victorviperToday we'll be reviewing a figure that I went back and forth about several times, Max Factory's Mistral Nereis from the Shining game series. She's sporting a swimsuit, so most of the shots in this review will be NSFW to some extent...
About the character: Mistral Nereis (or Misty) is a character who appeared in the games Shining Hearts and Shining Blade. In Shining Hearts, Misty is seen to be the leader of one of many bands of pirates in the land of Wyndaria, the game's setting.
In addition, like many of the characters in the Shining series, her character design was conceived by the well-known Tony Taka and it has been suggested that her design was influenced in no small part by Rachel Alucard ENCYCLOPEDIA #3039 from the well-known Blazblue franchise.
Packaging----------7.5/10
I must admit that I'm not quite sure what Max Factory was trying to do with the box design. With such a lovely figure, why have the box obscure large parts of her? Maybe they are trying to encourage us to free her from her cardboard purgatory and display her properly!
One side features an illustration of Misty, no doubt by Tony Taka.
Larger version of the artwork.
The other side of the box has some select shots of the figure.
The design of the box back is similar to the front panel.
Misty's twintails occupy an awful lot of space, and so the box is quite large. The box measures 31 by 23 by 16 cm, and the total weight of figure and box is 650 grams, so shipping will definitely run quite a but more than the usual 1/7 scale figure.
Inside the blister, Misty's pareo is wrapped around her but not totally secured.
This insert struck me as being pretty funny. Do not point, wave or throw Misty at someone!
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get Misty positioned on the base. As you can see, there is a small hole in the base which is meant to hold her heel in place and this is probably the easiest way to determine how she's supposed to be oriented on the base.
The base is thinner and flimsier than I expected. It took quite a bit of force to attach her to the base, and I could feel the base bending a little bit while doing so. Thus, Max Factory could have done a little better on this front.
There is a peg in the bow on Misty's pareo which is meant to close it. The peg is quite shallow, and the fit of the pareo is very, very tight and thus getting her pareo attached was something of a challenge. About 10 minutes of wrangling with (and swearing at!) the pareo was needed to get it set up.
I found the best way to get the pareo in place was to remove Misty from the base and slide her left leg through. Additionally, the bow will completely detach, so I detached the bow and after holding the pareo very tightly in place the bow would just barely reattach! During the whole process, I felt like I needed three hands to get her set up-two to hold both edges of the pareo and a third to attach the bow. That would be an interesting phone call to a friend---"hey, can you come over to my house? I need an extra set of hands to get my new figure set up".
Set up and ready!
Posing----------9/10
Misty has a little bit of an uppity demeanor, and so the way she's holding on to her pareo and her body language seems to be perfectly in character.
Let's have a look at her with her pareo on.
I like the huge bow, and the purple lining gives the figure a very regal feel!
I like all the folds in the material where she's holding the pareo.
One complaint involves this point where Misty is holding on to the skirt. Every time I got it lined up just right with her hand, the slightest movement would cause the bow to pop out of place. Thus, if you plan on displaying Misty this way, you might need to allocate a nontrivial amount of time to get her set up just right!
There's some stray paint from somewhere around the waist of her skirt. Also its finish is very flat and I have no doubt it will show scratches easily.
There is some excess purple paint in that bottom trim.
With its flat finish, I was afraid that paint from her skirt would transfer on to her body. It turns out that fear was not unfounded, as after removing it, there were little flakes of paint left behind. They cleaned up easily enough, but this was the result of her skirt being on for about 15 minutes, so I would be very concerned about paint transfer if her skirt is left on long-term.
Now, let's take a look at Misty sans pareo.
Sculpting----------8.5/10
Painting----------8/10
Misty turned out pretty well in terms of her overall quality. We've seen some painting issues on her pareo, and I count three really noticeable defects in sculpt, although she has many interesting figures to compensate.
When prototype shots of this figure were first released, there was concern about the design of her face. The consensus seems to be that the finished product is better than the prototype, but it seems to me her fact might still be just a little bit too round, particularly around the cheekbones.
