You know how it is here - one day, it's stuff from Japan, fresh off the market, and other day's its more retrospective. Today definitely fits into the latter, with the Alphamax/Skytube 1/5 King of Fighters XIII Mai Shiranui.
The year was 2010 and I don't think I'd ever heard of this company until that point, and even today, for me Skytube is synonymous with Cast Off adult statues, with Alphamax popping up occasionally when I'm browning Amiami or something. Mai Shiranui was experiencing an explosion of character goods around then including some higher end Resin/Polystone release, with this piece and one from Aizu coming to mind, neither of which I wanted to drop the money on back in the day.
As fate would have it, I found a guy a few weeks back with this piece who was trying to move it, and wasn't really getting anywhere. So, I took it as a sign and bought it.
So I know my crappy photo doesn't really show it that well, but this is a pretty big box, being 1/5 and all. The statue didn't come in as many pieces as I thought it would be, which is both good and bad. MSRP on this piece was 24,800 Yen, which was a small fortune back in the day, an shipping probably wouldn't have helped matters either, nor was the lack of true online retail options back in the day.
Out of box and assembled, Mai is in an updated version of her trademark Red dress, featuring one Tassel rather than the pair. This is probably one of the only Mai pieces I've seen that doesn't actually have a fan, her trademark weapon. Overall pose is a static one, with Mai showing off her curves in a playful manner. This statue is also known as the "Hipline ver.", the reason for which is clearly tied into her pose, which features some nice accentuating of her hips.
This statue was popular enough that it warranted the creation of a 1/6 PVC version.
The face, on the other hand, isn't that great. It isn't that the final product got downgraded or anything - it just never looked that great to begin with. Admittedly my lighting didn't help much, but the fact remains that her facial features aren't that well defined.. well apart from her giant eyes, of course.
Of course, there are other things that the statue gets right. Between the use of resin and the sculpting, you'll probably notice that the hair comes out nice and sharp looking, with some decent body to it.
Some beautiful work on her backside, though of course her front is no slouch. So typically statues like this either fall into the Gym Girl look or, more likely, where she's basically a pipe cleaner with huge tits. This statue seems to take the middle of the road giving Mai her trademark curves with bulk to her body, though it's not as toned as one would expect. Still, at least it feels like there's something there. You can also make out that Mai is playfully tugging at her outfit and of course the bulge from her nipples.
This is probably also a good time to bring up a material called "candy resin", which reportedly contributed to the higher than average price point of this statue. I have to admit, the fleshy areas do look more natural than on other resin statues I've seen, almost like a really good Phicen/TBLeague in today's terms.
Just wanted to highlight the hips and thighs one more time.
The use of resin (and I'm presuming increased production budget) results in smaller parts being produced with much more detail and general sharpness than PVC statues of the era. Mind you, things have gotten even better since 2010, but this was 14 years ago wheree expectations were generally kind of low. You'll notice that the fingers are all properly formed, and yes, part of this can be attributed to the fact that this is a 1/5, but at the same time it should be obvious that they tried harder. Fingers came out nicely as did the fabric detailing and the "stones on the base". The folds of fabric at the end of the tassel and the feet weren't too bad, but weren't as sharp looking as the aforementioned.
Having said all that, it was inevitable that there would be a few flaws. You don't need to look that hard and you'll notice that some of the paint work isn't exactly that great. From a high level, it's basically with the highlights on the statue, generally in white or some other bright colour. You can easily make out some loss of sharpness in the masking, and with areas such as the wrap on the ponytail, the paint is actually lumpy there due to the sheer number of layers needed. Fingernails, however I am happy to report came out nicely. Furthermore, the shading work on the outfit are well implemented, though I wish they had done that on the body too.
A bit harder to make out is that despite all her curves and the glory that is seeing them in person, some areas of sculpting aren't as crisp and results in loss of some details that should pop out, like her right breast squishing into the upper arm. Furthermore, the clear coat on top of the painted resin parts was a bit heavy handed? How do I know this? Because of the accumulation in crevices such as between her cleavage.
At least the general sanding on the parts was good.
We then get to things that could have been fixed if people actually cared. So it's no surprise that if you were to pull on your underwear from the back, it would probably give you a wedgie. What DOESN'T normally happen, however, is that the part that gets stuck in the crack disappears, leaving the flesh coloured parts. But that's exactly what happened here. There's this strange 1/4 inch gap that just.. happens for no reason whatsoever other than someone forgetting that it was there. It's not exactly impossible to get something in there, or if you're lazy, just close the gap between the cheeks so it gives the illusion of being stuck in there.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about this statue is the way the Tassel connects to the body. Generally, when you have a statue with parts, you basically make it brainless the way the parts connect together. Well, the Tassel connects via a magnet, but the issue is that the part the connects into the base actually has enough space that it can freely rotate quite a bit. Furthermore, the magnet isn't particularly strong.
So what basically ends up happening is that you put the Tassel on the base, secure the body on the base, then wedge the Tassel into position, which of course has me worrying about eventual damage. If you don't get it right, the entire thing will basically fall apart and look really, really stupid.
Overall, a pretty good offering from yesteryear, though of all the issues with her I'd wish that the face wasn't really a thing. But unless you're a hardcore collector, I wouldn't strive to find this particular piece unless you want to get a better look at this "candy resin". The 1/6 is much easier to find and gives you the same pose, and there are better detailed and more dynamic Mai statues out there.
Having said that, just remember one thing - you can never have too much Mai Shiranui.
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