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The merchandising power of Hatsune Miku
I remember seeing pictures of these figurines from this year's Wonder Festival (Summer), and was very surprised that they were confirmed for regular merchandise release. I know that the character has been accepted as derivatives of Hatsune Miku, but that doesn't mean the figurines' designs look any less crazy, and almost unrelatable to Miku to me. ^^;


With more images of them up on various hobby stores' websites for pre-order since a few days ago, the details of the figurines become clearer, and potentially disturbing to those who are more used to the cutesy, adorable side of Miku. ^^

H" Calne Ca



H" Ca/Nurse Costume Ver.



Released by Union Creative International Ltd, the two figurines are based off character designs by 3D designer Kotaro Maeda, more popularly known by his alias Deino. If you click through the link to his personal site, you will find that Deino has a penchant for designing interesting, but weird and often creepy artwork. Suffice to say, Calne Ca and Ca are not the only weird-looking designs from him. ^^

Instead of being alternate image of Hatsune Miku, the character is actually Deino's-designed cyborg girl with the skin of Hatsune Miku, hence no reference to the Vocaloid idol's name for the two figurines. Ca, short for Calsium is the name of the said cyborg girl, while Calne refers to Japanese characters "kara" (骸 - corpse) and "ne" (音 - sound), which seem pretty clear in the name's reference to the image of Miku in this alternate design I suppose. ^^

Calne Ca can be seen in a couple of music video developed by Deino, including "Bacterial Contamination" (細菌汚染), ...


Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
... and "machine muzik", ...


Video clip is from Youtube. Follow this link to the website if you can't see anything.
Both videos are filled with other weird 3D designs from Deino. ^^

According to the description on Amiami for Calne Ca, "Bacterial Contamination" received 2.5 million view worldwide since its release, which I suppose is the main indication of her popularity, which in turn prompted the decision for the release of these two figurines. It's definitely a mixture of many factors I believe. Some fans would get it because of the genuine liking for Calne Ca from the videos and Deino's artwork, while some would probably get it because it's (somewhat like) Miku. ^^

Personally, I prefer Miku in the cuteness-overloaded Nendoroid format. XD Then again, I'm looking forward to development of Calne Ca in other merchandise releases after these two figurines, if any. The combination between the weirdness of Calne Ca's design, and the fact that she's also carrying some designs of Hatsune Miku makes her an interesting subject for merchandising. ^^ I really want to see how far the popularity of Hatsune Miku goes when it comes to figurine and action figure release for a weird hybrid design like Calne Ca. ^^

The two figurines are going to be released in late January 2014 at 12,500 Yen (inclusive of tax) each.

Images of the two figurines are from Amiami: Calne Ca, Ca/Nurse Costume Ver., while the first poster are from Union Creative.