On the other hand, she looks just fine from this angle!
Misty's hair is very, very shiny. There are some nice details in her hair, such as where you can see her ponytails being pulled together.
One of Misty's key features is those huge ribbons in her hair.
I really like how wispy Max Factory made the tips of her hair. You can see a transparent effect at the tips.
Her little heart shaped earrings are nicely done. That's a pretty feminine accessory considering that she's a pirate!
She has nice detail on her collarbones, and the straps on her bikini are uniform in size and they appear suitably taut.
The ruffles on her bikini top are cute, and I like how you can see the material of her bikini top stretching ever so subtly.
You can see a suggestion of her ribcage.
I like the sculpt of her stomach; she looks quite fit.
The shot below illustrates possibly the biggest flaw with the figure. The ribbon on her bicep is not flush with the rest of her arm. Granted, it's not obvious unless you're looking at her close up, but it's still there.
Max Factory gives Misty cute pink fingernails.
Misty wears a very low-rise bikini bottom. The red and white geometric patterns are faithful to the original illustration, and a neat feature to boot.
The painting on her bikini bottom is not 100% symmetrical. Plus, the tiny bottom is pretty sexy!
The straps on her bikini bottom have some depth to them; they're not just carved out of her torso, so that's a nice touch.
Her shoulders are nicely sculpted.
Another key feature of this figure is Misty's thong bikini bottom.
The way she's slightly twisting her torso, you'd expect a little asymmetry in her butt cheeks; this is another nice subtle detail.
The way she's arching her back a little bit and the thong just makes her ultra-sexy. I'm tempted to display her facing backwards!
One small complaint is that the thong kind of pulls a disappearing act.
Nice calves.
I like the design of her strappy sandals.
Base----------7/10
I have mixed feelings about Misty's base. As indicated earlier, it's a little bit more flimsy than I expected. Since it wanted to bend a little bit while attaching her, I really hope that it will hold up long-term.
The sand effect is executed pretty well, though. For contrast, here is Misty's base together with a figure where the sand effect was not so well executed. Can you identify it?
View spoilerIt's Kotobukiya's Ichika Takatsuki ITEM #117391 .
So, the base looks good, but I have some concerns about its stability long-term.
Scale Comparison
Misty is 9 inches (23 cm) in height, and her base adds about another 1/4 inch to that. I estimate her three sizes at about 4.75-3-4.5 inches (12-7.5-11.5 cm). At 1/7 scale, that would make her about 5'3" and about 33-21-32 (84-53-81 cm), which seems consistent with her design. It is worth noting that she will take up some space on the shelf, since her twintails span 8 in (20 cm) at their widest point.
Here is Misty together with Amakuni's Lucifer ITEM #161925 and Alphamax's Sena Kashiwazaki ITEM #106566 . Both of those figures are also listed at 1/7. Blonde+bikini is one of my collector's weaknesses...
Mina Tepes ITEM #27853 shares many design similarities with Misty. Actually, it might be the other way around, since the Dance in the Vampire Bund franchise has been around since 2005.
A collection of candidates for a "display 'em backwards" shelf.
For purposes of scale, Elyse ITEM #5864 is 1/8, Maia ITEM #944 and Ayane ITEM #419 are both 1/6, and you can see that Misty is in fact 1/7 scale.
Overall verdict and enjoyment----------9/10
Arguments for: Interesting swimsuit design, her wispy hair, the red, white, and black colors on her outfit are consistent with her character design, and that thong!
Arguments against: Rather odd box design which tends to obscure her from view, iffy base, getting her pareo in place can be mildly frustrating, paint transfer concerns in that area.
I was very interested in this figure when it was first announced, then the promo shots seemed a little lacking, but then when official shots of the figure started trickling in, I could tell she was going to be nice and overall she is. I have a weakness for blonde characters, and so that finally convinced me to get her, and I'm glad I did; despite some flaws she looks quite spectacular sitting on the shelf.
Availability (as of this writing)
Easy to find.
