EccmyHello everyone!
This is my very first figure review. As such, it'll not be perfect. I strive to improve myself, so please do not hesitate commenting, and pointing me out eventual mistakes and stuff I could improve on!
Lately, I've teased about this incoming review in this blog BLOG #11523.
I think I'm way too transparent: a large majority of the voters guessed correctly which figure I would review. (I see Meer got a good number of the remaining votes: I think it would be a good idea reviewing her in the future)
So, here were are. Today's figure review will be about:
Tokimeki Memorial 15th Anniversary 1/6 Figure:
Shiori Fujisaki and Hikari Hinomoto
I'm going to give some background info about the figures first. If you want to jump straight to the review in itself and its photos, please go ahead.
And speaking of the photos, there are a lot of them (about 100 of them). I'm going to put them under spoiler tags to save space and reduce loading time; however, make sure to have a connection solid enough to load them!
Figures' data
* Classification: Pre-painted PVC figure
* Characters: Shiori Fujisaki ENCYCLOPEDIA #2567, Hikari Hinomoto ENCYCLOPEDIA #2578
* Series: Tokimeki Memorial 1 (ENCYCLOPEDIA #24 Shiori), Tokimeki Memorial 2 (ENCYCLOPEDIA #25 Hikari)
* Manufacturer: Konami ENCYCLOPEDIA #7630
* Sculptor: Zenko ENCYCLOPEDIA #8241
* Materials: PVC, ABS, Stainless steel (main figure), ABS (base), PVC (seashell and starfish)
* Size: 1/6 scale, total maximum height 277 mm (base: 22 mm, Shiori: 255 mm, Hikari: 248 mm)
* Release data: Konamistyle webshop exclusive, 2010/02/25
* Retail price: 15000 yen
* Catalog ID: CR173
* JAN: 4988602147742
About the figures: Series' overview
Tokimeki Memorial (ときめきメモリアル), also known as Tokimemo, is a Dating Sim franchise by video game publisher Konami. The first game, released in 1994 on PC-Engine, was actually a low-profile game. Thanks to word of mouth and the fact it attracted not only the intended male audience, but also the female one (thanks to the game's overload of funny and romantic moments), it quickly became a surprise hit, and a lifesaver for Konami, who was at the time facing financial difficulties.
Seeing the potential in the franchise, Konami started a then-unseen-before massive character merchandise marketing campaign, and created a chain of character goods stores to sell them, the Konamilook stores (which are basically the ancestors of the current Konamistyle shop).
The franchise saw a golden age from 1995 to 2001, during which the Kirameki Saga (Tokimeki Memorial 1 and its related games) and the Hibikino Saga (Tokimeki Memorial 2 and its related games) were released and exploited. Many games, albums, drama CDs, and goods were released, as well as an OVA and a (in name only) movie.
Unfortunately, things came to a crash around 2002, after the flop of Tokimeki Memorial 3. The series survives to this day, but through its other branch, the very successful female audience-oriented "Girl's Side" (initially released around the same time as Tokimeki Memorial 3). Konami released Tokimeki Memorial 4 during the franchise's 15th anniversary in 2009, but quietly stopped supporting it two years later.
The Tokimeki Memorial series is, to sum it up, a lost legacy. It left major imprints to both the Dating Sim and anime genres and business; imprints which are unknown to western audiences, as, not only the franchise is now old (it'll reach its 20th anniversary next year), it also never saw any release in English, aside from recent fan translations of the Girl's Side games.
(I could go on and on about that topic, but I'll stop here. Maybe I could write a blog about it in the future, if you're interested?)
In Tokimeki Memorial games, you play as a freshman in a Japanese High School. The games' High Schools (generally) have a place of legend in which you'll be able to form an eternal bond with a character of the opposite gender as yours, if you receive that character's confession of love on Graduation day. So during 3 years, you hafta organize your schedule so you can improve your stats, meet characters, and date them in order to get closer to them.
About the figures: Characters' profiles
Shiori Fujisaki (藤崎 詩織)
The central heroine of Tokimeki Memorial 1, and of the Kirameki Saga in general.
Size: 158 cm / Birthday: determined by player / Blood type: determined by player / 3-sizes: 85-57-86 (in 3rd year) / Hobbies and interests: listening classic music, collecting hairbands.
Childhood friend of the game's protagonist (aka the character you play as), they were extremely close until some events (shown in the last Kirameki Saga game, Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series vol.3: Tabidachi no Uta) got them somewhat estranged. Near the end of Junior High, the protagonist starts to harbor feelings of love towards her, and decides to work hard to enter the same High School as her, the prestigious Kirameki High School. Being your average ordinary guy, he makes it, but barely. From then on, it'll be up to you if you decide, during those High School years, to woo another of your eventual classmates, or to pursue Shiori --if you can succeed in doing so, that is.
Indeed, Shiori is the archetype of the perfect girl: extremely pretty, kind, helpful towards others, very popular among her peers, excellent at both academics and sports, yadda yadda yadda... But while she doesn't really mean it, she also comes with a somewhat "unreachable princess" attitude. You see, her ideal boyfriend type would be someone just as perfect as her, so if you want to get her ending, better work hard on ALL of your stats and be very steady with her date-wise. In the initial stages of your relationship, she'll even tend to snub you (although mostly out of fear of rumors).
She's best friends with the shy Megumi Mikihara ENCYCLOPEDIA #2577.
To say that Shiori was/is an extremely popular character is an understatement. She's the poster girl of the whole franchise, got an official fan club, had a lot of cameos in various Konami games (and so far, is the first and only Tokimeki Memorial character to have appeared in person in a Konami game released in the West, Otomedius Excellent (View spoilerStressing "appearing in person", as Kaori Yae ENCYCLOPEDIA #2584, a very popular Tokimeki Memorial 2 character, got an earlier cameo in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in the form of her name written on a collectible Dog Tag.)), and was even marketed by Konami as a virtual idol, years before Hatsune Miku!
