Yo-

I already posted this on mfc, but I figured I should occasionally post something here since I visit often enough. Therefore, I bring you a figure I have been waiting for since I saw it go up for pre-order and singlehandedly sucked me into the Vocaloid craze- Max Factory's 1/8th Append Miku scale figure.

And in case the thought "who the hell are you?" crossed your mind, I go by glitchy or Morrow and my life has been consumed by Japanese hobby products. I rate scale figures on five things: Box, Stand, Sculpt, Paint, and Overall Appeal.

*I apologize in advance for my camera's flash. My camera sucks hard and doesn't take coherent pictures without it.

**I don't think I'd normally make such a long review, but as this figure gets unfairly criticized by people who don't have it, I want to set the record straight. I'm not apologizing for the wall of text this time around- we're leaving no stone unturned here.


Packaging: 9.5/10






I'll say one thing: I love this box. It's visually appealing, it's efficient, and it displays the figure well. The front is a window displaying the figure with "Miku Append" written in metallic silver lettering and a picture of Append Miku in the corner. I like the slant in the bottom right corner, I only wish they had mirrored it in the top left as well to balance it out. The left side is a picture of the figure in the position of the illustration the figure was based on and the right side is just a close up shot of the figure, with the same silver lettering on both sides (I accidentally cropped it out on the right side). I also like how there's this interesting floral pattern embossed on the sides. It doesn't have much to do with Miku, but I like it. The back is your standard stuff, with several shots of the figure as well as information on the bottom. The box is smaller than the boxes I see for most scale figures and I'm very happy with it, as it's easy to store and doesn't cost a second small fortune to ship across the Pacific. It makes use of all the available space, unlike a lot of boxes I can think of. The only place this loses points is the material itself, the cardboard feels flimsy in comparison to a lot of the boxes I own, which feel like they hold together a lot better. The box also scratches and smudges easily, which people who display figures still boxed might find annoying. However, the figure itself is unlikely to suffer any problems thanks to its solid inner packaging. Overall, one of the most appealing boxes I've seen in a while, and I've seen a lot of boxes. To me, this one is nearly perfect, and probably the standard I'm going to hold figure boxes to from now on.








The inner packaging is solid and holds the pieces together well. None of them came loose while handling the package. It's a standard front and back plastic mold, secured by those plastic pegs in the mold as well as three pieces of tape on each side. There was even one of those plastic wires I remember having to spend time untying from toy packaging as a kid, and this one was particularly tough to remove because of how it was tied. Fortunately it was no match for my wire nippers, and I recommend everyone have a pair of those handy. They help immensely with cutting small wires and cutting parts out of model kit molds. The inner packaging might've even been a little excessive, but at least Miku is very secure.


Stand: 7/10




Sorry, I need to get all the boring parts out of the way first. Plus, I often begin with constructing the stands since a lot of figures need them. The way I describe Append Miku's stand is... well, it's just that: a stand. It doesn't really add anything to the sculpt and while it certainly isn't the worst I've seen and it beats a plain flat round base any day, it's boring and really doesn't fit that well with the rest of the figure. There are two pegs on the stand that fit into the black part on her back, and from my experience you're more likely to have a difficult time prying her off than getting her to stay on, so she is secure at least. Still, it seems like there should be more, especially in regards to the color; it's just flat black and clear, and the gray parts of the "lights," just don't look good. Why not a pale green like her hair/skirt or pink like the round bits at her hip? Even white or gold would have looked better, why did Max Factory choose a bland color like gray for them? It's not even the same hue of gray as her gloves and stockings. Well, the stand is functional at least, and I like its small size and that it's at an incline instead of flat. Definitely my least favorite part of the figure though.





Sculpt: 9/10






Seeing as how I mentioned that this was the figure that got me into Vocaloid, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'd rate the sculpt high. Thankfully, she was every bit as good as I imagined when I received her. Only minimal assembly is required: just attach her twin tails to her head and the black wire to the slot above where the stand connects (which is really just a cheap plastic strip) and she's good to go. She's 1/8th scale and a little on the small side, but I am actually glad for this because of she were any taller at all, she wouldn't fit on my shelf (she passes 11 inches with the base). The pose is based on the official boxart illustration for Append Miku, and I think it succeeds in that regard. Miku's body contains a lot of elegant curves, and while some might think she's too curvy or has her spine too bent, I like the effect because gives the feeling that she isn't human, which she's not. Her hair helps this feeling along as well, fading from opaque to transparent pale green and giving her a sense of being ethereal or inhuman in some way.





