Hello don’t worry I’m not completely lost in the fashion doll realm. So today I will take a look at the Kongou Battleship from Max Factory, it’s a figure based on the very popular online Game Kancolle, it is also my first figure from this franchise.

This was the first thing from Kongou and Kancolle I’ve seen, weeks later I have joined the Admirals who play this Game. It was a little difficult to get in, but it’s definetely a lot of fun.

My first Burning Love interests were Samidare, Mutsuki and Hatsuharu, no one announced a figure of these, but Mutsuki became a main character in the currently airing anime adaption.

Kongou is one of the very popular ships, admired by many male admirals for her extremely energetic, cheerful, weird and caring personality. Since the anime I’m also a fan of her, she reminds me of a friendlier version of Suzumiya Haruhi.

I changed the adress for my RSS feed recently, so if anyone was following me through this, I would advice you to update these feeds. This for posts, this for comments.

Kongou was released in January 2015, I’m somewhat late with the review, but here we go…

YOSHII was in charge of crafting this figure after her official damaged state illustration, all Kancolle figures from Max Factory are based on the damaged state fleet girl illustrations.

The combination of pretty animes girls and weapons isn’t new, yet kancolle puts it to another level, by adding heavy WWII equipment for naval warfare on different looking bishoujo characters. Kancolle is incredibly succesful, also in terms of elaborate fanart, most is partially erotic, but there are other amazing illustrations, too.

Kongou has a huge battleship in tow which is supposed be attached to her hips, here you can pose the figure like you want, since the “ship” is part of the base. The weapons look elaborate to a certain degree, but have no further function or moveable parts. The base is solid and fiting for a game based figure, but somehow it leaves a lackluster feeling.

It’s rare for Max Factory to make 1/8 scaled figures of such popular characters, but they did… I’d rather have her as big as indicated on her windowless box honestly.

Kongou as she sits here is a fantastic and beautiful figure, but I notice that she is not as elaborately done as other figures from Max Factory at 1/7 or 1/6. The tattered clothes could partially look more natural, the golden chain looks rather cheap. Although this so so impression only applies to parts of her outfit, boots and the pleated skirt look especially nice.

Her hair shows a natural brown with darker shading, the alice band like headgear with cute, golden radar system rests on her head. The face with the closed eye shows signs of pain, shock and sadness, the uncomfortable expression is nevertheless beautiful and adorable.

Not every in game illustration is appealing in Kancolle, compared to the damaged state illustration of Kongou, the face appears rounder and wider, in my eyes a big improvement.

Partially the figure has a nicely sculpted body, thighs, arms and face in particular, yet the sculpting of other areas dissapoints. Her back and belly is very low on details, where are the shoulderblades? Also the boobs don’t convince in this half exposed way, it somehow has not the desired sex appeal. So that aside Kongou’s main selling points for me is the beautiful and nicely detailed face. The mouth has a great depth with a cute tongue and sculpted lower lip.

Final Words

Lets sum this up in a few words, Kongou is an appealing figure also at 1/8 scale and the adaption of the official illustration with some improvements conidering her face.
Although she has not the quality as other larger scale Max Factory figures, the smaller scale lead to unnecessary quality and sculpting cutbacks, most prominent at her backside.

I expected something more elaborate for the 11.700 Yen that I’ve paid for an 1/8 scale figure.

Still Kongou’s strong point is the face and pose that portray her vulnerable side and asks for comfort, Teitoku!!! In case you rather see Kongou as the cool and sweet ship she is, take a look at Phat Company’s Kongou. Another Kancolle figure I’ve ordered is I-168 from Max Factory.

Sorry for the rather negative sounding impression, I like the figure more than you would imagine, I also took many pictures with her. What is your impression of this figure after this review?