Hikari Hinomoto (陽ノ下 光)
The central heroine of Tokimeki Memorial 2, and of the Hibikino Saga in general. (Note: Tokimeki Memorial 2 takes place 5 years after the original game, but in a different town and High School, and with a whole new cast).
Size: 157 cm / Birthday: June 25th / Blood type: A / 3-sizes: 83-57-85 (in 3rd year) / Hobbies and interests: cycling, collecting small items made of glass.
Like Shiori, she too is the childhood friend of the game's protagonist, and they too were extremely close in their child days. However, 8 years before the start of the game, the protagonist's parents suddenly moved away, obviously taking him along with them. Hikari, who always had a crush for him, was left heartbroken and never could forget him. So when he moved back to Hibikino Town in the game's prior and met her on the first day of High School, she was tremendously happy. The protagonist, who also starts with some interest towards Hikari, can then choose to pursue her, or go for another of his potential female classmates...
The game's developers created Hikari as an antithesis of Shiori, and it shows. Unlike Shiori, she's an extremely reachable girl. Average academics-wise, but very energetic and athletic: she loves running and as such, is a member of the Track and Field club. A pure ball of radiance, she's one of the sweetest and selfless girls in the Tokimemo series, and one of the most lovestruck towards the protagonist too: you're most likely to finish the game with at least her ending, unless you're an asshole with her on purpose. This is a double-edged sword though, as she can easily become jealous, and as such is an hindrance if you're targeting another girl than her (gaining her a reputation of being a yandere-of-sorts among some fans). Her selflessness can also be portrayed as a flaw in the story, as she's unwilling to grab her happiness if it means snatching away someone else's (especially if it's her best friend's, Kotoko Minaduki ENCYCLOPEDIA #2579), and thus she can hide her turmoil behind her smile.
Hikari too was a very popular Tokimemo heroine. She and Kaori Yae ENCYCLOPEDIA #2584 were the two most popular Tokimemo 2 heroines, and as such were given the most focus merchandise-wise.
About the figures: Conception context
This 1/6 scale pre-painted figure set was planned as one of the crown items inside a line of goods commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Tokimeki Memorial franchise, in 2009. Especially notable, given that Konami isn't known for making a lot of scale figures (when they make figures, it's nearly always prize ones), and that the last Tokimeki Memorial non-garage kit (or garage kit-based), non-prize official figure date back to 1998!
Its commercialization initially wasn't guaranteed, though. It was a Konamistyle webshop exclusive (it was open for pre-orders on June 1st 2009), and Konami would produce it only if 1000 pre-orders were secured on the website by the day of pre-orders closure, October 29th 2009. Fortunately and obviously, that condition was reached.
Konami commissioned Zenko as the sculptor of this figure set. He's the one who sculpted Kotobukiya 4-Leaves Misaka Mikoto Maid ver. ITEM #61678, Wave Dreamtech Erika Sendou ITEM #3132, Native Sonico Bath time ver. ITEM #61448, and SEGA Yui Hirasawa Windmill ver. ITEM #61622 among others.
The figure set was based on this artwork:
The review
Given that, not only I'm actually going to review two figures rather than one, and I'm going to show the figure set's box and the shipping parcel too. I'll divide the review in several parts.
Part 1: Parcel, box and contents
The copy of the figure I'll review is one I got from Mandarake. Its rating was "inner blister unopened, box damaged". The figure set's box is quite big, so I wasn't sure if it would fit the SAL limits. I mailed Mandarake, who checked and ultimately told me it would fit (although barely). And it did. Here are a few photos of the parcel:
The parcel sure has seen better days. Fortunately, the figure set's box was okay.
I put my copy of Tokimeki Memorial: forever with you (PS1 version) for size comparison purposes.
There's a little padding on the horizontal sides...
But none on the vertical sides!
Even on the horizontal sides, the padding isn't very thick.
I think I'll submit that figure set on the "Just right without much padding" thread club/1083/discu....
The figure set's box was put in bubble wrap. Below is a few photos with the game put alongside it for size comparisons.
Photos of all sides of the figure set's box.
The box indeed wasn't in pristine state for sure, but it's good enough to me:
Photos of the box's contents.
A flyer explaining how to change the arms' parts. Very helpful in Shiori's case, as her arms part isn't the easiest to remove.
The figure set's base. It can be separated in two thanks to a sliding system, allowing to display the two figures separately.
Below the base.
Now for a few close-ups of the figures still in their blister pack. Since my copy had its blister unopened, it still had the protective plastic sheets meant to prevent paint transfers.
The figures come with two accessories, a seashell and a starfish, meant to be put on the base. Since they don't have a specific spot on the base to be put on, they tend to easily fly in many places if you move the figures around. It's a hassle and I risk losing them, so I decided not to display them and to keep them in the box.
All of the figures' parts.
Note that both Shiori and Hikari have long and rigid stainless steel pegs. I think that'll be useful in future outdoors photos, they'll probably be easy to plant in the ground and make them stand up without the base.
Now, let's go examine the figures in detail!
I'll start with Hikari.
Part 2: Hikari's figure review
As an opening, here are a few shots of her whole body in various angles.
I'll mainly show the arms part used in the artwork.
And a few shots of her alternate arms part.
Yup, she looks good. An all-yellow bikini would have suit her better though, rather than that striped white one, IMO. It would have made a better contrast with Shiori too.
A few close-ups of Hikari's head and hair.
There's quite an horrible seamline at the breast section, where the arms parts lock into. It's less visible with the alternate part: me thinks the figure is more intended to be displayed with the arms parts allowing for Hikari and Shiori to hold hands.
I spot a few white specks on her bangs here. Looks like that wasn't painted correctly enough.
