I know its been on merchandise before and was on that car racing thingy. I don't usually pay attention to merch because I'm over that stage and my purse is thankful for it. Basically as the guys at VO once heard, I bought a model that got good reviews, back in those days reviewers weren't that numerous and it was sort of "fresh out of the box" so few had time to look at it. I got all giddly about it and bought it. Then I got home and realised, its a poor representation of the figure really.
Looking at racing Miku reminds me how much Miku has become like Barbie dolls, they change her just slightly and all of a sudden its a new figure. And while racing Miku's never been done before, its pretty much got that same feel to it. The outfits nicely painted, however, its not a great outfit and really doesn't suit her very well. Her face is a little scary for some reason, all I see when I look at the photos is two eyes and a mouth, no other figure of Miku has a nose that you barely notice. And the hair looks a bit like she has had a disaster with it and has had to make the most out of it. She looks like she is trying to compete with Black★Rock Shooter, only it works for her because of who she is.
And most important of all, the pose is "typical" of a Miku figure. You know, I'm get sick of Miku's similair poses, it wouldn't hurt to step away from the "legs this far apart and have the spine leaning back" style of posing. At least it shows Crypton's trying to be creative with Miku. I mean VN02, Princess Miku (that "World is mine" one), Miku Append and Love is War figures are about the only 3 that have tried to be different. The rest are all sharing the same repetitive style.
I'm seriously bored of Miku figures. I was glad when Lily got one, at least it was different to Miku's style. But the REAL thing that disappoints me with Miku figures is Kei's style, it doesn't always look right on paper, if they copy it into 3D? World is Mine, Miku Append and VN02 had better eyes, but then its a step away from what Miku's are too much. It seems like theres no defining line between a GOOD Miku figure that properly does Miku justice, so far most in one way or another have something about them that doesn't seem to click as fantastic. The worst Vocaloids to put into 3D is definately the Kagamine's, or at least Len, they really struggle with his hair. Or Luka... Nope, I've yet to see Luka figures (and there are not many) that impress me.
To the Miku fans, I'm sure their all very nice, but to someone whose not... I'm critical of them all perhaps too much. But I find the WESTERN fans who go out of their way to buy these figures are a little bit too drawn in, I'm sure not every Japanese otaku would go nuts over every figure that comes out (I know the same figures that often fail in Japan end up successful in the west because they don't buy every figure) in the same way. I tend to find westerners, being distached from the Japanese way of life, go nuts over things in ways that suprises me, I've seen them scream at figures I've seen fail in Japan. Theres buying Vocaloid figures, and theres looking at what you've bought and deciding if it was worth it. Most figures will end up on a shelf looking pretty for years to come and get ignored. I know, thats what I've done myself. And if its just a passing fad for the buyer... Well theres new figures coming out every few months, a little critical thought towards every figure coming out would go far to help the buyers not waste money on the wrong figures.
For instance... Just because the paint jobs fantasic, and VERY shiny, doesn't mean the model is going to turn out any better.
In fact, I really like the Miku Append and after seeing it in real life I was impressed with it. But it looks so delicate and fragile, and isn't a "true" representation of Miku's Append box despite the nice looking figure and all the detail and the fantasic paint job. In the effort to make sure the eyes were open, they've given her a creepy expression (her eyes are not open from what I see) and the paint job is suppose to be replicating the 3D effect from her CGi image... I wish they'd at least thought a little longer on the colours and how the airspray was going to paint the legs and other places, it doesn't look quite right. And the semi-transparency on the hair, sort of spoilt its paint job a little. Also, again, they refused to step away from Miku's normal poses, the shoulders + spine are mostly the same as every other figure on Miku out there.
Yeah I'm critical at merchandise... "Been there, done that, made that mistake" has haunted me. :-(