Well, it's almost May. What a year it's been so far - for us here in my area, this Winter truly is the one that won't go away, as we actually snow just a few days ago. But, I think we've hit a point where the seasons may actually have decided to progress like they're supposed to, and I'm one step closer to upping my sleeping arrangements... one which might just prevent 4 years from randomly plopping on me at any time of the night.
So I'm slowly going through stuff I've received in the past few months, and at the top of the list is one EX-01 Plus - Mocha from BigFirebird Toys. Yes, the much anticipated Nicee repaint/retool has arrived, though some are still waiting for it.
Packaged in a predominately black art box, you get a very bust-centric photo of Mocha (like with Nicee) and some other shots of the toy on the back and sides. I lost track, but I believe there are at least two different version of the figure. Depending on which retailer you bought it from, the accessories are slightly different, and trust me it gets confusing because they take away things too.
Here's the contents of my set:
- 1 x Main Figure
- 1 x Visor
- 1 x Alternate Head
- 2 x Bunny Ears
- 2 x Swords
- 1 x Umbrella/Lance
- 6 x Posing/Gripping Hands
- 1 x Nicee Bow Handle Leftover
- 1 x Soft Chest
- 1 x Shield
- 1 x Shield Bracket (to hold Swords and give it a handle)
- 1 x Shield Strap
- 1 x Vehicle Canopy
- 1 x Canopy Rear
- 1 x Spoiler
- 1 x Bunny Tail Accessory
- 2 x Bunny Tail Ribbons
- 1 x Water Decals
- 1 x Sword Adapter set
Apparently if you bought Mocha from the BFBT Taobao store (or knew a guy who could) you would get an extra pair of cat ears. Great... wonderful. EXCEPT, apparently, if you have that version you don't get the necessary accessory to form one of her weapons.
Mine is the standard version (or at least standard for your typical East Asia based retailer) which has the weapon part.
There might even be a third variation.
So at this point, you're probably thinking to yourself "Wow, that's a lot of accessories!". Well, you'd be half right. Mocha follows the same formula as Nicee, so basically everything that doesn't form the basic frame of the figure is effectively kibble you need to slap on during the transformation. They just tried to package it a bit better by giving these various pieces a secondary use... well, most of them.
The basic figure is very similar to the Nicee release (colours and decals aside), with the main differences being the heads and the shoulder pads. I feel they were going for a Race Queen type of deal, but strangely she ends up looking more like a maid. Of course, none of this should be surprising given the nature of this release. In fact, I think you can probably pull off all those various body modes you get by recombining the ball jointed panels.
Rather than go into my usual details about articulation and all that, I'm just going to summarize it like this - if you have a Nicee or have experience with one, and you wished this release was better, well I'm sorry to disappoint you because it's about the same. The articulation is 99% the same, and has the same limitations - so basically above average but leaving you wanting more. Paint work is more extravagant here, but the QC and design choices pretty much guarantees you will have paint rubbing. On a positive note, the build quality appears to be better than with Nicee.
Now lets talk about the changes.
Perhaps one of the most welcome changes is the fact you can remove the backpack from the figure, though without it you basically just have a non transforming action figure. The trick, however, is figuring out to actually do this, because this feature isn't exactly documented anywhere.
While I'm here, I'm just gonna say that the manual itself leaves much to be desired.
The trick is that some of the hinges are no longer solid, and feature a slot that you can pull it apart at, keeping in mind that you're pull on all plastic parts which may or may not exactly survive the ordeal. Mine was alright and survived two times - if you're nervous maybe do the hot water trick to soften the plastic first.
Once you get rid of that backpack, you don't really improve articulation perse, but you do gain a cleaner view of the back, as well as the ability to do some sitting poses which were previously impossible due to the backpack.
Rather than having two expressions on two different heads, Mocha allows you to accessorize her main head with a visor, and the cat ears if you had them (I think the rabbit ears fit too). Interestingly, the face plate comes off as well, which makes me think that maybe there additional faces in the works.
The alternate head is this... weird silver thing that reminds me of Dural with hair. She's also wearing the bunny ears.
Oh right.. here's the bunny tail with ribbons. If you notice, the ribbon connection point is very small and fragile. Some sort of dynamic movement in the ribbon would have been nice, as opposed to just flat straps.
Weapon wise, overall Mocha's gear is a bit more cohesive than that of Nicee. There's a few more purpose made accessories as opposed to everything being a car body panel of some sort. I'm surprised they didn't try to make the vehicle canopy into something, and they seem to have completely forgotten about the fact that the front bumper/fender area, which was Nicee's horrible, horrible bow.
The weapon connector that doesn't come with the Taobao version. It's a nice touch that honestly looks pretty good. What I don't get is why did it come in 5 different pieces, with these tiny rings holding the central handle to the silver and red parts. Not only is it fragile, but you also run the risk of losing parts into the ether.
Lastly, we have vehicle mode. which again if you're familiar with Nicee, you'll see the family resemblance, even with all the new body work and all. Visually, Mocha has a nicer vehicle mode but you also have a few more parts to deal with, including the attachment of the bunny ears to the sides of the spoiler. To their credit, however, it should be noted that the various tabbing and connecting parts do fit together fairly well.
That, friends, is the tale of Nicee's emo sister, Mocha. I guess I wasn't really expecting anything different than Nicee, with the biggest selling point being the fact that the backpack could be removed. I just thought the solution would be a bit more elegant than what was presented. I guess if you've never had one of these moulds, the concept of owning a voluptuous fembot would probably leave you quite satisfied with this product. For the rest of us, its more a situation of whether you prefer P1 or P2 colours.
For Full Gallery, please visit: https://flickr.com/photos/22877494@N02/albums/72177720298501874
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