Here's your typical "seamline where the front bangs join with the rest of the hair". It's not terribly bad though, IMO.
And another few paint botching on the back of her head. It's on the back so normally I won't see them, and you need to look closely to notice them.
The left side of her front bangs also have some paint bleeding. The eyes look good, but for some reason, the white of her eyes feels transparent and let see her skin color...
Also, I'm disappointed that her beauty mark is just a dot painted under her eye, and not an actual mark.
That said, the hair has some nice colour shading, and the faint blush on her cheeks is a nice touch.
Close-ups of Hikari's hands, feet and legs.
The fingers look like they're glued together. However, the nails are nicely done.
The feet on the other hand, are flawless. The details on the toes are awesome!
The back of Hikari's knees also have details. Excellent work there!
And to conclude with Hikari's individual review, some close-ups of various sections of her body.
Yeah, that seamline at the breast really is conspicuous. They could have made a better job with that arms part.
I like how the bikini's straps (and the bikini in general) aren't just painted over her body, and actually bite into her skin.
The left leg has a bad assembly job at the bottom bikini section. Will show you some close-ups later. For now, let's focus on her breast section.
See? With her "holding hands" arms part, the seamline is much less visible! At least that's a plus, as I don't like her other arms part, her pose with it looks stupid IMO.
And another close shot of her seamline with the standard arms part.
The paint job of her bikini's stripes isn't perfect. It bleeds slightly on the outer part of the green stripe, and between the yellow and orange ones.
And another view of the standard arms part's seamline, this time from the back. That said, there's some very nice sculpt details on her back and her buttocks.
Gah, an other seamline on the top of her bottom bikini. And the stripes' paint job isn't perfect here either, note the obvious bleeding of the yellow stripe at the middle.
On to the major flaw of this Hikari figure: the front side of the bikini bottom. For starters, on the outer left.
The assembly job between the bikini and the left leg is bad, at least on my own copy. It looks like there's some glue left on it!
And the outer right side isn't exactly spared either.
Fortunately, all those bottom bikini flaws are only really visible if you look closely. In my case, since I'm displayed her at mid-distance view, that's not a problem. And I dunno, maybe that's just my own copy that had quality check failure.
Part 3: Shiori's figure review
Now, on to Shiori!
First, some shots of her whole body.
For some reason, that shot turned red-ish. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Urgh, that arms part seamline, on this figure too! :/
She's a nice looking figure too. And her bikini style fits her well, IMO.
Some close-ups of Shiori's head and hair.
Again, the hair has some nice color shading and the face looks nice. However, here too, the front bangs have some light paint issues. They are much less visible than Hikari's, though.
The eyes too are well done, and unlike Hikari's, are perfectly painted.
The top of her head also has a few paint issues. The hairband in particular has a small blotch in its painting. Nothing too worrying though, it's only visible when looking really close.
The back of her hair looks really, really good. No complaints here.
Obvious "seamline at the front bangs/rest of the head joint" is obvious. To be honest though, it's only visible from that side, the joint was otherwise well done.
Now, a view of Shiori's hands, feet and legs.
Same comments as Hikari: hands' fingers look like they're glued together, but have nice nails details. Feet are very well done, with nice details on the toes. Legs are well sculpted, with nice details on the front and the back of the knees.
And, to conclude with Shiori's individual review, some close-up shots of various body sections.
She looks good overall on this shot.
However, here you can notice a major paint blot around the tip of the ribbon's left side.
Close-up of her bikini top. Not bad, but the paint job could have use some more finishing touches, I see some small paint dots.
Seamline at the arms part section. That one isn't bad...
But that one, on the other hand, is way more visible.
A good point I notice on this photo though: the paint job, while not perfect on the hair and the clothing, is excellent on the skin. It's really smooth.
While I was at it, I took a shot of Shiori's head without the long hair piece. The arms part seamline is even more obvious at the neck section: thankfully it's completely masked by the hair. The back of her bikini strap also has some paint issues, also masked by the hair.
It's like they had some trouble painting and assembling that bikini bottom section for these figures. Shiori suffers the same problems as Hikari in this regard, although in her case it's not as bad.
The side ribbon on her bikini bottom too has paint dribble issues.
Like with Hikari, The paint flaws on Shiori are only visible when closely inspecting the figure. If you look at it from a small distance like I do, you won't notice them.
Part 4: Shiori & Hikari together / Comparison with other figures
The two figures can be displayed individually, but let's face it: they're meant to be displayed together as a set. Half a base for a figure just looks ugly, and they look good when they're back-to-back.
So, a few shots of them together:
With their "holding hands" arms parts.
This is the way I display them in my figure cupboard. I just don't like Hikari's standard arms part.
And now, some comparisons with other figures.
I currently have two Hikari figures, the other being Yujin's Hikari White Panties ver. ITEM #15213 .
It's a figure made in 2000, so the quality difference is quite abysmal:
Their size is also way different. Yujin Hikari is 15 cm tall.
However, I find them adorable in those two photos. They look like loving sisters *~*
And here, comparison with a recent and popular figure (so that most of you can easily have a comparison idea), Alter's Saber Dress ITEM #133946 :
With those two photos, it becomes obvious none of the three are scale-correct.
Knowing that Shiori is 158 cm tall, Hikari 157 cm, and Saber 154 cm, if they were really 1/6 and 1/7 scale, their figures would be respectively 26,33 cm, 26,16 cm, and 22 cm; and look! Hikari is much smaller than Shiori (instead of being only marginally smaller), and Saber is basically the same height as Shiori!!
Notes and final impressions
So, how would I rate this figure set?
Here are my notes and impressions.
Sculpting: 8/10
A pretty good sculpting job overall. The figures look smoothly done and are lovely, they have a nice "sexy cute" vibe.
