(please read this post: Triad’s Otaku Revisited)

So, these figures are supposed to be the next best thing since sliced bread…

Triad Toys has put them out as the most recent offering in the 1:6 scale fem figure market. Anyone involved with the market knows that it’s been slim pickings for a while, and there hasn’t really been the promise of anything new on the horizon (to make the price point drop anyway).

Triad took pre-orders and decided to to a limited run of 1000 figures per skin tone (slated to have 3 skin tones in total) . IMO The preliminary pictures looked ok. Nothing that I personally would rush out to buy, nor, did I feel, it was something that I’d really kick myself in the ass for later if I didn’t get one. Right now a messa folks are going totally ga-ga over them. But I had my reservations… so much so that I didn’t buy one.

I’ve been seeing a lot of pictures of them in the different action figure forums.

Some good. Some bad.

So, how did I end up with one? I, who thought from the get-go the otaku wouldn’t be my cuppa tea? Serendipity. A kind friend and fellow collector let me have one and I have now gotten it in my hot little hands. What do I think?

Ok, I’m spoiled. I’ll admit it. Between the takara cool girls/ cy girls and the volks dollfies I have I’m expecting a high stardard and level of posability.

Let me start with the plus side as I see it:

• The obvious plus side to it is that it’s 1:6, and its busty.
• It has a pretty sturdy build which makes for some diversity in the figure pool.
• The more 1:6 figures out there the better off we, the collectors are.
• The hands are nicely sculpted (for the most part-they still aren’t really feminine enough for my tastes but what the hell. At least it is another pair to add to the supply bin. (I’m going to see if I can change out the pins so i can stick them on the cy girl hands.)
• whatever resin or plastic the figure is made out of is fairly soft. This is good because it means subtractive modding (such as I have done) is more easily done than with the harder resins and plastics out there.

Now the down sides–as I see them:

• The posability seemed to be an issue from the start. I mean, Triad marketed these figures as the type to primarily display clothes (lingerie) or nothing at all. They lack the waist and bust joints of the takara cy girl 2.0 and I think that’s a major draw back. These aren’t going to be major players when it comes to using them in photostories and displays (at least not without some serious Frankenstein-ing) I like functional toys-if I wanted pretty-but-useless I’d be collecting porcelain dolls or something along those lines.

I’d like to make a point here that right now the torso of the Otaku is similar to that of the original super dollfies made by volks back around 2000. It’s one piece, no joints and limits how the figure can sit and pose. I’m sure volks wasn’t the first company to use the design, and Triad won’t be the last, but I wanted to comment on it anyway.

• They have giraffe necks if you want to put any head on it other than the default head. To fix this requires more patience, and a willingness to sand down the neck, and adjust the pegs a bit. Angryboot has shown some pictures of successful headswap & mods and I can see that being something I’ll try on it eventually)
• They’re smelly. (I know this probably won’t be an issue for anyone else, but I’m very sensitive to smells, especially those of specific plastics & resins (ok and perfumes, and hairsprays & paints …just about everything – LOL) I’ve aired it out for a bit and it isn’t as smelly 3 days later, but it remains to be seen.
• The figure has a problem keeping her legs closed. Seriously. (the plus side to this is that again, the figure is made of carve-able material. See below for the modification outcome).
• The paint ops the body have been given baffle me a bit. I’m not entirely sure if they’re meant to cover the overall tone of color of the resin/plastic body? Or what. IMO I think the color of the resin without the “body paint” is nicer. Certainly without it and using some chalk pastels you could get some nice effects.
• The legs are a bit dumpy and short compared to the body. Proportionally the figure is a bit off. Also, the shoulders are really not the kind that will look good in sweaters!

Ok, some pictures now:

Before leg/crotch area modification: Note: this is the maximum her legs can close while seated!!!!

I know, some folks think that’s fine… But you know me… give me a scalpel and off I go! Yea, I could have screwed it up. But…if the figure doesn’t meet all my needs anyway, what is the harm in trying to improve it?

So here are some shots of her after her “surgery”.

They still don’t close enough for my complete satisfaction so I will probably continue to work on them. However I do think that the current mod is an improvement!

So at the end of the day will I be buying any of the next ones to be released?

Yes. Why? HELL NO!!! Read here: http://corsetkitten.com/blog/archives/447

Because I have found out how soft/easy to carve they are and I think I might end up doing a really sever mod so that my Ayumi can have a decent body. Maybe. It depends…I think the new bodies are coming out at the same time as the new Hot Toys figures. And I know I want those.