Sunday 27 February 2011

The Rainbow Gatekeeper

I've actually had Meiling for a few weeks now, but I haven't had the chance to really take her out of the box and have a good look at her until now. My room is cluttered enough that finding enough room to take out a figure and set it up properly is no small task. I don't have a proper display cabinet either so I can only have a few figures out at a time, the rest relegated to their boxes until I rotate through them.

Anyway.

As I'm sure you all know, Hong Meiling (紅美鈴 [that last kanji isn't showing up right for me, maybe it's the font], a.k.a. China) is the beautiful and reliable gatekeeper to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In her present capacity, however, she's been demoted to guarding my desk against intruders.





I like the action pose; it makes her quite a striking presence, and I never really did like the fanon representation of her as being some sort of narcoleptic slacker. Her leg is lifted gracefully, ready to strike out at her target (Marisa? Sakuya? Reimu? I'll never know.). Her hair flows nicely and I especially like the two braids with the ribbons and bells on the end.

The colours of her hair and dress are a lot nicer than I expected. Her hair almost looked orange in the promo pics, but the tones are actually a bit more subdued and natural. Her skin, too, is less pale than the stock photos make it seem.




Her dress is nicely detailed, particularly on the torso region. The paint job has some nice shading as well. I like her face although the mouth is a little odd. I liked her expression more than I thought I would based on AmiAmi's pictures when I ordered her, but it still seems a little...I don't know. It's not a natural resting expression but if you imagine the figure as a snapshot taken in the middle of some sort of fighting move it makes more sense. To me at least.


Her panties are visible, but being the modest girl she is, she's not shamelessly flaunting them. Which is quite impressive really, considering the cut of the dress.



And onto the not so good bits. The base of the figure is pretty plain, although I don't mind that much. It's definitely a plus to have an interesting base, but it's hardly essential. There were some issues with the paintjob as you can see around the hem of her dress in the right picture, which is a bit annoying, but it's not very visible from the front thankfully.

I'm happy with my decision to get the ques Q version over Griffon's, although I do like the designs on the hem of the dress in Griffon's figure. Everything else about the Griffon version just feels less elegant to me, which probably just reflects my interpretation of Meiling's personality more than anything.

Overall? I like her, quite a lot. I'm not sure if I'd say she's my favourite Touhou figure (that'd probably have to go to Griffon's Remilia, yeah clearly I have no taste) but she's a contender. The paint QUALITY in that one spot is a shame, but it's limited enough that it's not a huge deal.

Figure details:
Name: Radiant Rainbow-Colored Gatekeeper Hong Meiling
Series: Touhou Project
Scale: 1/8
Company: ques Q
Released: October 2010
Bought from: AmiAmi

5 comments:

  1. I do like her pose very much, and I know exactly what you mean about her face. It's not bad so much as it is just a little off and unfitting, but it's still nice.

    Meling normally has pants under though, but not like that's a big deal. Maybe they got burned off in rainbow danmaku when she exerted too much strength in her previous kick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like this Meiling over Griffon's too. Griffon Meiling's pose is too boring and her face looks weird to me.

    I would have liked it if this Meiling had a more serious face, or maybe battle face is a better way to describe it, I don't know.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like the colors on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. >I like the colors on this one.

    I concur.

    ReplyDelete
  5. >I like this Meiling over Griffon's too. Griffon Meiling's pose is too boring and her face looks weird to me.

    Pretty much. You're right about the colors on this figure. They look better than in the stock photos.

    >that'd probably have to go to Griffon's Remilia, yeah clearly I have no taste

    (´・ω・)

    ReplyDelete