Two flaws to note however: 1) the standard arms parts don't seem to fit 100% in the figures, leaving some big seamlines; it looks like they were more meant to be displayed with their "holding hands" arm parts, and 2) the assembly job of the legs with the bikini bottom section leaves something to be desired, especially in Hikari's case. Of course, it may just be my own copy alone that has this problem.
Painting: 7/10
The paint job is a severe mixed bag. It's excellent regarding the figures' skin and some parts of the hair: I have no complaints in those cases. However, it's obvious there wasn't enough finishing touches and QC on the bikinis (both top and bottom, bottom being the worst offender) and other parts of the hair. That said, it's an issue only when you inspect the figure real close.
Posing: 8/10
Well, nothing remarkable to say here. They have some pretty run-of-the-mill poses. I do dislike Hikari's standard arms parts though, it makes her look silly. The other arms parts, where she raises only one fist, is a good compromise.
Base: 8/10
Not the most original base eeeeever, but not something like the despised Griffon bases either :p
The beach replica and the writings on it look alright. It can be separated in two with a sliding system, allowing the two figures to be displayed separately. I would have loved that the seashell and the starfish had a specific spot to put them in, so they stay stable on the base, but hey. My only real gripe with that base, it that it's huge. Its diameter is 18 cm, so it eats up a lot of space in my figure cupboard (its dimensions are 90 x 30 cm).
Packaging: 8.5/10
That figure set was a Konamistyle exclusive on top of being one of the crown items celebrating the franchise's 15th anniversary, so to give the package a limited, royal look, they went with golden writings and logos on top of shiny black. And it does look really good. The downside of this, is no plastic windows, so you can't see the figures without opening the box.
Enjoyment: 10/10
For Tokimeki Memorial fans, the release of such a scale figure, at a time where figure making had vastly improved since the late nineties where the series was originally released, was a gift from the heavens. So yes, I have tons of enjoyment with that figure. I've made constant nagging and nitpicking about it, sure, but so to avoid falling in the trap of fanboyism. It was one of my Holy Grails, and I'm very glad to own it now.
To sum it up, it's far from being a perfect figure, and it would have enjoyed some better QC (and I would love to see other, better figure companies than Konami, like Alter, GSC or Kotobukiya, getting commissioned to make other scale Tokimemo figures), but it's still a really nice figure worthy of being included in anyone's collection, especially if you're a Tokimemo fan, or a fan of girls in swimsuits (or a fan of red-haired girls too!).
Where to buy
That figure set was a Konamistyle webshop exclusive, was released in 2010, and isn't listed in the Konamistyle store anymore; so the only way to get it now, is through the secondhand market.
It pops up from time to time at Mandarake (where I found my copy) and Yahoo Auction Japan. Current prices tend to vary between 12000 to 14500 yen there, for copies with their inner blister not opened (got mine for 12000 yen, and saw a recent YAJ auction finish at 14500 yen page19.auctions...).
As of December 6th, 2013, Amazon.jp and Plamoya have them too, but at prohibitive prices: 21600 yen and 26920 yen respectively. Unless you want them right now, I think you're better off waiting for one to show up at Mandarake or YAJ.
And this concludes my review of the Tokimeki Memorial 15th Anniversary: Shiori Fujisaki & Hikari Hinomoto 1/6 scale figure set. Thank you very much for reading it, I hope you liked it!
This is my very first figure review. As such, it'll not be perfect. I strive to improve myself, so please do not hesitate commenting, and pointing me out eventual mistakes and stuff I could improve on!
Lately, I've teased about this incoming review in this blog BLOG #11523.
I think I'm way too transparent: a large majority of the voters guessed correctly which figure I would review. (I see Meer got a good number of the remaining votes: I think it would be a good idea reviewing her in the future)
So, here were are. Today's figure review will be about:
Tokimeki Memorial 15th Anniversary 1/6 Figure:
Shiori Fujisaki and Hikari Hinomoto
I'm going to give some background info about the figures first. If you want to jump straight to the review in itself and its photos, please go ahead.
And speaking of the photos, there are a lot of them (about 100 of them). I'm going to put them under spoiler tags to save space and reduce loading time; however, make sure to have a connection solid enough to load them!
Figures' data
* Classification: Pre-painted PVC figure
* Characters: Shiori Fujisaki ENCYCLOPEDIA #2567, Hikari Hinomoto ENCYCLOPEDIA #2578
* Series: Tokimeki Memorial 1 (ENCYCLOPEDIA #24 Shiori), Tokimeki Memorial 2 (ENCYCLOPEDIA #25 Hikari)
* Manufacturer: Konami ENCYCLOPEDIA #7630
* Sculptor: Zenko ENCYCLOPEDIA #8241
* Materials: PVC, ABS, Stainless steel (main figure), ABS (base), PVC (seashell and starfish)
* Size: 1/6 scale, total maximum height 277 mm (base: 22 mm, Shiori: 255 mm, Hikari: 248 mm)
* Release data: Konamistyle webshop exclusive, 2010/02/25
* Retail price: 15000 yen
* Catalog ID: CR173
* JAN: 4988602147742
About the figures: Series' overview
Tokimeki Memorial (ときめきメモリアル), also known as Tokimemo, is a Dating Sim franchise by video game publisher Konami. The first game, released in 1994 on PC-Engine, was actually a low-profile game. Thanks to word of mouth and the fact it attracted not only the intended male audience, but also the female one (thanks to the game's overload of funny and romantic moments), it quickly became a surprise hit, and a lifesaver for Konami, who was at the time facing financial difficulties.
Seeing the potential in the franchise, Konami started a then-unseen-before massive character merchandise marketing campaign, and created a chain of character goods stores to sell them, the Konamilook stores (which are basically the ancestors of the current Konamistyle shop).
The franchise saw a golden age from 1995 to 2001, during which the Kirameki Saga (Tokimeki Memorial 1 and its related games) and the Hibikino Saga (Tokimeki Memorial 2 and its related games) were released and exploited. Many games, albums, drama CDs, and goods were released, as well as an OVA and a (in name only) movie.
