One of the reasons that I love GAINAX's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt are the metric ton of different costumes they put leading gals Panty and Stocking in through out the whole run. I'm especially fond of the realistically proportioned angelic versions of the girls that pops up whenever they activate their weapons. I know the first time I saw that transformation sequence that there I was going to be seeing those angels A LOT in the PVC market.
The first time I got my hands on angelic Panty and Stocking was with Sega's prize figures (reviewed) a couple months back. As nice as they were, there's only so good a prize figure can look compared to a full-priced PVC statue. I anticipated the time I could get my hands on a high grade version of those ladies. Well, that time is now, what with the release of Sen-ti-nel's Metamorphose Panty.
Is Sen-ti-nel's rendition of the raunchy angel all that I wanted in a properly scaled Panty & Stocking figure? Well, you'll have to hit the jump to find out!
Figure Name: Panty Metamorphose Edition
Figure Maker: Sen-ti-nel
Retail Price: ¥8,500
Available at: HobbyLink Japan
As per the usual, we begin with the packaging. Ms. Panty here has quite the nice box! More than just about any other box as of late, Sen-ti-nel's Panty box is nice and bright, with multiple photos of Panty and even one of her sister, Stocking. Note that the two can be posed together, but this particular review is only of the blonde with the diesel libido. You'll have to wait a bit for the gluttonous Stocking to get a Tomo review of her own!
Anyway, Panty's box does a great job of catching your attention, what with its bright colors and dynamic choice of promotional photos. The picture of the pink and white panties on the back of the box should also do a good job of drawing the eye of potential buyers.
Here is what Panty looks like when she's achieved escape velocity from her packaging! Out of the box, you get the figure herself, a stand for what I believe is her hair and the base. Panty is interesting as she isn't particularly designed to be balanced on her base. She's supposed to have her legs wrapped around the pole while she's holding on to pole with her left hand. This creates several immediate problems, which you'll see in the next couple of photos.
First off, Panty's strange center of balance requires a plastic stick to support her voluptuously thick hair. Now, I'm not entirely sure if this is where it's supposed to go for the bust support, but this is where it made the most sense for me. If you have her out of the box for any length of time, you'll see that some sort of external support is necessary. Again, I'll show you what I mean in a sec. For now, I'll move on to additional problems with her posing.
See how her feet are positioned? That doesn't come natural. Setting her up, I had to do a pit of jiggering to her foot to slide into the hole provided on the base. While that is more or less a common thing with PVC statues, what this does is move her into a position where her hand doesn't rest on the pole. So, you'll have her hair held up and her feet in place, but her hand is hovering over the metal bar she's supposed to be using to hold herself up. You'll notice that in a lot of the photos, she's not even touching the bar with her left hand. I'm wondering if that has something to do with the possibility of duel posing with Stocking, but with Panty on her own it doesn't look particularly nice.
Remember how I mentioned the necessity for upper body support two paragraphs ago? This is why you'll need to set up that stick.
Take a close look at her torso, particularly the area where her top and her flesh should be meeting. You'll see the beginning of a separation between the upper half of her body and the lower half. It's clear that Sen-ti-nel knew that if there wasn't something to hold up the back end of the figure, that there was a strong chance that the top half of Panty would topple over. For me, this is inexcusable. We've gotten to point now with figures that we shouldn't have to be worrying about PVC coming apart at the seams, what with the use of stronger glues or proper implementation of ABS. This is something I would expect out of a ¥2,000 to ¥4,000 figure, not something that sets back collectors ¥8,500.
OK, so there are the negatives. There are quite a few, believe me. However, there are some good things about this figure, primarily the sculpt and paint job.
Despite my issues of how Sen-ti-nel put Panty together, this is an exceptionally sculpted and painted statue. While I wasn't sold on it at first, I've come to be quite fond of Panty's face, especially when you compare it to Sega's prize figure.
It's not even close. Both her eyes and her overall expression is greatly improved, with way more attention given to her mouth, eyes and hair. Be sure to check the gallery if you want to see more differences between these two releases, but it's suffice to say that Sen-ti-nel's Panty looks way better.
Moving down her body, you'll inevitably come to Panty's skirt and, well, panties. It isn't easy to make ruffles in skirts look right, but Sen-ti-nel did a helluva job with this staute. Her mini-skirty looks just right, with the proper section popping out between her hands and the pole. As odd and pervy as it may sound, I'm also quite fond of how they sculpted Panty pulling on her undergarments. It adds a sultry, unique twist on the figure and makes the whole package look more dynamic. Be sure to take note of the rings on her hands, as they don't look like plastic blobs that were thrown on. They're nicely painted.
Besides displaying Panty's rather pert posterior, you can see her pulled panties in better detail as well as her sandals. The wings are nicely done so they don't look like extraneous bits of plastic tossed on the back of her heels. I also like how Sen-ti-nel molded and painted the straps that run up her calf and shin. This shot also shows how her foot will pop out of the peg if you're not careful.
So i'm left a bit conflicted here. There are many things that this figure does right. The sculpt and paint job are great, as well as the little details all around her body. Hair, accessories, frills, those all those are done right. However, I cannot fully recommend this figure based off the structural problems inherent with her pose. I'm not a big fan of secondary posts to hold up sections of the figure, but I'm less of a fan of figures coming apart at their seams. What's worse, the torso is already beginning to come off fresh out of the box, before its had any time to actually feel the effects of gravity.
Normally, I try to not see other people's pictures while I'm writing a review, but I had to see if anybody else had the same problems I did. Looking at MyFigureColleciton, I'm seeing that several people had similar issues, so I can see I'm not alone. However, it's entirely possible that I got a lemon. You might luck out and get one without my problems, but I'll have to give out a strong buyer beware!
[A big thank you goes out to HobbyLink Japan for providing Panty for review!]
