Sunday, January 13, 2013

Play Arts Kai Cammy Part 2

That outfit

More images of Play Arts Kai Cammy after the introduction yesterday. ^^












Closeups on the details:





[Head]





[Hair]






[Body]






[Arms]








[Legs]

An absolutely fabulous-looking figure this is. ^^ From the Play Arts Kai series, she is much taller (20cm) than other regular Revoltech or Figma figures. At the same time, because of her character design and origin, she's not the typical Japanese anime girl with long slender limbs (for example Figma BRS2035). ^^ That appearance alone is a very refreshing take in the world of female character figures. ^^ Finally, a fictitious female character whose design is anatomically accurate to an actual human being yet is still very beautiful and sexy. ^^ How is that not a good thing? XD Her really muscular thighs might be off-putting for some, but as a fan of Chunli for so many years, I think Cammy is doing just fine. XD Ultimately, this large figure of Cammy is not just taller, but proportionately larger as compared to other figures too. ^^

That aforementioned large size is a double-edge sword really, since the level of details must also receive a level-up to match the figure's size. For that, it's definitely great to see that the sculpt work, painting and detailing are exceptionally well done for Cammy. The sculpting of her two braided pigtails, body and boots, the superb gradient paint work of her outfit and detailing of her face are definitely the highlights of this figure. The paint work of her outfit is absolutely fantastic. ^^ It's very obvious that it's molded together with the entire torso. The gradient paint work that came after that which highlights her bust, abdomen and spinal area are just fantastic. It's one of the best paint work to create artificial shadow on an action figure that I've seen so far. ^^

Her outfit isn't the only part with gradient paint work obviously. Her boots, gauntlets and even her hair have such paint treatment as well, albeit more subtly done than her outfit that is.

The face sculpt and detailing is another huge attraction of the figure to me. ^^ It's a very beautiful face sculpt with equally great paint work. ^^ Her very nicely painted pupils, couple with her subtly painted lips give this figure of Cammy a very focused combat-ready look. ^^ Chunli wears a thin smile as her default expression, which I really like to see when she's not in any fighting pose. For Cammy however, everything seems to be ready to explode around her so she must be combat-ready all the time. ^^

Impressive things aside, there are some weaknesses to the figure's look as well, unfortunately. ^^; Ironically, perhaps expectedly so, all the joints that would allow Cammy to posed for combat are the element that distorts her look. ^^; The knees look fine from the front, but the double hinge joint on the back is way too outstanding. ^^; The hinge joint embedded inside her armpit looks fine from the front as well, but upon close examination, the round rod-like protruding part is very unnatural-looking. ^^; The issue of exposing joints is especially bad for Cammy, since most of the joints are located at parts not covered by her outfit. ^^;

Speaking of which, the same type of double hinge joint for the knee can be seen on Bayonetta and Jeanne from the same overall action figure series, but they manage to conceal the joints' appearance using their costume design. This is especially apparent for Jeanne. The color separation given to her knees to match her pants is still one of the coolest action figure designs I think. Unfortunately for Cammy, she has no pants like Jeanne's to help conceal all her joints. ^^;

Up next in the review series: a look at all of Cammy's accessories and the articulation design of the figure. ^^

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