Max Factory: Seena Kanon (swimsuit version)

So it’s been quite some time since I’ve updated this section with news or reviews; truth be told, since I got back from vacation I found it really hard to find time to work on the photos and to write the reviews. Work is full of projects and my attention is split between the baby, car and figure collecting. But I’m trying to get back in to the groove now and have started to work on figure reviews again – with that, I present to you the newest figure in my collection, Seena Kanon!

I wasn’t expecting to write about Seena, as I was working on the review for Hattori Kiriko as well as some other figures. But I’ve been procrastinating so much that there have been a bunch of reviews on these other figures already. I was also planning on putting out my Momohime review, but reviews for her have been popping up like daisies lately. So I thought I’d work on Seena’s review first as I haven’t seen any reviews of her yet.

When I first saw this version of Seena, I knew it was an instant winner and pre-ordered her without a second thought. My only gripe is that she’s the first of a set of four(or five- I forget) swimsuit figures that will be released by Max Factory in the near future. And if you’ve been following my reviews you’d know how I hate having incomplete sets. But if Seena is any indication of the quality that this line of figures will be, than I don’t think I’ll mind at all!

I think Seena is the best of all the swimsuit figures in this recent line-up by Max Factory, her pose and facial expression are really cute and she radiates a very carefree attitude. Just looking at her can (and will) make you smile, if she doesn’t, then you’re probably dead inside or a robot.

Seena is captured in 1/7 scale and sculpted by Nanko – I honestly didn’t pay much attention to her scale when I pre-ordered her, so when I received her I was a bit surprised by her size. From head to toe, she’s roughly 24cm tall, so in real life she’ll be around 168cm. I’m not sure how tall she’s supposed to be, but that seems like an average height for a girl – finally a figure company that can do basic math!

I’m not usually into swimsuit figures as I find them rather boring with not much to show. Seena has a very simplistic pose, but one that I find very interesting. She seems to have been captured in the midst of a light stroll at the beach and looking over with a gentle smile. Simple yet captivating! It’s hard to stop looking at her nor find any excuses to say she’s a boring swimsuit figure. Kudos to the sculptor – but oddly enough the sculpts of the rest of the line-up seems a little dull in comparison.

Seena sports a youthful short hair, sculpted as if wind is blowing through it. I’ve been staring at the Orchid Seed Seena for so long that I almost forgot she originally had short hair. Plus she is normally seen with a hat on so it’s a little refreshing to see her hair like this. The hair sculpt is also a little more detailed when compared to the other Seena figures I’ve seen – there appears to be more layers/depth here than the others.

Seena’s bikini is very simplistic, but effective once again with its sculpt and colour scheme. The red and black combination works very well and there’s a little heart logo over the left breast. I’m not familiar with the series, so I can’t say if that logo is associated with Seena in anyway or if it is just a design the artists put there. I like the subtle details in Seena’s bikini, as you can see in the pictures, from the little wrinkles to the edges where the straps connect.

Max Factory also did a great job in hiding seam lines, look at the pictures carefully, can you see the seam line where she separates? I know I can’t! Seena atually separates just below her bustline (like many other figures) in order to take off her skirt. Take into account these are shot using a macro lens, which usually picks up the smallest of imperfections! I’m also glad her breasts aren’t abnormally large but proportionally shaped.

Seena has a great body sculpt with many fine details that are missed on a lot of other figures – you can easily see the contours of her body without having to play around with lighting much. I like the way her torso is sculpted, especially with her stretching slightly backwards showing off her abs.

Seena also have a nice set of legs to go with her body, when I was viewing her pictures on my camera’s LCD, the almost looked real to me. Her legs are unusually long, but that’s the norm with anime figures, not that I’m complaining! One very minor critism would be her toes, without nail polish it looks a little bland. But then again, painters usually mess up on painting nail polish so I guess I should be greatful.

The base is nothing fancy, but at least Max Factory made the base look like sand. Not just a boring white square or circle base *coughtakeahintaltercough*. Subtle details like this really adds to the display value of these figures.

One of the defining features of a bikini figure will have to be the body and ass. Why wear a bikini if you’re not going to show off your assests? It’s common knowledge that anime figures usually receive a less than impression sculpt on their rear end – usually they’re as flat as… well, let’s just say flat! I think most of the figures now are steering away from that stigma, and Seena is no exception. I wouldn’t say her rear end sculpt is extremely perky, but it’s proportional to her body and just round enough that you can say “lookin’ good, Seena!”.

The skirt, as I’ve mentioned earlier, is a cast-off. Separate her just under her bustline and her skirt flips right off the top. I love the design of her skirt though, it’s flowing slightly upwards as if by motivated by wind with the left side opening exposing her leg / hip. It’s rather sexy, if you ask me, exposing just enough to make you think. So even if the skirt is a cast-off, I’ll be displaying her with the skirt on.

If Seena is going to lose any points, it may be the bikini bottom at fault. The paint work on the black line isn’t as smooth flowing as her bikini top, and the sculpt that empasizes the bikini “digging in” to her skin appears a bit like a seam line. But it’s probably the macro photo talking, as you won’t notice this much when looking at Seena in preson.

Speaking of seam lines, I really don’t see any on Seena nor mould lines on her body. I’m not sure about the mould of this figure, but it seems like one piece from her torso down to her feet. She is rather light for her size too, and you’ll know why when you pick her up. Her body appears to be mostly hollow, at least that’s what it sounds like when you tap on her body. It’s like tapping on a plastic tube… *tappa tappa tappa*!

Speaking of a lack of mould and seam lines, this figure is also one of the cleanest figures I have in my collection out of the box! The paint work is clean with minimal overlapping (mainly due to her only having a bikini on), but the figure also lacks paint contamination. There are no black spots on this figure nor scratch marks. Of course, there are some tiny paint transfer from her cast-off skirt, but that’s expected. Maybe I finally got lucky and received a “clean” figure, but I don’t think other collectors will see much deviation from this.

It seems like Max Factory has a pretty good standard when it comes to the assembly line, in fact, my Miku VN02 and Yoko Rittona also seems pretty clean.

Overall, I’m looking forward to the rest of the swimsuit line-up from Max Factory for these Shining Wind figures. Although if I’m only to get one, that one would be Seena. People normally say “save the best for last”, but in this case it looks like Max Factory dished out the best first. Her size is also fairly generous at 1/7 scale – can’t go wrong with this “boring” bikini figure!

Now I’m usually pretty stiff when it comes to a creative background, so this time I thought I’d try something different. You know, to actually use a background! XD I guess I have Tier to thank for the little motivational push. But it’s not just Tier – I browse around pictures on MFC and the amount creativity the community has never ceases to amaze me. =)

So here are some lame attempt at Seena photos with a beach background, hence the warmer filter setting in the photos. C&C welcomed!