Unfortunately, things came to a crash around 2002, after the flop of Tokimeki Memorial 3. The series survives to this day, but through its other branch, the very successful female audience-oriented "Girl's Side" (initially released around the same time as Tokimeki Memorial 3). Konami released Tokimeki Memorial 4 during the franchise's 15th anniversary in 2009, but quietly stopped supporting it two years later.
The Tokimeki Memorial series is, to sum it up, a lost legacy. It left major imprints to both the Dating Sim and anime genres and business; imprints which are unknown to western audiences, as, not only the franchise is now old (it'll reach its 20th anniversary next year), it also never saw any release in English, aside from recent fan translations of the Girl's Side games.
(I could go on and on about that topic, but I'll stop here. Maybe I could write a blog about it in the future, if you're interested?)
In Tokimeki Memorial games, you play as a freshman in a Japanese High School. The games' High Schools (generally) have a place of legend in which you'll be able to form an eternal bond with a character of the opposite gender as yours, if you receive that character's confession of love on Graduation day. So during 3 years, you hafta organize your schedule so you can improve your stats, meet characters, and date them in order to get closer to them.
About the figures: Characters' profiles
Shiori Fujisaki (藤崎 詩織)
The central heroine of Tokimeki Memorial 1, and of the Kirameki Saga in general.
Size: 158 cm / Birthday: determined by player / Blood type: determined by player / 3-sizes: 85-57-86 (in 3rd year) / Hobbies and interests: listening classic music, collecting hairbands.
Childhood friend of the game's protagonist (aka the character you play as), they were extremely close until some events (shown in the last Kirameki Saga game, Tokimeki Memorial Drama Series vol.3: Tabidachi no Uta) got them somewhat estranged. Near the end of Junior High, the protagonist starts to harbor feelings of love towards her, and decides to work hard to enter the same High School as her, the prestigious Kirameki High School. Being your average ordinary guy, he makes it, but barely. From then on, it'll be up to you if you decide, during those High School years, to woo another of your eventual classmates, or to pursue Shiori --if you can succeed in doing so, that is.
Indeed, Shiori is the archetype of the perfect girl: extremely pretty, kind, helpful towards others, very popular among her peers, excellent at both academics and sports, yadda yadda yadda... But while she doesn't really mean it, she also comes with a somewhat "unreachable princess" attitude. You see, her ideal boyfriend type would be someone just as perfect as her, so if you want to get her ending, better work hard on ALL of your stats and be very steady with her date-wise. In the initial stages of your relationship, she'll even tend to snub you (although mostly out of fear of rumors).
She's best friends with the shy Megumi Mikihara ENCYCLOPEDIA #2577.
To say that Shiori was/is an extremely popular character is an understatement. She's the poster girl of the whole franchise, got an official fan club, had a lot of cameos in various Konami games (and so far, is the first and only Tokimeki Memorial character to have appeared in person in a Konami game released in the West, Otomedius Excellent (View spoilerStressing "appearing in person", as Kaori Yae ENCYCLOPEDIA #2584, a very popular Tokimeki Memorial 2 character, got an earlier cameo in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in the form of her name written on a collectible Dog Tag.)), and was even marketed by Konami as a virtual idol, years before Hatsune Miku!
Hikari Hinomoto (陽ノ下 光)
The central heroine of Tokimeki Memorial 2, and of the Hibikino Saga in general. (Note: Tokimeki Memorial 2 takes place 5 years after the original game, but in a different town and High School, and with a whole new cast).
Size: 157 cm / Birthday: June 25th / Blood type: A / 3-sizes: 83-57-85 (in 3rd year) / Hobbies and interests: cycling, collecting small items made of glass.
Like Shiori, she too is the childhood friend of the game's protagonist, and they too were extremely close in their child days. However, 8 years before the start of the game, the protagonist's parents suddenly moved away, obviously taking him along with them. Hikari, who always had a crush for him, was left heartbroken and never could forget him. So when he moved back to Hibikino Town in the game's prior and met her on the first day of High School, she was tremendously happy. The protagonist, who also starts with some interest towards Hikari, can then choose to pursue her, or go for another of his potential female classmates...
The game's developers created Hikari as an antithesis of Shiori, and it shows. Unlike Shiori, she's an extremely reachable girl. Average academics-wise, but very energetic and athletic: she loves running and as such, is a member of the Track and Field club. A pure ball of radiance, she's one of the sweetest and selfless girls in the Tokimemo series, and one of the most lovestruck towards the protagonist too: you're most likely to finish the game with at least her ending, unless you're an asshole with her on purpose. This is a double-edged sword though, as she can easily become jealous, and as such is an hindrance if you're targeting another girl than her (gaining her a reputation of being a yandere-of-sorts among some fans). Her selflessness can also be portrayed as a flaw in the story, as she's unwilling to grab her happiness if it means snatching away someone else's (especially if it's her best friend's, Kotoko Minaduki ENCYCLOPEDIA #2579), and thus she can hide her turmoil behind her smile.
Hikari too was a very popular Tokimemo heroine. She and Kaori Yae ENCYCLOPEDIA #2584 were the two most popular Tokimemo 2 heroines, and as such were given the most focus merchandise-wise.
About the figures: Conception context
This 1/6 scale pre-painted figure set was planned as one of the crown items inside a line of goods commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Tokimeki Memorial franchise, in 2009. Especially notable, given that Konami isn't known for making a lot of scale figures (when they make figures, it's nearly always prize ones), and that the last Tokimeki Memorial non-garage kit (or garage kit-based), non-prize official figure date back to 1998!
