Max Factory (or all of Good Smile Company for that matter) has a bad habit of missing release dates on a lot of figures lately. However, if this new gallery is anything to go by they might actually get the new Hibiki Tachibana figma out on time the first time! Imagine that, the first release date is the one that sticks.

Yeah, OK, I'm probably being a little hard on them. Enough about that, let's get a good look at the new Hibiki gallery! MF is really going out of their way to make this one a figma to remember. Coming from the series Senki Zesshou Symphogear, Hibiki has chosen to fight the alien invaders known as the Noise with her bare hands. Despite her stature, Hibiki can display some true brute strength in her punches and kicks. While figma already have an amazing range of motion, MF went the extra mile in order to make sure Hibiki could perform all of her trademark attacks from the show.

You'll notice that the shoulders are now less restricted and have a better forward motion to them. This allows her to bring both of her arms together for what most of us would recognize as a fireball pose. It also lets her do a more natural looking punch. It's little things like this that make a figure stand out above others.

Moving to the hips you might notice they look a little different. Max Factory worked their magic and is using a method of hip design that's gaining popularity with them. The usual hip that most figma have hidden under their skirts is a ball and socket joint with the socket being in a small, ball-shaped cup sitting on a swivel joint. By discarding the old socket they were able to not only reduce visibility of the joint, but also improve the sculpting of the hip and butt making for a better looking sculpt from most angles. They were also able to improve the articulation a little since they had more room to work with. But don't worry, the swivel isn't gone, it's now been moved to the mid thigh where it's hidden at the bottom of her shorts.

One other little trick they used was making the seam for her hair less visible by not only hiding part of it in her headphones, but by making the ear pieces removable and hiding the seam underneath. End result is a head sculpt that looks entirely seamless. She also uses extra arm and leg pieces to really drive home the attack poses, as well as four faces (happy, angry, singing, and "frenzied") and two effect pieces. This is very much a deluxe release despite being packed in one of the smaller style boxes.

Again she should be out later this month and if all goes well we'll see fellow character Tsubasa Kazanori in November. Now if they just make Chris Yukine I'll be one happy guy.

[via figma blog]