Revoltech Fraulein Mari Illustrious Makinami Part 2

Super unnatural leg joint design
More images of Revoltech Fraulein Mari Illustrious Makinami after the long introduction in the previous posting.






Mari with a very subtle smile. ^^











The paint has a glossy finishing to it, which helps to emphasize the shininess of the Plug Suit, something I like very much about this figure. ^^ Also, all the details of Mari's Plug Suit are very well portrayed: all the different parts are accurately painted, the panel lines are clean, and the markings of "05" on her chest and "5" on the back are clear to see.

Mentioned briefly in the previous posting, the design of Mari's face is not as impressive as that on her Figma equivalence, but it doesn't mean that it's bad per se. From Yoko Movie Ver., a release from the so-called "old" Revoltech Fraulein series, to the more recently reviewed Alleyne from Revoltech Queen's Blade series, Revoltech has done very well in the treatment of female characters' facial design I think. For Mari, apart from the most obvious and important point of being a loyal portrayal of her as seen in the movie, the paint job for her pupils is very nicely done, totally up to par to her much larger RAH 12" equivalence, as you can compare in this previous posting. That was supposed to be a posting showing the sharp details of the RAH version, but this Revoltech Fraulein almost stole the show with her brilliant details at a much smaller scale. ^^

Then again, putting aside the good stuff said about Revoltech Fraulein Mari, ^^; the look of the joints still irks me every now and then. ^^; The joints' functionality has definitely improved since Yoko Movie Ver., as you will find out later in this posting, but the look is quite poor. Some of the highlights (negative ones): Revoltech joint in plain sight behind the head, chunk of part missing near the elbow joint only to be somewhat concealed by the black paint at that area and the really unnatural-looking knee joint. ^^; To be honest, I don't see much improvements in terms of the design of the figure's look after one year of absence for this sub-series, which is disappointing to say the least.

Between appearance and articulation, Revoltech's focus is still on the later it seems. In that sense, female characters that are not in the Fraulein series seem to have better overall look in my opinion. That feeling was there since I first knew of the Queen's Blade series that started in June 2009. Revoltech Yamaguchi through the release of Vol. 72 Reycal Orichalcum, which came out in August 2009 feels like she belongs to the Fraulein line with her excellent look. All the said items came out after Yoko Movie Ver.. After a long time of not seeing any new Fraulein release at that point, I almost thought Kaiyodo had discontinued this sub-series, which was obviously proven wrong at Wonder Festival 2010 [Winter] in February 2010.

I'm not sure why, but for the Fraulein line that should be emphasizing on look of the figures over their articulation and the opposite for the other Revoltech sub-series, only the articulation portion of the argument seems to be justified. ^^;

Anyway, a look at the articulation design of the Fraulein Mari, which is definitely an improvement as compared to the releases from the "old" series:




Each of her pigtails can move independently to the front or back. Flexible, but they have the tendency to pop out when they are adjusted.
The designers for the Figma version probably saw this weakness, so instead of making the pigtails movable, two option hair parts are included instead. ^^


Waist articulation is a huge improvement over the older releases, where bending it forward is now possible but the Plug Suit's look is not affected at the same time.


A Revoltech joint (pink one ^^) for the waist, concealed within a part where the front portion (abdomen area) is soft and bendable.


The rather awkward-looking knee joints. ^^


A huge peg joint at thigh level that can be rotated for 360 degrees!
It's very flexible, and again, a feature not available on the older releases, but it's kind-of creepy to see at the same time. ^^;


The usual Revoltech joints for the hip.



With the combination of the hip and thigh joints, Mari can shown sit down like this ...




... or like this, with her leg crossed. ^^
An introduction on all her accessories:


All the accessories included.


11 option hand units included.
10 of them are paired, plus one right hand designated to hold the phone.


Different color accurately painted for the palm area of the hand units, which is a faithful representation of the design from the movie.


A very small cellphone and the special right hand unit to hold it.
Very clear details for the screen and keypad. ^^


And the design follows the one used by Mari in the movie very accurately. ^^


Option face parts and parts for when"the Beast" is activated.
More images and information about these in the next posting.



Standard display base for the Fraulein line.
Action poses featuring Fraulein Mari in the next posting. ^^