Fresh from Japan, it's the Snail Shell Studio Phantom-001 Hotaru set. Based on what I've seen on Instagram, it appears that the Chinese release was at least a month ago, so I'm guessing the Japanese release was a bit behind.
From what I can gather, the concept behind this double figure set is that Hotaru has two personas - there's her sweet, innocent normal self, and then there's her Beserker rage mode. So technically, it's one character. I guess the two would require so many limb and body part swaps that they figured they might as well just do two complete bodies in one set.
I'm guessing that based on the box, Amiami has assumed all distribution duties for Japan, at the very least. I only recently figured out that Amiami does, on occasion, actually make its own character goods.
As you can imagine, the set itself retails for somewhere around double that of the standard figure set from Snail Shell. Of course, it also offers more, as per the following list: taken from the item description:
-Normal mode figure x1
-Reverse change mode figure x1
-Alternative semi-long back hair part x1
-Alternative bangs part x5 (includes the part arriving attached to the figure)
-Face parts w/fully articulated eyes x5 (includes the part arriving attached to the figure)
-Mini tool to position the eyes x1
-Alternative hand parts x14 (includes the part arriving attached to the figure)
-I.M.P. Roid x1
-DEAVILTH Scythe x1
-Wipe sword x2
-Hyper ring x1
-Backpack x1
-Special base w/storage space x1 (w/Main supporting pole x1, Sub supporting pole x1, Clip x1)
[First Press Limited Production Purchase Bonus]
-Both sides acrylic keychain
Navigating the dumpster fire that is Google Translate, you can see that there's a lot of stuff in there, including a Keychain, and apparently a First Edition limited base (which I didn't photography) that has compartments for parts storage, just like with Bee-Girl.
So, I have no idea if this is the "Normal" or "Reverse Change" body, so I'm just gonna go with Normal for now. If you've seen the Snail Shell releases up to this point, you'll probably recognize the base body used here - a bit harder to see on Wolf and Wasp Girl, but very easy to spot if you've handled the Beach Wear Wolf Girl figure. This outing, however instead of swimwear, Hotaru is wearing a relatively modest backless dress made of a very flexible vinyl with painted white in sections.
Being a modular design, swapping of parts with other figures is possible. In this case, you can pop off the dress and swap chest pieces with the Reverse Change figure, giving you....
... this. A minimalist outfit, to say the very least.
The Reverse Change body is a little more in line with your typical Snail Shell release, being part human part Sci-Fi special effect. To me, the lower legs look like they were slightly retooled from Wasp Girl. The clear torso is a new thing that they've never done before and it seems to have worked out alright, though it's not as cool as those layered thighs of Wasp Girl. There's also some hair ornaments, including a Halo of sorts you can connect to the front protrusion.
Jumping a bit ahead here, you may notice that there's this part sticking out of her lower back. Well, that's the "backpack" that the parts list was mentioning. It's... very half assed, to say the least.
Honestly, the best description I have for these bits is some weird looking artificial lung. The canopy looking thing doesn't actually open, in case you were wondering. Having said all that, the arbitrary look of this part isn't really the issue - it's the connector used to attach this to the body itself. The clear green plastic is relatively brittle, and there is no ball joint or other stress relief mechanism so.. yeah, it snapped off, very easily. I've been able to repair the thing, but I'm not sure how much weight it can bear, nor do I want to find out how easily it will break again.
The faceplates included with this set are visually quite nice, though admittedly they're all the same shape since the inception of the line. There are five face plates in total, one of which is the dedicated Ninja looking one here. The expression on the other four faces are quite varied, and are quite well done. Like Wolf Girl, the pupil colours are very vibrant, the same luminescent green that is featured on several outfits. The one embarrassed face with the flushed face is probably my favourite amongst the entire set. Each of these faces features eyes that can be adjusted from the inside, allowing for a greater variety of poses using the same expression. To complement these faces are several different hair pieces, which simply put allow you to give the shorter hairstyle a front part with the horn, or create a look with the longer hair that has no horn (or horns, if you also replace the back part).
The Snail Shell body has a lot of those very obvious visible joints and seams that some collectors really can't deal with, which is understandable. The trade off is, of course, that the body itself has the ability. The overall posing power of this body is actually pretty good, going so far as to include double jointed knees and elbows. Perhaps the greatest limitations of the body are the underwhelming amount of head motion, and the inability to cross the arms across the chest due to the way the chest piece blocks the movement of the arms. The waist piece is of a softer material, which allows for greater range of movement compared to other similarly designed figures. This is definitely a positive considering these figures do not possess a pull down hip design.
Paint Application wise, things are pretty solid. Everything is pretty sharp looking, with no discernable smudges or other flaws. There are some finer details on the figure set, but overall, it's a relatively simple finish across the board, as most of the figure is actually just the base plastic colour. The fading from white to green for the hair is nice and subtle. Decals are applied nice and sharply, with no issues observed in the actual decals themselves..
Finally, on the matter of Build Quality, I found nothing to really be concerned with. Everything fits together nicely, and there were no real issues with any finishes, or problems with alignment of limbs. Joints Design wise, some of the decisions are questionable, such as the connector for the "backpack", and the way that the Halo connects to the horn on the head. Then there's the weapons themselves, which aren't really held by the hands super well, nor can the wrists actually support the weapons on their own.
Phantom-001 Hotaru is certainly an interesting set. It's decently made and presuming you got it for the preorder price, it's not too bad in terms of value. But I find that due to the reuse of the base body, that it ends up being like the same person but in different Cosplay. In fact, the next figure announced is basically a recolour of the earlier Wasp Girl, making it an easy pass. I think at five figures, I'm probably good to go for a while on Snail Shell stuff, and will probably wait until their next body style or some other drastic change before heading back in again.
With that, I'm finally caught up on my figures - it certainly took longer than I thought. I think I'm finally ready to hit the model kits again.
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