My latest pickup from Max Factory’s Figma line is Motoko Kusanagi as she appeared in the 2000’s anime TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Read on..
Released in February, Motoko is scaled somewhere around 1/12-ish at 145mm tall. She uses the standard Figma joint system, including the newer ball-style wrist joints which are like teeny tiny little Hot Toys wrist pegs. Compared to the old peg-on-hand style they previously used these give a better range of motion, but the ham-handed out there may need to be careful as it wouldn’t take much to break one.
Accessories-wise she comes with a handgun, machine gun, ten different hands in various fixed poses, three different faces, a windswept fringe and a second pair of breasts. As strange as that sounds, the swappable bust is actually quite useful – it’s narrower to allow her to pull her arms that little bit closer together for select poses such as holding her gun in to her chest as seen above or with arms straight out. It sounds strange and it probably is, but I’m giving points to Max Factory for the inclusion – it’s a small detail but it does work well.
Regular on the left, pushed together on the right. I’m writing a toy review where I discuss the benefits of swappable boobies. Hi Mum. The three faceplates are a neutral expression, slight smile and yelling.
All three look great, but in posing and playing around with her the last couple of days I find myself gravitating towards the neutral expression most of the time, the stoic look seems to suit well.
Back on articulation, the Major is quite dynamic thanks to some very flexible hips and a torso that can bend backwards to bullet time angles.The shoulders are on a small barbell shaped double joint to give them an almost full range of motion hampered only by the soft jacket, which has been given slits at the shoulders to allow for some upwards movement but is still a tad restrictive beyond a certain point.
The above is as far as the elbows can move up. In most cases I’m a big fan of Figma joints and the articulation they work into their fantastic sculpts, but a new elbow-specific joint that allows for a full range of upward motion in place of a the standard joint is something I would really like to see Max Factory incorporate in their future releases.
Also included is the standard Figma stand we’ve come to know and love. The considerable footprint of the base and long articulated arm which plugs into the back means there’s almost no pose you can’t pull off, from standing still to running to leaping through the air the trusty old stand has you covered.
The Major is well worth the investment if you hold even a slight fondness for Ghost in the Shell. A great, dynamic sculpt with a fantastic paint job.
Now they just need to release Batou to hang with her.
What are you using for the shots Sauce? I have some Transformers on the way that I’m looking forward to playing around with using a f1.4 30mm Sigma Art. It turns my rubbish photos into something I’d like to think is less-rubbish.
Using a Canon EOS 1100D but honestly I don’t know squat about it, my wife fiddled with settings until she got something that worked for her doll photos and I just gank it to use for my own purposes from time to time 8D
XD Nice!