Alter: Momohime

By
VF
– August 21, 2010

So I finally get around to writing this review of Alter’s Momohime, not that it matters much as there have been tons of reviews of Momohime since her release. So what is it exactly about this figure that have us all excited? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure…

Momohime, by Alter, was released back in July of this year and I swear within the first week there were 5 or 6 reviews of her already! I didn’t even have a chance to open my box yet! o_O Since everyone was (and is) writing about Momohime, I decided to take my time – well, just a little!

When I first saw Momohime, I knew exactly where I wanted to take a picture of her, I can’t say I was all that into this figure when she was previewed but I knew how her pictures were going to turn out. So inspired by the photo challenge, I decided to purchaes her.

Momohime is a character from the Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade. While I have a Wii at home, I never paid much attention to this game (nor knew of its existence) until this figure showed up. Most of the reivews I’ve seen have some background information on the character, so I’ll just leave this part be and focus strictly on the figure.

For some reason, the colour palette and paint style used on Momohime reminds me of Senhime, albeit Senhime has more purple and Momohime has more pink. Maybe it’s the floral kimono thing?! Anyway, Momohime is sculpted by Oboro Muramasa and stands roughly at 21cm in 1/8 scale. The expression on her face is one of the features that I like about this figure, depending on how you look at it, she appears a little pensive or apprehensive. She looks like she’s about to strike yet she’s unsure whether her next course of action is one that she should take. And what adds to this look of hers is that she can be displayed with her sword sheathed or drawn, but I’ll get more into that later.

As a ninja, Momohime is lightly armoured, a little too lightly armoured in certain spots if you ask me. I guess her main line of defense is her two spauldrons (though she doesn’t have plate armour) and her agility. Well, she must be very stealthy too if she’s able to hide from her enemies in bright pink floral attire. At a quick glance, her attire may be simple looking, but if you take a closer look you’ll see there’s actually quite a bit of detail in the sculpt.

Looking at the flowers in her hair, you can see the details in the little petals and shading in the paint work. On her spauldrons the stitching pattern is cleanly painted while there’s a slight texture to the armour plates.

Also, looking at Momohime’s forehead from a lower angle, you can see that Alter actually painted the left eyebrow even though her hair blocks it from view. Now there’s attention to detail!

As mentioned earlier, Momohime comes with the option of displaying her with or without her katana drawn. And with that comes a price that received many criticism from the figure community and reviews. For you see, in order to swap the sword display, you’ll need to swap her left arm. This is where the criticisims come in; it’s unknown why Alter decided not to hide the seam line of the swappable arm as it sits obtrusively in front of your eyes, taunting you. Mocking you.

Personally, it doesn’t bother me all that much, but it is curious why Alter (or the sculptor) didn’t put more attention to this detail, as the seam should be easily blended into the wrinkle of her shirt. In my recent review of Seena, Max Factory / GSC did an excellent job of hiding the seam line under Seena’s bustline.

Speaking of bustlines, Momohime doesn’t really have anything up front – which I didn’t notice until now. Maybe if that green thing isn’t wrapped around her so tightly, it would allow her body to develop a little more? But not all’s lost, perhaps the reason I didn’t notice her lack of front features is due to her rear assets.

I don’t recall seeing any pictures of Momohime from behind in her preview photos, but now that I have the actual figure, damn! Now that’s a short skirt – well, it’s not really a skirt, but it’s short! With the way Momohime is leaning forward, it leaves her rear quite exposed – I’m really surprised Tier didn’t take advantage of this situation in his review. LOL I’m not sure if this should be considered sexy or borderline slutty, either way it takes your imagination for a ride.

I love the details in her stocking / leg wrap; the colour is vibrant with beautiful shading. Typical Alter paint quality, not much else to say about it. :)

Momohime’s katana is rather detailed too, particularly the tsuba (guard). If you look closely at the photo below, you can see that it’s actually the face of a demon. The scabbard is fairly detailed as well with gold outlining at the tips.

With the katana drawn, it looks a little large on Momohime, but I guess she has a strong arm. ^_^ You can slide the katana higher or lower in her hand depending how you want it to look. Momohime also comes with an extra right hand that isn’t holding the scabbard so you have a few options to choose from in the way you want to display her. Personally, I prefer the sword partially sheathed – it looks like she’s in mid jump and about to strike.

Something that deviates from the typical Alter production is Momohime’s base. Instead of a plain white rectangle, Momohime is hoping on some rocks with water flowing in between. This looks great and really adds to the feel of the figure, Alter should really do more interesting bases like this for their figures.

Momohime is a great figure with subtle details that adds to the overall presentation. I would also give her extra bonus points for the revealing rear side. But I still can’t figure out why she’s so popular, she doesn’t have that much fancy design and her colour palette is simple (though elegant). Her face is also beautifully sculpted and presents multiple expressions depending on how you look at it. She comes with different parts so you can choose how to display her, and she comes with a rather interesting base. But still, why is she so pop… oh wait, I think I just answered my own question.

Now, I’ve gotta apologize for this incoherent mess of a review, I’ve been writing this review for the past few days due to the busy schedule at work. Plus most of what I have to say have already been talked about in other reviews, such as the one from Tier, Excelica Meteor, Autaku, Tomopop, HappySoda, Shadonia, and a bunch on MFC. Do a Google search and you’ll get a bunch of other results.

Along with the amount of great reviews, there have been many great pictures of Momohime from the reviewers and fans in the anime figure community. I really wondered what I could do to set my photos apart and I think I’ve somewhat accomplished that with the following pictures. I said before that I knew where and how I was going to take Momohime’s picture when I saw her preview, but what I didn’t know was how it’d turn out. I think they turned out alright in the end, although I can’t say I’m all that satisfied with some of the angles. Placing Momohime in front of the small waterfall meant most of my angles would come from the sides or above, I couldn’t get in front of her nor low enough in some of these shots (a pond was in my way). I was also afraid Momohime might get washed away and get gobbled up by a duck. And since this was in the middle of a park, I didn’t want to freak out the other park visitors. lol

Although the review is rather incoherent, I’m hoping my photos will do Momohime some justice and show just why this figure is so popular. She is definitely one of the more photogenic figures I’ve had the pleasure of taking.