Its commercialization initially wasn't guaranteed, though. It was a Konamistyle webshop exclusive (it was open for pre-orders on June 1st 2009), and Konami would produce it only if 1000 pre-orders were secured on the website by the day of pre-orders closure, October 29th 2009. Fortunately and obviously, that condition was reached.
Konami commissioned Zenko as the sculptor of this figure set. He's the one who sculpted Kotobukiya 4-Leaves Misaka Mikoto Maid ver. ITEM #61678, Wave Dreamtech Erika Sendou ITEM #3132, Native Sonico Bath time ver. ITEM #61448, and SEGA Yui Hirasawa Windmill ver. ITEM #61622 among others.
The figure set was based on this artwork:
The review
Given that, not only I'm actually going to review two figures rather than one, and I'm going to show the figure set's box and the shipping parcel too. I'll divide the review in several parts.
Part 1: Parcel, box and contents
The copy of the figure I'll review is one I got from Mandarake. Its rating was "inner blister unopened, box damaged". The figure set's box is quite big, so I wasn't sure if it would fit the SAL limits. I mailed Mandarake, who checked and ultimately told me it would fit (although barely). And it did. Here are a few photos of the parcel:
The parcel sure has seen better days. Fortunately, the figure set's box was okay.
I put my copy of Tokimeki Memorial: forever with you (PS1 version) for size comparison purposes.
There's a little padding on the horizontal sides...
But none on the vertical sides!
Even on the horizontal sides, the padding isn't very thick.
I think I'll submit that figure set on the "Just right without much padding" thread club/1083/discu....
The figure set's box was put in bubble wrap. Below is a few photos with the game put alongside it for size comparisons.
Photos of all sides of the figure set's box.
The box indeed wasn't in pristine state for sure, but it's good enough to me:
Photos of the box's contents.
A flyer explaining how to change the arms' parts. Very helpful in Shiori's case, as her arms part isn't the easiest to remove.
The figure set's base. It can be separated in two thanks to a sliding system, allowing to display the two figures separately.
Below the base.
Now for a few close-ups of the figures still in their blister pack. Since my copy had its blister unopened, it still had the protective plastic sheets meant to prevent paint transfers.
The figures come with two accessories, a seashell and a starfish, meant to be put on the base. Since they don't have a specific spot on the base to be put on, they tend to easily fly in many places if you move the figures around. It's a hassle and I risk losing them, so I decided not to display them and to keep them in the box.
All of the figures' parts.
Note that both Shiori and Hikari have long and rigid stainless steel pegs. I think that'll be useful in future outdoors photos, they'll probably be easy to plant in the ground and make them stand up without the base.
Now, let's go examine the figures in detail!
I'll start with Hikari.
Part 2: Hikari's figure review
As an opening, here are a few shots of her whole body in various angles.
I'll mainly show the arms part used in the artwork.
And a few shots of her alternate arms part.
Yup, she looks good. An all-yellow bikini would have suit her better though, rather than that striped white one, IMO. It would have made a better contrast with Shiori too.
A few close-ups of Hikari's head and hair.
There's quite an horrible seamline at the breast section, where the arms parts lock into. It's less visible with the alternate part: me thinks the figure is more intended to be displayed with the arms parts allowing for Hikari and Shiori to hold hands.
I spot a few white specks on her bangs here. Looks like that wasn't painted correctly enough.
Here's your typical "seamline where the front bangs join with the rest of the hair". It's not terribly bad though, IMO.
And another few paint botching on the back of her head. It's on the back so normally I won't see them, and you need to look closely to notice them.
The left side of her front bangs also have some paint bleeding. The eyes look good, but for some reason, the white of her eyes feels transparent and let see her skin color...
Also, I'm disappointed that her beauty mark is just a dot painted under her eye, and not an actual mark.
That said, the hair has some nice colour shading, and the faint blush on her cheeks is a nice touch.
Close-ups of Hikari's hands, feet and legs.
The fingers look like they're glued together. However, the nails are nicely done.
The feet on the other hand, are flawless. The details on the toes are awesome!
The back of Hikari's knees also have details. Excellent work there!
And to conclude with Hikari's individual review, some close-ups of various sections of her body.
Yeah, that seamline at the breast really is conspicuous. They could have made a better job with that arms part.
I like how the bikini's straps (and the bikini in general) aren't just painted over her body, and actually bite into her skin.
The left leg has a bad assembly job at the bottom bikini section. Will show you some close-ups later. For now, let's focus on her breast section.
See? With her "holding hands" arms part, the seamline is much less visible! At least that's a plus, as I don't like her other arms part, her pose with it looks stupid IMO.
And another close shot of her seamline with the standard arms part.
The paint job of her bikini's stripes isn't perfect. It bleeds slightly on the outer part of the green stripe, and between the yellow and orange ones.
And another view of the standard arms part's seamline, this time from the back. That said, there's some very nice sculpt details on her back and her buttocks.
Gah, an other seamline on the top of her bottom bikini. And the stripes' paint job isn't perfect here either, note the obvious bleeding of the yellow stripe at the middle.
On to the major flaw of this Hikari figure: the front side of the bikini bottom. For starters, on the outer left.
The assembly job between the bikini and the left leg is bad, at least on my own copy. It looks like there's some glue left on it!
And the outer right side isn't exactly spared either.
Fortunately, all those bottom bikini flaws are only really visible if you look closely. In my case, since I'm displayed her at mid-distance view, that's not a problem. And I dunno, maybe that's just my own copy that had quality check failure.
Part 3: Shiori's figure review
Now, on to Shiori!
First, some shots of her whole body.
For some reason, that shot turned red-ish. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Urgh, that arms part seamline, on this figure too! :/
She's a nice looking figure too. And her bikini style fits her well, IMO.
Some close-ups of Shiori's head and hair.
Again, the hair has some nice color shading and the face looks nice. However, here too, the front bangs have some light paint issues. They are much less visible than Hikari's, though.