As I write this, HLJ still has some new. List price is 10000 yen, and I picked her up from AmiAmi new for 8300 yen although she's now sold out there. I've seen her pop up a couple of times preowned, and about 8000 yen is what she's going for preowned. Quite a few figures from the Shining franchise seem to hold their value or appreciate, so it's hard to say what will happen to her price in the future. Keep in mind that big box might make her costly to ship, though.
THANKS FOR READING!
If you liked this review, here are some of my other reviews you might also find interesting:
Wave 1/8 Elyse (Oretama) BLOG #17530
Amakuni 1/7 Lucifer (The Seven Deadly Sins) BLOG #17632
Kotobukiya 1/6 Mina Tepes (Dance in the Vampire Bund) BLOG #16798
Alter 1/6 Maia Mizuki (Daphne in the Brilliant Blue) BLOG #12215
Alphamax 1/7 Sena Kashiwazaki (Haganai) BLOG #9423
Gift 1/4 Hayate Yagami (Nanoha StrikerS) BLOG #19675
Alter 1/6 Muse of Range Murata BLOG #17400
About the character: Mistral Nereis (or Misty) is a character who appeared in the games Shining Hearts and Shining Blade. In Shining Hearts, Misty is seen to be the leader of one of many bands of pirates in the land of Wyndaria, the game's setting.
In addition, like many of the characters in the Shining series, her character design was conceived by the well-known Tony Taka and it has been suggested that her design was influenced in no small part by Rachel Alucard ENCYCLOPEDIA #3039 from the well-known Blazblue franchise.
Packaging----------7.5/10
I must admit that I'm not quite sure what Max Factory was trying to do with the box design. With such a lovely figure, why have the box obscure large parts of her? Maybe they are trying to encourage us to free her from her cardboard purgatory and display her properly!
One side features an illustration of Misty, no doubt by Tony Taka.
Larger version of the artwork.
The other side of the box has some select shots of the figure.
The design of the box back is similar to the front panel.
Misty's twintails occupy an awful lot of space, and so the box is quite large. The box measures 31 by 23 by 16 cm, and the total weight of figure and box is 650 grams, so shipping will definitely run quite a but more than the usual 1/7 scale figure.
Inside the blister, Misty's pareo is wrapped around her but not totally secured.
This insert struck me as being pretty funny. Do not point, wave or throw Misty at someone!
It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get Misty positioned on the base. As you can see, there is a small hole in the base which is meant to hold her heel in place and this is probably the easiest way to determine how she's supposed to be oriented on the base.
The base is thinner and flimsier than I expected. It took quite a bit of force to attach her to the base, and I could feel the base bending a little bit while doing so. Thus, Max Factory could have done a little better on this front.
There is a peg in the bow on Misty's pareo which is meant to close it. The peg is quite shallow, and the fit of the pareo is very, very tight and thus getting her pareo attached was something of a challenge. About 10 minutes of wrangling with (and swearing at!) the pareo was needed to get it set up.
I found the best way to get the pareo in place was to remove Misty from the base and slide her left leg through. Additionally, the bow will completely detach, so I detached the bow and after holding the pareo very tightly in place the bow would just barely reattach! During the whole process, I felt like I needed three hands to get her set up-two to hold both edges of the pareo and a third to attach the bow. That would be an interesting phone call to a friend---"hey, can you come over to my house? I need an extra set of hands to get my new figure set up".
Set up and ready!
Posing----------9/10
Misty has a little bit of an uppity demeanor, and so the way she's holding on to her pareo and her body language seems to be perfectly in character.
Let's have a look at her with her pareo on.
I like the huge bow, and the purple lining gives the figure a very regal feel!
I like all the folds in the material where she's holding the pareo.
One complaint involves this point where Misty is holding on to the skirt. Every time I got it lined up just right with her hand, the slightest movement would cause the bow to pop out of place. Thus, if you plan on displaying Misty this way, you might need to allocate a nontrivial amount of time to get her set up just right!
There's some stray paint from somewhere around the waist of her skirt. Also its finish is very flat and I have no doubt it will show scratches easily.
There is some excess purple paint in that bottom trim.
