Back in the writers seat again! So before I took off for a week, I was in the midst of of putting the finishing touches on the Max Factory PLAMAX GP-01 Maidroid Miao.
So as far as modelling goes, I've only recently picked it up, having worked up the courage and basically boredom to sit here and actually try to do a good job at these. So when models from companies other than Kotobukiya show up, I tend to be interested as every company does things their own way. Add that to the fact that everyone loves Figma, also from Max Factory, and you've basically got my purchase, for at least one figure.
I believe this line is the first articulated waifu that the PLAMAX lineup has produced, with art direction and IP cocreation (Guilty Princess) by none other than Tony Taka, famed artist for his work from the Shining series of RPGs and material of the more... mature nature. There have been other kits either announced or released, but for now I think Miao is the only one on the market.
With regards to Guilty Princess itself, it seems to be an combat title, with characters, known as Battle Maidens, based on fairy tales and myths. From what I can see, it seems that so far, all the characters are all Maidroids, and hence feature a maids outfit, in fact, pretty much the same outfit. The skirt, head, and weaponry are the difference makers.
Miao, as the name would suggest, is a Cat Girl Maid. Her broom converts into a lance, as well as an actual ride on broom with additional rocket boosters or something on the back.
Here is the kit, fully assembled and painted to the best of my abilities. The contents of the box allow for the assembly of the body, the skirt, as well as her broom/lance weapon and a stand. In terms of display options, she comes with three premade faces (neutral, smiling, shouting), six hands (close fists, open palm, grasping), as well as gold plugs or Chun Li style buns as replacements for the twin tails. There's also some labels for some customizing and final detail work.
While the quality of paint work is all on me, the actual painting itself was relatively straight forward, at last compared to the Kotobukiya models I've been assembling this last little while. Really just four colours or so, and only three parts that require actual skill to complete. In my case, I used three different shades of Black so there is some differentiation between the shoes, her dress, and her hair.
Size wise, while she looks like a Figma, Miao is definitely taller than your typical. Figma release. She's probably about the same size as all the "1/12" model kits, though again I stress, scale doesn't mean anything unless it was actually calculated.
I found that actual assembly work wise, things were a bit simpler than with a Kotobukiya Frame Girls/Megami Device kit. Part of it is of course that there's no alternate armoured body to put together, but even without that I found that Max Factory simplified construction by simply having more parts that came as one piece rather than needing to be assembled, most notable on the limbs and the internal skeleton. Actual clean up of the parts is about the same as any other kit, though I did notice that the parts were far less brittle when handling them with no issues regarding paint adhesion. The actual fit of the parts was as expected, with some sanding needed to make sure that I didn't have busted jointed this time around.
There are also some parts where glue is required for assembly.
Articulation wise, the Kotobukiya kits definitely have your back better if you're a leg lover. The overall figure features articulation that is along the lines of the Figma 1.0 body, so most of it is there, with the lovely added bonus of double jointed knees, thigh twist, and a functional waist joint. There are also other joints which serve as articulation points on the outfit and hair.
There are no pull down hips, however, and as such the range of motion is limited on the thighs. The same outfit restrictions effectively render the waist movement nonexistent. The skirt can be removed for better range of motion of the train on the outfit, but you're still not going to get a whole lot out of it due to the design of the joint. It's a shame the way the lower body was designed, because you really don't get much use out of the double jointed knees.
The upper body, as you can imagine, can move relatively freely.
So that pretty sums up the PLAMAX GP-01. It's an interesting take on a well established formula, and like Figma, trades off articulation for a more curvy final product. I've not tested it yet, but I suspect that the limbs can be swapped with other modeling kit systems, such as the Kotobukiya ones, as it's really all about the size of the connectors, and these don't look a different size. In terms of user friendliness, for lack of better terms, this is certainly a much more pleasant experience than all the other kits I've put together lately, but as always, it's about the your love of the IP, as it's not like you can get the same character from different model kit makers.
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