The eyes too are well done, and unlike Hikari's, are perfectly painted.
The top of her head also has a few paint issues. The hairband in particular has a small blotch in its painting. Nothing too worrying though, it's only visible when looking really close.
The back of her hair looks really, really good. No complaints here.
Obvious "seamline at the front bangs/rest of the head joint" is obvious. To be honest though, it's only visible from that side, the joint was otherwise well done.
Now, a view of Shiori's hands, feet and legs.
Same comments as Hikari: hands' fingers look like they're glued together, but have nice nails details. Feet are very well done, with nice details on the toes. Legs are well sculpted, with nice details on the front and the back of the knees.
And, to conclude with Shiori's individual review, some close-up shots of various body sections.
She looks good overall on this shot.
However, here you can notice a major paint blot around the tip of the ribbon's left side.
Close-up of her bikini top. Not bad, but the paint job could have use some more finishing touches, I see some small paint dots.
Seamline at the arms part section. That one isn't bad...
But that one, on the other hand, is way more visible.
A good point I notice on this photo though: the paint job, while not perfect on the hair and the clothing, is excellent on the skin. It's really smooth.
While I was at it, I took a shot of Shiori's head without the long hair piece. The arms part seamline is even more obvious at the neck section: thankfully it's completely masked by the hair. The back of her bikini strap also has some paint issues, also masked by the hair.
It's like they had some trouble painting and assembling that bikini bottom section for these figures. Shiori suffers the same problems as Hikari in this regard, although in her case it's not as bad.
The side ribbon on her bikini bottom too has paint dribble issues.
Like with Hikari, The paint flaws on Shiori are only visible when closely inspecting the figure. If you look at it from a small distance like I do, you won't notice them.
Part 4: Shiori & Hikari together / Comparison with other figures
The two figures can be displayed individually, but let's face it: they're meant to be displayed together as a set. Half a base for a figure just looks ugly, and they look good when they're back-to-back.
So, a few shots of them together:
With their "holding hands" arms parts.
This is the way I display them in my figure cupboard. I just don't like Hikari's standard arms part.
And now, some comparisons with other figures.
I currently have two Hikari figures, the other being Yujin's Hikari White Panties ver. ITEM #15213 .
It's a figure made in 2000, so the quality difference is quite abysmal:
Their size is also way different. Yujin Hikari is 15 cm tall.
However, I find them adorable in those two photos. They look like loving sisters *~*
And here, comparison with a recent and popular figure (so that most of you can easily have a comparison idea), Alter's Saber Dress ITEM #133946 :
With those two photos, it becomes obvious none of the three are scale-correct.
Knowing that Shiori is 158 cm tall, Hikari 157 cm, and Saber 154 cm, if they were really 1/6 and 1/7 scale, their figures would be respectively 26,33 cm, 26,16 cm, and 22 cm; and look! Hikari is much smaller than Shiori (instead of being only marginally smaller), and Saber is basically the same height as Shiori!!
Notes and final impressions
So, how would I rate this figure set?
Here are my notes and impressions.
Sculpting: 8/10
A pretty good sculpting job overall. The figures look smoothly done and are lovely, they have a nice "sexy cute" vibe.
Two flaws to note however: 1) the standard arms parts don't seem to fit 100% in the figures, leaving some big seamlines; it looks like they were more meant to be displayed with their "holding hands" arm parts, and 2) the assembly job of the legs with the bikini bottom section leaves something to be desired, especially in Hikari's case. Of course, it may just be my own copy alone that has this problem.
Painting: 7/10
The paint job is a severe mixed bag. It's excellent regarding the figures' skin and some parts of the hair: I have no complaints in those cases. However, it's obvious there wasn't enough finishing touches and QC on the bikinis (both top and bottom, bottom being the worst offender) and other parts of the hair. That said, it's an issue only when you inspect the figure real close.
Posing: 8/10
Well, nothing remarkable to say here. They have some pretty run-of-the-mill poses. I do dislike Hikari's standard arms parts though, it makes her look silly. The other arms parts, where she raises only one fist, is a good compromise.
Base: 8/10
Not the most original base eeeeever, but not something like the despised Griffon bases either :p
The beach replica and the writings on it look alright. It can be separated in two with a sliding system, allowing the two figures to be displayed separately. I would have loved that the seashell and the starfish had a specific spot to put them in, so they stay stable on the base, but hey. My only real gripe with that base, it that it's huge. Its diameter is 18 cm, so it eats up a lot of space in my figure cupboard (its dimensions are 90 x 30 cm).
Packaging: 8.5/10
That figure set was a Konamistyle exclusive on top of being one of the crown items celebrating the franchise's 15th anniversary, so to give the package a limited, royal look, they went with golden writings and logos on top of shiny black. And it does look really good. The downside of this, is no plastic windows, so you can't see the figures without opening the box.
Enjoyment: 10/10
For Tokimeki Memorial fans, the release of such a scale figure, at a time where figure making had vastly improved since the late nineties where the series was originally released, was a gift from the heavens. So yes, I have tons of enjoyment with that figure. I've made constant nagging and nitpicking about it, sure, but so to avoid falling in the trap of fanboyism. It was one of my Holy Grails, and I'm very glad to own it now.
To sum it up, it's far from being a perfect figure, and it would have enjoyed some better QC (and I would love to see other, better figure companies than Konami, like Alter, GSC or Kotobukiya, getting commissioned to make other scale Tokimemo figures), but it's still a really nice figure worthy of being included in anyone's collection, especially if you're a Tokimemo fan, or a fan of girls in swimsuits (or a fan of red-haired girls too!).
Where to buy
That figure set was a Konamistyle webshop exclusive, was released in 2010, and isn't listed in the Konamistyle store anymore; so the only way to get it now, is through the secondhand market.