The "clear" parts of this figure look great. Regarding her hair, I do wish the bangs were a bit more disorderly like the original art, and the twin tails of her hair feel cut off in places instead of ending naturally. It doesn't look terrible and you probably won't notice unless you view her from above, but it is jarring, and I thought my Miku was broken when I first saw that. Her bangs also have the "fade to transparent" effect, which was a nice touch and not one I expected on a mass-produced model. The "skirt" is molded in clear plastic as well, giving it that same translucent feel and strengthening the overall consistency of the figure. Miku does have a bit of a seamline where the hair parts connect, but it's unavoidable on a figure like this and thankfully isn't a huge gap and is mostly hidden by the bangs. The twin tails are very light and don't cause the figure to lean, unlike a few Mikus I can think of.




The other problem I had with the sculpt were the feet. While they're sculpted very well and have a lot of detail, they're a size too small. It's a shame because of how well sculpted they are, but it's hard to appreciate them properly when they're disproportionate to the rest of the model. The hands, on the other hand (ow), look phenomenal, some of the best hands I've ever seen on a figure. They're posed elegantly with the fingers splayed open in a very natural way, one of my favorite parts of the figure. Moving upwards, Miku's torso also looks very elegant, with a nice S curve running through it. She even has a slight belly, something I very rarely see in female figures. Her breasts do look a little strange, they're in a position where it makes me expect to see her arms in the air instead of at her sides. It wasn't any sort of dealbreaker for me, but it does make me wish the sculptor had been paying more attention to female anatomy before sculpting gravity-defying tits. These flaws don't bother me that much, but I won't pretend they aren't present.




Append Miku's face was a sore point for a lot of people. Many thought it looked strange in the prototype shots with her eyes being too far apart and whatnot. Thankfully, people made it out to be far worse than it actually is. While Miku's face does look a bit odd from the direct front, she does not suffer from that oddness at pretty much every other viewing angle. Her expression is soft and has a melancholy feeling to it, and I think it works well for this figure. You can also see how Miku's bangs have that transparency going on with them, which is a very nice touch.

Overall, Miku Append is a solid sculpt that effectively conveys the more otherworldly, inhuman side of Miku that is often lost under a sea of moe illustrations. While I like the original Miku, I prefer the look of forms like Append Miku, VN02, and Racing Miku to the typical cute girl look, so I'm glad Good Smile Company and Max Factory occasionally toss a bone to the people who like the more mature side of Miku.


Painting: 9/10




I'm sure you have at least one horror story of buying a figure that looked great in the prototype shots, but had a shoddy paint job when you spent those hard earned (insert currency of choice here) on it. Thankfully, this figure suffers from none of that. In fact, it looks even better than I first thought when I went to look at it again, so it gets high points from me. For the most part there's no paint bleeding, the decals are carefully applied, and the colors are correct. The only notable blemishes on mine were a dirt smudge on her right shoulder and messy paint application of the gold lines on the top of her outfit, as you can see in the upper right photo. She also has a paint ding on her right breast, placed in such a location it makes me think someone in Quality Control was really bored that day. The other iffy thing for me is that she has nail polish on her fingers that are covered by the gloves. This isn't exactly a flaw as it was in the prototype shots as well, but really, who puts nail polish on their gloves? So it's not a flaw, just something that annoys me personally. Overall, an amazing paint job for an amazing sculpt. Max Factory did justice to our Lady Miku.


Overall Appeal: 9.5/10


I'd been looking forward to this figure for months, and Max Factory did not disappoint. I was worried there would be problems with her, especially that she would be top heavy with those twin tails like VN02 was (and that front-heaviness is the reason one of mine now has a single tail instead), but she really went beyond my expectations. I'm very happy with her and personally feel like she was worth every yen. To those of you who were on the fence about buying her or not, do it. I see her go for only 5000 Yen all the time on Mandarake and I wouldn't be surprised if prices get lower in the future. While Append Miku has flaws, and the lack of an interesting stand, they don't break the figure and the good points more than make up for the small amount of flaws. Definitely pick her up if you're a Vocaloid fan, or even if you're not. I wasn't one back when I first pre-ordered her, and look at me now: a total slave to Her glory and loving every second of it.


Final Verdict: GET


Thanks for reading! All of my October/November shipments started arriving recently, so more reviews are forthcoming. Hope you will enjoy them too. Until then! ( ﾟ▽ﾟ)ノ"


For higher res pictures, visit the following link: here
The password is "appenku" (without quotes).

Purchased from Hobby Search