
- 1 x Sunglasses Down Hair Piece
- 1 x Surfboard/Shield
- 1 x Long Water Lance
- 1 x Water Pistol
- 1 x Water Gun Body
- 3 x Lance Extension
- 13 x Gripping/Posing Hands
- 1 x Base/Stand
In addition to above, there's also an illustration card tape to the back of the cardboard insert. Clearly, there are some high expectations regarding what the final product ought to look like.
Considering what she's wearing, the only way to truly replicate the art is if this was a Seamless Body figure, which, sadly it is not. Having said that, they did a pretty good job at replicating her curves, both her bust and her thighs (typically it's one or the other) but she seems a bit too tall.
In terms of bust size, I think she's probably got the biggest bust size of any Figma, though I need to do a better comparison with a Super Sonico figure to be absolutely sure, though strangely it still seems undersized compared to the illustration.
Now thematically, there's the Bunny Girl part of it, a d that should be pretty obvious, ears and all. Not as cybernetic as Whiskey Sour, or as obviously cybernetic. The large bow on her back seems to removable on the promotional photos, but I couldn't find any instructions indicating that this was a feature, nor was I able to pry the part out with a reasonable amount of force.
The other major theme is the Bikini/Beach aspect of things, which we most recently explored with Milk T Girl, who ironically is actually more conservatively dressed as Sophia here. Her weaponry is water based rather than Boba Tea based. But in general, I'd describe this set as "Milk T. Girl with a much better production budget", and quite frankly it does show.
As the source art features very clean lines and effectively no fabric folds or the like, none of that major detailing shows up on this figure, which honestly isn't exactly surprising as figures of this type tend to be pretty simple unless they've got some mechanized limbs or something.
Her default faceplate up close and personal. Like with most Figma faceplates, it's clean and more importantly, reflects the source art. The hair has some decent texturing work, actually better than the R. Mika than I just looked at.
The hairpiece with the sunglasses down features the same level of detailing, and from this photo you can make out how the bunny ears are also well detailed, including some minor mechanical detailing.
Her weaponry is both practical and completely off the deep end. I like how the surf board doubles as a shield. It looks sharp thanks to some fine sculpting and the usual finishes, but can really only be wielded in her left hand, as it is meant to tab into her bangle - the plus side is that this extra tabbing helps to secure the piece in place, allowing for more dynamic posing with the shield.
The actual weaponry is weird. So all the components I mentioned above can basically be mix and matched to form different weapons, kind of like the Frame Arts Girl Hresvelgr Ater Summer model kit did. In that instance though, it worked a bit better because in order to hold the weapons, you're supposed to use the one right hand that is sculpted to hold the gun grip securely, since pretty much all of her larger combinations involve a gun grip. To me, this looks kind of dumb being a melee weapon and all, The other issue is that given there's only one hand, technically you can't dual wield weapons with Sophia, at least not if you're going to play by the official rules.
I do like how the surfboard can actually function as a surfboard, though clearly this would work better if I actually put the thing on the figure stand.
Articulation wise, this isn't a figure that is going to win any awards. The body features some pretty typical range of motion for something like this, which is typically good because there's nothing really in the way. So, Sophia can actually sit on flat objects (unlike most of her competition) though they didn't include the pull down hips that would have given her the ability to do high kicks. Her various robot attachments have some articulation, namely you can reposition them. This of course can help to convey motion and in the case of the ears, further emphasize emotions.
Paint Application wise, one of the more detailed Figma I've handled in a while. There's the various sections of translucent blue, though this isn't so much paint. Accent colour wise, there's small applications of gold, blue, black and grey over various parts of the figure, along with decals. As always, relatively large and flat surfaces are excellently done, but smaller detailed areas can seem a bit rough, the most obvious examples of this are her collar and her bikini top. But, as an overall package, she looks pretty good.
Build Quality wise, nothing specific to report. On the whole, things didn't fall apart, joints held. So business as usual, which is what I like to see. My figure seems to have a slightly loose front hair piece (glasses up) that falls out relatively easy, so that's something to watch for. But, nothing was exploding, which is the key thing to remember.
So since I mentioned Milk T. Girl, how do the two compare? Well, I was surprised that Sophia is actually a bit taller than her, making her one of the tallest Figma on my shelf, coming in at 6 inches from heel to top of head (excluding ears). Milk T. Girl slightly wins the posing game with double jointed elbows and the faces with articulated eyes. These photos should answer any questions about their other comparable physical attributes.
In conclusion, yes it's safe to say that I like this figure set. Beautiful character design along with some great colour choices and a fantastic theme make this probably the best Figma I (would have) opened in 2022, though that Ryza isn't too far behind. I liked it enough to immediately preorder the next figure in the series, one which seems to feature a bit more practical gear while at the same time going even more insane with the swimwear.
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