With its flat finish, I was afraid that paint from her skirt would transfer on to her body. It turns out that fear was not unfounded, as after removing it, there were little flakes of paint left behind. They cleaned up easily enough, but this was the result of her skirt being on for about 15 minutes, so I would be very concerned about paint transfer if her skirt is left on long-term.
Now, let's take a look at Misty sans pareo.
Sculpting----------8.5/10
Painting----------8/10
Misty turned out pretty well in terms of her overall quality. We've seen some painting issues on her pareo, and I count three really noticeable defects in sculpt, although she has many interesting figures to compensate.
When prototype shots of this figure were first released, there was concern about the design of her face. The consensus seems to be that the finished product is better than the prototype, but it seems to me her fact might still be just a little bit too round, particularly around the cheekbones.
On the other hand, she looks just fine from this angle!
Misty's hair is very, very shiny. There are some nice details in her hair, such as where you can see her ponytails being pulled together.
One of Misty's key features is those huge ribbons in her hair.
I really like how wispy Max Factory made the tips of her hair. You can see a transparent effect at the tips.
Her little heart shaped earrings are nicely done. That's a pretty feminine accessory considering that she's a pirate!
She has nice detail on her collarbones, and the straps on her bikini are uniform in size and they appear suitably taut.
The ruffles on her bikini top are cute, and I like how you can see the material of her bikini top stretching ever so subtly.
You can see a suggestion of her ribcage.
I like the sculpt of her stomach; she looks quite fit.
The shot below illustrates possibly the biggest flaw with the figure. The ribbon on her bicep is not flush with the rest of her arm. Granted, it's not obvious unless you're looking at her close up, but it's still there.
Max Factory gives Misty cute pink fingernails.
Misty wears a very low-rise bikini bottom. The red and white geometric patterns are faithful to the original illustration, and a neat feature to boot.
The painting on her bikini bottom is not 100% symmetrical. Plus, the tiny bottom is pretty sexy!
The straps on her bikini bottom have some depth to them; they're not just carved out of her torso, so that's a nice touch.
Her shoulders are nicely sculpted.
Another key feature of this figure is Misty's thong bikini bottom.
The way she's slightly twisting her torso, you'd expect a little asymmetry in her butt cheeks; this is another nice subtle detail.
The way she's arching her back a little bit and the thong just makes her ultra-sexy. I'm tempted to display her facing backwards!
One small complaint is that the thong kind of pulls a disappearing act.
Nice calves.
I like the design of her strappy sandals.
Base----------7/10
I have mixed feelings about Misty's base. As indicated earlier, it's a little bit more flimsy than I expected. Since it wanted to bend a little bit while attaching her, I really hope that it will hold up long-term.
The sand effect is executed pretty well, though. For contrast, here is Misty's base together with a figure where the sand effect was not so well executed. Can you identify it?
View spoilerIt's Kotobukiya's Ichika Takatsuki ITEM #117391 .
So, the base looks good, but I have some concerns about its stability long-term.
Scale Comparison
Misty is 9 inches (23 cm) in height, and her base adds about another 1/4 inch to that. I estimate her three sizes at about 4.75-3-4.5 inches (12-7.5-11.5 cm). At 1/7 scale, that would make her about 5'3" and about 33-21-32 (84-53-81 cm), which seems consistent with her design. It is worth noting that she will take up some space on the shelf, since her twintails span 8 in (20 cm) at their widest point.
Here is Misty together with Amakuni's Lucifer ITEM #161925 and Alphamax's Sena Kashiwazaki ITEM #106566 . Both of those figures are also listed at 1/7. Blonde+bikini is one of my collector's weaknesses...
Mina Tepes ITEM #27853 shares many design similarities with Misty. Actually, it might be the other way around, since the Dance in the Vampire Bund franchise has been around since 2005.
A collection of candidates for a "display 'em backwards" shelf.
For purposes of scale, Elyse ITEM #5864 is 1/8, Maia ITEM #944 and Ayane ITEM #419 are both 1/6, and you can see that Misty is in fact 1/7 scale.