It pops up from time to time at Mandarake (where I found my copy) and Yahoo Auction Japan. Current prices tend to vary between 12000 to 14500 yen there, for copies with their inner blister not opened (got mine for 12000 yen, and saw a recent YAJ auction finish at 14500 yen page19.auctions...).
As of December 6th, 2013, Amazon.jp and Plamoya have them too, but at prohibitive prices: 21600 yen and 26920 yen respectively. Unless you want them right now, I think you're better off waiting for one to show up at Mandarake or YAJ.
And this concludes my review of the Tokimeki Memorial 15th Anniversary: Shiori Fujisaki & Hikari Hinomoto 1/6 scale figure set. Thank you very much for reading it, I hope you liked it!
Comentarios12
Some of those listings (In the pre-owned section on their English page) just show a picture but no title. These draw my interest because these often are rather rare items. This particular listing is one of those without title. The picture just shows a closed box. I wondered what this would be and searched on here. When I found the entry, I noticed that someone had published a review just one day ago!
Interesting review by the way. While it backed up my decision to not go after these figures, I wanted to let other folks who might be interested know about this offer.
How in blazes did you manage to find this?! I've searched for Tokimemo goods on Amiami many times in the past, and this never showed in the search results! And this even now: I just tried to do a search with the keywords "Tokimeki Memorial" and "15th anniversary", and it still doesn't show up!
(EDIT: Never mind, I think I've found the answer. You searched on the Japanese version of Amiami, correct? The set doesn't show up when using the search mode on the English version of the site, while it does on the Japanese version. Silly me, why didn't I think to do that with Amiami, when I do it routinely with Mandarake?! -_-)
In any case, that's an excellent find you did there, and I approve, it's an absolute steal: anyone who's interested in that set should immediately go grab it!
One of the things that I like about the MFC community is that so many users are willing to write reviews, take photos, and share their figure experiences. I know that many times I've been on the fence about whether or not to get a particular figure, and a review on MFC helped me make the decision. Plus, it's a lot of fun to photograph figures and write about them! So, hopefully you'll keep writing reviews as well.
You're welcome. :)
I agree, users' photos and review are really helpful to decide if the figure is worth it, especially with minefields like Griffon. And yes, taking photos of figures is fun! (although at times hard, the sunlight sometimes just don't want to cooperate with you, ha ha :p). Sure, I'll write more reviews in the future, count on me on that one!
shinhawk • hace 9 años • #1872940It was a pleasure reading! Thank you for doing the review. The two of them are some of my favorite Tokimemo characters. :)
Thank you very much, and you're welcome! :)
The "bonus" section of my collection doesn't reflect it (Shiori and Hikari currently are equals in terms of number of goods I own, with 10 goods each), but I like Hikari way more than Shiori, actually. Not that I don't like Shiori. :p Hikari and Saki just happen to be my top two fave Tokimemo chars.
Well, that's a very nice thing to say. Thank you.
One of the things that I like about the MFC community is that so many users are willing to write reviews, take photos, and share their figure experiences. I know that many times I've been on the fence about whether or not to get a particular figure, and a review on MFC helped me make the decision. Plus, it's a lot of fun to photograph figures and write about them! So, hopefully you'll keep writing reviews as well.
I never really think of Konami when it comes to figure manufacturers, but it looks like they did a nice job on these two. Congratulations on finding one of your grails. Isn't it a great feeling?
Thank you! You're totally forgiven, there's so many characters in the whole Tokimemo series it's hard for people not in the fandom to recognize them all. Even more so in the case of characters who appeared in spin-off media like the side story games and the Drama CDs!
It's true Konami isn't primarily known for their figures. Though they do have a line of prize figures www.konami.jp/a..., as well as the Busou Shinki action figure line ENCYCLOPEDIA #329.
Yep, it's indeed a great feeling to finally have them, especially since it's been three years since I wanted them!
Also, I want to give you some special thanks. Your, MAAKIE 's, and KERIPO 's reviews inspired and motivated me to make a detailed review such as the one you see now. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every of your reviews, with my favourites being Alphamax Sena's, the FREEing bunnies (Ryoumo, Mikoto, Kuroko), Kotobukiya Yotsuba Model Kit, and QuesQ Taiga bunny. Keep up the good work!!
I never really think of Konami when it comes to figure manufacturers, but it looks like they did a nice job on these two. Congratulations on finding one of your grails. Isn't it a great feeling?
And since this is a nice intersection between a few interests of mine, I'm just gonna post this link here:
www.dailymotion...
I'm sure you've already seen this Eccmy given your encyclopedic knowledge of all things Tokimeki Memorial, but if not, YOU'RE IN FOR A TREAT. :D And everyone else, you can see the source game being played by the Japanese comedian Shinya Arino, of Game Center CX fame. It's fan-subbed here, and it's one of my favorite shows, a real hidden gem. :)
Thank you very much!
Yes, I know about Game Center CX, and have seen several of their episodes, including the Tokimeki Memorial one! I like those kind of shows, and Game Center CX is one of my faves among them. Thanks for mentioning it!
Foreverzero • hace 9 años • #1871481Trying to find a word..... technical feels about right. Looks good to me and thorough, keep up the good work.
Thank you very much! Yes, it's true I wanted my review to be as methodical and as detailed as possible. :p
Riesz • hace 9 años • #1871527Excellent detailed review!
I played a fan translation of one of the girls side games and really enjoyed it.
Also, maybe you could try using a tiny bit if poster tack to hold the shells on the base?
Thanks a lot! I'm not into the Girl's Side branch, but they are very good games, I'm glad you've discovered the series through one of them and had fun with it.
Poster tack, huh? That's a good idea indeed. I just need to check if I can find one that won't leave glue residue on the base if I want to peel the shells off it. Thanks for the tip!
I played a fan translation of one of the girls side games and really enjoyed it.
Also, maybe you could try using a tiny bit if poster tack to hold the shells on the base?