Overall verdict and enjoyment----------9/10
Arguments for: Interesting swimsuit design, her wispy hair, the red, white, and black colors on her outfit are consistent with her character design, and that thong!
Arguments against: Rather odd box design which tends to obscure her from view, iffy base, getting her pareo in place can be mildly frustrating, paint transfer concerns in that area.
I was very interested in this figure when it was first announced, then the promo shots seemed a little lacking, but then when official shots of the figure started trickling in, I could tell she was going to be nice and overall she is. I have a weakness for blonde characters, and so that finally convinced me to get her, and I'm glad I did; despite some flaws she looks quite spectacular sitting on the shelf.
Availability (as of this writing)
Easy to find.
As I write this, HLJ still has some new. List price is 10000 yen, and I picked her up from AmiAmi new for 8300 yen although she's now sold out there. I've seen her pop up a couple of times preowned, and about 8000 yen is what she's going for preowned. Quite a few figures from the Shining franchise seem to hold their value or appreciate, so it's hard to say what will happen to her price in the future. Keep in mind that big box might make her costly to ship, though.
THANKS FOR READING!
If you liked this review, here are some of my other reviews you might also find interesting:
Wave 1/8 Elyse (Oretama) BLOG #17530
Amakuni 1/7 Lucifer (The Seven Deadly Sins) BLOG #17632
Kotobukiya 1/6 Mina Tepes (Dance in the Vampire Bund) BLOG #16798
Alter 1/6 Maia Mizuki (Daphne in the Brilliant Blue) BLOG #12215
Alphamax 1/7 Sena Kashiwazaki (Haganai) BLOG #9423
Gift 1/4 Hayate Yagami (Nanoha StrikerS) BLOG #19675
Alter 1/6 Muse of Range Murata BLOG #17400
Comments34
Thanks!!
I can't believe it's been 4 years already since I wrote this article.
Even after all that time, Misty is still one of my favorite figures. Her character design really appeals to me with her blonde hair and twin ponytails, there's the Tony Taka factor, and the red parts of her swimsuit really draw the eye.
Thanks!!
Plus, the ribbon stands out more if she is displayed without that gigantic skirt. Of course, the skirt also hides some of her best features :) .
victorviper • 8 years ago • #3088800Maia is another highly underrated old figure :).
Maia is another highly underrated old figure :).
You have a good eye for combos. Once Elyse and Misty come in I will be able to make the same combo show with Maia and Ayane. Well almost the same because for Ayana I have the other variant ITEM #26219.
victorviper • 8 years ago • #3088257You know, I never really paid too much attention to the ribbon on her thigh. It might look bigger than it is because her bikini bottom is extremely skimpy by comparison.
She really is great to look at up close. Her stomach is quite attractive, and with the thong, the little bit of underboob, and the Tony factor, it makes for quite an attractive package!
Hard to go wrong when both Tony and Nanako are involved. I agree with you that the tong pulling a disappearing act, just like is the case with Silfietta, is a bit of a disappointment but biggest issue with the figure is the ribbon on her left leg which I think is too big. However, she has more than enough goodies to make up for that. I also like the subtle curve in her tummy, something I have noticed on some of Nanako's other figures. It adds a touch of realism and sex appeal.
You know, I never really paid too much attention to the ribbon on her thigh. It might look bigger than it is because her bikini bottom is extremely skimpy by comparison.
She really is great to look at up close. Her stomach is quite attractive, and with the thong, the little bit of underboob, and the Tony factor, it makes for quite an attractive package!
Hard to go wrong when both Tony and Nanako are involved. I agree with you that the tong pulling a disappearing act, just like is the case with Silfietta, is a bit of a disappointment but biggest issue with the figure is the ribbon on her left leg which I think is too big. However, she has more than enough goodies to make up for that. I also like the subtle curve in her tummy, something I have noticed on some of Nanako's other figures. It adds a touch of realism and sex appeal.
Well, when she's wearing her pareo, she's actually quite tasteful and non-pandering for a beach figure. Maybe that will make the sell easier...